Creativity with a practical purpose

CEBU, Philippines — Most of the lack and suffering in the world is the result of inequitable access to resources among people. This is not always because some people steal opportunities from others, but because of the ignorance of many as to where to invest their energies in. With proper direction of efforts, one may have less lack and suffering than one has. It is important to identify what one wants to have, and think up ways to have it.

Man has the greatest advantage of all in the animal kingdom – his capacity for creative thinking. However, runaway creativity may not amount to anything much for him. Creativity must have a sense of direction in order to serve a practical, beneficial purpose.

Prudent discrimination is important, to identify the best options, to make the right choices, and to direct one’s energies towards a well-studied objective. This implies curtailment of the freedom to do just about anything. But creativity needs freedom to explore every possibility, to be able to seize the big idea. Will it work then to confine creativity within certain limits?

Contrary to what most creative artists claim, it is possible to set creativity on some predetermined path. In fact, creativity is most valuable where it serves a practical purpose. In advertising, for instance, creative minds are let to flow freely – but only after the strategy for attaining a marketing objective has been painstakingly drawn. Otherwise, the creative process can get caught up in so many possible approaches that it will lack the focus necessary to achieve creative excellence.

In the first place, even the drawing of a strategy or of the marketing objective itself requires creativity. Creativity is an important factor in all of living, so important to be let alone without a sense of direction or purpose. For practical benefits, first and foremost there shall be a definite point to concentrate the creative energies on.

The creative mind shall be given a particular area to conquer, and then it can be set out to discover all the possible ways to get there. Without a definite destination, even the swiftest boat can just be sailing adrift at sea. Put another way, it is possible to busy oneself on nothing.

Creative products – like art, for example – have their distinct place in the spectrum of human ingenuity. But the core value of art rests in its relevance or practicality to the human experience. Even the classic arts served practical purposes; these were mostly done by commission of the royals of the time.

Da Vinci’s painting created the illusion of heavenly magnificence at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, breaking through the tight spatial limitations. Beethoven composed music to set the king and his court in the right mood. Yet, a higher value is always easy to spot in the great masterpieces of the world – an element of inspiration for their audience. A certain power radiates from artistic splendor, a kind of pull that prompts one into probing the range of his own creative potentials.

Even an art that offers nothing more than a fleeting, temporary excitation is worth some attention. But it won’t compare with art that deeply stirs the senses and motivates the yearning for superior qualities. Likewise, all creativity has inherent value. But a creative product that offers inspiration for growth and excellence is much better than one that draws stagnant attention to itself. Good art is one that does not rest on its laurels – but lives and attains new heights in those that come in contact with it.

Creativity is not a monopoly of artists. It is a common commodity whereon marketers of products, preachers, politicians, educators and many others thrive. Those that attain the highest level of success in their chosen fields get there by their own creativity, finding ways to get what they want. Even if they had, at one point or the other, tapped the assistance of the professional creative minds, it was still their own creative intuition that made them realize their need for help. We see many of them in business and industry, in government, in other practical areas of life.

Many people who are not necessarily creative geniuses have attained more than their fair share in life, because they put to practical use whatever little creativity they have. On the other hand, many artists with brilliant creative capabilities are surviving in the doldrums of existence. The great difference, perhaps, is not in their respective degrees of creative competence, but in their use of their creative powers. While some use creativity for practical ends, others use it for mere self-indulgence.

As in advertising, the literature that highlights product benefits always does better than one that enumerates product features. While the latter is self-indulgent, the former elicits a desired action. To say that a detergent removes yellow stains is not as powerful as to cite the resulting whiteness of the clothes. 

In life, whether we like it or not, usefulness is an important value. Creativity is most beneficial when it is directed towards a practical purpose – solving people’s problems, making life easier and more comfortable for them. It can also be applied to move people to search for the bigger meaning of life.

You need to focus your energies on what you most want to achieve. You can be selling pebbles that everybody wants to buy, or be collecting gems that nobody cares about. It takes a sense of purpose to decide where you want to go – and the creative imagination to ‘see’ how to get there.