Whenever I tell someone what I do (a creativity coach) and what I’m passionate about (reigniting creativity in everyone) the most common response I get is:

“Oh I’m not creative!”

More often than not I smile and say: “But you can be! Everyone is creative you know?” and they smile back with a pitiful look as if I’m naive, or delusional, or both!

It’s then often followed by:

“Oh no, I can’t draw to save my life” (or some such variation).

It’s at this point that I want to sit them down and give them an hour long lecture about how creativity is not simply ‘drawing’, or painting, or pottery, or singing, or dancing, or any singular version of a creative activity. It is SO MUCH MORE than that, and everyone - and I mean EVERYONE - has access to creativity and to living more creatively if only they knew how.

But I usually don’t have time. Which is a real shame, as so many people would benefit from even an ounce more creativity in their lives.

But first they have to WANT to learn more about it. The old saying: ‘You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make them drink’ certainly applies here. Either you’re ready and curious to learn more about living creatively, or you’re not.

If you are, great! Read on (I promise it will take less time than the hour-long lecture I’d love to give hahaa).

If you’re not, and you don’t believe you CAN be creative, perhaps read on anyway and see if I can change your mind, or else follow the exit signs and I’ll bid you adieu.

The Creative Living Triad

Broken down into its simplest form, creatively living can be divided into three essential aspects. Of course, this is a neat version of what is a slightly more complex and individual way of living, but this is what I have devised to illustrate the factors which influence how creative we can all be.

First up is the obvious one (though, note, not first because of its overall importance - more on that later)...

CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

This is the ‘doing’, the ‘verb’, the actual thing that you physically take part in which comes under the category ‘creative’.

It could be drawing, painting, sewing, knitting, printing, ceramics, upholstery, glass art, card-making, macrame, floristry, singing, photography, writing, playing an instrument, woodwork, stone-carving, poetry, acting, dancing, tie-dying, or baking! (to name but a few!).

Whatever you do when you’re ‘in flow’, loving what you’re doing, enjoying the moment, and creating ‘something’ while you’re doing it.

Taking part in creative activities is a wonderful part of living a creative life:

it relieves stress,
it brings out endorphins and makes you feel happy;
it can be a shared experience leading to wonderful community relationships,
or it can be a solo pursuit where you’re at peace and enjoy the solitude.

It’s adaptable for every single one of us and even more so because the benefits of creative activities are in the DOING, not in the results. It really shouldn’t matter whether what we are creating is any ‘good’ or not (although I know this is often a hard feeling to shake off. The feeling that if it’s not good then you’ve failed is so intrinsic in adult behaviour that it’s very difficult to see past this sometimes), but the more time spent in creative activities, the more in flow we feel and the more positive the activity becomes.

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But there are many people who attend a creative activity class, or take up a new creative hobby, who still don’t actually live creatively outside of the time they spend in their chosen activity. What they also need are the following two other essential elements.

CREATIVE INSPIRATION

The quality of what we produce - and by that I mean everything we do, say, think and conceive of in life - is entirely determined by what we put in to our minds. It’s literally like a machine - if you put the same old stuff in, how can you ever expect to get new ideas out!

To live creatively, and to utilise the power of creativity in our day-to-day lives (both for work and pleasure), we have to be actively seeking inspiring things in the world. Creative inspiration then, is constant learning - constant curiosity about the world around you, and questioning what you see.

The obvious example of creative inspiration is visiting galleries and museums - discover creativity from the past alongside modern day art - question it, like or dislike it, art is there to make you think. And then there are craft fairs, maker’s markets and artisanal shops - go and see what other people are doing creatively and be inspired by their work.

But you can also be inspired by nature, in fact, whatever excites you can give you inspiration!

This element is crucial for refreshing your knowledge and experiences on a frequent basis. It gives you so much more to choose from when your brain is combining what it knows into something novel and unseen before. This is creativity in the making.

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But there is one final element which I would argue constitutes a higher proportion than the other two - may be even 50% of the creative living pie chart as shown here:

In fact, it could be argued that Creative Thinking should be 100% because even while doing the creative activities and while seeking out creative inspiration, we are using this element at the same time.

CREATIVE THINKING

“It’s not what you do, it’s how you think.”

This is a statement which encapsulates what I believe to be true when we talk about living creatively. And it is at the crux of why I believe ANYONE can live in this way - because it’s about changing the way you THINK.

Creative thinking means that you approach everything with an open mind. Questioning, being curious, experimenting with different ideas, envisaging different avenues and proposing alternative viewpoints. In order to truly live creatively, you cannot miss out this element. A lot of creatives think like this naturally, and don’t have to try, but for others it doesn’t come easily, but it can be learnt, and practised, and experienced daily, flexing and strengthening that creative muscle until it becomes like second nature.

The Sweet Spot of Creative Living

It is great if you have at least one of these elements, even better if you possess two, but the sweet spot of creative living happens when all three are present in your life:

You regularly DO creative activities;
You regularly SEEK OUT creative inspiration; and
You THINK creatively every day, without really having to try.

How close are you to that sweet spot right now?

And can you see how EVERYONE can be creative, simply by filling their cup with these three elements?

So next time you tell me you’re ‘not creative’ or ‘can’t draw to save your life’, you’ll know what my response will be, and may be, just may be, you’ll believe me this time, and you’ll know that you CAN be creative too, you just needed to know how!

If you need help in any of these areas, get in touch. Wonder Club, my membership, covers ALL of these, helping you to regularly exercise your creativity muscle, easily and quickly! Click here to find out more.