Hypercreative Minds: Let Your Pots Boil Over to Unleash Your Creativity! by Mindy Hudon, M.S., CCC-SLP

A friend of mine often says that I have a lot of pots boiling and one day they will boil over. What she is describing is my hypercreative mind. My brain never stops thinking about a plan to create something new or to expand on something already created. I find myself always thinking of a way to solve a problem, and I actually love that! It’s not just an idea that I dream about, it is something that, in most cases, I actually grow into reality. It’s a need I have to create or change something for the better!

I never knew that this term existed until someone suggested that I had ADHD. I was perplexed by that comment and, of course, did a deep Google search to find that my creative symptoms were not actually ADHD, but rather a hypercreative mind.

Mike Row, an artist, describes hypercreativity as, “… a mind state characterized by abstract thought patterns, rapid cycles of thinking, and a diverse array of ideas that may seem to be random but are often related in a subconscious way.” Oh yes! That is my brain and many others that I know like Elisa Schmitz, founder and CEO of 30Seconds. I think that is why Elisa and I have been long-time friends and colleagues because we have the same hypercreative thoughts and choose to act on them, rather than letting them fade away!

Hypercreative people have been described as brilliant (who doesn’t love to be called brilliant), but they have also been described as impulsive and scattered. When you have a hypercreative brain, you have higher than normal creativity that is sometimes habitually or even impulsively creative.

Do you have a hypercreative mind? Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Are you a risk taker? Hypercreative people love to take risks and are eager to take on challenges that are a high-risk potential. They thrive by taking risks, rather than experiencing activities that they feel are mundane.
2. Do you daydream? Daydreamers have had a bad reputation of being lazy, but actually daydreaming is not a waste of time for creatives. Carolyn Gregoire and Scott Barry, authors of the book, Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, describe daydreaming or “mind-wandering” can lead to a highly engaged brain state. Neuroscientist state that daydreaming involves brain processes that are associated with creativity and imagination.
3. Are you afraid to fail? No one likes to fail, but hyper creatives use failure as a means to learn from their mistakes. When failure occurs, it can peak their sense of curiosity to find a way to make a failure into a success.
4. Do you thrive on being different? Hypercreative people like to be different! They don’t mind being different in their personal style, thoughts or creative projects.
5. Are you impulsive? Impulsivity also gets a bad rap in the public eye! Yes, some people have difficulty with impulse control, which can get them into trouble. However, impulsivity is a positive trait for the hypercreative mind. They have numerous thoughts and opinions about problems that they try desperately to solve. Their brains have a fast cycle of thoughts and they may make impulsive decisions that they may or may not act upon.
6. Do you follow your true passions? Hypercreative people are highly passionate! When they follow their passions, they feel excited, motivated and productive. Carolyn Gregoire describes, “Creative people tend to be intrinsically motivated – meaning that they’re motivated to act from some internal desire, rather than a desire for external reward or recognition”

For many years, I have often compared myself to others and thought, “Why can’t I just be settled in my life and not have this inner drive to take on the world?" But, now that I have identified myself as having a hypercreative mind, it has helped me feel more comfortable about my wild thought processes, passion, impulsivity and drive to pursue problems and to further explore my creative mind.

My pots are still boiling and I am ready to have them flow!

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