Well, yes. I already listed several proofs on the previous page but the basic proof is pretty simple. If you have every solved a problem you’ve been creative. If you’ve ever had an original thought, you’re creative. If you’ve ever been lost and found your way home, you’re creative.
If as a child you played and used your imagination that was creative, but therein lies part of the problem. So many of us, if we don’t tie creativity exclusively to the arts, relegate creativity to the realm of childishness and act as if we need to put it away and grow up. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes creativity is born in childhood and it should definitely should be nurtured there, but it should never (or at least very rarely) be put away. The fact of the matter is, as we grow up, as we get busier and our problems get more complex, creativity becomes more essential, not less. Oh, and by the way, as much of the developed world’s economy becomes less about manufacturing and more about generating ideas and new products, creativity will become more and more essential to earning a living. The MFA is quickly becoming the new MBA, and the business world needs more creatives than ever before.
Going back to childhood. Do you remember making up your own games, building forts and sand castles, making your own toys or adapting them to be used in new ways, even making toys out of rocks, sticks, our fingers, even making up nicknames and those rude little “…sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G” jingles we all made up. These were the seeds of creativity. We all made art. We all sang songs, Many of us created and acted out our own stories, skits and plays. We played with puppets, made up new songs and just generally found ways to amuse ourselves. No one told us to do it. It came naturally. Essentially, you were born creative, artistic, etc. So what happened?
Well a couple things probably. Maybe you got a bad grade on a project, or you saw someone who was better than you, or someone told you, you’ll never make a living doing that and before long you got the idea that creativity and the arts were the realm of a chosen few that we deemed talented. These anointed few would make the cool stuff and for the rest of us, growing up meant doing something menial or boring, living for weekends and vacations, wishing our lives away until the ultimate panacea, retirement, when we can finally get around to doing the things we enjoy.
But wait a minute. What if we missed it? What if those things we love to do, those things that make life meaningful and fulfilling were actually what we’re supposed to be doing all along. What if the things we enjoy are a window into our souls showing us what we were created to do. You say well there’s no path to that. Maybe there isn’t, but maybe you could get creative and blaze one. What I don’t want you to do is read this and begin to lament over wasted time. No experience no matter how good or bad is wasted if we lear from it. What I want and what I hope to accomplish with this book is to get you to dig up your creativity, bury your fears, burn your regrets, stop believing the lies and start to create the life you have always envisioned.
So yes, you are creative. You just have to embrace that FACT, and start something. Not sure what to start? Go back to that list of ideas you created yesterday and find the one that makes your heart sing. Then take the first step toward making it real.
You know what they call making an idea become real, don’t you.
It’s called creating!
AMOKArts 