People think, "I used to be creative", but it's still there, sleeping.

The most common thing people say about creativity is, "I used to be creative, but not any more".

Or, "I'm not creative, not like other people".

It widely accepted now that we are all born creative. It part of being human. It's how we make sense of world. Even normal conversation is a creative activity.

But over time we are subjected to a steady flow of social messages that encourage us to think less for ourselves, to go along with what the group wants, or to imitate someone else so you can be more popular. All the opposites of creativity.

People also think that creativity is just artistic. They're not an artist, singer or musician, so they "not creative".

After a while creativity goes into an uneasy sleep. It doesn't die. It just retreats inside us and dreams. Those dreams show themselves as our daydreams. We actually daydream all the time. Most people just don't take any notice of them. But that is our creative identity communicating with us.

When we begin to take our daydreams seriously, our creativity wakes up again and helps us to make it real.

For the 'being born creative' series (childhood creativity)

You can find Steve at www.ineedtocreate.com