Wheel of Creativity Summer Survey Results

I’ve been interested for some time in our assumptions about creativity, where we learn them, and how they define us. So last month, I created an online survey posing eight questions on the matter. Thanks to all of you who participated.  Here are the results.

If you have not taken the survey, it’s still up. If you’d like to learn a bit more about yourself and the creative process, please pop over here and take it yourself! Then come back here and see how your experience compares.

Enjoy!

1.    When I hear the word creativity, I feel…

• Excited… 67%
• Intimidated… 25%
• Other (Serene)… 8%
• Sad
• Detached

2.    I learned most of what I know about Creativity from…

• Personal experimentation… 46%
• Teachers… 18%
• Family…  18%
• Nature… 18%
• Friends
• Professional training

3.    For me, creativity is most often evident in…

• Nature… 44%
• The Arts… 33%
• People I know… 33%
• Science and Technology… 11%
• Business enterprise… 11%

4.    When I was a child, I felt creative. Since then I’ve…

• Cultivated a creative attitude in everything I do… 55%
• Continued dabbling in it but got too busy with other things… 36%
• Developed it into a talent that gives me great pleasure… 9%
• I did not feel creative as a child… 9%
• Lost touch with my creativity

5.    To believe that I am creative…

• Comes naturally to me… 80%
• Would be a dream come true… 20%
• Is a luxury I don’t have time for
• Is too much to hope for

6.    I use creativity in my work…

• Regularly… 46%
• Constantly… 36%
• Rarely… 18%
• Never

7.    Creativity is…

• A naturally quality of all living things… 68%
• A human birthright to be developed in service to the world… 42%
• A special gift for an elite group of people
• A luxury of the idle rich

8.    I would define Creativity as…

• “The use of a new way of doing or seeing a thing applied to a problem or possibility.”
• “Having a unique vision and pursuing it.”
• “The art of reflecting the Creator; seeing creating with new glasses each day.”
• “Natural, subjective to the beholder, a means to survival, enjoyment and beauty and joy.”
• “Creativity is making something new. It could be something physical, like a picture, a flower arrangement, or a piece of music. Or, it could be something intangible like a process or a unique viewpoint. Creativity often is a result of combining old things together in a new way – building on the shoulders of giants. But ultimately, it comes down to making something new.”
• “An entity’s ability to bring a unique thing or concept into the world that expresses the nature of the entity.”
• “Any act engaged in consciously.”
• “The ability to transform.”
• “Responding in multiple ways toward producing new “……..”. Fill in the blank – with words, ideas, thoughts, products, solutions, etc. Limitless NEW thinking.”
• “The ability to find a solution for a need – from making the most of limited resources… to self-expression with unlimited resources…and everything in between.”
• “Life.”