Are Creative Stereotypes Holding You Back?

Here's a quick quiz:

1) When I see a see a sunrise, I'm moved to:
A. Compose a poem.
B. Try and capture the beauty with my paints and brush.
C. Stumble drunkenly into bed -- boy that party was a lot of fun.
D. Cover my face with my pillow and go back to sleep. Who in their right mind gets up early enough to look at sunrises?

2) At work, I'm the person my coworkers go to when they need someone to:
A. Think up a new theme for the office party (especially if they want it to be a bit wild and off the wall).
B. Get people excited for the party.
C. Organize the party.
D. Clean up after the party.

3) In school, I was considered one of the:
A. Brains.
B. Jocks.
C. Nerds.
D. Nothing. I was kicked out my sophomore year.

Now take this test again and write down what you think a creative person would choose as his or her answer.

Scoring: Well, there's no real scoring here. The point is to get you thinking about creativity and stereotypes.

In another creativity article I wrote, "Quiz: Are Your Creative?", I pointed out that the biggest difference between creative people and those who aren't is creative people believe they're creative and uncreative people believe they aren't.

But, it's one thing to say it and something completely different to live it.

I believe one of the things that prevent people from fully realizing their creative potential is the idea of stereotypes. They think they cannot be creative because they don't look, act, live, etc., a certain way. And, unfortunately, that belief can become so powerful it truly does cripple their creativity.

Let's take a closer look at these three stereotypes.

1) When I see a sunrise