Allowing your creativity a chance

Creativity is not just for artists. We have been conditioned to believe that we are not creative. Poppycock! We are all born with creative potential but sadly for many this potential withers in the barren lands of our education systems and some sectors of society. Creativity is imagination in action and all of us can stimulate our imaginations and be spurred into action. Learning how to flex our creative muscles can be great fun and putting into place habits and routines that help us be more creative is very rewarding and satisfying. By looking at and replicating some of the habits of highly successful creative people, we can bring creativity alive in our own lives. It’s easier than you might think to be creative, to imagine and to make things happen.

The world needs its creative thinkers and doers now more than ever. Businesspeople need to look for new ways of recruiting the right staff and bringing in more clients. Parents need their children to grow up with the broadest possible vision of the world. Teachers have to invent energetic and more interesting ways of bringing their subject to life in the classroom. Office-bound individuals have to look for ways of doing routine tasks differently and adding another dimension to their day-to-day work. Businesses need to get creative or face the consequences that more creative competitors will grab what’s out there. Individuals need to get creative to make the world a more beautiful place in all its senses.

The habits and routines of creative and performing artists are not exclusive and all of us can learn how to use these habits and ways of thinking in order to make subtle or great changes in our own lives. Rediscovering our creative potential is an exciting journey and means learning to love the creative being inside of us and to introduce some new routines and patterns into our lives. It takes skill and love to bring something that you have imagined into reality. Choreographer Twyla Tharp says: “If art is the bridge between what you see in your mind and what the world sees, then skill is how you build that bridge.” Creative people are open to new ideas and ways of doing things. Creative people challenge rules and the status quo. Creative people surround themselves with people and objects that will inspire them to do their best work. Creative people work hard but never forget to play. Creative people exhibit courage and curiosity. They have a vision of how things should turn out and they have the ability to make it happen.
Once you realise and accept that we are all born with enormous creative potential, you can begin to have a look at how to use this in your everyday life. Creativity will then become the norm for you.
- Except from: “The Top 10 Habit of Highly Creative People” by Vivien McKnight, available through www.dailyom.com