Everyone is creative: Why “I can’t draw” is missing the point

Here’s something that might surprise you: I’ve never met anyone who isn’t creative.

Yet nearly every week, I hear the same thing from clients: “I’m just not creative,” or “I can’t even draw a stick figure,” or my personal favourite, “I haven’t got a creative bone in my body.”

I get it. When you think of creativity, you probably picture someone with paint under their fingernails or sketching furiously in a coffee shop. But that’s not what creative thinking actually is.

And once you understand what it really means to think creatively, you’ll realise you’ve been doing it your whole life.

So what is creative thinking, really?

Creative thinking is simply the ability to imagine or create something new. It doesn’t have to be something from nothing (in fact, we can’t think from a blank space). We use all the reference points we’ve collected over the years.

How do we create something new? We combine, change, or reapply existing ideas. It’s a way of looking at problems from a different perspective and uncovering new, sometimes surprising, solutions.

To change perspective is to think creatively. That’s it.

Here’s an example: those weight loss drugs everyone’s talking about. The original one wasn’t developed for weight loss at all. Scientists developed it for diabetes. A side effect they noticed was weight loss. The same drug, looked at from a different angle, became a completely new solution to a different problem.

That’s creative thinking in action.

We’re all naturally creative (yes, even you)

As children, we were naturally creative in our play and endlessly curious about everything. We’d turn cardboard boxes into rocket ships and have entire conversations with imaginary friends. That creativity often gets suppressed by adulthood through our very human desire to please, conform, and fit in.

But it’s still there.

Creative thinking is what makes us human. It’s not about being able to draw or paint or write poetry. It’s about approaching challenges with curiosity and openness to new possibilities.

Creativity is an attitude, not a talent

I think of creativity as an attitude: the ability to accept newness and change, a willingness to play with ideas, and the habit of enjoying what’s good while looking for ways to improve it.

It’s also a process. Very few works of excellence are produced with a single stroke of brilliance. Even the most “naturally gifted” people iterate, experiment, and build on ideas over time.

When I design logos, I don’t create one perfect design and call it done. I solve the problem once, then I solve it again differently. And again. And again. Each version gives my clients options, which forces deeper thinking about why they might choose one approach over another. The final choice isn’t made on a whim, it’s a rational decision about a subjective subject.

That’s creativity at work: generating multiple solutions to the same problem and then choosing the best one.

You’re already more creative than you think

Think about the last time you:

• Found a new route to avoid traffic
• Figured out a clever storage solution for a awkward space
• Came up with a way to explain something complicated to a child
• Made a meal from whatever was left in the fridge
• Found a workaround for a tech problem

Every single one of those moments was creative thinking. You took existing knowledge, looked at a problem from a different angle, and found a new solution.

The key insight

You’re more likely to discover a great idea if you think of lots of ideas.

The magic isn’t in having one perfect thought. It’s in giving yourself permission to have many imperfect thoughts, knowing that somewhere in that collection of possibilities lies something brilliant.

So the next time someone asks you to “think creatively” about a challenge, don’t panic about your drawing skills. Just remember: you’re not trying to create art. You’re trying to see the problem from a different angle.

And that? You can absolutely do.

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This is the first post in a three-part series on unlocking your creative potential. Next, I’ll share five proven methods for generating better ideas that anyone can use.