Originally published on Forbes 14 Oct. 2014.

Author: Kimberly Wiefling

Like most kids, I was taught to avoid mistakes. Perfection was the goal, and errors were punished—sometimes with lower grades, and occasionally with a swat on the behind. Imperfection wasn’t rewarded in adulthood either, where a narrow definition of beauty left me wishing I had a supermodel figure and a more attractive face. Then came the innovation era in the business world. Suddenly we were supposed to cast off years of perfectionism and become wildly creative.

Unfortunately, a famous NASA study showed that the typical 98% creativity scores of five-year-olds falls to a mere 2% by the time these same children become adults. Creativity is messy! The creative path is dotted with imperfection and temporary setbacks, sometimes called failure. We learn to avoid mistakes, and thus stop expressing our creativity, in order to survive in our families, at school, and at work.

Here are five ways to breathe new life into the creativity with which you were born. (For the rest of this, please see the full article on Forbes here.)