Don’t Confuse Creative Skills with Creative Ability

The words “ability” and “skill” are often used as synonyms, but they do not mean the same thing. An ability is an innate capacity while a skill is a practiced application of an ability. Conflating abilities with skills is a problem that often holds people back when they believe a skill is something that should come “naturally”. They convince themselves that, because they lack the skills associated with expressing an ability, they lack the ability itself.

Everyone is born creative, just like we are born with the ability to, for example, throw a ball. Once you gain the strength and motor controls, the ability to throw things is likely one of your first actions as a child (whether your parents like it or not). But the ability to throw things is not the same as the skill of being able to hit a target.

Creativity is our ability to envision novel solutions to achieve desired outcomes.
Our skills are what we then use to make those solutions a reality.

Consider Michael Jordan. He has made millions of dollars by “throwing a ball”. He has honed this ability to throw a ball into the skill of throwing it through a hoop extremely accurately. Maybe even creatively? That skill allows him to show his ability, but the ability would be there whether he had the skill to express it or not. Jorden was not born with the ability to sink 3-point shots. He practiced that skill. He practiced that skill a lot.

Practice is what allows us to develop an innate ability into a specific skill.

Creativity is an ability most people associate with skills such as drawing, writing, composing music, acting, and designing in order to express itself. Creativity is, then, often associated with tangible outputs (a picture, a novel, a song, a movie, an illustration). Creativity, however, is not reliant on the output. The output is only the expression of the creative ability.

Creativity is our ability to envision novel solutions to achieve desired outcomes. Our skills are what we then use to make those solutions a reality.

Although we may often fail to recognize it, creativity is an ability we can combine with our other abilities and then express with any skill at our disposal. Even throwing a ball.