Do you consider yourself a creative person?

Since a young age, I have always considered myself a person that lacks creativity. When I was in primary school, the thing I dreaded most was writing stories. Every time my English teacher asked me to write a story, I could never come up with the wild ideas that my friends came up with, and all of my stories were exceptionally short, because I had no idea what I could write about.

It was not until I was in Primary 5 that I was given special guidance by my English teacher at the time about story-writing. She taught me how to pay attention to details of all the things happening around me in daily life. The glistening sunlight on the summer waves, the rustling of dry autumn leaves, the tempting smell of warm, freshly baked cakes on a freezing winter’s day – simple things that are right there beside you, but are excellent elements that can be used to enrich our writing, our projects, or whatever we need to do. What we can do is train ourselves to be more observant to details around us – from advertisements on television to random new products you see in a local store. Keep these in a little treasure chest at the back of your mind – they can all become ideas for your next masterpiece!

Creativity is within every one of us, but it can be triggered in different ways for different people. It could be listening to music, laughing with your friends, lying in bed or simply daydreaming, but one thing that is common among all these methods is that they are all moments when one is extremely relaxed. This is when great ideas pop up, without you even having to look for them. So next time you are stuck for an idea, take a break and have a laugh with your friends. You are much more creative than you think you are!