Thank you for choosing and making the time to take the Do You Have Hidden Creativity? Quiz. Based on the information you’ve shared in the quiz, the category that best reflects where you are on the path home to your full potential is . . .
You’re a ‘capturer of life’s most magical moments’ kind of person whose eyes and mind are naturally wide open to the world around you.
You see raw beauty in places that seem hidden to others, and you love doing something that few can . . . which is to capture your perceptions and thoughts and feelings and bring them to life. You love to make beautiful things that tell the story of your world.
You likely consider yourself ‘crafty’ and ‘arty’, and you have a natural spark to apply creativity in many ways in daily life. And are well-known for it!
A curious spirit and high energy mean you’re usually overflowing with things, places, and ideas that you would like to explore.
explore and do all the things and have all the experiences you want? (Even without other responsibilities! A great problem to have, though!)
If so, this thought may provide some solace, as it did for me:
That it doesn’t matter what, or how many, things we get to do. Isn't it the quality of experience – the depth and expressiveness and aliveness and meaning and growth and the feeling of coming home to all our potential– that we’re seeking?
You’ve suspected that there is much more to you and your creativity. Because you’ve caught tantalising glimpses of more during flow states, and you would love to tap into its deepest reaches. On-demand, preferably!
This quiz aims to add fuel to the fire in you that wants to experience all that you can be, i.e., to strongly follow the natural impulse to self-actualize that Abraham Maslow spoke about.
There are many more levels of extraordinariness waiting patiently to join in your adventure!
Hi - I'm Jan Cross, Creativity Change-Maker and founder at Extraordinary Mind Project. Over more than three decades - in what's turned out to be my life's work - I’ve helped several thousand people reconnect with hidden creativity they didn’t know (or remember) they had.
As it evolved, this brain-aware pathway has proven transformational for people no matter how creative they seemed to be, or not, before knowing this information.
It has enormous potential for raising the level of creativity in our world, which led me down the path of creating the quiz.
You love art and what you can find in yourself and produce through the fun of exploring creativity. A deep wish is for new depths of expression and mystery, e.g., choosing a thought or feeling and having your work speak it and touch others without saying a word.
Unending inspiration!
You’re all about freedom! Imagine, e.g., drawing without worrying about how it looks or if it’s good enough and being able in a very short time to transform your drawing ability to such an extent that you see yourself and what’s possible for you in a new light!
And like what you see!
A whole life awash with aliveness, clarity, inspiration, growth, a sense of having 'come home' to your natural state of creativity. It's a place of joy and calm and safety, a ‘living in the question’ and at each turn curiously wondering what exciting else, beyond the usual, is possible.
You consider yourself more of a logical bent (or creative, but lost connection when young).
You would love to have the empowerment of long-hidden creativity and readily find new solutions to old problems, and to achieve goals in life that you never thought possible.
You need some reclamation from an environment that doesn’t have much creativity in it!
Or something else?
When ‘good’, even ‘great’ doesn't do it for you. For example, you produce an acceptable, even great, painting with ease, which people admire, and many will tell you how talented you are. You're left flat and unmotivated, though, feeling there's nowhere to go. There's not a lot of inspiration in it for you.
Because it’s a repeat, you’re pretty much in automatic, having done this, or something very like it, before. Maybe many times.
What’s missing? Surprise, delight, and exhilaration from experiencing something beyond what you’ve been able to do before. And the feeling of being alive in the moment! And for all of that to be lighting up your work (and you!)
There are simple brain-aware ways to slip past the hold of old patterning.
When you’re stuck or at a standstill in some area (art or non-art), feeling especially frustrated because you've tried everything you know to solve the problem.
That's the problem! Generally, people spend way too long trying to solve the problem with the knowledge and methods they already have . . . before deliberately ‘getting out of the way’ and allowing the brilliant new-connection-making creative subconscious to help you, i.e., to do what only it can do.
Because creativity is not about fixing things, it's about slipping past the problem and what you know – to go exploring in a new space for a new solution.
Intuitively you know there is a way out! That's what's so frustrating.
Some simple brain-aware information helps you find it!
When you have to wait for the muse to visit, for inspiration, for a perfect subject or thought, before you can start a project.
You don't have to. As it turns out, practical brain mechanics-wise, creativity is a choice! Your choice. Empowering, yes? More about this in a bit.
When you would prefer less input from your inner critic. Over 80% of people in our classes say they receive more advice from their inner critic than they would like. (It’s only doing its job of taking care of you!)
As it turns out, you don’t have to ‘fix’ your inner critic.
There’s a brain-aware way its harsh tones fade away, for it to become more gentle, optimistic, and excited for you, without you working at making that happen directly.
When your belief and experience is that worthwhile change and 'acceptably' high-level skills development take a long time and a lot of effort. (And are possibly not worth the effort.)
This is the norm!
But it’s now possible when you know how to slip past old patterning, out of ego, and into the flow state, to have outside-the-box changes in many aspects of life and feel more creative than ever before.
It is hard to reconnect with hidden creativity, to find your way home to the whole of your potential!
The most common reason for this – and the most unknown – is on a practical brain mechanics level.
Let me explain, though, how . . .
AND MORE DELIBERATELY AND DEEPLY THAN YOU LIKELY EVER HAVE!
Because when you know the underlying mechanism of why something works for you, you can do it more.
It’s remarkably fast and easy to open up way more possibilities!
WARNING: This is about to get nerdy!
In practical terms, from our outsider/owner’s point of view, our brain is designed with two very important functions on the subconscious level that happen to be in opposition.
ONE SUBCONSCIOUS FUNCTION is to take you safely through your day by matching incoming data against the patterning of your past experience. It very efficiently has you repeat what you already know – automatically, instantaneously, and perfectly!
So if, for example, you were a stick-man level drawer and you had a piece of paper, a pencil, and a subject to hand, your brain would know exactly what’s required . . . stick-man level drawing!
It would have you do it perfectly, and continue to do so, unless and until you find out how to intercept patterns that were holding you, hostage, at stickman level.
In fact, it repeats past patterning so well that it can leave you believing that it’s the whole picture of what’s possible, or not, for you to achieve and be.
And this is the biggest mistake that people make: to believe this!
Of these two subconscious functions, this past-based one is dominant, so you can see how easy it is to
THE OTHER SUBCONSCIOUS FUNCTION is, of course, your creativity!
Your ‘born to explore’, breaking out ability!
The breakthroughs happen in hours of working with this information, not in weeks and months or over years.
Some post-course transformations people have experienced when using the same brain-aware approach in non-drawing areas are included.
“This provides you with the tools and brain knowledge, and the permission, to explore your own creative abilities." ~ Murray D., schoolteacher
“Very different to other courses. Feel more potential in life, other abilities.” ~ Mina J., medical doctor
There's something magical about this!
“I know it was me [who just drew that] because I was here!” ~ Nola O.
“I feel like I can do anything. I really do!” ~ Naomi A.
“Jan takes you from nothing to something. It’s a beautiful experience!” ~ Frank S., engineer
In a “Creativity Adventurer” world such as yours, the biggest secret to the endless unfolding of creativity is having ’at will’ access to its most profound, most hidden reaches.
For this to happen, more practical information about the mechanics of your brain and how to work with it is beyond beneficial.
Happily, there is now a practical and fast small step-by-small step – and this is the crucial bit – brain-aware path to take to your patiently waiting hidden creativity.
Here’s what you can do to start opening a deeper connection with it than is common.
TRY THIS: No matter what level you are now at, can you stop yourself in your patterned belief tracks for a moment and stand . . . open to the thought that:
The truth is: your creativity is limitless!!
A TIP: Do you think of raising your creativity level as a way of
THEN TRY THIS . . .
Because, as you know, the essence of the creative flow state is to lose all sense of self, i.e. to transcend the self and its limiting opinions and expectations, and to come out surprised, seeing yourself and what you can do in a new light!
Here's an example of someone changing how they see themselves and what they can do . . . from one drawing (centre) to the next (right)!
Between the 'before' drawing (left) and the breakthrough drawing (centre) is the 20 hours of brain-aware information and exercises that make this possible.
Note: exponential unfolding is the norm. It's available to everyone, no matter what level you are currently at.
A simple idea: creativity is a choice!
Just keep actively choosing the new, choosing to explore, choosing curiosity,
Because otherwise your subconscious brain - designed that way - will keep you efficiently repeating your whole life pretty much as you know it.
Including hampering you from being as creative as you sense you want to be.
Happily, we're also designed, exceptionally made, for creativity!
But you have to choose it! Time after time. SO powerful! And what a joy! Preaching to the converted here, I know!
“Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives … most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity… [and] when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.”
~ Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, legendary creativity researcher, author of the book “Flow: the Psychology of Optimal Experience,” and the first to popularize the concept of “creative flow”.
The simple actions mentioned above – choosing to be open to the idea of limitless creativity within you and choosing creativity often – underlie the success of this brain-aware pathway.
By approaching drawing exercises in a brain-aware way (not right brain/ left brain – this is up to the minute ‘whole brain’), you can, in effect, re-wire your brain for direct, on-demand access to your true potential. And know how you did it! That's important!
Along the way, spinoffs include
among others.
I’m excited for you and urge you – if you don’t already - to think of flourishing your creativity as part of the change the world’s waiting for!
Best
Jan Cross.
Be on the lookout for new angles and critical ideas in your inbox. They've been several decades in the making and are full of aha opportunities for you, too! But, of course, you can unsubscribe at any time.
Come to an informative, transformational, and fun free workshop. (No obligation.) Spend 2.5 hours immersed in curiosity while exploring the idea of limitless creativity within and what tapping it could mean for you.
Can’t wait? There’s inspiration and further information findable here at Extraordinary Mind Project!
