I like to think of creativity as the ability to find new and unique solutions to problems, or innovative ways to express a story that’s already been told.
When I think of creativity this way, I get excited. It becomes less about skill or a technique and more about, what is my unique viewpoint on this? How might I approach this in a different way?
Giving yourself permission to approach something creativity is permission to stray. If the fundamental premise is to be different, to show a different way, then the ideas that you may initially have doubted become seeds of possibility to be expanded on and developed.
Having supported myself in my own business since forever- something I consider to be a very creative act- I’m an unhinged enough to believe the creative projects that I am yet to develop the skills and expertise around are possible.
I know that with play, practice and learning, mastery comes. It’s just a matter of consistently showing up for yourself and giving yourself permission before anyone else does.
Throwing myself into visual art as an adult has started to unpick some of the rigid habits I have developed in my writing. If there are twenty different ways to draw this tree, with countless different materials, what are the twenty different ways to tell this story?
I realized, because of drawing and painting, how fixed my writing processes have become. And when I let myself go off the wall in the early stages, I end up with something far more interesting- and yes, creative- than I would have if I’d stuck to the previous rules I imposed for myself.
This weekend, I put on some tunes, surrounded myself with paints and pencils and markers and wax crayons and asked myself, what happens if I use this? And then what happens if I overlay that?
To give myself the opportunity to make mistakes and open doors I never could have considered if I’d just sat and thought about it.
And I tell you, I felt so happy.
