Do you feel you’ve reached your optimum level of creativity? If not, when is that going to happen? And if yes, how do maintain that level of creativity once you get past your creative peak?

The Creative Peak Timeline

• In your 20s – Most people would agree kids have not reached their creative peak. They are just experiencing that creative explosion.
• In your 30s-40s – This is the point of your career where you’re really working hard. You are probably less focused on creative output and more on productivity output. 
• In your 50s-60s – You probably have all the training and education you’re ever really going to get by that point. 
• In your late 50s – You really start to get a clear idea of your destiny. You start to figure out your life and what you’re going to be when you grow up. 

The Time of Creative Peak

By the two-thirds part of your life, you become bolder in your thinking. You’re more confident in who you are and who you are not. You give yourself permission to say what’s on your mind at that point. 

This sets the stage for a creative explosion. It’s the point in your life when you have the right combination of energy, wisdom, and motivation. You start to get less motivated on things about yourself and more about the world around you and what’s happening around you. You start to think about making a difference. 

How to Maintain Your Creative Peak

Creativity is a skill that can be learned and mastered, like any other skill. You can learn creativity and the secret is based on patterns. Mankind has used patterns for thousands of years to solve and innovate solutions. And those patterns can be reapplied. 

Even if you’ve reached your creative peak, it’s not too late to start to learn a pattern or two. You don’t have to master all of them. But as it turns out, most innovations in the world can be explained by just five patterns. You don’t have to use all five but you should always be able to find one that can help you in any given situation. These five patterns are the foundation of the method called Systematic Inventive Thinking.

To learn more about reaching your creative peak and how to maintain it, listen to the full podcast episode here: 018: Have You Reached Your Creative Peak?