Creativity is Ageless. -– Rock The Wrinkle

So are we less creative as we grow older?

Or do we just know more than we did when we were younger, so we are more apt to rely on what we believe to be true and not explore new possibilities?

Or are some of us late bloomers anyway, so we hit our peaks in our 60s?

Interesting debate. I watched a TED talk with a scientist who charted when the great minds of physics came up with their breakthrough ideas. While several did so in their 20s, it wasn’t true for everyone. In fact, because of having more resources, time and fewer responsibilities, some of the researchers did not hit their peak until after age 50.

It can be so frustrating in this youth-obsessed culture to know that you really are doing the best work you’ve ever done…but your gray hair means you don’t get chosen for the sweet assignments. Proving ourselves becomes a daily task (but isn’t it always that way, no matter our age?)

Seems the thing we boomers need to keep in mind is it’s true we’re aging, our knees are aching and some days, we run out of energy before we’d like. But we’re also stubbornly, fiercely driven to do a good job—to fulfill that work ethic our Depression-era parents so successfully drilled in our heads.

Creativity shows itself in many ways. People who have the “one hit” in their lives and then fade away (or just enjoy the fruits of their success). People who switch careers late in life so they don’t do that first painting or write that bestseller until they are well past 60.

And then there’s the wonderful reality that most of us as we grow older stop worrying about what everyone else thinks. We take more risks in many ways, and that’s part of creativity. You walk by a funky house with plastic pink flamingos all over the yard. If it’s a young couple living there, you laugh and say that’s cool, they must be artists.

If it’s a silver-haired man living alone, you shake your head a bit and say well, he’s probably losing his mind, but he’s harmless.

Now hang on a second…is that fair? Is that what we do to those of us who decide to follow a different drummer as we age? I think if you want to walk down the street with a purple plume on your head you should be able to, at 9 or 90, without people running indoors.

Creativity is courageous. Groundbreaking creativity is fearless. Forget the jitters…doesn’t that have an element of fun in it? (Younger people can’t always take those risks, they have the whole “it will be on Facebook if I do it” problem.)

We don’t!

Buy the crazy outfit. Paint the tree blue. Get a blank page and write whatever you want on it. Believe in your ability to come up with ideas, concepts, solutions, new ways to think about things.