This isn’t a “if you believe it, they will come” kind of thing. This is an undisputed scientific fact. As you read these new words, generated by another human, your brain is creating new synapses. Your body and mind work together to send blood and oxygen where it needs to go, every moment of your life. As you continue to read, trying to figure out when I’ll get to the point, curiosity and wonder are engaged.
There are three points of rhetoric I hear all the time from Youtube channels, books, and articles on creativity:
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You were uber creative as a child and you just need to capture that again and you’ll achieve your creative self.
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You’re creative but you haven’t figured out where to channel that yet.
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Everything has already been created and what’s the point of creativity.
We’ll explore point 2 and 3 in much greater detail when we unearth the lies that “everything is a remix” and “great artists steal”
I’m not opposed to you thinking you were creative as a child and getting into your inner-child to create, if that’s working for you.
What I’d like for us to get past early is creativity is not something you lose. It is in every act you make.
Creativity is not something you lose. It is in every act you make.
I was told early on in my life that I wasn’t a writer because I haven’t published anything. By that construct, I didn’t have worth as a creative entity. Instead, I focused on getting published. But getting published is not how you should be valued. Creativity is much, much more than that.
Conversation, for example, is original. Each interruption. Each exclamation! Created without much thought or editorship. Whatever you do contains moments of spontaneity. Your enjoyment or reaction to a piece of media creates a momentary spark in you (whether this is watching Tiktok or Citizen Kane).
Being creative does not have to involve creating capital A art. Freeing yourself from the construct will lead to less pressure when you are creative. Because there isn’t a category and everything is creative, creativity can simply mean enriching your life. That becomes the how and the why.
Let go of preconceptions. Let go of labels. Let go of what is and what is not. And just be creative.