Unlock Your Creativity – Step 2

Last week we explored the first step in Vivian Banta’s article titled: Unlocking Your Creativity. The article, posted on the Creativity For Life! website. Have you taken that first step and decided what creativity will look for you? Good. The second step is an action step.

Expand Your Horizons    

What do you envision when you read this phrase? Traveling to a faraway place? Daring to ditch the day job and follow your dream? Facing a fear? These certainly qualify as a way to expand your horizon. If you have the wherewithal and the desire, go for it and God bless! But if you’re like me – comfortable in your routine – there are smaller changes that can expose us to new environments and change the way we see the familiar.

The simplest way to begin is do the opposite of what you normally do. If the drive-through window is the first stop of your day, tomorrow pull into a parking spot, go inside the shop and stand face to face with the person waiting on you. See the person behind the voice-in-the-box. Look around at the people sitting at the tables. If you have time, be one of them and sit down. What do you see, smell, hear?

Do you live in the city? Plan a day at an agricultural fair. Instead of pizza on Friday night, go with Chinese cuisine. Drive a different way to work. If you’re an artist, switch to a different medium. Give yourself permission to play and create something that is less than perfect.

If  going away for vacation doesn’t fit into your budget, become a tourist in your own town. We get so wrapped up in our busy lives, we often miss what brings the out-of-towners to our neck of the woods. Take a hike in a nearby state park. Visit a small museum or historic house where docents and volunteers are happy to share their knowledge. Attend a concert given by the town band. You may discover that your mailman plays the trombone.

Stagnation can be the enemy of imagination. Exposing ourselves to experiences outside our regular routine will spark a fresh perspective and new ideas. What one thing will you do differently today?

Unlock Your Creativity

Creativity For Life had a great post last week on unlocking the creativity that is inherent in all of us. In the article, Vivian Banta defines creativity as a way of thinking or perceiving the world and its possibilities.We need to set aside our narrow view of what we believe creativity is and open our minds to the possibility that lies within every one of us. To do this, Ms. Banta has given us five steps. Let’s explore the first step together.

Make a choice to be creative.

The idea that you are not creative may have been planted by a well meaning art teacher who considered drawing the human form to be a science. (Her name was Miss Warner. She was at least 100 years old and had blue rinse in her hair.) Don’t get stuck trying to fit into the traditional avenues (art, music, writing, etc.) if they don’t interest you. Perhaps you want to start a business or find a way to take the fight out of your child’s bedtime. Maybe you’re all thumbs and can’t sew a button on a shirt but you have innovative organizational and time management skills. Don’t compare yourself to others. This is about you and what makes you feel alive. What gives you a sense of accomplishment? What makes your spirit soar? Decide what creativity will look like in your life.
Next week we’ll look at Step 2: Expand your horizons.