It’s not what you think but what you do that determines your creativity.
I was talking to my friend Mike about my new book, The Creative Wild: Get Unstuck, Create More Adventurously. I explained how so many people, when I tell them about the book, say it isn’t for them because they don’t think of themselves as creative. I also mentioned that within five minutes of listening to a person tell me about their life, I can easily point out numerous examples of creativity in what they do. They are usually surprised. Sometimes shocked. Often even defensive, as if even though I have the evidence, they still don’t want to accept it.
Seeing yourself as creative or not isn’t the point
That’s when Mike noted what should have been obvious to me but wasn’t in the same way it isn’t obvious to all these people. He said, “You shouldn’t try to convince people they are creative. We’ve got too many defenses in place to receive that. Instead, point out to them how to use the creativity tools in the book to simply accomplish what matters most to them.”
I wrote before on how I don’t know what I write until I speak. This is a perfect example of that. Or in this case, of how I don’t really know the fullness of what I’ve written until someone else tells me what they’ve understood from it.
So let me build on Mike’s insight here if you’re someone who doesn’t think of themselves as creative.
You don’t have to.
I can argue about how we’re all created in the image of our Creator and how creativity is a birthright, something entwined in that DNA helix and core to every one of us. But if you’ve been alive in the last decade, you likely know how well we all respond to arguing. Or worse, being argued at. So no persuasion on my part here. Just this simple thought.
Everyone does something creative every day
Creativity is problem solving. (Yes, in the book I show how it is also problem finding which in itself is a powerful tool, but that’s for another article later.)
But let’s be more specific. You don’t need creativity to solve a problem for which there’s a known answer like a math equation. Well, even that does require a form of creativity, but let’s not quibble. More often, you need creativity (you know, that thing you claim you lack?) to solve problems for which there is no single or known right answer.
That could be a wicked problem like addressing food deserts in urban cores. Or a simple problem like how to reorganize your closet. But they all require creativity.
My son once said something extremely helpful. When we were geeking out on the subject of creativity and going down more rabbit holes than in a mountain meadow, he neatly summarized creativity as this: “Anything that requires a creative decision.”
Heating up leftovers? No decision at all other than maybe how many seconds to punch in on the microwave. Following a recipe? No creative decision. You are making something but technically, there’s no decision that involves the unknown. But figuring how to make a feast based on what’s in your pantry alone? That requires a creative decision. If you’ve ever done that or something similar, you’re creative.
Even if you reject that term for yourself.
It’s not about the labels
If you take this broader perspective on creativity, you don’t have to bear the label of creative to use creative tools. All 11 of the Adventurous Creative Tools in The Creative Wild are really just life tools.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll explore how these tools—ones like Readiness, Rhythm, Re-creation, Perspective, Movement, Indirection, Incompletion and others—can help you to solve all kinds of problems. And really, to help you live a more fulfilling life.
Whatever it is that you love to do, I can pretty much guarantee that one of these tools will help you do it better, especially if you’re stuck. So stay tuned as we explore each, but for now just remember this:
You never have to consider yourself to be creative in order to be creative. Sounds like a paradox, but well, so is The Creative Wild. And really, so too is life.
This post first appeared on my Substack at stevebrock.substack.com
