<strong>Blog: Five steps to fostering creativity</strong>
February 20, 2023

Blog: Five steps to fostering creativity


‘Creativity’ is one of the words that Young European Ambassadors will probably hear the most during their engagement. Nevertheless, most of us find it difficult to define. How can you be more creative? How can you express yourself and solve difficulties in a creative way? It’s much more difficult to explain since each person’s description of creativity might express their own “creative” vision. Still, some innovative solutions can assist people in resolving common challenges that hundreds of thousands of people face. One of the key objectives of YEAs is to exhibit the broad potential of social innovation to address societal problems.

So, how can we foster creativity in our activities? Let’s find out with five quotes from five successful people.

“Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty.”

Bryant H. McGill

The most significant feature of creativity is that it demonstrates your freedom of thought. The ability to communicate your own original solution to challenges that no one else in the world would think of before you are at the heart of creativity. However, you still have the opportunity to present your unique concept to the public and offer your outside-the-box perspective.

“Controversy is part of the nature of art and creativity.”

Yoko Ono

Most young people may have a flood of innovative ideas, but prefer not to express them for fear of causing controversy and disapproval. We must recognise that creativity, like us, is multi-layered. While we can look at our creative concept from one perspective, opposing viewpoints can help us grasp the points we don’t perceive and understand multiple layers of the provided answer. As Yoko Ono stated, it is the nature of art and creativity, and believe me, it can sometimes help us to improve our creativity.

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.”

Mary Lou Cook

The only way to perfect something is through mistakes and the lessons we learn from them. The secret to being creative is to pursue what you enjoy and to allow yourself to be imperfect and messy during the production process. As young ambassadors, the only way to contribute to society and generate new solutions is to truly enjoy our work and to allow ourselves to have a spirit of youth and pleasure, rather than to limit our expressions for fear of fault.

“The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

Sylvia Plath

Self-doubt is a natural phase for all people, not only young ambassadors. We should not judge ourselves for not being able to provide adequate solutions or inventions. There are no predefined criteria for delivering unique solutions or ideas to the problem, and failure is an inevitable part of the process. Essentially, you should not mistrust your own thoughts and solutions because you failed once or more times. We must continue to think, create, and contribute without stopping in order to avoid letting self-doubt limit our imagination.

“Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working.”

Henri Matisse

Sometimes we simply keep putting things off till our muse strikes. Contrary to popular belief, most people can wait years or even decades in search of their creative inspiration. Why not begin today and get to work on the issues? Being a Young European Ambassador would undoubtedly provide us with the chance to explore our creativity as we invest more in diverse initiatives, individuals, and ideas from varied backgrounds. 

Let us seize this chance as Young European Ambassadors to illustrate the broad potential of social innovation to address societal concerns, while also having fun and enjoying the process without self-doubt, fear of expression, or procrastination.




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