Reflective Essay: Personal Development of Creativity Skills

This reflective essay delves into a student's personal experience within an advertising company, focusing on the development of creativity skills. The essay uses the Gibbs reflective model to analyze an incident where the student struggled with their first project, a marketing advertisement for a new cell phone. The student reflects on the initial feelings of inadequacy, the impact on their behavior, and the eventual motivation to improve. The essay highlights how the negative experience spurred the student to seek help from colleagues, learn effective project completion strategies, and understand the importance of continuous learning and planning. The student concludes by emphasizing that creativity is an ongoing process, and the incident served as a turning point in their career, teaching them valuable lessons about their job responsibilities, the importance of planning, and the pitfalls of overconfidence.

Running head: REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Reflective Essay
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1REFLECTIVE ESSAY
Creativity is the phenomenon or the situation in which something new as well as
valuable is innovated or developed1. Therefore, it can be said that creativity is a continuous
process and it can be developed over a certain period of time2. In this particular essay I would
like to shed light on a particular incident wherein I was able to develop my creativity skills
and also to develop skills which would help me in similar future conditions or situations. This
particular essay will use the model of Graham Gibbs to enumerate my reflection. It is to be
noted that the model of Gibbs uses six elements to portray the reflection of the individuals
concerned3.
I would like to mention here that I work in an advertising company which provides
services to the customers in developing attractive marketing advertisements for their
company or the products and services offered by them. Therefore, the employees at this
particular company are required to use their creativity as well as artistry for every project
which the company gets. I would like to describe here a particular incident wherein I was
able to develop my creativity. The incident which I would like to narrate belongs to the initial
days of my work at the company when I was new and did not have much idea about the kind
of work which I was required to do. Therefore, when I was given my first project for a
company I fumbled and had to take the help of my colleagues at the office. The project
required me to develop a marketing advertisement for a cell phone newly launched by the
company.
I would like to say that initially I was very sad as well as depressed as I was not able
to perform the job which was required of me. At one point of time I was even angry with
1 Runco, Mark A. Creativity: Theories and themes: Research, development, and practice. Elsevier, 2014.
2 De Bono, Edward. Serious Creativity: How to be creative under pressure and turn ideas into action. Random
House, 2015.
3 Bulman, Chris. "Getting started on a journey with reflection." Reflective Practice in Nursing, fifth edn. Oxford:
Wiley-Blackwell (2013).

2REFLECTIVE ESSAY
myself as I saw that the people around me were able to do the same kind of tasks but I was
unable to do the same. I clearly recall that this also affected my behavior towards my
colleagues. Therefore, I had a mixed feeling towards the incident.
It is to be noted that now when I look back at the incident I can clearly see the good as
well as the bad side of the incident. For me, the bad side of the incident was that I unable to
complete the first project which I was provided and this obviously affected my confidence
level as well as my self-esteem. However, when I look back at the incident and evaluate the
incident in the present context I must say that I am proud to say that it was that particular
incident which motivated me even more to focus on my job as well as to take an active
interest in the job which I was required to do. I would also like to say here that the incident
enabled me to learn the effective ways to complete a given advertising project and also how
to develop my creativity.
As already mentioned when I undertake an analysis of the incident in the present
context I find that played a great role in the development of my creativity. The negative
feelings which the incident aroused in me were used effectively by me to channelize my
energy as well as creativity. I would like to say here that after the incident I wanted to
complete as many projects as possible in a bid to prove my credibility to my colleagues and
also to myself. Thus, with the intention to perform better at my job I sought the help of my
colleagues to develop the skills which are required for the job role.
I would like to conclude by saying that the incident was a turning point in my career
at this particular company. The incident was an eye opener for me and helped me to learn
about the various aspects of my job. The incident also acted as a form of motivation for me
and helped me to increase the level of my performance. The incident also taught me the

3REFLECTIVE ESSAY
importance of using creativity for the completion of my various projects which I would be
assigned from there on.
The incident helped me to understand the importance of effective planning and the
use of various strategies for the completion of my various projects. In addition to this, the
incident also helped me to understand the pitfall of being over-confident. It is to be noted that
from there on I started taking the help of my colleagues as well as my seniors in order to
complete the projects which were assigned to me. Therefore, each time I get a new
assignment I reconsider the mistakes which I committed in that particular project and try
avoid them in the particular project in hand. This was the particular action which I undertook
after the incident.
Therefore, from the above discussion it becomes clear that creativity is a continuous
process and requires the active effort of the individual concerned for its development. I would
like to say here that in the particular incident above narrated I was able to learn many
significant things about the nature of my job as well as responsibilities and also about the
effective ways by means of which I could complete the projects which were assigned to me.

4REFLECTIVE ESSAY
References
"Entrepreneurship". Google Books. 2018 https://books.google.ca/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=w3dLDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=entrepren******ship+theory+pro
cess+practice+pdf&ots=ckYtesTags&sig=YAYDsvdbpLgOf-
AtZolxVqXz64Y#v=onepage&q=entrepren******ship%20theory%20process%20practice
%20pdf&f=false.
Bulman, Chris. "Getting started on a journey with reflection." Reflective Practice in Nursing,
fifth edn. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (2013).
De Bono, Edward. Serious Creativity: How to be creative under pressure and turn ideas into
action. Random House, 2015.
Runco, Mark A. Creativity: Theories and themes: Research, development, and practice.
Elsevier, 2014.
Williams, Kate, Mary Woolliams, and Jane Spiro. Reflective writing. Palgrave Macmillan,
2012.