Book Review: “Creative You”

The e-book of Creative You: Using Your Personality Type to Thrive by David Goldstein & Otto Kroeger was sent to me as a review copy earlier this month via Beyond Words Publishing.

I very much enjoyed this book and found it so fascinating to begin by responding to the four main questions for determining my own creative personality type. Some of the questions, like “Are you an introvert or an extrovert?” were a no-brainer (introvert all the way!), but other questions, like “Do you prefer thinking or feeling?” were much more difficult. Luckily, the authors included a handy chart with the characteristics of both sides for every one of their questions to help you more easily determine which one you are.

After responding to each question, you are given a letter depending on which response you chose. This results in 16 possible combinations (and therefore 16 different creative types). The following 70 pages outline in greater detail the creative profiles, as well as temperaments of creativity (who knew there was so much involved in the creative personality?!).

From there, the book unravels each of the 16 creative types. I eagerly flipped forward to “my” section (“the facilitator”) with great interest to see if it was at all reflective of my true creative personality and to see if it resonated with me. Some of it spoke very clearly to me (“you have the ability to express subtle messages to the benefit of others.” Ha! Yes.), but other parts made me second-guess whether I had responded the initial four questions completely accurately (“sponge-like memory”? No. Definitely not). The problem that I find with conducting these kinds of exercises is that it is so easy for us to choose the answers that we want to be, rather than the ones which we are, that it can lead us to inaccuracies (something that the authors themselves make a note of in the book).

Lastly, the book finishes by exploring the different ways that you can use your creative personality to your advantage, and how to best utilize it in real-world settings. I really enjoyed how incredibly practical this book can be, and how much of a resourceful tool it can be to understanding ourselves better and being our creative best! I would definitely recommend this book.

I intend on going back through the questions and reading each one more fully so as to get to the bottom of if I answered one of them incorrectly. Since I prefer reading on paper as opposed to the Internet (I know, I know! Sounds a little silly coming from a blogger who writes for more than five different blogs ;)), I think it will be easier to print the entire book out and go forward from there. E-books can make the eyes go a little fuzzy.

Have you read Creative You? Does your creative personality need some fleshing out or have you got it all figured out? Share in the comments section below!