The Potential-to-Performance Pipeline
TLDR: Skip the next strategy session and instead have a moment of self-reflection.
Your mind’s a Maserati, baby—500 horsepower of pure brainpower. The keys are in the ignition, your foot’s on the pedal, but for some reason, you’re not hitting the speeds of which you know you are capable. What’s holding you back? Maybe it’s time to check your fuel.
No, we’re not talking about snacks (although those are great and necessary). We’re talking about a deeper fuel: the not-so-secret power of self-belief. We use “not-so-secret” here because we’ve all seen those posters that espousing that “In order to achieve, you must believe” and “confidence is key”, but have you seen the papers backing up these maxims?
This isn’t just another pep talk from an executive coach; this is science.
A study by Karwowski and Beghetto revealed that creative self-beliefs bridge the gap between potential and performance.
“Creative-self-belief” refers to the story you tell yourself about your creative abilities, identity, and potential, functioning as dynamic, task-specific constructs rather than fixed traits. They influence whether you act creatively, how you navigate creative challenges, and your tenacity when things don’t go according to plan.
Creative confidence can increase quality and productivity by 15%.
Scientists measure three main dimensions of creative self-belief:
Creative Confidence: Includes creative self-efficacy (confidence in task-specific creative abilities) and creative self-concept (generalized perception of being creative).
Creative Self-Awareness: Encompasses creative metacognition (awareness of strengths/weaknesses) and creative mindsets (beliefs about whether creativity is fixed or malleable).
Creative Self-Image: Reflects how much creativity is integrated into one’s identity and value in life.
They found that it’s not just creative potential that leads to standout results—it’s the confidence and value you place on your own creativity. This confidence alone mediates how likely you are to take risks and turn abstract ideas into actionable strategies.
Key Takeaways:
People with high creative confidence are significantly more likely to persist through challenges and produce creative solutions.
Those with a growth mindset—believing creativity can be cultivated—show greater resilience after failure than those who see creativity as fixed.
Up to 40% of the variance in creative self-beliefs can be traced to personality traits like openness to experience. These traits are learnable, making self-belief a trainable, actionable skill.
Without valuing creativity or trusting your abilities, even your best ideas will stall in the driveway.
Back to You: How to Fuel Up
Afterwards, reflect on your wins. Celebrate small successes. Foster a growth mindset by reframing challenges as opportunities to innovate. Most importantly, value your creativity—not as a “nice to have” but as a core part of who you are.
Then, get to zoomin’.
Vroom vroom.
~The Playstorming Lab
“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t—you’re right.”
Citation: Karwowski, Maciej, and James C. Kaufman. "The Creative Self: Effectiveness of Self-Beliefs in Predicting Creativity." Creativity Research Journal 30, no. 1 (2018): 1-10. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10400419.2018.1411436.