Comparing Gilbert And Robinson's Views On Creativity

When Ken Robinson said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong you’ll never come up with anything original”, he mirrored some of the ideals both he and Elizabeth Gilbert have on creativity. Robinson’s views come from the eyes of an educator. He believes that schools are “squandering” the creativity out of children. His main ideas center around the fact that we need to stop teaching kids that subjects such as math are the most important. It is also important from his point of view that we rethink the meaning of intelligence. Gilbert takes an entirely different approach. Her main idea is that an artist of any kind should not believe that the most important factor of her life should be out-doing her greatest success. She also believes that artists must stay positive when others comment about how their greatest success could be their last. She warns artists against falling into the stereotype of all becoming mentally unstable.

It is getting your ideas out into the world, whether they are on a sheet of paper, on a canvas, on a stage, or another way. I agree with both Gilbert and Robinson’s philosophies. I wholeheartedly believe that positive thinking is important to living a healthy lifestyle, as Gilbert mentions. Positivity is crucial in life because studies show that we are more likely to achieve our goals when we believe that we can. Barbara Fredrickson states in her book “Positivity”, written in 2009, that the positivity to negativity ratio in someone’s life should be three to one in order for them to flourish. In order for one to be creative, they must flourish. Personally, I am the most creative when I am