Creativity is a muscle

You can build up your creativity.

I don’t understand why this isn’t common knowledge.

Many (maybe even most?) people think you’re either born creative or not. Nonsense! Oh, I’m certain there are more and less naturally creative people in the world. I can accept that.

But it’s a muscle like any other. If you exercise it, it grows stronger. If you don’t, it atrophies.

Frustratingly, even creative people often don’t realize this because they haven’t ever stopped being creative for long enough to lose it.

I’m not inclined towards sports metaphors, but imagine a Michael Phelps (wikipedia.org) who never so much as stepped foot in a swimming pool. He not only wouldn’t have all those gold medals, any "normal" pro swimmer could easily beat him. Natural talent doesn’t count for anything if you don’t exercise it.

It’s the same with just about anything. Someone may have some natural talent, but applied effort over time is what makes it come out.

Yeah, you may not ever be the "world’s best", but you can be in the top percentile. And since creativity isn’t easy to measure like swimming speed, top percentile might as well be world’s best.

I’m convinced that some of the most naturally talented artists in history…​ will be forever unknown because they grew up in the wrong circumstances and never realized what they were capable of.