What Is Creativity? ...And How Do I Get Me Some?

Having just completed a weekend leading one of my Creativity for Living workshops, this question is very much on my mind.

As we painted and explored the basics of applying colour to paper and canvas there was a lot of talk about the nature of creativity. A dictionary may define it as “inventiveness” or “stimulating the imagination”. I’ve come to believe that creativity is living life.

Think about it. Each and every day we are creative geniuses. Despite being creatures of habit and frequently living lives that are highly routine and predictable, we still are incredibly creative in simply being able to get through our day. Each time we step outside of our home we encounter a world that is dynamic, organic and full of changing situations. Buses arrive late or not at all, traffic patterns are unpredictable, accidents occur, new people move in and out of space …an we are required to develop appropriate responses to it all. We must create our capacity to move through our physical world.

And that is only a tiny slice of what we’re required to do. At work, we must deal with myriad issues, we must develop plans and approaches to new initiatives, new problems, new services, new products, new clients, new colleagues. For those of us with information age jobs, our capacity to be successful is based in our on-going, minute-by-minute, day-to-day creativity.

And yet, we seldom see these things as acts of creativity. In our culture, so much of the creativity we experience each day is dismissed as necessity, as ‘making do’ and ‘getting by’. We assign the term ‘creative’ to certain select arenas: advertising and marketing, ‘the arts’ (painting, writing books and articles, poetry, sculpting, drawing, screen-writing, making movies, etc., etc.) I remember the many years when I worked in the strategic planning arena, devoting much of my work life to creating reports and studies that assessed future possibility and potential, that convinced senior management where to invest time and money. The volumes of words and spreadsheets I and my colleagues developed were never seen by any of us as acts of creativity. They simply were things we were astute at and had developed a good skill set around.

And I know from the work I do with clients that I am not alone in having little or no sense of how tremendously creative I am and how creative my life has been. I have come to believe that the vast majority of people today see themselves as skilled and astute, but not especially creative.

Which is pretty paradoxical because we live in a time in history when, because of the fast paced, structural changes occurring in our world, we need creativity more than we ever have. The business literature is full of material on how companies must recognize that their employees creativity is the key to their long-term, on-going success. And yet, we persist in not acknowledging, exploring, supporting or developing creativity.
I’ve also come to believe that each of us is responsible for our own situation in life. While I may deplore the fact that ‘business’ isn’t prepared to step up to the creativity question, I don’t think that is any excuse for any of us as individuals to not develop a real awareness of our own individual creativity.

So back to my central question: what is creativity? …and how can I get me some. Perhaps it is more a question of allowing yourself to relax and begin to notice and claim all the creativity that you currently have …or are. Perhaps ‘creativity’ is all the stuff of your day-to-day life: your capacity to read, your capacity to develop and sustain relationships, the hobbies and interests you’ve developed, your gardening, hiking, traveling, cooking.

What if the conversation about creativity was more about claiming who you are in the world than whether you can paint or write or sculpt? What if the ‘creative arts’ are a way to reconnect with and rediscover just how creative you already are, rather than a chance to develop creativity?

Certainly the creativity retreats and workshops that I offer help people to begin to learn to paint. But far more importantly they are a chance for people to notice the high degree of creativity that already fills their lives. And in doing so, they quickly and effortlessly get to experience a much higher quality of life for themselves. They also tend to take to the artistic domain with far less judgement than they might otherwise have.

My most recent crop of participants are prime examples of the discoveries that await. As they painted and talked about their personal responses to their paintings Dawn remembered a dismissive comment about her lack of imagination made by her father when she was a child and how it has colored her perception of her abilities ever since. Dana discovered that her need to ramble on about things she was passionate about was based in a deeply held belief that others didn’t find her thoughts important. And David began to notice that he too had been carrying around a story from childhood about how he was ‘different’ from others that impacted his relationships to this day. Each began to connect with the fact that these were highly creative responses to life that had allowed them to constructively move forward. They also each connected with the fact that those earlier bouts of creativity had outlived their usefulness. Our time together gave them the opportunity to begin to consider what new creative possibilities await them should they elect to let go of those earlier responses.

And each of them now knows that in addition to being incredibly creative in how they live their life, they can add painting to their long list of creative skills. Skilled artists they are not at this point in their development. But each has become aware of their innate creativity; their capacity to be innovative, to be inventive, to stimulate their own imagination. None of them can ever again lapse back into the belief that ‘being creative’ is something reserved for a blessed few in our world.

And I get to revel in the fact that the creative genius that I am has helped a few more people begin to notice their incredible creativity, that I have helped stimulate exciting new possibility for a few more people on planet earth. Plus, I got to indulge in my love of painting along with my participants. Now that to me is real creativity in operation: getting to paint, getting to influence people …and getting paid for the pleasure to boot!

So what is creativity …it is you, right here, right now …it is you simply living your life. How do you get some? Let yourself be aware of what is flowing through you and your life as you go about your day. There is nothing to ‘get’. There is only something for you to claim about yourself. …and therein lies the real challenge. Are you up for that? Can you stand to be able to let yourself know the truth of your own brilliance? I sure hope you have fun trying!