As a fifty-seven-year-old hypercreatist, I’ve notice common patterns in my life and the lives of other hypercreatists I’ve known. I also like to read biographies, autobiographies and study the lives of famous artists, authors, inventors and history’s most creative people.
Over the course of my learning, I’ve discovered there are certain personality traits and habits that are repeatedly found in the lives of those I would define as hypercreatists.These profound characteristics are sometimes detrimental and have led to their destruction. While others have acted as creativity catalysts that have propelled them to the pinnacles of success. Here are the top eleven that I’ve identified. This isn’t the result of an official study or detailed report. It’s my personal observations. They’re not in any particular order. Read the list. If you possess some, or many, you just may be a hypercreatist too!
- ADDICTIVE PERSONALITY.
As hypercreatists we become consumed with projects, hobbies, passions and sometimes even people. We don’t just watch one episode of Games of Thrones. We spend the entire weekend binge watching three seasons a day. And never set a puzzle down before us, if you’re not prepared to sit for hours until it’s completed. If we discover an interesting hobby like golf or photography, we’ll check out of reality and plug our brains into every YouTube video we can find that will instruct us how to become the world’s best photographer or golfer. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never golfed or taken a picture in our life. In our minds we want to be the world’s best. That’s how our brains are wired. We will then foolishly go out and buy the best equipment that we can afford because after all, we’re going to be the best. The closets and basements of hypercreatists tend to look like an upscale resale store or the return desk of a Hobby Lobby. That’s the upside, the positive side of an addictive personality type hypercreatist.
However, there’s the downside. Just when we’re at the peak of one interest, it’s like a mental switch flips off and we “discover” something new, exciting and different. And now we throw all our creative energy into that arena. Goodbye golf, hello watercolor painting. The imaginary bell rings, and we’re off ready to get addicted to our next compulsion. Time goes by and we begin to validate the old saying, “Jack of all trades. Master of none.” But who cares, we’re enjoying the diversity of our talents.
And speaking of addictions, it goes without saying that many of the world’s greatest hypercreatists are addicts. Whether its drugs, alcohol, sex, power, or attention, the halls of historical creators are riddled with the addictions. The mere fact is, that as a hypercreatist, we’re addicted to creating! - HIGH LEVELS OF A.D.D.
There’s an abundance of Attention Deficient Disorder or ADD in the hypercreatist brain. The invention of the internet has hyper-elevated the hypercreatist ADD. Our brains have to be, not just constantly stimulated, but diversely stimulated. Past generations could pick and choose their external stimuli from a limited media menu. TV. Magazines. Books. Radio. But today’s hypercreatists are attacked, and I mean that literally, with information and stimulation from all directions 24/7. We’ve developed a 60 second attention span. Which isn’t a good thing. The attention span of a goldfish is about 3 seconds. Which means, if you were a goldfish and reading this you would have…
With so much stimulation already stimulating a stimulated brain, it’s no wonder we have an attention deficient. We don’t have time to digest and process all the information, so we just shut it down and move on to something else. Squirrel.
And because we’re constantly seeking something to hold our attention for more than 60 seconds, we become extremely skilled at becoming bored really easy. So, to look at the positive side, we do actually become a master of something. Getting bored easily. I want to compliment those who have made it through this article so far. Keep up the awesome attention span. You can do it! - A HISTORY OF MULITPLE JOBS, OCCUPATIONS AND EVEN RELATIONSHIPS.
If an idle mind is the devil’s playground. Then a hyper-creative mind is God’s circus. A hypercreatist resume looks the police file of Al Capone. Butcher. Baker. Candle stick maker. Restaurant. Hit man. Bet taker. As masters of getting bored easily, this quality often overflows into our work attitude and even our personal relationships. And as risk-takers we tend to throw financial caution to the wind and quit one job and start another without blinking a “there’s no money in the bank” eye. Our mental happiness and creative releases take precedent over whether the rent gets paid and there’s food in the fridge. Yes, sadly, the starving hypercreatist is a common way of life but it’s a fulfilling life. And don’t even think about working for a large corporation. They absolutely HATE hypercreatists. We constantly challenge authority and question the status quo. We think out of the box and despise ties, suits and business wear. We’re not the brainwashable, cookie-cutter corporate kind of character. We’re happier selling flowers on the street corner. At least there, we can regularly stop and smell the roses.
If you happen to be currently dating, or you are married to, a hypercreatist, you may just want to skip this next paragraph and go straight to Trait #4. …I’ll wait…
Ok, (I’m whispering) hypercreatists have an extremely hard time maintaining long-term relationships. We’re masters at becoming bored easily in ALL phases of our life. Unfortunately, this spills over into our emotional and love interests. (With the help of HSSD. See Trait #5) Hell, our own definition of “long term” relationship is askewed. We don’t think in months and years like the normal and sane people. We think in the delicious and colorful Baskin Robbin’s “Flavors of the Month” concept of relationships. It’s a curse of hypercreatists and many of us grow out of it as we age. But until then, it’s something that needs to be addressed and stated in the oral fine print when starting a relationship. - A GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR THAT’S USUALLY ODD.
Hypercreatists often like to smile, make people laugh and have a good time. However, our humor leans towards the sarcastic, clever, and often dark side. We’re the ones who sit quietly in the movie theater when everyone else is laughing. But then we’ll catch a clever line or watch a witty scene and then we end up being the only one in the theater laughing. It’s also not unusual for a hypercreatist to be the class clown or center of attention at a party. We like to learn about others by asking questions. This makes us personable and outgoing. Normal and sane people like personable people because they’re often afraid to talk or have a fear of getting embarrassed if they say or do something that could be taken as silly. Silly is a hypercreatist lifestyle and embarrassment is not in our vocabulary. - HYPER SEX DRIVE DISORDER (HSSD)
As of this writing, you won’t find the term Hyper Sex Drive Disorder or HSSD in any medical journal or on the lips of any doctor or psychiatrist. That’s because there is no such thing. I created the term. But I believe in the future, creative medical minds will discover that, just like other psychological abnormalities people are genetically born with like bi-polarism, multiple personalities and OCD, there are people who are born with too much of some kind of chemical or a hormonal imbalance that makes them have an abnormally high sex drive.
See Jane run to Dick. Jane loves Dick. Jane is a slut. And Jane goes through life feeling sad and miserable because she’s a slut. Yes, Jane made the choices to love a lot of Dicks. But in the future, I believe the reason why Jane loved so many Dicks was because she had an undiagnosed case of Hyper Sex Drive Disorder. And had Jane had the right counseling, therapy and possibly the right medicine, Jane could have not become a slut and experienced a greater happiness in life.
I also believe that there’s a connection between the creative and sexual parts of our brain that make hypercreatist prone to having HSSD. This again, is just my personal opinion based on my own self-diagnosed HSSD and studying the lives of other hypercreatist who were also hyper-sexual. For example, the famed female hippie icon and music hypercreatist, Janis Joplin, known for such hits as “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Piece of My Heart” once confessed that she had “… gotten it on with a couple thousand cats in her life and a few hundred chicks”. Looks Bobby McGee and a couple thousands other guys and gals were getting more the just a piece of Janis’ heart. Just saying. HSSD.
The inventor, pilot, film director and one-time world’s richest man, Howard Hughes had an insatiable taste for pleasuring the opposite sex. The infamous playboy’s hyper active sex drive resulted in relationships with such famed females as Billie Dove, Faith Domergue, Bette Davis, Ava Gardner, Olivia de Havilland, Katharine Hepburn, Hedy Lamarr, Ginger Rogers, Janet Leigh, Rita Hayworth, Mamie Van Doren and Gene Tierney. By the way, don’t get Howard Hughes confused with Hugh Hefner, the creator of the term playboy and master of printed sexuality.
And then there’s the world-renowned greatest lover of all times. Giacomo Girolamo Casanova or simply Casanova. Everyone has heard the stories of his seductions which validate his hyper sex drive. But few know that Casanova was also a prolific hypercreatist whose resume reads: Attorney, author, businessman, cabalist, con man, clergyman, dancer, diplomat, mathematician, medic, military officer, philosopher, pimp, politician, spy, social playwright and violinist.
- DISORGANIZED.
While there are those hypercreatists who have obtained the god-like ability to bring harmony out of chaos and organize and de-clutter all that surrounds them, including their medicine cabinets, purses and glove compartments, the majority of us hypercreatists are messy and disorganized. Kudo’s to the organized and tidy hypercreatists. It’s an awesome quality to possess and I encourage every hypercreatist in the world to strive to achieve it. Being clean and organized allows our brains to release its full creativity potential. But don’t confuse messy and disorganized with inefficiency. Those of us who haven’t reached that stage, have our own functional system of chaos that works perfect for our types of minds and manners that allows us to create and produce in our own crazy comfort zones. - LOW LEVELS OF ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION
Surprisingly, one would think with our history of ADD, HSSD, our addictive personalities and erratic job history, a hypercreatist would be a poster child for depression and anxiety. But it’s exactly those same personality traits, along with our habitual creating, questioning, and learning, that monopolizes our thoughts and give us less time to think about the negative aspects of life. As stated earlier, hypercreatist love to smile, laugh and make others laugh. Our minds are too busy to get caught up in depression. We see the glass of wine as half full… until our alcohol addiction kicks in and we drink it. Now we see the opportunity for twice as much.
And because we’re constantly trying new ideas and putting ourselves out there on a daily basis to expand our intellectual, creative and sometimes emotional horizons, anxiety becomes a backseat passenger on the rides of our life. True hypercreatists, the ones who are the doers, risk-takers and innovators of the world, acquire a higher self-esteem because they really don’t care what other’s think about them. We’ve checked our egos into the coat check and forgot to pick them back up. This doesn’t mean we can’t be a little arrogant and vain at times. Which we can. It means that we have an imaginary Ninja Turtle shell of IDGAF (Google it) around our conscious and it frees us from the “Approval of Others” prison that causes anxiety to the rest of the normal and sane world. Which leads us to our next personality trait. - WE ARE ANTI-TRENDY. WE DON’T FOLLOW THE CROWD.
So we dress funny. Cut and color our hair unusual and act completely different the rest of our family and friends. Who cares? We hypercreatist. We don’t follow fads, we create them. And by time the rest of the world is catching on to the cool things we do, say, dress, watch or listen too, we’re onto the next thing. We’re often judged or criticized as being strange or weird. But search any history book and you’ll find a hypercreatist labeled as a crackpot at one stage of their life, only to be labeled as being “ahead of their time” at a later stage of their life.
The Establishment, Big Businesses and Politicians have a love/hate relationship with hypercreatists. On one side, we’re the consummate revolutionist. The Counterculture. Don’t try to feed us your marketing ploys or brainwash us with your ideologies. We can see past that BS. Our intelligence and individuality is like sunlight to those vampire-ish Big 3 who enjoy sucking the positive energy out of the masses who are asses. However, since we’re also the inventors, idea generators and trend developers they tolerate us with clinched smiles on their faces and opens hands behind their backs ready to slap us silly, or non-silly in our case. - WE LOVE TO LEARN
If knowledge were crack, hypercreatists would be crack-whores. There’s a book fair at the community center this weekend? Hell yeah, we’re there. Netflix is starting a new docu-series this Friday about aliens that mate with angels to produce invisible witches? Sorry grandma, I love you, but I can’t make it to your funeral. I’ll be watching Netflix. Hypercreatists have an inerrant obsession with wanting to know more. While the rest of the world is watching the Super Bowl, we’re nose deep into our latest project or researching something that’s going to make a just a little more informed. Seriously. If you’re a true hypercreatist, I will bet a million imaginary dollars, at this exact moment you have one book on, or next to, your toilet about one subject. A book about something else next to your bed. And you’re probably listening to something totally different on an audiobook as you drive or work out? Am I right? It’s almost scary how right I am. You know why? I’m a hypercreatist just like you!!! - A HIGHER LEVEL OF CONSCIOUSNESS
There’s something in the mind of a hypercreatist that reaches out from what I like to call the “here and now” and seeks to grasp that which is beyond our normal comprehension. We’re futurist. And when you take a forward thinker and toss in a thirst for knowledge, what results is hyper-creativity. But an equal and just as beneficial trait is a higher level of consciousness. My theory on this special gift suggest that it comes from continually exercising our brain. And by doing so, we’re stretching it to it’s outer limits. We’re perpetually attempting to manifest that which hasn’t been manifested yet. This build strengths in what could only be described as spiritual muscles and boosts our clairvoyance. What results is an elevated interest into the occult, spiritualism and other mysticisms that challenges our status quo way of thinking. We love the super-natural because as a hypercreatist, we are super-natural. Three of the greatest hypercreatist of all times, Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin and Thomas Edison were all seekers and students of esotericism, the occult and alternative spiritualisms. - EARLY RISERS OR MIDNIGHT OIL BURNERS
While the rest of the normal and sane world is sleeping peacefully, you’ll find a hypercreatist wide awake being productive. Many of us have biological clocks that automatically wake us up at 5 am every morning. We don’t need an alarm clock. We’re bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to go, go, go. Our minds are fresh and not cluttered with the craziness of the day. We’re writing, creating, painting, building and working on our projects hours before the normal and sane world wakes up.
On the other hand, some hypercreatists find their creative juices flow more fluid in the late evening or midnight hours. Their muses start to wake up when everyone else is in bed. It’s during these dedicated productivity hours that we sometimes forget to eat or go the bathroom. We also have these guilt attacks because we realize that we should be doing other important tasks like feeding the kids, walking the dog, or doing laundry but all that gets pushed back because we’re in productivity mode and once that sets in, we become creativity zombies.
Whether it’s the AM or PM side of the day, hypercreatists work extra hours. Most normal and sane people start their day at 7 am and go to bed around 10 pm. But by getting up at 5 am or staying awake until midnight, we get a two-hour head start on the normal and sane people. That’s 14 hours a week. Which calculates to 728 hours a year. THAT’S AN ENTIRE MONTH OF TIME. So in other words, hypercreatists get to experience a 13-month year. That’s why we are the doers and the world changers. Give me a hypercreatist high-five!
There are other subtle common traits that many hypercreatist tend to possess. Like magnetic personalities and a variety of OCDs but these are what I feel are the Top 110 Traits of a Hypercreatist. They’re often negative thorns in our creative sides or positive embers that stoke our hypercreative fires. But in the end, they are what makes the life of a hypercreatist leaps and bounds more interesting and enjoyable than the majority of normal and sane rest of humanity.
Are you a hypercreatist? How many of these Top 11 Traits do you possess?
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