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cre⋅a⋅tiv⋅i⋅ty - the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.

Creativity, the forefather of innovation, is paramount. As Americans, our chief export for years has been the fruits of our innovations. Especially in the struggling global economy, we'll need to strengthen our strong suit to stay relevant. So that means we need to be more creative. How do we do that?

One of the preeminent thinkers in the field of creativity found the zone. You know the zone. You've been in the zone. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it the flow. You've felt the flow. You know the flow.

Creativity is a fickle beast. Csikszentmihalyi claims that only two elements come into play when finding the zone: skills and challenges (see chart). If your challenges are greater than your skills, you'll find yourself apathetic, worried, or anxious. If your skills are greater than your challenges, you'll find yourself apathetic, bored, or overly-relaxed. Feeling of arousal in the former and control in the latter signal a close proximity to the flow. It's there. We just need to find it. And we need to find it fast.

If you get it right - if your challenges and skills grow together - you're in the flow. That's where we all want to be. It is the state of "intrinsic motivation." It is a self-powering, serendipitous feeling that comes about when work and play overlap.

Csikszentmihalyi found nine byproducts of "feeling the flow:"

1. Clearer goals
2. Higher degree of concentration and focus
3. Loss of self-consciousness
4. Distorted sense of time
5. Direct and immediate feedback to action
6. Balance between ability level and challenge
7. Sense of personal control over actions
8. Activity becomes intrinsically rewarding
9. Increased awareness of action results

In the past, Kottke has talked about the nearly identical realm of "relaxed concentration." He gives examples from sports and entertainment, among others. Csikszentmihalyi calls it "focused attention," but that is a distinction without a difference. Either way, all else falls away save the task at hand.

Knowing how to find the flow is important, especially with the upcoming rise of the creative class. Yes, green-collar jobs will be extremely important and creativity must play a role in that, but the creative class in general will be the backbone of the American ideal in the near future. If we are to continue the longstanding tradition of the US as trailblazer and leader in the global economy, creativity must be fostered. Innovation will die if creativity is stifled. Innovation will stall if creativity is just left alone. Innovation can only thrive if creativity is actively pursued. This shall be our task.

Dr. Richard Florida uses the term "creative class" and found it's existence tied directly to three requirements (or the three T's):

1. Talent, or the need for a highly talented, educated, and/or skilled population

2. Tolerance, or the need for a diverse community and a "live and let live" ethos

3. Technology, or the need for technological infrastructure necessary to fuel an entrepreneurial culture.

That's it. That's all we need for creativity. Then we match skills with challenges and get in the zone. And off we go. Happy. Healthy. Wealthy. Wise.