Creativity: The Breath of Life

Issue #65

Creativity is as essential as breathing to living a happy, successful life. We all need an outlet for creative expression, whether writing poetry, painting canvases, inventing a new gadget, or discovering creative solutions to business problems. Creativity is not limited to professional writers, dancers, or artists. We all need to be innovative.

Being creative is not about money, skill, or success. It is about opening yourself up and letting go. It is about exploring the world. Some creative people have never made a dime from their creations. Some professional novelists, actors, and painters find that their success becomes a prison, and they lose the outlet for their creativity. They lose the reason for being a creative leader. Create for the sake of creating. The joy is in the process, not the product.

Most of us can and should express ourselves through various media. Don't limit yourself to one medium. If you write novels, take up dance and see how they inspire each other. If you paint, learn to play the guitar.

Every person is capable of creating artistic works. Some of us may have had our creative impulses damaged as children by either a parent, a teacher, or another child. Someone somewhere made fun of something we created.

I know I have had those people in my life, but for some reason, I kept going. In fifth grade, I was allowed to write about my class for the weekly newspaper. Our small town newspaper published a page or two of articles written by school children. The editor criticized my first article as being too much like advertising. My headlines were too bold. I was writing ads, not journalism. I never seriously wrote for a newspaper again.

When I was a junior in high school, I started writing poetry to express my feelings. As a senior, I submitted a paper composed solely of my poetry in a social studies class. My English teacher asked me why I had not shown her my poetry. I had no answer for her.

I believe inside each of us is a need to find an outlet for our creativity. For some, that might be sewing, cooking, or fixing cars. For others, our creativity finds its outlet in writing, drawing, painting, singing, or acting. Unfortunately, naysayers have blocked our creative impulses, and we must learn to open our creative channels.

Is creativity a safe place for you — a refuge from our chaotic world? Does it give you control of things you have no control over? Does creativity help you understand who you are and why you do what you do?

Why do humans create? I keep going back to this question in my life. And I still do not know the answer. I can mouth the platitudes with the best of them. "I do it because I have to." "I have no choice. Something inside has to get out." Yet, these don't fully answer the question.

All I know is that I write. Why I write remains a mystery. I did not have a miserable childhood. I have not suffered physical or emotional abuse. I have had a normal life — a safe life. The paradox is that a secure life gives me the freedom to be wild in my mind. My mind can go to places my body would never venture.

Does writing create a safe place for me? I would not say that it creates a safe place for me. I think writing creates a happy place — a peaceful place. And probably most important — a place where limits do not exist, where I can go crazy, where I can pretend to be somebody I am not. What kind of place does creativity create for you?

How do you wake up every morning? Are the creative juices flowing? The life of the innovative leader is about creating, finding new ways of seeing the world, and living a creative life.

The creative life is an attitude — a way of embracing the world. Are you open to the possibilities? The new beginnings? Or have you closed your mind and heart and see only a narrow path before you?

Miles Davis, the musician, was constantly changing. He explored the music, found new pathways, and saw new possibilities. Whenever he felt stagnant, he would change directions and take a new path. As a jazz musician, he improvised, played off his fellow musicians, and changed the notes.

Are you living a creative life? Or are you stagnant? Do you hide behind what you created? Or are you growing? Improvising? Exploring alternative paths? Are you open to new ideas?

Plant seeds of hope in the hearts of others!