The Creative Mind

Characteristics and challenges that impact achieving people in business, science, and other fields - plus tips for pursuing creative dreams.

By Suzanne Falter

Lesson One: The Hallmarks of Genius
Lesson Two: How Sex and Creativity Connect
Lesson Three: How (and Why) to Be Patient
Lesson Four: How to Manage Rejection
Lesson Five: A Great Way to Cut Expenses
Lesson Six: Avoid Creative Anorexia

I don’t have any particular psychic ability, but am fascinated by it, and appreciate the more sympathetic depictions in movies such as “Hereafter” directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Cécile De France and Matt Damon as a professional psychic.

It’s a word that has a wide range of associations, including some pretty negative or dismissive ones. ... Judith Orloff, MD noted she had psychic abilities at an early age...

Read about a Harvard expert's experiment that puts research-based creativity tips to the test. Do blue rooms and low ceilings really spark inspiration?

"In 2010, Newsweek declared a creativity crisis and a Pew Charitable Trust report claimed that the jobs that require creativity and that truly lead to innovation—engineering, design, science, and entrepreneurship—are increasingly where wealth is being created. The idea is that creativity can lead to innovation, and innovation can drive growth. Little surprise, then, that everyone from President Obama to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to Bill Clinton to the Nobel Prize–winning economist Joseph Stiglitz to most executives at Fortune 500 companies are telling us the same story these days: Any nation that wants to remain competitive in the global economy must develop and amplify its capacity for creativity and innovation."

“If there is one word that makes creative people different from others, it is the word complexity.” Creativity researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Developing Creativity - Information and inspiration to enhance creative thinking and be more creative.

“Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand — but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never ­being satisfied.”

Zadie Smith

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The urge to keep on creating, always seeking the next project, can help fuel achievement - but also dissatisfaction. Perfectionism can also be part of it.

"My whole life has been about trying to heal the rift between the two sides of my personality, the feeling too much and the knowing too much."

Jodie Foster

Gaining more awareness and control of our feelings can help us live with a higher level of well-being, and be more fully and freely creative.

This series of posts offers articles, books and other resources on developing creative thinking and innovation, and enhancing creative expression.

Ramiro Gomez plants cardboard cutouts of domestic service employees in wealthy neighborhoods.

if we become conscious when writing, we can turn some of our daily chore writing into a creative and expressive moment. You’re probably already do many of these things, but being present when you choose your words can transform a dull daily task into a pleasure.

Here are some places to infuse some language love into your life...

When we welcome the creative struggle we're more likely to succeed.

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost. "

These wonderfully inspiring and insightful comments by dancer, choreographer and teacher Martha Graham (1894-1991), refer to many of the themes of the TalentDevelop sites - such as intensity/excitability, motivation, identity and self-regard, self-criticism...

Many actors, writers and other artists talk about using their intuition, about exploring identity and being authentic, and how fear and anxiety impacts their creative expression.

Cameron Crowe: “Do you have a little voice inside you that you trust?”

Emma Stone: “Yeah, definitely. The gut—that’s the loudest speaker. My gut never stops talking to me—unless I’m really tired with jet lag. That throws it off a little bit.”

Ani DiFranco produced her album "Educated Guess" entirely on her own, as well as playing all the instruments herself.

[Q: Your approach, your energy on the current tour and on the new album seem different.

Ani DiFranco: The difference is solitude. I have it in my life now, and I didn’t for years, at all.