Einstein famously said:

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”

Whilst arguably he was being fairly modest, this highlights an important feature that all creative geniuses enjoy:

They share a fascination for learning.

They genuinely like trying to understand new things and figure them out.

If you enjoy reading, watching documentaries, or generally exploring the world around you — this natural intrigue is a sign of your creativity.

So if being hungry for knowledge is one vital ingredient, then staying open to whatever you may discover is the other side to that. It stands to reason that it’s difficult to develop creative solutions when you are closed off.

That’s why the most creative people stay as open to new perspectives, ideas, and thoughts as possible. This enables them to see things from a different angle.

You know what they say:

There’s no such thing as an original idea.

The reality is that all creative breakthroughs come from building upon what has gone before.

Having a positive outlook doesn’t just make you happier. It also makes you more productive.

Studies have found that your mood can impact how hard you work. Research by Oxford University showed happy workers were 13% more productive.

Meanwhile, other studies have concluded that people tend to be more creative when they feel intrinsically motivated.

It’s almost like positivity acts as a natural source of fuel for creativity. And anecdotally, we know this to be true.

When we come home tired, stressed, and in a terrible mood, it’s unlikely to be when we have all our best ideas.

Have you heard of flow state?

It’s when time flies and your concentration levels are effortlessly intent. Creative people have the ability to immerse themselves in an activity with great concentration levels and focus. Essentially, they can direct their energy in efficient ways.

But here’s a very important part of it:

They also know when and how to switch off.

They are really good at self-regulating their energy levels. And that doesn’t mean always being switched on.

They retreat, recharge, and rest often. They enjoy daydreaming and going within.

Divergent thinking is often referred to as lateral thinking.

In a nutshell, it’s simply: “cognition that leads in various directions.”

And being able to take many routes with your thinking has long been linked to creative problem-solving.

The more thoughts and ideas we are capable of imagining, the greater our chances of coming up with new and creative solutions.

You already engage in divergent thinking when you do activities like journaling, free writing, brainstorming, or improvisation games.

As children, we learn through play. It helps us to become more inventive.

The same goes for adults too.

Play is another thing that can encourage us to be more divergent in our thinking. That might be playing board games, doing puzzles, or doing brain teasers.

Having a playful approach to life is significant for another very important reason:

It takes the pressure off.

We can explore without consequence. Rather than the outcome feeling so serious, it becomes experimental.

And this is significant if we are going to dare to try out new things, regardless of how they might turn out.

Life can create a lot of pressure on us to succeed.

We want to get good grades, win that promotion, and make enough money to take care of ourselves and our families.

So it’s understandable that this creates tension. But in the process, we often focus far more on the outcome than the process.

We’ve all heard those stories where someone’s dreams came true simply from turning a passion or hobby into a money-making enterprise.

Perhaps this is the reason why:

They were able to nurture their passion and creativity as they were less rigidly focused on the outcome.

Routine can be a wonderful thing. It often helps our lives to run more smoothly.

Structure can also help us to feel safer and more in control, which we tend to prefer as it’s hardwired into our nature.

Creative geniuses are far better at embracing chaos. And rather paradoxically, they are often better at creating order within that chaos.

If you always do things a certain way, there isn’t room to entertain a new possibility of doing things.

Evaluation and critical thinking are significant in creativity.

That’s why creative geniuses can spend a lot of time deep in thought.

They not only examine the external world but also their own internal world.

This allowed them to gain greater self-awareness and to stay grounded.

Yet on the flip side, as explained in Quartz:

“In openly and boldly confronting themselves and the world, creative-minded people seemed to find an unusual synthesis between healthy and “pathological” behaviors.”

When we think of creative geniuses we notice something that they often have in common:

They have certain oddities that would be considered strange.

Famous artist Michelangelo would rarely take his boots off, insisting on even sleeping in them.

Wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill apparently enjoyed walking around his office naked.

American inventor Nikola Tesla was a germaphobe who had OCD and was overly enamored with the number three.

So-called cognitive disinhibition may be responsible for plenty of light bulb moments.

So embrace your oddities as just another sign of your creativity.