thecreativeverse creativity is our human superpower.
If there is one thing uniquely and powerfully human, it’s our creativity. No other species on Earth, has a greater capacity to discover new and original ideas, connections and solutions to problems. As the 21st century kicks off in dramatic fashion with tremendous change afoot, creativity is the vital human ability that will help us thrive during these changing times.
We, Superheroes
There’s a reason why superhero stories and characters are so immensely popular these days. Undoubtedly, superhero stories are awe-inspiring and powerful because they remind us of what we can aspire to be – all powerful, creative, courageous, brilliant, truly original change-makers.
But from ancient times to the modern era, we have looked up to the myth of hero and superhero as something outside of us, as something we aspire to be but can never become, without truly realizing that we already are, the heroes and superheroes we aspire to be.
Our human abilities may not be as exciting perhaps as walking through walls, shooting fireballs from our palms or flying through the air but in the real-world, they’re just as powerful and extraordinary.
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind – Creativity in Action
In 2001, when William was 14 years old, he built an electricity-producing windmill from bicycle parts, materials collected from a local scrapyard and blue gum trees – the Tony Stark of windmills if you will.
At the time, William’s family had been suffering through a severe famine in their home country of Malawi and money was so tight, his family could not afford to pay his school fees and he was forced to drop out of school.
Determined to help his family save the little money they had, he decided to generate his own electricity. Using only a photo with no instructions from a high school textbook titled “Using Energy”, William built his first windmill with what he found nearby.
His first successful windmill powered household electrical devices and appliances. Not content to stop there, his subsequent windmills were bigger, more advanced and powered more houses in his community. He even built a solar-powered water pump that provided the first, technology accessible drinking water for his village.
Today at 35 years old, William is a New York Times bestselling author of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, a TED Fellow, an IDEO.org Global Fellow, and co-founder of the Moving Windmills Project, which envisions a future where talented African youth co-create solutions to real needs.
In his Malawi hometown and around the world, William is considered extraordinary. Not because he has superhero strength or agility but because of his very human and very powerful creativity and ingenuity that saved his family, his village, and continues to inspire a new generation of creators to change the world.
Creativity – A Natural Talent
What is creativity? There’s plenty of very good definitions of creativity, and you’d be surprised by how many and how varied they are but my personal favorite so far is from the team at Psychology Today:
Creativity encompasses the ability to discover new and original ideas, connections, and solutions to problems. It’s a part of our drive as humans—fostering resilience, sparking joy, and providing opportunities for self-actualization.~ Psychology Today
This definition incorporates something not many do – the natural and inherent drive we have as humans to be creative. It is an essential, core human ability we all possess. Some have learned to access it better than others but we all have it, and we use it everyday.
Whether we’re using our individual creativity to solve a personal problem in a new way, discover something new we hadn’t thought of before or create a work of art/writing/music for our own personal enjoyment or healing; or using our global creativity to solve an issue for our community, create an invention that saves peoples lives/makes life easier or create a work of art/music/writing that inspires people towards action, change or stirs the soul, these are all examples out of many, of our creative superpower at work and it remains a potent force whether the outcome of our efforts is for ourselves or for the larger collective.
And it naturally resides within each one of us, connected to a deeply rich ecosystem brimming with complementary, symbiotic and dynamic processes that we will cover in more depth in future posts.
Creativity meets the Changing Times
We covered in the introduction to our series on Earth 2.0, Humanity in Transition, Transformation and Evolution and our latest post specifically on the transitional period – Humanity in Transition, the great era of accelerated, transcendental, and rather chaotic change we’re in. Observe the world around you and you can see and sense the tremendous change afoot driven by revolutionary and radical re-definitions of ourselves, our social structures, technology and an evolving Planet Earth.
Michele Cassou, author of “Point Zero – Creativity Without Limits”, internationally known for her work in stimulating creative potential summarizes the value of these chaotic times nicely: “Chaos is the soul of creation. It plows the ground of intuition. Without chaos, nothing will grow.” And Psychologist Edward de Bonos, smartly describes why times such as these are so important: “there is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.”
It is now, in these times of turbulence, chaos, growth, progress and change, that creativity serves its highest purpose. By breaking old patterns and allowing something new to emerge, creativity meets the times perfectly with potential rather than fear. Its superpower resides in its fluidity and ability to see opportunities and potentials where others do not, in this way, it nurtures a deep human resilience, strength and leadership that will be vital for our survival.
21st Century Superheroes
In this changing world, the new change-makers, problem-solvers and leaders will be those who have ignited their creative superpowers and courageously work with and shape the energies of the times.
Leaders like William Kamkwamba, Hannah Herbst and Ann Makosinski, who at early ages inspired by the plight of others, used their creativity to invent ingenious tools that have the potential to save and advance hundreds if not thousands of lives.
Leaders like Nobel Prize Winners, University of Manchester Professors Andre Geim and Kostya Novoselov, who credit their creative experimentation for yielding one of the most powerful discoveries of our century, the discovery of Graphene. A material a million times thinner than a human hair, the thinnest object ever created, lighter than paper and considered the strongest material to exist on earth, 200 times stronger than steel. Today, the potential application and uses for Graphene are endless. It has the potential to dramatically revolutionize technology in all industries – our human version of Wakanda’s Vibranium if you will.
Leaders like Atruio Vittorio and Andreas Vogler who designed the Warka Water Tower, a unique water harvesting system. The system’s creatively futuristic design allows for fog, humidity, and precipitation to collect on surfaces, supplying up to 100L/day. During an era of severe droughts brought on by climate change, Warka Tower has the potential to save millions of lives.
And leaders like Angélique Kidjo, a Beninese singer-songwriter, actress, and activist. She is a 4-time Grammy winner, and supports causes around the world as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador advocating on behalf of women, children, and human rights. In 2007, she founded the Batonga Foundation to provide secondary education for girls across Africa and empower the female leaders of tomorrow.
Meet the Moment Superheroes
A world in which our creative superpowers are unlocked, is a world where anything, is possible. Possible because creativity allows the very best of ourselves to come forward, like the superheroes from the stories we so love and that, is a recipe for excellence.
With creativity at the forefront of who we are, we see opportunities and solutions where others see fear and turmoil. We meet the moment with innovative ideas, imagination, inspiration, and most importantly integrity and heart instead of control, oppression and division.
We cease to be powerless within the turbulence of these times and become powerful, resilient creators instead, energized by the possibilities and potentials to create individually and together for the benefit of ourselves and the collective.
The time is now, to meet the moment with our extraordinary individual and collective abilities. What a world we could build together if everyone tapped into their extraordinary, creative superpowers.
Here’s to meeting the moment superheroes.
~Carmen
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Image Source: Jr Korpa (Unsplash)
