How Everyone Can Be Creative
Why I think everyone is creative but no one has new ideas + 10 ways to tap into the creative in you
Everyone is “a creative”
In our culture today, I often hear the word creative thrown around as a noun. It isn’t “oh those people are creative” but rather “those people are creatives.” Maybe we even identify ourselves as “a creative.”
But I don’t believe it is accurate to use the word creative in that way. It becomes exclusionary and isolating. It says to some people that they simply just don’t have it. They are out of the creative club.
I think the only way to use creative as a noun is as a synonym for human.
To be human is to be creative.
Every person is made in the image of the Creator and therefore has the ability to create.
Are some of us are too busy to listen? Sure. Are some of us distracted by a million other things? Of course. Are some of us juggling stress or tasks in our daily lives that may inhibit our ability to exercise our creativity? One hundred percent.
But does that make a person any less creative than another who may simply have more favorable conditions for the creative process to flourish? Absolutely not.
Creativity as Listening
My creativity almost always comes when I am quiet. Observant. Noticing things I usually speed past. Watching others do what they were created to do - whether that is an oak tree or an squirrel or a fellow human being.
It comes from looking at the world around me with wonder, just waiting for my thoughts to find a place they can linger.
A fellow substacker shared this snippet of an interview with musician Jon Batiste, and the way he describes his creative process is a clear picture of what I believe creativity to be.
Creativity is listening to something beyond us and allowing it to be brought into the world through us.
That thing beyond us is God. And ultimately, everything comes from Him. He was the first creator, and our creativity as image-bearers flows from Him.
Creativity as Combination
Recently, I listened to a podcast about combinational creativity. I had never heard of it, but the idea piqued my interest. These are the definitions of both creativity and combinational creativity.
Creativity is the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new.
Combinational creativity is the process of combining old ideas to come up with something new.
They seem almost identical to me - the ability to bring into existence something new that previously did not exist.
The difference being that creativity assumes there are brand new things to bring into existence that are not simply a combination of pre-existing products or perspectives, while combinational creativity acknowledges that the creative process always includes inspiration from something that has already existed.
In the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “That which has been is what will be. That which is done is what will be done. And there is nothing new under the sun.”
A more modern author put it this way, “Originality is undetected plagiarism.”
In my opinion, all creativity is combinational creativity. Creativity is combining.
It is taking a camera that already exists, a color God already made, an idea from your favorite author, and your own personal experiences and making something new.
Your Creative Superpower
I am an example of combinational creativity.
I am a unique combination of the cities I have lived in, the people I have met, books I have read, songs and podcasts I have listened to, relationships I have chosen, conversations and experiences I have had, sermons I have heard, places I have visited, and prayers I have prayed.
Your combination is completely different than mine.
Think of it like a lock with a billion different combinations. None of them are exactly the same. They may have the same numbers but in a different order or nine of the same numbers but tenth is different.
You are a unique combination of everything you have experienced in your life up until this point: books, podcasts, relationships, conversations, shows, sermons, people, places, prayers, movies.
That is your creative superpower.
Someone else might already be doing what you want to be doing - planning weddings, dancing, creating content, teaching, acting, taking photos, marketing, or whatever else it may be that you feel scared or ill-equipped to do.
But they aren’t your specific combination of wisdom and ideas you have picked up from living in the world.
They aren’t doing it how you would do it.
How to Tap into the Creative in You
Remove distractions - especially technology. Creativity takes up a lot of space. It needs room to bounce and breathe. Take a break from consuming and embrace silence. Write down your tasks for the day or do a brain dump. Whatever it is that is taking up space in your mind, find somewhere else for it to live and give creativity more room.
Pay attention to who you surround yourself with - in person and online. Find people who inspire you, who see things differently, who are doing things you aspire to, and who are in a different season of life.
Play. There have been numerous studies done on the benefits of play for adults. If you have children in your life, get down on your hands and knees and play Legos or Barbies. Play with your dog in the backyard. Have a game night with friends or turn up an old song you love and dance. See how much clearer your brain feels after.
Exercise your imagination - in whatever way feels most like you. This could be doodling, writing down story ideas, coming up with business names, making up a silly new game, or making a new dinner. The goal is to experiment with something in a way that stretches the limits of your imagination.
Don’t be afraid to be wrong. As you play, stretch your imagination, and surround yourself with people who may see things differently as you, you will have to learn to be okay with being wrong. The fear of making mistakes is one of the biggest things that inhibits our creativity as adults.
Read. I may be biased because I love to read, but I think reading is one of the best ways to expand your creativity. Reading non-fiction opens doors to all kinds of facts and research. Reading memoirs lets you walk a mile in another man’s shoes. Reading fiction opens your mind to other worlds.
Try new things. Doing something we have never done before breaks us out of monotony and encourages our minds to imagine possibilities we maybe never had before. (Last week, I made sourdough bread for the first time, and now, I am already dreaming of all the other things I can learn to make from scratch!)
Be open to learning - from anyone and anything. It is so important to stay curious and always ask questions. We are often good at this when we are listening to a podcast by an expert or are out to dinner with a couple we really admire. And those are great opportunities to learn! But I think even more often, our greatest learning opportunities come from the people and things we never expect to teach us - children, an ocean wave, someone we disagree with, a fiction book.
Change things up. As kids, everything is new and exciting, but as we venture deeper and deeper into adulthood, everything seems to be the same. We get comfortable in our habits and stubborn ways, and we really don’t like when those things get shaken up. But life will shake things up inevitably, so why not do it yourself sometimes on purpose? It can be big or small - reorganize your desk, move to a new city, try a new morning routine, get a new job - but try changing something.
Journal and reflect often. Again, I may be biased (because I love writing), but I truly believe writing is a gateway to more creativity in your life. And I am not the only one. In the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, she offers “morning pages” - writing three full pages about anything first thing when you wake up in the morning. In the book Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks, he assigns “homework for life” - identifying one “storyworthy” moment from the day and writing about it each night. You can start small, but start writing!
And that is the end of my list! Comment or email me something you would add!
Thank you for reading! I am so thankful for you opening this email each week because it gives me motivation and inspiration to keep writing.
If you know someone else who would enjoy getting these emails in their inbox, it would mean the world to me if you would share!
Take care,
Caroline
Very creative!