Are You Creative?

Dictionary.com suggests the following:

• the state or quality of being creative,

• the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination: the need for creativity in modern industry; creativity in the performing arts, or
• the process by which one utilizes creative ability: Extensive reading stimulated his creativity.

As a Christian I would go so far as to suggest that creativity is a gift from God to be used to glorify and praise Him. I know a lot of people out there will not agree with that statement, but that is what I believe. In believing that statement to be true, one must realize that being creative is reflecting God’s nature as the Creator.

There are many aspects of creativity. Music, painting, drawing, sculpture, writing, and various crafts come to mind when thinking about it. I am personally a visual artist, mostly working with acrylic paints on various media. But what about these: metal fabrication, photography, landscaping, web design, or even interior decorating (to name a few others)? The list could go on and on…

Even further still, I would suggest that anything you can “think outside of the box” on is creative. Ever have to perform some kind of work-around to an annoying problem at work or school? That’s creative. Did you have something break at home and apply an epic cludge (a.k.a. “rigging it”) to make do until you could fix it right? Definitely creative. What about penciling in another appointment, even though your schedule was full, but you needed to do so anyway? Creative time management. Just about any occupation you can think of will require us to have some sort of creativity to get the job done, with the exception of, maybe, assembly line work. I’ve never done that, so it might be hard-pressed to be creative putting that same bolt into every product, everyday. Maybe…

I am a Software Engineer by day. Ever thought that working with computers and code was creative? I can assure you that it is. Many times programmers have to think of creative ways to code even the “simplest” projects. There is a lot more to it than just an analytical drone brain hammering the keyboard all day, although that might make the day pass faster!

So, you now realize that you might, just might, be more creative than you ever thought? What are you going to do now? There’s that old adage “Practice makes perfect.” Personally, I have to sometimes force myself to sit down and paint or draw in the evenings or on weekends, simply because I’m pretty worn out after working all day. Other times, like this past weekend, I chose to sit down and paint something for my soon-to-be born son’s nursery. You can see these on my website and blog. I can personally attest to this old adage in that when I sit and paint more than once every couple of weeks, I enjoy it more, and it looks better (in my hyper-critical mind). As most know, the same goes for music, sculpting, etc. No matter what it is, just do it. Set apart some “me” time, even if it’s 15-20 minutes a week. Just do it. For me, painting provides a few advantages that you might find worthwhile:

• Stress relief – Forget some of the junk going on in your life, tune out the extra noise, and go at it.
• Happiness – Goes along with the stress relief. I find my mood to be a lot better after finishing a new painting.
• Sense of Accomplishment – Whether it’s problem solving or another masterpiece, you feel like “yeah, I did THIS.” Afterwards.
• Profitability – If you can create enough of it, research it and see what kind of market there is for what you’re doing. You might be surprised at what kind of added income you can generate from your “hobby”.
• New Connections – I’ve met a lot of creative people, simply by bringing up art in a conversation. I also have a Facebook Fan Page for my art (which links back to my website itself). This also goes hand-in-hand with Profitability. The more connections you can make, the more likely you are to make some money from your creations.