“Oh I can’t do that I’m not creative.”
Literally everyone I ever speak to ever
The truth is we all have a creative side. We all have an element of us that’s creative, and after many conversations and much research I firmly believe the issue comes down to perception and the perception of what we recognise as ‘creative’ is wrong.
Yes creativity is:
- Drawing
- Baking
- Making
- Story Writing
- Poetry
- Knitting
- Playing an instrument
But creativity is also:
- Problem solving
- Organising your home
- Throwing together a meal from random left overs in your fridge
- Adapting ideas that already exist to make them better
The fantastical thing about creativity is that it is both a skill and a process. Too often we see the skill, we brand someone as ‘talented’ and ourselves as ‘not’ all the while dismissing the process and hard work that’s gone into fine tuning that skill. No one comes into the world drawing life like images! It’s too easy to compare ourselves to others and see in them all the things we are not. As a result we dismiss all the creativity we actually do have. Which is sad, because I repeat, we all have a creative side.
Did you know there degrees of creativity too? There’s little-c creative tasks such as making a joke, coming up with a birthday present idea, or designing something. Then there’s big-c creative tasks like inventing your own recipe, writing a novel, or producing a huge work of art. So if creativity is both a skill and process AND has different degrees you can see why I feel denying yourself the permission to say ‘I am creative’ is wrong. Because you are. Take a minute, right now, close your eyes if you need to, and picture the last thing you problem solved, the last outfit you pieced together, the last day out you planned. It is all creativity in action.
Creativity isn’t easy, it is hard. Even the best problem solver, award winning script writer, or inspiration speaker will have days and moments were it’s one big ball of frustration, where nothing seems to go right and they think they should just give up. I mean we’ve all had times were we’ve wanted to throw something we’ve baked into the bin, and believe me I have actually done that, and consequently found myself curled up in the foetal position in the kitchen declaring that I will never bake again! I did bake again, and you will be creative again.
So you’re denying yourself creativity and your finding it hard, what do you do?
Well in my opinion you’ve first got to own the fact that you are in some way creative, that is step one.
Secondly think about what brings you joy. Joy is the key. If joy is keeping your house tidy and discovering a new way of organising a drawer then do that. If joy is playing around with different colour combinations and patterns in your outfits, then stride out of the house coated in your style. It’s simple and obvious, yet in our busy lives we forget about joy and in time we forget what brings us joy.
Thirdly, repeat and don’t care who sees it. Don’t make, bake, create, organise, what ever it might be for other people, do it for you and see what happens. This isn’t about making money, or being well known for what you do, this right now is about discovering you.
Finally, challenge yourself. Have you been curious in watercolours? Or fancied having a play around with paper clay sculpting? Were does your curiosity take you? It’s important to keep our creativity and our happiness fuelled so that we don’t stop learning, we don’t stop letting ourselves dig into that child like curiosity and wonder and actually give new things ago. Is there a group you could join? A children’s craft kit you could buy? A how to tutorial on YouTube? Go on, I dare you to give them ago and see what happens.
Honestly, the only reason I can now grow vegetables is because as I grown adult I bought myself a children’s kit, it worked, it taught me a lot and the hobby grew from there…literally!
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