Tag: question

What gives you that creative inspiration?

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Recently, I have felt uninspired, ready to do the status quo, complacent….  or in other words not very creative! This is a very strange place for me I have frequently and actively chosen to follow my passions, trusting that, by following my passion I am on right path and everything will work out. To this point in my life that has been true. When I am passionate about something I cannot help but to talk about it,  strive to do more, and come up with creative solutions. Like everything in life with time, comes change, and my passions have changed. I cannot pinpoint the moment when it happened, nor can I describe in words what the shift is to.

So I have been thinking a lot….

  • Did I choose to stop following my passion?
  • What is my passion?
  • If I can’t name it or describe it, how can I do it?
  • Have I settled into my default self?

This idea of default self really has me thinking? When I say default, is there a place or stride that I just get into when there is nothing else that inspires me? Yes, I think we all have this default space. I am starting to realize that mine is quiet, passive and task oriented. Another characteristic of my default self is a need to keep things close, I don’t really want to spend time with lots of people, I just want to stay to small social circles. Let me be clear, my default self isn’t sad or unhappy, it just isn’t the inspired person I think of myself as when I am at my best.  If my default self is not my “Best Self” then what is?  How do I re-ignight my passion to jumpstart my super productive self, the self that I see accomplishing the lifetime goals I have?

First, is this default self really showing up in every aspect of my life or is there one specific area I can identify the default is creeping in? I think it is safe to say that this lack of umph is not a universal malady in my life, instead it is very focused. I am currently my default self in my work life. For better or worse we spend almost a 1/3 of our adult lives focused on “Work”. That is a huge chunk of our time!  Even with a fairly flexible job where I worked from home I have found that while I may be able to use daytime hours to do life things, work is still there, maybe evenmore since my desk is in my house. Two weeks ago, I would have told you that I was in an ok place with work, maybe not my dream job, but it was fulfilling all of my basic needs as an employee and as a member of my family. One week ago I was told the company is closing and my services are no longer needed. Honestly, I’m ok with that, maybe somewhere deep inside I am relieved.  I accept this opportunity to refocus myself….. What do I want to do????? Before I start my search for something new, it is time to ponder my passions, my strengths and my weaknesses that I will bring to the next step of my work life. There is a lot to consider, the first question I am going to look at is “What truly wakes you up each day?” or asked a different way: “What gives you that creative inspiration, that you love so much?” Hopefully this will help me move past the default work self and help me find my next opportunity for my best work self!

What gives you that creative inspiration? If you have an answer to this question I would love to hear what ignites you. Leave a comment below and let me know!

“Something fun”

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My daughter loves to tell me everyday when we get home that she wants to do “something fun”. I am not in the least surprised that hanging out with me while I am half present in her activity and half doing housework, cooking dinner, and whatever else comes up each day, is not what she considers fun. Yesterday after a fun trip to the zoo, lunch with the elephants and an hour drive to encourage nap time, I found myself wanting to do “something fun” with her. It was Saturday after all and we can’t do housework all the time can we? Suddenly, I remembered that our dogs are happy new owners of two very large dog beds which arrived in two very large boxes!!!

I have been saving some Pinterest ideas on cardboard play houses specifically for a time when a big box and some free time landed on our door step. Here was my chance. Two year old in tow, I asked her ” Do you want to make a play house for you and Bear?” to which she delightfully answered “Yea!” I must confess that when I said “lets make a play house”, she heard “go find toys to play with in a box” and I thought “I get to create with cardboard, scissors and tape!” Luckily, we were both right.

We started by looking at the two boxes and she chose the one she liked the best. As I started to cut into the box she became interested in the process. We drew on the outside where the door and windows were going to go. With each step, she had to test out the inside of the play house, while I consulted Pinterest. We also evaluated what the house needed. First and foremost, a door and some more light. We cut out extra windows everywhere! Second, the house needed some exterior decor. While I wasn’t in the mood to get out the paint, I was more then happy to tear up tape so that the windows and door got some trim. We agreed that the house needed something fresh and added a flower box and some pipe cleaner flowers under the window. Lastly, we grabbed some battery powered string lights from another adventure and strung them through the house for a bit more light.

I can proudly say that my daughter and her bear have now spent a couple of hours in and out of the play house. Bear specifically takes a lot of naps in there!

IMG_2008I enjoyed this activity with my kiddo so much. We created something new from something old. We created a space for her to play with her bear. I spent time with her fully present and excited to use my hands and my years of experience.

While I am still trying to pinpoint the true meaning of the word creativity, I really enjoyed the “doing” yesterday. Heres what I experienced: Creativity for me is active, it helps that I had multiple colors of tape and some pipe cleaners around the house to spruce up our playhouse, but those weren’t required for us to start. I had an idea, I did a little bit of research on Pinterest, and we just started. There were failures, for example,  I didn’t cut the side panels of the roof into perfect triangles. Instead we worked around our challenges until they became essential features of our design;  roof had to be a bit higher, and the holes in the roof were the perfect place to string the lights! Is the house perfect? No way! Will I build another? Oh yea!  Creativity is an iterative process. Yesterday we solved our problem of doing “something fun” with this iteration of play house. Today we will play in and around that playhouse. Maybe we will learn more about cardboard doors that we will keep in mind for next time we break out a box and scissors.

How long with the playhouse stay in the middle of the kitchen? Probably not as long as the dog beds, at least until something else fun comes along!IMG_2019

What is Creativity?

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It’s been a while since I last posted. Recently, I have been pulled by nature to observe its beauty. This is part of my inspiration and part of my inquiry. Observing what is around me and what I am drawn to has started me thinking. Thinking has led to questions of self, such as, how do I define myself, where do I want to direct my focus? Inevitably this leads me back to creativity. So in my free time, I have been doing some research around what is creativity, what are its origins, what makes it so special? 

This has really started me questioning creativity, how I use the word, practice creativity and define or hold myself to a creative standard. Am I actually “creative”or am I consistently using others ideas and just working them to fit my need in a more “creative” way? I have to admit, I haven’t found my answers yet. I am not ready to share my manifesto on creativity. For now I am willing to share my process: here are some of the thoughts/ ideas/ questions about creativity that I am mulling over:

Questions I have about creativity:

  1. What about the idea of creativity  am I so drawn to and why do I want to define myself by this noun?
  2. How do you define that something you did was creative?
  3. Why is creativity most often perceived as related to art?
  4. Isn’t the scientific method is documented process of creativity?
  5. If I make a new recipe based off of similar ones I’ve read is that “creating something new”, if not, then is my new recipe not creative?
  6. If there is a limit to what can be created, why is the idea of being creative so exciting/ new business skill so popular?
  7. How is size or scale of output related to creativity?
  8. If I value creativity so much, what am I creating?

Ideas about creativity that I am grappling with:

  1. Creativity is only when you truly create something that has never ever been created before.
  2. Having access to or buying art/craft supplies enables creativity.
  3. Creativity is a special skill or talent that comes naturally to some and others just can’t do it.
  4. Groups can come up with some of the most creative ideas during activities like brainstorming.
  5. Creativity is messy.
  6. Creativity is best when the outcome is simple.

Ideas about creativity that resonate with me:

  1. Creativity is problem solving with the intent of coming out with a new or different answer.
  2. Creativity is not magic, there are no ah ha moments.
  3. Ideas happen all the time. Creativity comes when you act on that idea.
  4. Creativity is a process filled with the constant cycle of trying, failing, ask more questions, research, try again….
  5. Everybody’s a critic, to be truly creative, you must persist.
  6. Everyone is creative.

The more I read, the less answers I have. What I do know is that I am still drawn to the idea of creativity. I know that there is something special to creativity, and that we all have the potential to be creative. I know that there is intent and action in creativity.  I want to continue this exploration and I plan on sharing it here. Potentially I will answer my own questions or create more. Potentiallly this is my creation space…. More Soon.