Believe You Are Creative?

"Creativity is as much about the ability to come up with ideas as it is about the courage to act on those ideas. He calls it creative confidence." - Tom Kelley

Do you consider yourself creative? Many people do not consider themselves as being creative. Typically, you hear "I'm just not creative," or "I can't do that", or "I'm not good enough to do anything like that."

Believing you are creative begin with you being a leader to take charge of your creativity. This is where you begin showing others that you can be creative and be a leader in generating and creating business breakthrough results.

The problem lies somewhere in your past where you were creative at one time, and then because some told you, "That does look anything like what you said", you took it personally and stopped being creative. Gordon McKenzie, a former Hallmark Creative Director, went to each grade in schools and noticed the wonderful art work. He asked the magic question to "How many artists are there in the room." "Please raise your hands."

The responses were very telling. In kindergarten and first grade class rooms, every student threw their hand up in the air. In kindergarten, everybody was an artist, two-handed artists: "Me! Me! Me! I'm an artist!"

In second grade classrooms, about three-fourths raised their hands in response. In third grade, only a few students help up their hands, some very timidly. So it went each grade a little worse than the one before it until he finally reached sixth grade. In response to Gordon's question, most students looked around to see if anyone would admit to being an artist, as if such an admission was a violation of group norms.

In the span of Kindergarten to sixth grade, students had un-learned their naturally tendency to be an "artist." Why?

The question to you right now is, Are You Creative? In reality, everyone is creative in one way or another. Because you have not been creative or don't think of yourself as being creative, let's think for a few minutes.

At home when situations take place, how do you handle them? If you think first about what to do, you are being creative. When problems, challenges and difficulties take place in the workplace, do you react with "Who knows how to solve this?" Or do you think first before reacting or responding. By giving up, you let others know you are not creative.

Instead, most likely you think about how to deal with the situation the best way you know how. Sometimes this is the creative way to actually solve the situation. If you don't use your creative muscles, your creativity will not be there when you need it most.

"Creativity is contingent on willingness to be judged. At some point, many people lose that." - Tom Kelley

Making Mistakes - If you work for a creative and innovative organization, it's okay to make mistakes. As long as you learn from your mistakes and don't make the same mistakes again, you are fine.

Be Curious about Everything. Essentially be aware of the things around you. What triggers an idea for you to work on?

Start looking at things from a different perspective. This view may give you an idea to work on something you wanted to do. It may even if it takes you to do something different without feeling uncomfortable. For example, go to your favorite restaurant and order something different from the menu, or go to a different restaurant. Take a different route to get to work.

"What is the biggest obstacle to creativity? Attachment to outcome. As soon as you become attached to a specific outcome, you feel compelled to control and manipulate what you're doing and in the process you shut yourself off to other possibilities. Creativity is not just about succeeding. It's about experimenting and discovering."

• Gordon McKenzie

Believe you are creative. Studies show we're all capable of creative genius, you just need to recognize - and hone in on your abilities. Your leadership skills and talent is demonstrated as you use your creative skills and talent to become the "Go-to-Person" in your organization.

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