Doesn’t matter if you’re published, produced or award-winning, creativity comes with a side order of doubt.
Bono of U2 fame had written an intensely personal song about his mother, Iris, and it was to be included on his recent album, Songs of Innocents. Days before the release of the album he had severe second thoughts and insecurity about the song. He was calling his label to have it deleted from the album, when he remembered it was the third anniversary
of the collapse that led to her death – to the day. He saw that as a sign, and acquiesced in its release. Now he’s grateful he shared it with the world.
David Letterman’s finale after 33 years churned up interviews with his writers and staff for the “inside scoop.” Dave’s creative angst and insecurity came up in interview after interview. Despite his achievements and accolades he was uncomfortable with a compliment and deeply insecure about each show – feeling it always could have better.
Creativity brings doubt, insecurity and sometimes misery to the comedians, songwriters and joke writers that it holds in its thrall. Is there a way to be absolutely free of anxiety and doubt – the side effect of creativity? My guess would be, no. But there are points in your life when nervousness can spur you to bigger and better, and times when it can shut you down.
There are many tests of creativity that were developed to help psychologists and teachers know the creativity level of their patients and students. Below is the Atlernative Uses test developed by J.P. Guilford in 1967. Take a whack at it, directions are below.
Alternative Uses Test
The Alternative Uses Test measures divergent thinking – the ability to send your mind into divergent directions and categories to get ideas. Go ahead, stretch your creativity by trying to think of as many uses as possible for an everyday object like a pencil, flash drive, fan or stick of gum. Let’s use a stick of gum as the example. How many alternative uses can you come up with in 2 minutes? Here’s mine:
- freshen breath
- stick papers to a wall
- chew & sculpt into small animals
- level a chair
- string together a bouquet of flowers
- string from wall to wall and adhere decorations
- stop up a hole
- Produce an episode of McGyver
If this test were being grader by a creativity professional, they’d judge your divergent thinking in 4 ways:
- Fluency – how many uses you can come up with (“freshen breath” would not count since it is not an alternative use of a stick of gum, rather its intended use)
- Originality – how uncommon those uses are (e.g. “stick paper to a wall” is more common than the more original idea: “Produce an episode of McGyver“)
- Flexibility – how many areas your answers cover (e.g. if your answers were all in one category – like sticking things to things, then that would show less flexibility than the list above, each thing from a different area of use/thought)
- Elaboration – level of detail in responses; “string from wall to wall and adhere decorations” would be worth more than “stop up a hole.”
Try it yourself:
How many uses can you think of for a pair of eyeglasses?
- You have two minutes… Go!