There’s a use for everything!

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Making use out of everything is something that i learned from my grandma. She NEVER throws anything in the trash and somehow she finds a use for everything. That is why I try to recycle as much as i can. I started using empty cookie boxes to store things such as buttons. I also have one that i decorated from the outside,it’s where i keep all my old pictures and letters. It is basically a box full of memories. Another thing is old mugs. I have a white one that i stopped using,so i decorated it with a black marker and now i put all my pens in it. It’s amazing that we can find a whole new use for something that could be beneficial for all of us. People who try to move on from functional fixedness truly know the meaning of creativity. It’s important to think outside the box,to stop being ordinary. Finding other uses for the stuff we own will open our eyes to a whole new way of thinking and we will start embarcing creativity in our lives

Who am i..

My name is Salma El Refaie and I’m 18 years old. I graduated from DEO with a German Abitur. It’s still my first semester at AUC and I would like to major in Economics and minor in Psychology. College is definitely different from school but I like it here. My absolute favorite thing to do is writing. I consider it my passion. I love writing short stories or even just my thoughts. However, I want to keep it as something that I escape work to go to, that is why I am not majoring in journalism. At the beginning of this module I never really put much thought into creativity. I didn’t even consider myself a creative person. But after this short period of time I discovered something. We are all creative in our own way. We just need enough courage and confidence to embrace it. We should all believe in ourselves that we can come up with great ideas that could someday change the world. The worst thing to do to someone is judge them, this will only hider their way to creativity. I learned so much about myself the last month and I am looking forward to learning more.

Confidence…the key to creativity

The video highlights a very important topic which is relevant to all of us. People care too much about what others think. They are afraid that people would think less of them or see them as crazy and stupid.That’s why they stick to the same ideas and don’t have the courage to come up with anything new and innovative. Even children at school face this everyday. Teachers yell at them for thinking differently and even their classmates make fun of them and bring them down. That only harms children because they think their ideas are not good enough , although they could be the start of something great. If we suppress children in their creative thinking how do we expect them to grow up and do something remarkable? No one should be afraid of judgement. Some people will always have something bad to say,will always drop a mean comment and will always judge you so they can bring you down. However,we should not let this come in our heads and we should continue our path in creativity. The key to creativity and being a truly creative person is confidence. So what if you come up with a crazy idea,it could have great potential. We should learn to trust ourselves,everyone is creative in their own way and confidence pushes it. If people have lack of confidence then they will never get out of the box that they are putting themselves into. Afterall,the things we are scared of are usually the most worthwhile.

Here is an ad i really liked and found very interesting. It carries a great message and shows us how Egypt used to be.

Advertising..another approach to creativity

Advertisments are something people are looking forward to see. They get amazed by the ideas,the music and everything that was used in it. But do we ever think about how these ads were made? I had an internship two summers ago at JWT,a successful advertiding agency here in Egypt. They make ads for Pepsi and Vodafone and other major companies. First they receive a brief from the client with a describtion of the product and its use. The first thing they do in this agency is brainstorm. There is a creative team and they are responsible to brainstorm as many creative ideas they can regarding that product. They just hang out together and everyone who has an idea shares it no matter how crazy it might sound. Then they start putting their ideas together and elimante the ones who don’t fit. After they are done they assign each member of the team a task to bring that ad to life. To work in the advertising branch you have to have a wide imagination and embrace creativity. You should also learn to defer judgement and accept others ideas and perspectives. Working there teaches team work and how to tolerate others. I belive it is amazing to know all the hard work that people put in order to come up with a great ad that benefits the company and interests the viewer. After all a successful ad needs to trigger people’s interests and send them a message.

The greatest ideas are the simplest!

The video shows that no matter what situation you’re in and what social background you have,there is no excuse for not thinking about new ideas. They don’t have to be over the top or require a lot of technology. The boy in the video didn’t really have anything. He didn’t even have books to get his information from. He just trusted himself and used his brain. And that shows that the most important thing is to believe inourselves. If there is a problem bothering you then you should find a way to fix it. Just like what the boy did which i’m sure inspired many of us. If he under all these hard circumstances found a way to solve a major problem then i am sure we can as well. It just takes hard workand determination. You have to believe that it’s going to work,that you’re going to come up with something valuable. A great idea lies in simplicity. Creativity knows no age and has no limits.

 

There’s no such thing as impossible!

Egyptians and people in general are born creative. Some choose to embrace it and others hide it behind their traditional way of thinking. They think that these ideas are too crazy and impossible to implement. But no. NOTHING is impossible. If we have enough courage and will to make something happen,we will. But this change has to come from our minds and hearts. We have to believe that we can achieve our goals even though they might seem insane. A perfect idea can contain the simplest of ideas. They could even look stupid  ( The paper airplane) but turn out to be very valuable and meaningful. We have to lose our narrow way of tinking and start looking at the bigger pictue. The outcome will be great and then egypt will truly see change.

Divergent thinking.. a way to creativity!

In order to understand the true meaning behind divergent thinking we have to understand its opposite,convergent thinking. Convergent thinking is a way of thinking with accuracy and in a very traditional way. It has limited narrow options and usually consists of one correct answer. It doesn’t allow risky options and sticks to the safe ones. Convergent thinking only connects ideas that are similar to each other and that could safely work together without anyone viewing them as crazy. However, Divergent thinking is the complete opposite. This way of thinking takes risks because it sees things from different perspectives and angles. It opens up to new possibilities that no one else done or thought of before. Even if all the ideas are totally crazy they still consider them and maybe even combine them together. Divergent thinking centers around three main point: Flexibility,which shows the differences between ideas. Originality,which shows how unique the ideas are and finally fluency which shows how many ideas someone came up with. Many mistaken divergent thinking with creativity. They are not the same! However divergent thinking is related to creativity because it is a good measure for it and has good predictions. I believe that in order to reach creativity you have to learn divergent thinking and practice it. be open to new ideas even if they are not similar to yours. Take risks that is the only way you will get it right. Learn to let go of your fears and the same style of traditional thinking you got used to. I also strongly think that you have to think with both sides in order to create a balance. Be divergent in brainstorming and coming up with ideas but be convergent so you can work out which are appropriate together. And that is how you reach creativity!

The Development Of Ideas

 

Life is challenging. Everyone wants to come up with great and useful ideas that benefit themselves and people around them throughout the entire world. But where do these good ideas come from? Some people get small ideas that don’t really make much sense at first. Then they come up with other small ideas that could fit with the ones they had before. This process allows many small ideas to develop into one big idea. That’s why no matter how small and silly you think your idea is never throw it away. Always keep it mind because someday it might turn out to be something great. So never underestimate the ability your mind has to creat a valuable idea. However, this process needs time to work. If you think that all of a sudden you will get this big brilliant idea,then think again,because that is not the case. It case a lot of hard work and creative thinking to reach that. And if someone is stuck with one idea and does not know where to go from now he can share it with other people and they could together come up with something beneficial that fulfills their desires.   The most important thing to do here is to defer judgement of any kind. Learn to accept other opinions,as crazy as they might sound their outcome could be huge. People could -thanks to modern technology – share their ideas together and communicate better no matter where they are in the world. This enables the creation of cohesive ideas to be faster and through the whole world so that anyone can benefit from them.

Being Wrong

 

“The first step of being truly creative is to lose our fear of being wrong.” People in general hate to admit when they are wrong. Even when realizing this they try to find any argument so they can turn out right in the end. But why do people view being wrong as an embarrassment? Why does being wrong bring shame to the person? Some can not even admit that they have mistaken and blame it on anyone but themselves. Asm much as they hate being wrong they judge people who do the same mistakes. Some socities view being wrong as weakness. I believe that being wrong only makes you who you are. It is a perfectly normal thing. No one is perfect and everyone no matter how good he is makes mistakes. Admitting only makes us learn from them and keep them as lessons for the future. It opens so many doors and makes us one step closer to finding something great. Being wrong only challenges the person and makes them eager to try and try again. Each step we take to find our mistakes we discover the world more. People need each other in order to identify their mistakes because they learn from each other. They can even add their ideas together and come up with something valuable. It truly is that people compliment each other, they just have to find the tolerance in their heart and defer from any kind of judgement that causes problems and misunderstandings between them. To me, being wrong is being mature enough to admit and learn from it and not give ourselves a hard time about because it is simpler than it looks. It is not the end of the world,it is only the beginning of something great.