When you think about the typical characteristics of creative people, what comes to mind? You may conjure up stereotypical images of pained artists, eccentric dressers with big ideas or living a life outside of the norm from everyone else.
There are many negative connotations when it comes to someone who is described as creative but are these assumptions fair? Are we too quick to judge someone for their natural creative flair and the ways in which they steer their personality and way of life?
Creative people often feel like outcasts in today’s society because they don’t always match up to the same ideals as other people, but what are seen as weaknesses are actually, in fact, strengths. Here are 8 ‘negative’ personality traits of creative people that make them unique and an asset to the world we live in.
1. Following Their Instincts
We would all secretly like to trust our instincts and follow our gut feeling a lot more than we actually do. Sometimes gut feelings don’t make logical sense and it’s the fear of them being wrong. Creative people tend to just trust what they feel is the right thing to do and are attuned to what their intuition is telling them. Many people may see some of their decisions as reckless but they just know they are being fearless and brave with following the unknown.
2. Being Seen As Eccentric
Probably one of the most common characteristics of creative people is being eccentric. But who exactly decides what being eccentric looks like? The negative words used to describe eccentricity are usually ‘strange’ or ‘weird’ but these are only words used to label something we feel threatened by and don’t understand.
Being eccentric should be looked at as being unique, being different enough to stand out from the crowd and being happy enough in your own skin to live your life as your true self.
3. Changing Their Minds Often
Changing our mind about ideas or what we want to do in life is often seen as a negative trait. It is proof for many that someone can’t stick to anything and will most likely sabotage their happiness because they aren’t staying with their one calling.
However, changing your mind means you aren’t stuck in one place. So many people just stay in one job or live in the same place for years because they’re too afraid of making the wrong decision if they were to change their circumstances in any way. Creative people have the ability to see different opportunities and act on them.
4. Dreaming Too Big
Creative people are often seen as big dreamers and this is usually deemed as reckless. But dreaming big is how we become successful in the first place – it’s the seed of success. Creative people aren’t afraid to follow their dreams no matter how big they are, they just need support from those around them rather than being told it’s out of their reach, fanciful and full of nonsense.
5. Being Independent Thinkers
When people think independently they are usually portrayed as being difficult or rebellious. However, this is only a label given to independent thinkers by those who feel threatened or misunderstand intentions and attempt to shut them down. Creative people are willing to think outside the box and question ideas and ways of doing things more often. This is how new innovations, strategies and ideas are established and created in our world so it should never be seen as a weakness.
6. Making Lots Of Mistakes
Someone who makes a lot of mistakes is always known as the person who doesn’t know what they want, is a failure in life and has an inability to live in the ‘real world’. But we all know we need to make mistakes to learn from them in order to know what we truly want.
Making mistakes is a common trait of creative people which can tend to label them as lost in life, reckless or not willing to commit to anything. However, creative people learn much better from failure and use it as a catalyst for new ideas, to have the ability to see failure as a triumph and turn it into a new path to where they want to go.
7. Getting Bored Easily
Monotony kills the spirit of creative people so linking back to the point of changing their minds frequently, creative people will more likely change their job regularly or refuse to hold down a boring office job that offers them no stimulation. To others this comes across as non-committal and flighty but creative people would much rather work a huge amount of different interesting jobs and be penniless than be in one soul-destroying job that gives them nothing but boredom and no challenge whatsoever.
8. Having Busy Minds
A busy mind is seen as one that can’t focus and is constantly distracted. But for a creative person, this is possessing the ability to think about, and pursue, multiple interests and passions. This allows them to open up their world to a much bigger perspective and they are willing to expand their minds to new cultures, people, ideas and beliefs. If it wasn’t for people like this, the world would be a much smaller, less broadened place to live in.
