Everyone is creative
But few are disciplined
A while back, I read Creative Confidence by Tom Kelley and David Kelley, of IDEO, and my takeaway from the book is that everyone can be creative, because creativity requires three things: the ability to solve a problem in a new or different way, the ability to empathize, and practice.
This is something that I’ve been trying to remember when I get down on myself, when I think I’m not artistic enough or maybe I should wait for inspiration to strike or I should just leave this to the professionals.
At its core, creative confidence is about believing in your ability to create change in the world around you, and making a lot of mistakes. It’s about being open-minded and taking chances. It’s embracing failure and pivoting and pirouetting around until you find something that works. It’s note pads and whiteboards and sticky notes galore. It’s yes…and.
All of this about cultivating a mindset, and in order to do so, it takes practice and repetition — galore.
It’s like exercising muscles or practicing an instrument — it takes repetition. Did I mention it takes repetition?
In the past year, I’ve started to really embrace routine and a more disciplined approach to things. For a long time I thrived on whatever randomness I could fit into my day, always looking for spontaneity and something new. I’d write or create when the mood hit me, I’d procrastinate and work in ebbs and flows. But now, as my freetime is crunched a lot more, I’m seeing the wisdom in setting up a framework to create in.
I started going to the gym regularly to not only to make time for myself to be healthier, but to create a framework for my week. I build in time to listen to German audiobooks or podcasts. I committed to a project where I write an article every day for 100 days.
What I’ve noticed is that I see results when I stick to it. Obviously. The more regular I am, the better the gains.
I’m going to the gym 2–3 times a week and now I can do sit-ups unassisted and can almost do a real push up. I was nowhere near being able to do that a year ago, or even 8 months ago when I only went once or twice a week.
When I listen to anything in German, just a little bit every day, the vocabulary that I thought I lost came flooding back to me, and I feel myself being able to understand with greater fluency. If I can set aside 10 minutes a day to listen to Siddhartha or Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten, then I can retain the language that I worked so hard to learn all those years ago.
And when I practice writing everyday, it becomes easier and easier. Somedays I don’t feel inspired. So I just start writing. I write and I erase, and I see what evolves from it. Some days are better than others, but every day I see growth and improvement. I stay sharp, and I just get even sharper.
Everyone has creativity. I do believe that it’s innately human. How it manifests itself differs from person to person. Some people are amazing artists, others gifted athletes. Some people have an incredible way with people, or a real knack for fixing things. All of these things encompass the concept of creativity.
Whether you’re a genius at the gym, a whiz at learning a second language, or a gifted wordsmith, you are creative. Some things may come more naturally, but that shouldn’t limit you. Play to your strengths, but also challenge yourself to learn and to practice something new. What I’ve learned from pushing myself to be more disciplined and more consistent is that you will improve. You’ll not only get better, and get more creative, but you’ll also be a better you.
