At some point, everyone hits a wall. The barriers to creativity can prevent a person from unlocking their true creative potential in every aspect, whether career-related or not. It also arms them with the potential to break past all the barriers. One can recognize the barriers when they occur by being self-aware.
As a freelancer, I face my own barriers to creativity on the job. I often feel stagnant working from home without a coworker or team to bounce ideas off of every day.
To overcome this, I engage with the CreativeMornings community and attend their virtual and in-person events. Every session leaves me feeling inspired and I learn something new that I can apply to my work.
The lack of collaboration was a barrier for me, but there are six barriers to creativity I want to highlight.
1. Functional Fixedness
One of the most significant barriers to creativity is “fixedness.” Fixedness is a cognitive bias that limits our capacity to see things differently. An adult with this mentality sees a box for what it is- a box. But a 5-year-old with no mental bias can see the potential in anything- a simple box can quickly become a car, a rocket, a ship, or a lemonade stand. There are endless possibilities.
Get over fixedness and start thinking like a kid again!
2. Overthinking
We use our logical conscious mind when we overthink something.
Since creativity often comes from the subconscious, it might be best to go for a walk or start daydreaming instead of overthinking. Lack of written, precise plans of action and clear goals and objectives are the first barrier to creativity.
I’m prone to overthinking, but I found that writing down every I’m thinking for 5-10 minutes helps me clear my mind. It’s only after I have vacated all those thoughts that I can begin to work.
Your creative mind comes to life when you refocus on what you want and how you will get it. The inspiration and insights you gain help you move forward.
3. Fear
Fear of failure or loss is one of the main barriers to creative thinking.
It’s the fear of making mistakes, being wrong, or wasting time or money. In actuality, it is not the experience of failure that prevents you from moving forward. Despite numerous shortcomings, you have not suffered any permanent damage.
The anticipation of failure become the primary causes of loss and ineffective problem-solving. They also paralyze action, creating a mental roadblock in one’s creative journey.
4. Rejection
The fear of rejection is something we all experience, whether we admit it or not. Acceptance is essential for human survival. But the fear of criticism, ridicule, and scorn is no doubt a major barrier of creativity.
It’s the fear of appearing stupid or dumb. The desire to be liked and appreciated by other people—even those you don’t know or care about—causes this. “If you want to get along, you have to go along,” you decide.
It is incredible how many people are afraid to try to sell themselves or their ideas for success and live lives of underachievement and mediocrity.
They don’t want to ask people to try or buy their product or service. They play it safe and settle for far less than they can earn because they are afraid of criticism and rejection.
5. Being afraid to adapt
“Homeostasis” is a significant barrier to creativity. An unwillingness to adapt is a deep-seated subconscious desire to maintain your previous actions and words.
It’s the fear of trying something new or different than what you’ve done in the past. This homeostatic drive prevents individuals from discovering their full potential.
When you are in homeostasis, there is an unconscious pressure you can’t resist that makes you do the same thing repeatedly.
Unfortunately, you fall into your own “comfort zone” due to this tendency. Over time, your comfort zone changes into a groove and a rut. You come to a full stop. The entire process stops. The minute you stop evolving, you start using your sublime powers of legitimization to justify it.
“The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth,” said Jim Rohn.
6. Not thinking proactively
Lack of foresight is one major obstacle to creative thinking for success. As with an untrained muscle, your mind loses vitality and energy if you don’t constantly give it new information and ideas.
Your thinking becomes passive and automatic instead of creative and proactive.
Routine is a significant contributor to passive thinking. Most people get up at the same time every day, go through the same routine at work, hang out with the same people in the evening, and watch the same shows on television.
Most of the time, when someone suggests a new idea or way of doing things, they react negatively and are discouraged. Changes to the current system cause them to feel threatened. In the absence of constant stimulation, their minds become stale and complacent.
7. Never improving
Rationalization is the final impediment to creative thinking. We know that humans are intelligent, but what does that imply?
To be rational, we constantly use our minds to explain the world to ourselves to comprehend it better and feel more secure. To put it another way, you quickly come up with a good reason for whatever you decide to do or not do.
You cannot improve your performance by constantly rationalizing your choices.
On the other side
In order to be truly creative, we all need to acknowledge the barriers that may impede us. For example, fear can often hold us back from pursuing a novelty idea. In this sense, it is helpful to acknowledge our fears and how they may affect our creative process and mindset. Once we recognize these feelings as they arise, we can work towards making them less of a problem.
Hopefully, after reading this, your brain will be able to identity your own barriers to creativity so that you can overcome them.
Once you know what is holding you back, it will be easy for you to start tackling it head on.