Do you consider yourself “uncreative?” Do you swear up and down you have no creative talent – “art” might as well be finger paintings and stick figures, you can’t compose a photo to save your life, and who cares anyway because your job doesn’t require you to be creative, it just requires that you show up and get things done?
Well I beg to differ. We are all creative – just by being alive – and understanding how you’re creative and using that Super Power for good is important – even life changing.
Merriam Webster defines creativity as “the ability to make new things or think of new ideas.” Notice it isn’t defined as “a great artist creating a masterwork to be hung in a world renowned art institution” or “creator of galaxy changing technological advancement.” Those are creative folks too but really they’re the exception, not the rule.
It doesn’t matter if you’re an Accounting manager in a meeting talking about month end results or putting together a PowerPoint presentation in the MOST boring template imaginable, you’re creative. You’re creative every time you solve a problem, prepare a report, or give a presentation using your boring plain colored PowerPoint slides. Creativity isn’t some special gift that only a few people have, it’s something we ALL have and with that comes the huge opportunity to think about creativity as a way of life – a way of creating a life that you want – by making new things, new choices, and taking your (sometimes zany) ideas seriously. The important thing here is – it’s about you: how you make new things, think of new ideas, show up each day and create the life you want.
So the next time you think you’re “not creative” look again and ask where you can start embracing creativity as a way of life, not just something reserved for the special few.
