You’re A Creative Whiz!

Artists and musicians are not the sole proprietors of creativity. Common folk like you and me are also able to solve problems, write music, create art, and come up with new ideas. Remember when you were a child and you could fly airplanes, drive trucks, dress like a princess, or travel around the world all within the confines of your own living room? What happened to those uninhibited creative forces? Where has the sense of adventure gone? Lost, most likely I suppose, to the urgency of the mundane – to the requirements of daily living.

Here are seven things you can do to reclaim some of that wonderful creativity:

Listen to Great Music. Have you ever attended a performance of a great symphony orchestra? Great music inspires greatness to those who submit themselves to its promptings.
Look at Beautiful Things. Art also challenges our creative juices. I’ll never forget laying my eyes on Michelangelo’s magnificent Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. I get chills just writing about it and it has been well over 40 years since I was there. But you don’t have to go to Rome to enjoy the beauty of a tiny flower or the majesty of a sunset.

Travel. Over fifty years ago on our honeymoon in Wyoming my wife and I began wandering around on the side roads. We’ve never stopped. And our wanderings have taken us around the world several times, to over 20 countries on several continents, and all but two states. And once again, you don’t have to go around the world to see something different. Go this weekend to somewhere nearby but off your usual paths of travel and discover something unique. Golly, some people won’t even take a different route to work.
Read About the Greats. Great biographies inspire us to greatness. I’m just finishing a book on the life of the great adventurer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone. It makes me wish I had done more wandering around Africa when I lived there.

Explore Your Dreams. Take a walk somewhere and let your mind dream a little … no, let it dream a lot! Pretend a bit, oh heck, go ahead and pretend a lot. Who knows what you may become if you give yourself a chance!

Befriend an Eccentric Person. To be eccentric means to be a little off-center. Eccentric people are interesting and stimulating, never boring. My wife and I befriended one of my most eccentric professors in graduate school and we all grew because of that relationship.

And last, Ask God a Big Question. He has all the answers to every inquiry and all the creativity in the universe. I am certain He would love to share some of His treasures with you. Just ask. After all, you are a very special person.