Who is the CKreative Business Analyst?
Creativity, I think is personal. It’s thinking outside of our “individual” boxes — leaving conventional norms in pursuit of something different. This is my journey to defining what creativity is for me.
The Character
My name is Dick, but people call me “CK”. I’m a very logical and methodical person. I think in steps and systems — and how everything is connected. I like making sense of complexity — finding patterns in seemingly disjointed entities. But I’m also very artistic, my hobbies relate to music, video editing, designing and making things pretty. I value branding as much as content. I value flexibility as much as defined processes. Whereas others may consider it a contradiction, I, on the other, consider this as complementary.
I’m a Business Analyst by profession and so much more by passion. I am passionate about a lot of things: maths, music, theatre, musical theatre, artistic designs and so much more. I’m a hodgepodge of so many interests, but master of none, some might say.
The Conflict
Throughout my life, I’ve wanted to do so many things (and I have, in all fairness). Let me give an abridged list of things on my to-do list:
But let’s be honest, I knew I can’t be the best at all the things I wanted all at once. I knew I needed to start somewhere and see where my experience takes me. At one point, I even decided to join as a lead male vocalist in a Jazz Band. Was I any good? Oh, heck yeah! Did I enjoy it? You bet! But I couldn’t be the best husband because rehearsals took away time that I could have spent with my partner. I knew I had to choose. It made me realise what’s “really” important to me.
The Solution
Without even knowing it, I was applying design thinking in my life. I was testing different prototypes of my life from desirable, feasible and viable ideas I generated. I tried doing the things I wanted and that I can do with the resources I had. I realised how much effort they took, and I figured out what made me happy and what I was willing to sacrifice to achieve them.
This perhaps is just another iteration of my Design Thinking Process in life (something I learned from Ale Wiecek). This time around, I want to try something that will incorporate everything I’ve learned from my previous endeavours.
I created the CKreative Business Analyst as a persona. I wanted to re-ignite my days when I blogged and put my thoughts into paper (this time, digitally). I wanted to find a way to share my ideas and interests in a fun and enjoyable way. I wanted it to be focused on an area that resonates most with my current circumstances and still incorporated elements of my personal life while still aligns with my professional status. I wanted it to be open-ended, giving me the freedom to play around with any tool I have under my belt. I wanted to be able to touch on themes and topics that I’m interested in while tying it back to my profession.
The Conclusion
This is an exciting project for me, and this will surely allow me to explore new concepts and skills I haven’t tapped yet. The possibility alone gets me so keen and this is why I want to see it through. I don’t want to let go of my other interests, and because I know I can’t be perfect in all of them, I might as well extract the best experiences I had and try to mash them all together into something that allows me to do bits and pieces of things that I enjoyed doing. I did song mash-ups before, why can’t I mash-up my passions?
This is my definition of creativity. I guess that’s the beauty of it — because you may have a different creativity journey from me. But I’m sure we went through the same process, going out of our own way and stepping into that unknown over the boundary of what’s comfortable within our boxes.
When you master the art of synergising multiple passions to achieve a focused directive is when you unleash your innate creativity.
I may have not perfected it yet, but you bet I am attempting it.
What’s your creativity journey like? If you’re on LinkedIn, connect with me there as well.
