Creativity Is Not Just for Creatives
Just because you can’t write, paint, dance or sing doesn’t mean you aren’t creative. Being creative doesn’t necessarily include having an ‘artistic’ bone; there are so many ways you can express your creativity.
In fact, if you want to start something new, this is evidence that you’re creative. If you follow the concept of archetypes, this is what it says about the creator (in brief): The creator has the desire to craft something meaningful and special. They love new ideas and make things happen. The creator gets deep satisfaction from both the process and the outcome of creating something that did not previously exist.
I believe as humans we have all been born with a creative drive, we just need to find the best way to experience and express it.
The reason I’m a big fan of following your innate creativity is not only how it unlocks ideas and opportunity, I believe it is so good for your soul. Flexing your creative muscle can provide a person with a much-needed respite when the day-to-day details that can grind us down narrow our vision and stress us out.
When I turned 40, I realized that some of the dreams I had nurtured over the years weren’t going to come around in the way I had envisioned them. The list is too long to share here, but probably top of it was marriage and a family. If I’m honest, I was wondering what I had done wrong to lead me to this place. Sure, some of my dreams were just blue sky and probably had no chance of landing, but some of the basics felt out of reach too. So, I decided to live my life as if it was just what I had always wanted: to celebrate the life I had right at that moment. And I also decided to pursue some things, just for the fun of it.
Ok, what was on that list? I wanted to learn how to read music and play the piano. I wanted to learn how to play golf (I’d spent enough years walking golf courses for exercise, it was time I joined the game). I wanted to study French and begin to paint. I was not a musician, painter etc., but the beauty of taking this new tact was the expectations I placed on it all. I had none. I wasn’t going to try and become the best painter, golfer, or French-speaking person. I was just going to try it all out and have fun. And oh my, did I ever! It may have been one of the sweetest times of my life.
There was so much freedom in doing something good for my soul with no expectations, just a deep desire to enjoy myself, and explore parts of myself that had always been there but had lain dormant.
That process delivered hours of joy, and the unlocking of my creative self just gave me more ideas for my business. Years later, I had to put a lot of that aside when I got married and moved to London. But guess what? I learned how to cook! My husband is surely the happy recipient of my deep need to create.
As I end here, I wanted to share how the freeing act of creating has played out in a friend’s life. This dear friend was pursuing a career in music - and she is so incredibly talented! But it’s an intense road, and in the meantime, she also started a travel blog to share her love of finding and exploring new locations around the world. I’m pretty sure she didn’t start the blog to become an influencer or make a living at travel writing. But guess what? She’s amassed an impressive amount of followers and is starting to monetize her work - all because she was open to letting her soul breathe and share what she enjoyed.
If I leave you with one thing it’s this:
Take a little time out to flex your creative muscle, everyone has one.
And see what it yields. Be sure to remove any expectations, let it be a free and energizing way to learn more about who you are deep down inside.
Ok, once you’ve done that let me know how it goes. What did you learn about yourself? Did it help unlock other parts of your life? And if you’ve already experienced this in your world, share what it was like. We can all learn from you!