Your Scars Are Your Superpowers

How to Turn Struggles Into Creative Strengths

How to make your demons work for you - summary sheet

Every great story has a turning point - the hero faces a seemingly impossible challenge, digs in deep, and finds new strength to overcome their antagonist and win the day. Invariably, the hero uses their flawed and troubled backstory to find their inner strength. Creative learning can be full of moments like these too - they might not seem as cinematic or appear to spring from the pages of a famous novel, but with a little focus, they can lead to revelations of clarity which can open the doors to areas we might not have thought possible. A quiet pupil who thinks they are ‘not creative’, a bright student who freezes in the moment when work gets ‘too challenging’, or a student that decides they are ‘not good at’ art or maths, can break through their self doubt with creative thinking.

What if we helped children and young people meet these moments head on and turn their mental barriers into fuel for learning - not with extra worksheets or complex prep, but with a set of small, guided questions combined with simple exercises that flip the script on their self doubt.

This post is for busy teachers, parents and educators who want more student engagement without adding to the workload. Here, we offer five quick, low-prep prompts you can drop into any lesson or club. Each prompt uses the same simple pattern: A fresh way to see a setback, one key question to ask, and a short activity to apply to it. And importantly, it draws on the student’s own self-doubt, found in their personal backstory as a starting point.

Why backstories? Because every learner already carries the raw material for creativity: Adversities, quirks, wins and losses - all of it.

Reliable research suggests we have around 6,000 thoughts each day, with a significant proportion of these being negative and repetitive, often reinforcing patterns of self-doubt rather than growth.

When we invite pupils to notice and reframe their own stories, three useful things happen:

• Confidence rises, because difficulty becomes information, not a verdict.

• Motivation improves, because their learning links to who they are.

• Creativity switches on, because unique experiences spark unique ideas.

We have five strategies below which draw on clear, practical ideas from well known books on creative thinking and learning, and translated them into classroom-friendly micro exercises. No special resources, prep or long set-up times are needed. Just five strategic questions and exercises that can be run in minutes to help pupils turn the kryptonite of their self doubt into creative super-powers, and along the way help them connect more deeply with areas of learning they might actually like, but struggle with.

Let’s dive in:

1. Failure Isn’t Final - It’s Feedback

(Referencing Mindset by Dr Carol Dweck)

Carol Dweck’s research into fixed and growth mindsets has transformed how educators understand learning. A fixed mindset treats difficulty as a verdict: for example ‘I can’t do this’. A growth mindset reframes the same moment as an opportunity: ‘I haven’t mastered this…yet.’

This tiny shift matters because it lets children reframe their back story. The things they once believed they couldn’t do, can become the very challenges that fuels their confidence and creativity. Instead of registering evidence of limitation in their thoughts, each struggle becomes an opportunity for a new chapter in the story of growth.

The igniting question: ‘What can I get better at if I just keep trying?’

The quick exercise: Invite pupils to take one thing they believe they ‘can’t’ do and rewrite it as ‘I haven’t…yet.’ For example:

• ‘I haven’t solved fractions…yet.’

• ‘I haven’t completed a portrait that I like…yet.’

• ‘I haven’t written a poem I like…yet.’

Over time, encourage them to build a ‘Yet List’ and tick things off as they improve. Each tick proves that adversity isn’t a dead end but a door towards growth, and a reminder that effort is what unlocks potential.

Then, when students connect with those moments in their back-story, for the times they would usually feel stuck, incapable of moving on, or fearful of falling behind, they begin to see situations differently. Those same challenges can be reframed as fuel for growth. That act of reframing in itself, can be a creative superpower - transforming ‘kryptonite’ into confidence.

This question and exercise strategy - the Yet-List - is our interpretation of an exercise inspired by Carol Dweck’s book, and we believe it is aligned with the growth mindset principles she describes. You can find the book here:

Teacher note: Set aside 5–10 minutes with pens and paper. Suitable for KS2 students upwards. Works well as a starter or plenary activity in any subject. Encourage pupils to revisit their Yet List regularly with a positive approach, as it builds resilience over time.

2. Flipping Doubt Into Power

(Referencing Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko)

Michael Michalko’s Thinkertoys is a treasure chest of creative strategies used by inventors, artists, and problem-solvers. At its heart is a simple truth: Creativity doesn’t come from never feeling doubt or fear. It comes from noticing those thoughts, and then deliberately flipping them.

He calls these negative thoughts FUDs: Fears, uncertainties and doubts. We all carry them in our backstories, with examples like: ‘I’m not clever enough’, ‘I’ll never be creative’, ‘I always mess things up’. Left unchecked, these FUDs can weigh us down and stop us from even trying. But if we treat them as raw material, they become fuel for our self confidence and creative abilities. Here’s how he describes this:

The igniting question: ‘What’s the opposite of the negative thought in my head right now?’

The quick exercise: The ‘Tick-Tock Table’, and here’s how to practice it -

• Fold a piece of paper into two columns. Label the left side Tick and the right side Tock.

• Under Tick, write down one self-doubt (e.g. ‘I’m not good at drawing’).

• Under Tock, reframe it into an affirmation (e.g. ‘I can improve my drawing if I practise’ or ‘I’ll try focusing on composition before working in to the details’).

Encourage children to decorate their Tick-Tock tables with colours, doodles, or symbols. This makes the reframing playful and strengthens the positive message. It also helps the left and right sides of the brain to engage and work together.

Over time, this exercise teaches a powerful habit: Doubts don’t have to be facts. They can be challenged, reshaped, and used as springboards. For many children, connecting with their backstory means remembering moments where a negative voice told them they ‘couldn’t’. By writing down the counter-position, they create a new story – one in which they keep their self-belief, confidence, and creativity.

Michael Michalko’s message is clear: Creativity is not about being free from fear, it’s about using fear as material. Each reframe is like alchemy - turning lead into gold - or the things that weigh us down into a valuable resource for creative self-growth .

The Tick-Tock Table is one of the exercises described Michael Michalko’s book. It explicitly describes using a Tick-Tock table to flip FUDs into positive affirmations for self confidence and growth. You can find the book here:

Teacher note: Set aside 10–15 minutes with pens and paper. Suitable for KS2 upwards, though older students may benefit from framing the exercise as ‘challenging their inner critic’. It works well as a paired activity, so pupils can suggest positive reframes for each other. The visual element (adding colour, doodles, symbols) makes it engaging across different learning styles.