How Creativity helps us to make “real” change and achieve our Goals?

3rd COHAP LAB is up. Some people asked me why we need to learn about Creativity to reach our goal. The truth of the matter is, you don’t.
However, without creativity, you would be lost in the maze of monotony, making the same twist and turn in life without even realising it. And I assume that no one wants that?!

Stuck in a loop with our job, life and career
Not sure if it happens to you in life and in business. But here is the scenario: You got so good at your role that nothing is questionable.
In fact, you have long arrived at the point of your career that you wake up in the morning and your first thought is about what you going to do in the evening. On your way work, you think mostly about the vacation that you will be having in the next summer. Most of all, you have it in your gut: Something is seriously wrong.
You hate going to work, you hate being at work, and you hate even thinking about work. You loathe even the idea of working. And it’s not just today. It’s every day, every week.
So how did you end up here? Perhaps the better question is, how can you be on a different path altogether? How do you reset a life that brings you on a new path and bring fulfilment, meaning, and purpose into your work? Perhaps, the word is change. You need to make a change. But what is making a change?! And how?!

Focusing on the Process instead of the Outcome
Let’s slam the question right in our face. What is Change? What does it look like? Where and when does it actually take place? At what level does it operate in? How do we know we’re addressing “real” change and not only temporary, symptomatic relief? As humans, we often resist change in our monotonous life even we say that we want it, we need it.

The different types of Change
Based on Merriam Webster, the word Change speaks about “to become different”, “to undergo a transformation”, “to shift one’s mean of conveyance”, “to pass one phase to another”.
It is easy for all of us to say “let’s have a good life”. But what makes it both challenging and interesting is the path that we choose that enables us to get there with ease.
In my opinion, the more optimal way to look at change is to not focus on the outcome. But to question ourselves honestly if we are merely adapting to change or do we make the decision to trigger the change ourselves?
In other words, are we shifting, transforming, transiting, passing, stepping up…? In other words, what’s the verb that you choose when you talk about the change that you want?! Emphasizing the outcomes of change for me is empty talk. We need to talk about the process.
What is YOUR verb?!
Shifting from what life Should-Be to what life Can-Be
We do not need creativity to reach our goals. But creativity challenges our way of being, the way we choose to move in life. It opens us up at work and business; it offers us the possibility to ride with life with authenticity and ease.
Most of all, it breaks our rigidity of the normal goal-setting process that the world usually promotes — i.e. Get a job, do a good job, get promoted for a better job; earn money for your family and get settled. One day, you die and the cycle shall begin once more.

Creative Life
We can always choose to live creatively. Having a creative life means you get to develop your own unique way of making things happen. It is a dare from life calling you for the unknown.
Having a creative life means you are not bound to the A-B-C steps imposed by others. Having a creative life means you get to use your strength, learn & evolve along the way, and most of all, you get to enjoy the ride as a living person that you are.
Being inside a Maze vs at The Infinite Sea
With a creative life, instead of being stuck in the maze of life or problems like a little mouse, you perceive life as if you are in the vast ocean where you sail.
You have your map, you navigate. But you welcome the vast uncertainty. The wind, the current and random warm sunlight that touches your skins are part of your creative process to reach your goal. You can be afraid at the time of storm but you know the lands that you may discover are what makes life amazing and exciting.

Creativity sparks you the openness that makes you ALIVE and makes decisions that make sense to you. Life is about perception. What you choose to imagine about life is how you will carry yourself to your objectives and goals.
Intentional Dreaming
Mind-wandering, often seen as daydreaming, allows the brain to incubate new approaches to familiar problems, serving “as a foundation for creative inspiration,” says the 2012 study in Psychological Science”. Walking away from a problem to do simple, routine tasks, and letting the mind wander in the process, can spark creative new connections or approaches to solving dilemmas, says a 2012 study in Psychological Science.
Staying Free
In this world, there are many problems to be solved, roles to be filled, and networks to be built. Our capacity to stay free, creative and true to make relevant decisions is more crucial than ever.
Mastering our ability to stay free allows you to make a change that speaks to your everyday sense. It enables you to live authentically while achieving ideas and goals that you are proud of as a living person. It’s here in this openness and creative state of endless possibility and unbelievable potential that you’ll know how to cope with the complexities of your purpose, to break them, and in the process, make them more manageable and lively!
And yes, we know some of the tricks.
I invite you to join me at our upcoming weekend lab in Paris, click LINK here if you want to find out more. Or if you want to meet us in another city or connect us online first, “like” our FB page for updates.
Our first retreat will be in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil https://retreats.cohappening.space/
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About
Carrie spent most of her life navigating possibilities & her relationship with the world between cities and continents. She surfed waves of uncertainty that spurred both her failures and successes in both start-ups and corporate environments. https://www.linkedin.com/in/carrieso/
She founded the CO-Happening community in Paris in 2017. It started off as a call out for like-minded collaborators to explore the alternatives of what is “invisible to the eyes”. Since then, over 1.200 people joined and ran over 30 events in cities such as Paris, Berlin & Hong Kong. https://www.cohappening.space/
CoHap Lab emerged out of the community in September 2018 based on the demands to innovate tools & training that enable members to effectively cultivate their ideas, missions & passions to make things happen! https://www.cohappening.space/cohaplab1/

