Who here is creative? Raise your hand if you think of yourself as even a little tiny bit creative.
Now, for anyone who is sitting there thinking Oh no, I don’t have a creative bone in my body… stop.
STOP.
[bctt tweet=”I completely-absolutely-100%-without-doubt believe that everyone is at least a little creative.”]
I completely-absolutely-100%-without-doubt believe that everyone is at least a little creative. The challenge is to stop thinking about creativity in such an obvious way.
Creativity isn’t just about being able to paint or draw well. It’s not just about being able to write amazing stories, or even novels. It’s not just about sewing clothes, or making pottery on a wheel. All of those things are SO creative, of course, I’m not taking away from them in any way.
But I want you to think about the less obvious, less celebrated forms of creativity.
If you’re wondering what on earth I’m talking about, how about the following examples?
- You get home one evening to make dinner, and when you open the fridge there’s hardly anything there. But you still manage to put together a nutritious and filling dinner – you just had to get a bit creative.
- Your child needs a fancy dress costume. Money is tight, so you decide to DIY it. You just need to get a little creative to do so.
- Your nan wants help replanting a flowerbed in her garden. She wants it to be really colourful but isn’t sure how to plan it out – so you roll up your sleeves and get creative.
- It’s your friend’s 30th birthday, and you’ve volunteered to make the cake for the party because, you know, you do a bit of baking. She loves shoes, so everyone thinks it’d be a great idea to make a stiletto-shaped cake. Daunted, but not wanting to be beaten by a cake, you take a deep breath and…get creative!
Have I made my point yet? 😉 There are many ways every day that we get creative – and I swear half the time we don’t even consider that we’re being creative. Even solving a problem can be creative!
Creativity is something that can be developed and built upon. Like many things in life, you’ll get better at creative activities with practice, and you’ll start to feel more creative the more creative stuff you do.
Imagine trying to do advanced yoga poses when you haven’t done a day’s yoga before in your life. You just wouldn’t, would you, no matter how flexible you think you might be, and even if you were that ambitious, you’d soon realise it wasn’t that easy. It’s something that needs to be built up to, to make sure you don’t hurt yourself and to ensure your muscles are as strong and flexible as they need to be.
Whilst you’re unlikely to hurt yourself with most creative activities(!), these too will benefit from practice. If you can draw animals well, you may need to practice before you can draw a realistic person.
It makes sense when you think of it like that, right?
You’ll also get better at creative activities you had never considered before. Never been able to draw before? Practice! Read up on some drawing techniques and try them out.
A massive part of being creative is nurturing your body and mind. I can almost guarantee that you’ll have a hard time focusing on anything creative if you’re tired or hungry. So if you want to get more creative, you need to think about how you can help your mind be in the best shape possible to do so.
Of course, all this is not to say you’ll become great at every creative pursuit with time and practice. But I’m willing to bet you’ll find more that suit you than you realise, and you’ll feel happier in other areas of your life too.
So, how do you go about getting more creative? Why, I’m glad you asked 😉 It turns out I have just the thing you need, and best of all it’s free!
The #GetCreativeChallenge is an email course that takes place over 30 days. You’ll receive ten emails over that time, each one with a challenge for you to try to help you get thinking and acting more creatively – and not just in the obvious ways.
Here’s a sneak preview of the subjects covered by the ten emails:
- Write A Letter
- Read A Different Book
- Go For A Walk
- Make A Collage
- Daydream
- Bake A Cake
- A Little “Me Time”
- Handmade Presents
- Have An Early Night
- Make A Smoothie
Did I mention there are freebies…?
I’ve made a handy checklist so you can keep track of the steps as you work through the challenge. To get the checklist, just click the photo below – no email address required.
While we’re on the subject of freebies, I’ve also made a workbook for you. This will prompt you to come up with some ideas (and be a great place to record them so you don’t forget them!), which you will receive in the introduction email.
Are you ready to join the #GetCreativeChallenge?