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Not Just 31 Flavors, Ooops Traits

Creativity Challenge 1999 #31

It has been hot, hot, and as Lt. Addenaur, Robin Williams' character in Good Morning Viet Nam, said..."it's gonna be daaaaammmmmmnnnn HOT!" Tis summer and tis a very hot one in the US this year.

Backing up to the summer of 1980. That summer I did a survey study as a project for one of my indirected courses on creativity. I chose to review what the "experts" thought were the traits of highly creative people. Four magazines were used over the time period from 1950 to 1980. From when J. P. Guilford, as APA president, challenged his fellow psychologists to begin studying creativity and creativeness more thoroughly.

My survey produced a list of over 400 separate traits written about by over 140 authors, consultants, professors and researchers. One night, frustrated from data overload I thought to look for a pattern or patterns in the 4 foot by 18 foot chart on the wall in our apartment entrance hallway. What I found was that at least 5 of the experts had agreed on some of the traits. 32 traits to be exact. Aha! A Breakthrough! A Discovery! Well not exactly. Seldom among the 32 did more than 2 of the same experts' names occur.

I was left with one more trait than Baskin Robins Ice Cream had ice cream flavors. That was where my wife and I often went that summer for solace, or just to have ice cream with our daughter.

The next Spring when I was asked to do a workshop for some teachers here in Clarke County as a substitute for Pansy Torrance, Paul Torrance's wife and partner, I chose to use the 32 traits as an exercise to demonstrate what it takes to be a creative person. I listed the 32 and asked the participants to check off the traits that they felt fit them.

Now after nearly 20 years I have NEVER had anyone out of over 120,000 people not mark at least 5, except for one smart-ass lawyer. He apologized later when he realized he miscounted....ha ha!

All that prologue is a lead-in to this week's Creativity Challenge.

A. First review the following list of 32 traits and pick the ones that fit you at least partially.

B. Second each day randomly pick a number from 1 to 32.

C. Third generate a list of 12 to 24 ways, actual actions, you could take to increase that trait in you or add it to your personality.

D. Each day try to apply 3 to 6 of those actions to increase your natural creativity and creativeness.

E. Report back to me at alan@cre8ng.com---I will summarize them and report them back to those who share their's. Depending on the responses I may have them added to my website.

Alan's List of 32 Creative People Traits

  1. sensitive
  2. not motivated by money
  3. sense of destiny
  4. adaptable
  5. tolerant of ambiguity
  6. observant
  7. perceive world differently
  8. see possibilities
  9. question asker
  10. can synthesize correctly often intuitively
  11. able to fanaticize
  12. flexible
  13. fluent
  14. imaginative
  15. intuitive
  16. original
  17. ingenious
  18. energetic
  19. sense of humor
  20. self-actualizing
  21. self-disciplined
  22. self-knowledgeable
  23. specific interests
  24. divergent thinker
  25. curious
  26. open-ended
  27. independent
  28. severely critical
  29. non-conforming
  30. confident
  31. risk taker
  32. persistent

Have a creative week. Stay cool. Drink often this week. Ooops! Drink WATER often this week. I always seem to leave one or two of the necessary details out.

All the best to you and your's,

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