LIFE NUGGET: BE CREATIVE

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"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have." - Maya Angelou

In recent years, it has become a requirement for appointments and/or employment into certain positions for one to be creative. Many businesses are thriving on the creativity of their teams. And in everyday life, that trait has become more of a necessity. Creative home management skills has helped a lot of women balance work and home life, creative marketing strategies has helped give some businesses an edge against their competitors. Creative ideas has helped many relationships endure through time, especially those of the millennials. And daily, we hear stories of people's creativity opening doors of opportunities to them.
So what really is creativity? It is the ability to dream, to imagine, to create, to be innovative. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Creativity is the child of curiosity, and it takes courage to create something that was inspired by curiosity and imagination. Rational thinking sometimes limits creativity. As Henry Ford said, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'faster horses'". Creativity most times does not require rational thought as that may give reasons for doubt. And doubt, especially self-doubt, murders creativity.

Don't be satisfied with stories, how things have gone with others. Unfold your own myth. "We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on our way down", I have heard. Creativity is asking 'Why not?' when others are asking 'Why?'. They are asking why because they limit themselves to what they have seen. Imagination is everything. We have to open our minds to imagine things for more ways to improve the life we live. That is how creativity births innovations that can change lives.
Creativity stems from inspiration, and that inspiration may come from something that already exists. Movies, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things that speak directly to your soul, things that resonates inspiration or fuels your imagination. Authenticity is invaluable. What inspires your imagination is not as important as what you create by reason of that imagination.
Now, this not to say that you should steal other people's intellectual property, there are laws that regulate those things. Only draw inspiration from them, and probably give credit to the source of that inspiration as you wish. The inspiration for a car assembly plant came from an abattoir. Be imaginative, be curious, be creative. In every area of life. You never know, you could be the start of something great. Ask Steve Jobs or the person who created the flexi rods for hair.

So go and be creative.


- The Lady

“And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”

Matthew 14:31