You’re Probably a Creative Genius and Don’t Even Know It

When I was little I had a friend named Jimmy who lived with us. He was my best friend and we did everything together. But Jimmy was a bit of a troublemaker.

One time he broke a lamp and my mom blamed it on me.

Another time he ate all my little brother’s halloween candy and I got in trouble for it. Then there was the time my mom accidentally sat on him, and when I cried and insisted she apologize, she refused, accusing me of being “overly dramatic” before sending me to my room. 

Over time, Jimmy’s behavior did not improve. He kept getting into mischief and I kept getting blamed for everything. 

I tried explaining to my parents that I had been framed! That the scoundrel Jimmy was the culprit, but they didn’t believe me. 

Finally one day, my mom warned, “If Jimmy can’t behave, he’s going to have to go live somewhere else.”

A few days later, Jimmy was hit by a train. 

Good-bye Jimmy :(

I wasn’t the only child in my family to have an imaginary friend growing up. In fact, out of four kids, three of us had friends nobody else could see. 

My brother, Trevor, had three of them. Their names were ZoZo, Dingdong, and Trevor.

Yes…he named one of his imaginary friends after himself:) They all lived at K-Marks until my mom’s patience ran out and a tragic fire burned them all to ash.

My youngest brother, Robert, had a whole town full of tiny imaginary friends who lived in the palm of his hand. He called them all “Deanies”.

Unlike the violent ends met by mine and Trevor’s imaginary friends, the Deanies just disappeared one day like they were never there.

Lots of kids have imaginary friends. It’s one of the magical ways our creativity shows up when we’re young.

The eventual demise of those make-believe companions is just one of many serious slaps in the face along the path to adulthood. Little by little our thinking becomes less abstract and more linear.

We trade tea parties and lego cities for staff meetings and schematics, and it’s so subtle, we don’t even realize it’s happening. 

In fact, according to a study I found recently, by the time we’re 20 years old, we might be as much as 98% less creative than we were at age 5.

Allow me to blow your mind with the findings from this longitudinal study, conducted by NASA: 

They tested 1600 4- and 5-year olds on their level of creativity and 96% of them scored at “creative genius” levels. Just 5 years later when tested again, only 30% scored at that level. When those same kids were tested again after another 5 years, only 12% could claim creative genius status.

Finally, when the test was administered one last time as adults, the number of creative geniuses in the bunch had plummeted to just 2%. 

That is INSANE!

I know I’m certainly less creative than I was as a child. 

I was out-of-the-box enough to be sent to a special “gifted” school in 4th grade. For years I thought I was super smart because of this, but when I researched the program a few years ago, I discovered it wasn’t for academically gifted children, it was for divergent thinking kids who couldn’t keep it between the lines, which disrupted our traditional classrooms.

Now I’m pretty sure it had more to do with my undiagnosed ADHD than my big brain.

Woops! 

But as disappointed as I am to discover I’m not a literal genius, I’m comforted by the knowledge I was at least able to hang on to my creative genius a bit longer than some of the others. 

And that tracks with what I remember.

I was always breaking rules and questioning structure and authority when I was young. 

As far as I was concerned, convention was for suckers, and often showed my disdain by wearing two different socks or sporting some crazy hairdo that left my mom shaking her head as I boarded the school bus in the morning. 

(Side note: there are companies today whose whole schtick is selling mismatched socks. So never feel bad for having different ideas, some of us glorious weirdos are just a little ahead of our time;)

My desk was littered with outlandish stories I’d written, like one called Pacasale Island, where travelers got trapped by cannibal pirates and had to escape before they met their doom. 

Today I’m lucky if I can figure out what to wear in the morning without getting decision fatigue. And I’m just starting to get my mojo back after years of writer's block.

I’m sure a lot of us can relate to our adult selves not quite matching the carefree creative souls we remember from our youth.  

So, what gives?

What happens to us between the sandbox and the boardroom? 

School. 

Life. 

Rules. 

Expectations. 

Criticism. 

The weight of the "shoulds" and "musts" is crushing. 

Our society with its affinity for “same” and relentless pursuit of conformity does its best to muzzle the wildest of us to keep things neat and orderly. 

The irreverent creator within us is stifled and becomes quiet. 

The colorful palette of childhood is ever-so-slowly replaced by shades of gray.

Pretty jacked up, right? 

Not just because we’re being brainwashed and conditioned away from our authentic selves, but because we need that goddess-given creativity to live our best lives. 

Entrepreneurs need creativity to build a business out of thin air and find clever ways to put out fires. 

Thought leaders need it to communicate new ideas in unique ways that capture attention and swell into movements that provoke change.

And at a basic level, every single one of us needs our creativity operating at peak performance so our minds are open to ideas and solutions that will help fix the problems we face today on our planet and in our society.

So, after I got done being pissed that my creativity had been swindled from me, I did what I do best and went down the research rabbit hole for a few days.

Turns out, creativity is a muscle, and we can totally get it back. 

Our ability to create never truly leaves us. It might get obscured, turned down, and overshadowed with insecurity,but it’s still there.

Think about it:

How often have you solved a frustrating problem at work with a sudden stroke of  ingenuity or found a way to still make a recipe work even with a key ingredient missing? 

These are not mundane acts. They are a shimmering glimmer of your inherent creative genius peeking through.

So, how do we bridge the gap? 

How do we unleash our imagination and rekindle our confidence?

We can start by shedding the chains of perfectionism to embrace the messy and chaotic.

Experiment!

Dance in the rain of mistakes and bask in the sun of spontaneity. 

Allow yourself to wonder, question, and dream.

Try new things.

Visit new places.

Reconnect with activities you loved as a kid. 

Surround yourself with reminders of your limitless potential by digging out old art projects, reading silly stories you penned in childhood, and plunking out a messy tune on an instrument you put down long ago with whatever muscle memory remains.

And most importantly: Don’t Stop. 

The more often we relinquish the reins to flex our creativity muscles, the stronger they’ll become.

The journey back to your creative genius is not a sprint but a pilgrimage. A journey of introspection, unleashing, and rekindling.

So, the next time you’re low on inspiration and start to doubt yourself, remember that little artist, that tiny inventor, that young dreamer. She’s cheering you on, urging you to see what she’s always known is hidden beneath the polished and organized adult disguise you don daily: a vibrant vortex of limitless creativity.

Dare to believe in your genius. For in acknowledging it, you not only honor your past self but also pave the way for a future rich with creation, imagination, and magic.