People are always searching for the secret formula for creativity, but the truth is…
There isn’t one. As Willow Marketing’s Director of Strategy, Mandy Haskett, once said, “Saying ‘creative people’ is redundant. Everyone is creative.” I believe this to be true. We are all naturally wired with it. Sometimes we just don’t recognize creativity when we see it. Creativity is more than just the “creative” job titles and artistic hobbies that we limit it to. Every individual has their own way of generating ideas and their own way of expressing those ideas.
I have a creative job title. I like to draw and paint on the side, and I succeed at some arts-and-crafts every now and then. This seems to make a lot of people I meet think I’m an overflowing fountain of fresh creative ideas and all things artsy… not true. Put me in a conference room for an hour and ask me to brainstorm some headlines for an ad and you might get one disappointing and cliché combination of words. Ask me to take a photo and you might end up with a blurry version of the beautiful composition you wanted to call a memory 101. Ask me to write a blog post and I might put it off until the last minute and die a little bit on the inside while writing it. 🙂
My point is that we’re all creative in our own way and in order to reach our end goals, we need help from others. No idea is truly original. It is, in some way, influenced by something else we’ve seen, heard or experienced. I think we’re missing out on a plethora of beauty because so many people don’t try to express their own personal form of creativity because they “can’t draw a straight line” (Neither can I. Unless a ruler is involved…and even then it only comes out straight about 60% of the time). My creative job description at Willow is only fulfilled because of amazing creative and “non-creative” creative folks I’m surrounded by.
I challenge you to discover your inspiration. Find out how to most effectively let that spark burst out of the box you’re hiding it in and share it with the people around you.
If you don’t know where to start, below are a few examples of ways I have been inspired. Inspiration can be found anywhere—from exciting adventures to the most monotonous of activities. The key is to take a moment. To stop, be still and look beyond the surface.
