How to live a creative life.

Play a word association game with me. Take a deep breath, clear the clutter from your mind and when you read the next word I want you to capture the first thoughts that come into your head.

CREATIVE

When you hear the word creative does your mind automatically go to musician, artist, dancer, actor? Do you think of an actual person you believe to be creative? Do you think someone who can build, draw, sing, play an instrument? Most of us have a tendency to place creativity in a clearly defined box. A box many of us feel we don’t belong in. How many times have you said or heard someone say “oh, I’m not creative”?

So let’s take a moment to reflect on ways we might look at creative outside the box of simply an artist.

“Being creative means solving a problem in a new way. It means changing your perspective. Being creative means taking risks and ignoring doubt and facing fears. It means breaking with routine and doing something different for the sake of doing something different.”

Tanner Christensen

In her book, A Million Little Ways Emily P Freeman talks about how we were all made to live art. We can have technical skills but skill alone does not speak to our souls. “Art is what happens when you dare to be who you really are. You have the power to influence, to move, to make, to become. You have the capacity to perform the human act of making art, of doing work that comes from deep within you and touches something deep within me. We make art with our lives”. We were made to create not just in the ways we have come to traditionally define creativity. Every single day we are creating a life. We are interacting with family, co-workers, strangers, friends, and neighbors. We are facing and overcoming fears. We are learning and growing, challenging ourselves. We are making a million tiny decisions that eventually add up to the story our lives will tell. You are living creatively even if you don’t recognize it as such. You are writing a story, painting a picture every single day of your life.

Art is what happens when you dare to be who you really are. You have the power to influence, to move, to make, to become. You have the capacity to perform the human act of making art, of doing work that comes from deep within you and touches something deep within me. We make art with our lives.

Emily P Freeman

So how do we live a creative life?

• We must first change the narrative we have in our minds of what it means to be creative. You are creative when you solve a problem. You are creative when you influence change. You are creative when you face things that terrify you but you move forward anyway. Being creative is so much more than being able to draw or sing. We make art and music every day with our lives. It’s just a question of what kind of art or music we are making.
• Decide what story you want your life to tell, what picture do you want it to paint. One of the lines from a book I used to read with my boys said “If Jesus lives inside your heart, what would other people see?” We still quote that line regularly. It acts as our reminder that how we live tells a story. Creativity is deciding the kind of story you want your life to tell and living that story.
• Remember little things matter. You could be the CEO of a company or the lunch lady at your kids’ school. Living a creative life is not about the job title you carry around. It’s the often unnoticed things that make a big difference. As a CEO you have the power of influence but knowing the janitor’s name could be your art. As the lunch lady, you might feel it’s a job of little importance. But how you engage each child with kindness and care, how you leave the table spotless or open the milk container with a smile on your face, it is your art.

When we begin to see our life as our art, as our act of creativity we live differently. Living a creative life means that rather than simply reacting to life as it happens we write the story of our responses. We understand we have a gift, we can be the gift. As Seth Godin says “Art is when we do work that matters in a creative way, in a way that touches (people) and changes them for the better.” From the stay at home mom to the CEO of a big company, we are all made to live art. Even if the only people reading your story right now are the tiny humans in your home. It matters. Living our lives well means that we understand how our creative stories matter.

You were made to be creative. You have all that you need to live a creative life.
What stories, what art, what music is your life making?

If you are interested in reading more about the art you were made to live. Emily P Freeman’s book is a great start. Click on the picture to check it out. (Affiliate link)