I hear this so often and I wonder what it means. Does it mean that if I had a magic wand I would be Brett Whitely or Rachel Griffiths? Does it mean I’m happy to put my hand up to be ridiculed for my ideas, think Galileo? Does it mean I want to sing and dance and paint and act? Or could it mean that I just want to be more aware? Creativity, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is “the ability to produce or use original and unusual ideas”.
We talk about diversity of thought and yet our education system pushes students to conform. How do we learn to think, to play, to be uncomfortable? If Lego has a step by step how to build this widget, and so many toys are completely assembled and some can walk and talk, how do I imagine anything that is not prescribed?
If we have learnt anything from the pandemic surely it is that we need to challenge our existing ideas, create new ways of being in the world. New ways of being with ourselves. And yes, to create is to be uncomfortable because you are on the edge of the unknown. We have been creators from the beginning. Painting, dancing, telling stories. It is how we have made meaning of life. Do you know what your creative self (and yes we all have one, they just look different from Nicole Kidman or Lin-Manuel Miranda) requires to peek its head out and say, “I’ve had a thought, a new thought, a thought I want to follow to where ever it wants to take me. A thought that may have no other purpose in the world right now than to help me feel alive in the magic of its creation!” Let me know.