“I’m Not Creative”
“I’m not creative…I don’t have any good ideas.”
I absolutely hate hearing these words. It’s loser talk and completely false. If those words come from your mouth and you truly believe them, then society, your teachers and coaches, your coworkers, your parents, grandparents, siblings and even yourself…they’ve all failed you.
You are creative, and you do have good ideas…and lots of bad ones too because we all do. We don’t have lots of good ideas without having many more bad ones.
If you want to feel more creative, start by telling yourself that you are.
If you want to be more creative, start by recognizing the opportunities you have every day.
We have opportunities to be creative every day. We just don’t recognize them.
Three weeks ago I sent a cold email to someone who I had some mutual connections with at 8pm on a Friday night. I could have made the subject line of the email something like “Seeking To Connect” or “UofM Student Reaching Out.”
Instead I made it: “Here’s Why I’m Pissed Off”…and I proceeded by telling her why I was pissed off in a fun, non-threatening way. I got a call from the lady 15 minutes later…she thought the email was hilarious…and bold. We talked and she helped me out. Maybe I was just lucky though.
Two weeks ago I had to write a personal reflection paper about one of my classes. It was a social innovation class, and it had the most unique execution of any class I’ve ever had at the University of Michigan.
Some of my classmates wrote one to two straightforward pages about the how the class had pushed them from their comfort zones and exposed them to new ideas and perspectives. Their papers were clear, well-written, and thoughtful, but many of them ended up sounding the exact same.
Others in the class took this open assignment and made it their own, writing reflections in the form of letters to their future selves or extended to-do lists.
I turned mine into a six page fantasy narrative. You can read it here. Did it take me longer to write than needed? Yes. Did I get to practice my writing in a different way? Yes. Was it more fun? Yes.
Maybe being creative just means putting your whole self into something.
Three days ago I was at my girlfriend’s mom’s house helping Felicia babysit her seven and eight-year-old siblings. While I was there, I remembered I had a SpellBound postcard with silhouettes of animals in my backpack. With the SpellBound app, the animals can come to 3D life through the phone.
I showed the kids and they were astounded…but only for a short while. Okay, what next?
Well, when you move you the postcard out of the view of the phone camera, most of the virtual 3D objects disappear…all except a virtual butterfly that continues to flutter around.
At that point I created a new game. I would hold the phone, so I could see the butterfly. Then, I would direct Kendall and Justin (the kids) to move to where the butterfly was moving so they could try to “catch” it.
It was so much fun. We probably did this for 15 minutes taking turns to catch the butterfly without being able to see it.
How have I been creative today?
I used the time I was waiting for my friend to meet me for lunch to write this post. That’s a creative use of my time to do something creative — write this post.
Sending an email. Writing a paper. Looking at my phone with some kids. Waiting to meet a friend.
These are things we might do every day, but we need to stop looking at them like that and start looking at them as opportunities to do new things — things we don’t do every day.
There is no waving of magic wands. It’s just opening yourself to the opportunity and practicing.
You can have creative ideas. You can have creative execution. It doesn’t have to be world-changing. You can be creative, and you can do it every day.
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