Do you consider yourself “creative?”
Confession.
I never used to consider myself “creative.”
People would ask me what I did for a living, and I’d tell them I’m a marketing writer, copywriter, editor.
They’d say, “Oh wow! You must be really creative.”
I’d fight it!
“No,” I’d say. “I’m not really creative. I write educational and relationship-building content for businesses; it’s really more common sense and the ability to put together a good, logical flow of sentences.”
That was true until two or three years ago.
Until something shifted.
I’m not even sure what it was, honestly.
What I do know is that now I DO consider myself creative.
I see ideas EVERYWHERE!
Even in the shower.
Even while cramming my hand into the crack of a couch to get a pill that rolled away.
Even while my son cuts his toenails with those monstrous-sized clippers. (I had no idea things like that even existed until I met my husband! EWW!)
So … was I always creative and I didn’t know it? I think so.
Are YOU creative and you don’t know it? Probably. Try these three exercises and see what you think then.
(The third exercise is the most fun if you’re running short on time!)
1. Think about something you’re trying to do or be or attain.
Maybe you want to hit $250,000 in sales. Maybe you want a house high on a mountain with views. Maybe you want to create a non-profit organization that helps kids explore their world and unlocks their brilliance.
Now, ask yourself this question: WHAT IF?
What if you hit that $250K?
What if whatever you were thinking about came true?
What would life look like?
How would you feel?
Give yourself a minute to ruminate.
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Are you ruminating?
There you go. You’re being creative.
2. Look around the room wherever you are. Let your eyes fall upon two objects. Any two objects.
Got them?
Now, try to merge them into something … useful or not 🙂
Here’s an example.
I’m in my office, and if I look around I see:
- A napkin (sorry, I had some food happening here)
- A pair of scissors
Pic of my desk taken especially for this post.
Now … what can I do with those two objects? How can I make them play together? Let’s see. How about…
- Napkins with pictures of scissors on them
- Scissors made just for cutting napkins
- A pair of napkins shaped into scissors
Hey … I never said the ideas had to make sense.
Go ahead! Try it!
If you do, you’ll find yourself accessing your creativity.
Okay, now the last exercise.
(I’m borrowing it from Ayse Birsel’s fun list of creativity exercises published on Inc.com.)
3. Take a photo, or a selfie, open it in Photoshop or PowerPoint and write HELLO! in large letters in a fun font, save as PDF and attach it to your emails for the day.
Sounds like fun!
Challenge, accepted.
Hello, it’s me … Renae Gregoire! Send me your smiling mug to say HELLO!
That was creative — and fun!
Why don’t you try it right now?!?
Take a picture of your face, or grab a recent selfie. (Come on, you’ve got dozens of them on your phone, right?!?)
Use whatever photo editing tool gives you joy (I use Screenpresso).
Edit away, and then share your pic with me!
Hit me up on Twitter and DM me.
Or send me a message on Instagram.
LinkedIn and Facebook work as well.
I would LOVE my inboxes to be filled with tens … hundreds … thousands … of smiling faces — including YOUR face — saying HELLO!
If a large enough number of you do it, I’ll create a collage and share it all around the world to bring smiles to lots more faces.
Hope to see YOUR smiling face real soon!
***
P.S. By completing exercise #3, you’ll also be expressing yourself with creativity!
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