A lot of people protest to me that they are not at all artistic or inventive, so how can they possibly age creatively?
"Pish tush!" I say to them and give them a hug, real or virtual. Because creativity is not limited to artistic production. It's not even related to IQ.
Rather, it is a way of living your life that can be learned and practiced, even if it's not your natural bent or a big part of your history on earth so far.
Character Strengths and Virtues, by Chris Peterson and Martin Seligman, describes the strength of Creativity in a number of ways. All combine two basic components: the ability to generate new, sometimes surprising, ideas that are also adaptive--that is, which contribute to illuminating and perhaps solving life problems.
Everyday creativity (That Good Old Yankee Ingenuity) is extremely important to cultivate as we grow older. Why? One reason, according to Elkhonen Goldberg, who wrote The Wisdom Paradox, is that as we age we naturally rely more on the left side of our brain. This side thinks in long- established patterns that continue to help us navigate through our world and function well in general. Unfortunately, its patterns can become rigid and impoverished. On the other hand, the right side of our brain tends to atrophy with age. That's the side that adds spice to life, that helps us adapt to new information and learn new ways of doing things.
Professor Goldberg, who is interested in the neuroplasticity of the brain (its ability to develop throughout the lifespan), has created cognitive enhancement exercises to help people continue to use and grow crucial whole-brain abilities. Without them we can lose sharpness of insight and the sense of wonder that enriches daily experience.