10 Bad habits that mess with your creativity

Many people believe that people are born with creativity, but is this true?

Every person can be creative, and it is your role as a human to nurture it — because the world needs it. Creative people possess certain skills. They are always making creative solutions to problems — no matter how little, and most times, these solutions exhibit playfulness.

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
– Maya Angelou

When you engage in certain bad habits, your creativity starts to drop until there’s none left. Here are a few habits that draw you away from your creativity:

table of contents

1. Comparing yourself with others

Comparison is one of the easiest ways to destroy your confidence. To create effective solutions to problems, you have to be confident in yourself. When you compare yourself or your work to others, it leaves a dent in your self-confidence and can cause you to have a creative block.

2. Avoiding failure

Life is about taking risks. Nobody wants to make mistakes or fail, but if you try too hard to avoid failure, you might also be avoiding success. People say that to be successful, you should aim to make mistakes because you are most likely to learn from them. So, take a chance and succeed today.

3. Taking criticism personally

Feedback and criticism are good, as long as you don’t take it personally. If you fear criticism, you fear growth because we improve by getting feedback from others. Sometimes, the criticism might come off as a form of attack or discouragement — especially if it’s not constructive, but you have to take the main points and improve with the feedback.

4. Trapping yourself in false limits

Limiting yourself is a form of self-sabotage. You have to look past what you already know and be open to new ideas. When you step out of your comfort zone, you just might get your breakthrough idea.

5. Fear of uncertainty

Most times, we want to only do things that make complete sense. Creativity requires the mindset to let go of uncertainty because fearlessness allows your creativity to flow. Therefore, you need to let go of the fear of being wrong.

6. Information overload

This is also called Analysis Paralysis. You have to know when to stop collecting information and start taking action. Analysis paralysis causes the inability to make decisions because you have too much information. As a creative person, overthinking is one of your greatest enemies.

7. Premature judgement

As a creative, you have to allow yourself to generate and iterate on ideas, without judgment. If you judge too early, you might create less and keep making second guesses. So after generating and iterating, you can select and smoothen the best.

8. The Expert Syndrome

This is originally called the Dunning-Kruger Effect. In many industries these days, many people — including people who are not, claim to be experts.

There is no problem in listening to secrets of success by experts. Where the problem lies is in the listener not asking questions.A lot of successful people did things they were told would not work. Therefore, rather than digest what you’re being told by gurus, always remind yourself that there are different paths to success.

9. Allowing discouragements

You should know that not everyone around you will support your ideas. Therefore, you have to learn to ignore the different approaches to discourage you from doing what you want.

10. Self-doubt and lack of confidence

Fearlessness is a powerful tool for creatives and the best way to create is first connecting with your self. When lack of confidence becomes overwhelming or long-lasting, it might cost you your ability. So, to be creative, you need to have confidence in yourself.

To improve your level of creativity, you need to get rid of these habits and replace them with more beneficial habits that assist in improving the spark between you and your creativity.