We Are All Creatives
“I definitely remember a few cases in my life where I’ve been creative,” said my friend, a truly gifted life coach. She was telling me about a new entrepreneurial project she started.
“What do you mean ‘a few cases’?” I asked, confused.
“You know, in the last few years.”
“But you’re always being creative. Your entire work in the last who-knows-how-many-years is creative.”
She wasn’t getting it.
“Every time you meet with a client, you don’t follow a script, do you? You identify the problem on the fly and bring up some tool or question that cracks them open or shifts something within them, in a way you didn’t plan or think about ahead of time. That’s creativity.”
Something was starting to register.
“Creativity is about positive transformation”, I said. “You’re a creative—your output is transformed people, not a transformed canvas or piece of clay. You’re a ‘people sculptor’.”
My friend was moved to tears. She never thought of herself that way.
If you didn’t realize you’re creative up until now, I hope there are tears in your eyes too. So many people think they’re not creative, or have been creative sporadically throughout life, either on some occasion tied to a traditionally creative field like art or music or theater (that photography class in college), or when they had a truly genius, out-of-the-box insight. Yet the places where we’re the most creative often have nothing to do with what the world considers creative or with once-in-a-lifetime insights.
Too often we judge our level of creativity by the nature of the activity we engage in. It’s easy to think a designer is creative. Yet if a designer creates a new version of the same project over and over again with only small tweaks they’re being repetitive, not creative. On the other hand, it might seem like a project manager just browbeats people into doing things on time, but many projects require a lot of creative juggling and foresight to line things up and eliminate obstacles to achieve a successful outcome. A burger flipper - not the most creative occupation - can be extremely creative stretching their dollar much further than you or I ever could. Someone who successfully hides an addiction from the people around them for months or years is creative. A successful negotiator is creative.
We’re all creative. You are creative. You may not be used to being creative in a certain domain but you have the innate ability to be creative anywhere you want.
Stop waiting for society to sanction your creativity. Go and create something. You can.
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