"The key question isn't 'What fosters Creativity?' But it is 'Why in God's name isn't everyone creative?' Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled?" ~Abraham Maslow

    Maslow, the psychologist who is most famous for developing his hierarchy of needs pyramid, was a very creative person so he knows what he is talking about.  So why aren't more people creative?  There are many reasons, but I think we can generalize it to two primary things: Fear and lack of faith.
    We fear being creative because we:

• Are afraid our ideas will be rejected

• Are afraid we'll be accused of rocking the boat

• Are afraid our spouse and friends will change their opinion of us

• Are afraid our life will change in ways we can't predict

None of these reasons are really justified.  Sometimes ideas, even good ones get rejected, but more often, they get accepted.  And if your boss and employer rejects your ideas because they don't want to change, maybe you should move on to another company that is open to innovative thinking (or start your own).  And very few of us can predict what our future will be, even if we don't do anything new and creative, so why not do it?  There is always the possibility that it will be better than what you have now.

    Lack of faith, in ourselfs and in God, is the other major block to creativity.  It's not coincidence that Julia Cameron and Natalie Goldberg , the two top writer's of books on creative writing, both write about faith in God and your own abilities as being essential to creativity.

    There was a time when nearly everyone had creative ideas and used them.  We need to get back to that.