Why Creativity is the Cornerstone of Successful Living
I believe creativity is the cornerstone of successful living. I appreciate 'success' is personal to each of us, however, for me – and I think for many of us – success means living a life we want to live i.e. freedom to do what we want, live by our own rules, and fill our time with joyful and pleasurable activities (work, hobbies or otherwise).
How then is creativity the cornerstone of successful living?
Because, if we don’t get creative in our lives, we can get stuck. I've realized throughout my years of work in different capacities, many of us aren't sure HOW to get creative in manifesting and creating doing what we love and creating a life we enjoy (and even getting paid for it) and below I go through how you can start to do this.
The best education we can ever get (in my book) is learning how to THINK for ourselves and how to problem SOLVE in life for ourselves. For example:
If you need x to do y or z - the question becomes: WHAT DO I NEED TO DO TO CREATE THAT HAPPENING? And apply it to a real live situation. If we've been brought up to believe in 'pass' or 'fail' and getting the answer right or wrong, and most of the time has been spent at a desk 'thinking' and not 'doing' it's hard to get creative and rely on our own creative abilities to come up with the answer.
"I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand"
- Confucius
I’ve met people who think; "well, I failed my exams in that subject therefore I can't get that job I want" (I know because I worked with people in this situation for many years) and frequently they fall back, give up, and live life in quiet exasperation. What if you don't learn well on paper, or you had a bad exam day? I’ve also met people who think they aren’t good at something, or they’re too old or too young, but none of this is a proper reflection of life (or the life we want for ourselves), we’re telling ourselves ‘stories’ from the messages we picked up along the way from others that simply don’t serve us. So, let's get creative instead!
WHAT IF?
It went like this: making mistakes and 'failing' is a PRE-REQUISITE TO SUCCESS and creating what we want. If something DOESN'T work (given what you are trying to achieve), you move on to the next possible solution; you get creative. What if you were taught that ALL the solutions we need are in us and there are many ways or 'answers'? (and this is the truth!)
If we were to stop thinking for a moment - current education systems encourage a lot of 'head' work - and were to DO something creative and active, we might find things get a little more interesting. Lateral thinking skills develop through: physical, emotional, interpersonal, artistic, musical subjects, and often these intelligences are not given the credit they deserve for building intelligence within us.
I didn't get this message at school though. It was about getting it academically RIGHT, ticking boxes and knowing if I gave enough 'right' (and regurgitated) answers I would have the relevant paperwork (exam certificates), to get a 'good job’ spending my time working for some-one else's creation and dream. What would I do if their values and ethos didn't resonate with mine? How could I create work that filled me with excitement and passion instead, and I got paid for that? What if I was taught how to think up the answers, the solutions, and was equipped with the creative skills that allowed me to CREATE MY OWN LIFE AS I WOULD LIKE TO LIVE IT. That is the education that I believe is needed now.
Life is lived by doing not by memorising – this dulls the mind not ignites it. Doing is the start of making things happen, how and what you do is the creative part. The first thing we all do in a day is get up. What we decide to do next is not about pass or fail, it's about making it WORK given what we want to achieve.
" . . . knowing is not enough; we must apply. Being willing is not enough; we must do"
- Leonardo Da Vinci
So let’s get creative. Start with the following:
1. what would you like to achieve right now, in your life?
then:
2. write down three ways you can go about beginning to achieve this (you will have ideas and answers)
3. now you've thought about it and gathered some ideas, go and DO something. My ideas for doing which I think are MOST effective for bringing about physical, tangible results are these:
- go out and do what a person who is already doing what you want to do/achieve. You know, DRESS UP, pretend, take on the persona, take an action, speak to them even . . .
- collage it, draw it, paint it, photograph it to create a visual rendition of what you want to achieve so you can SEE it in your mind’s eye. You are quite literally drawing, collaging or painting it in to creation.
These creative activities have more chance in bringing forth what you wish for (along with self belief and mindful thinking which links to the Theta Healing work I do) and are hopefully more pleasurable than sitting working at something we don't like. Thinking about it alone probably won't achieve results (even if we do change our mindset), nor will thinking in pass and fail terms, and that getting it right or wrong are the measure of EVERYTHING - often they are unhelpful mental structures that society has created over time to keep people supporting the status quo - if you feel the status quo does not support you or people in general anymore then DO something different and create your own beliefs and mental structures.
"I am convinced that creativity is a priori to the integrity of the Universe and that life is regenerative and conformity meaningless."
- Richard Buckminster Fuller
Getting creative about how we bring about a life we wish for is usually the most fulfilling and successful.
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Amelia.x