What is Creativity?

For years, even in my old corporate life, I wonder about creativity.  What was it?  Is it a skill or a gift?  Was is a procces or divine intervention?

Wikipedia has a good definition, namely, "creativity is a mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight."  But I prefer a simplier definition.  Creativity is the act of bringing an idea into reality.

When I have an idea, it is just an idea.  It lives in my head.  No one else can see or experience it.  The idea is real but that is all that it is, an idea.  However, when I applied action, I begin to do things that will make the idea real in substance.  It can become physical, given sufficient action is taken.

In this broader definition, creativity is everywhere.  Everyone is creative.  When I think about what I want to eat for dinner, I have an idea for a specific meal.  If I just sit there and think about that delicious meal I want, I would end up starving.  It doesn't make itself.  I have to do something, namely cook, order out or go to a restaurant.  So I decide to stay home and cook.  I take out the pots and pans, start the stove or oven, locate the ingredients and begin mixing.  I am active in the creation of the meal.  It would not happen without me.  My idea, my action.  I continue with the cooking of the food and finally place the meal on the plate.  The meal is real.  It was previously just an idea. 

This is an everyday example of how there are instances of creativity in all our lives.  The great novel or painting masterpiece are what I often hear people talk about when referring to being creative.  But a profitable sales strategy, a successful teaching plan, a decorated room, a new mousetrap also are examples of creativity. 

Look around.  Everything we see, touch, experience in our daily lifes from a toothbrush to a Picasso started as an idea.  Creativity is everywhere all the time.  We are all practice creativity.