E21: You're More Creative Than You Think: My Lessons in Rediscovering Creativity

I've been spending a lot of time thinking about creativity.

And that's what I want to talk about today.

And the reason why I think creativity matters now is because creativity is one of those things,

one of those skills that is really uniquely human and hopefully will be for a very long time,

as long as humans are around. And so I've been really trying to lean into the things that are

uniquely human because it's going to be super important in the future of work that we master

these uniquely human skills. And also because creativity unlocks so many things for us, both in our

lives and in our work. For me, it's a place of restoration and joy and restoration. I mean,

when I'm really tired or burned out, I can feel recharged in a creative practice.

And it also allows us to be more resilient. It allows us to build deeper connections with other

people and with ourselves. And there's a lot that creativity can unlock. And I want to offer

some ways to think about creativity, how to tap into it, and then also how to use it to amplify

your work and your fulfillment in your life. And at the end of this, I'm hoping you feel inspired.

I'm hoping you think about creativity a little bit differently. And maybe there's something

that you can take away and incorporate into something you do tomorrow.

I'm energized by this topic. And I think this is going to be a really interesting conversation.

So I hope you lock into this one.

Okay, so creativity, it's a really big word. I want to share a story about me that has shaped

really my view into creativity and my recent exploration of it. I don't think I've shared this

before on this podcast, but I grew up dancing. I mean, I was like an avid dancer. It was my passion.

I poured myself into it. I went to a performing arts high school. I took multiple dance classes

a day in that school that I was on the dance team. And then I thought that wasn't enough. So outside

of school extra ballet classes because I was so focused on my technique. And then I also taught

dance on some nights and on weekends to kids at the YMCA. So my whole world was about dance.

And when I wasn't doing all of those things, I was locking myself in studios and choreographing.

I would hear a song and I'd get really inspired by it. And I just felt like I had to put movement

into it. And I didn't perform many of these dances. I just did it because I loved it so, so, so much.

It was an intense place of focus and labor for me. And I really got to tell stories without words.

My own stories. I got to express my own feelings and express my own inspiration in some physical form.

Now, when it was time to decide what I wanted to do with my life, I did explore dance. I explored

it seriously. I auditioned for dance programs. And I got in to a few. But when it was time to actually

start college, I quickly pivoted. I mean, it was really overnight. I woke up one day and said,

I don't want to do it anymore. And to this day, I'm not exactly sure what caused me to make that

decision. I think part of it was me coming face to face that I was stepping into the next chapter

of my life. And I was ready to let go of this thing to let other things in. It had consumed so much

of me that I had not explored many other things beyond dance. And so I think part of it was that.

And also part of it was me having this belief system that I couldn't live the life I really wanted

to live that there were things I wanted to achieve in life that dance would not allow for. And I'm

not sure I gave myself enough time to make that decision, but I made it. I'm at peace with it.

And what's interesting is that when I pivoted away from dance, I pivoted hard. I just completely

stopped dancing. Like, I didn't even do it for fun anymore. I went from dancing all the time

to not dancing at all. And it was like, if I couldn't do all of it, I didn't want any of it.

I only knew how to do it at 100%. I only knew how to do it at a certain level. And I didn't know

what another way of dancing looked like. So about five years after I stopped dancing, I tried again.

It was really, really tough because I thought I could go in where I left off, which obviously I

couldn't. I was completely out of shape from a dance perspective. And so my mind wanted to do

things that my body could not follow. And it was really a frustrating experience and heartbreaking

in some ways. And so I stepped away again and didn't go back to it again for many years.

And even then, I could only put my toe in and do a completely different form of dance that I hadn't

before. The genre that I ended up trying was salsa dancing. And I didn't stick with it for

too, too long. But I was able in that period, find a flow and find joy and enjoy the movement and

not necessarily feel the pressure of needing to know the steps and the technique and just have fun

with it and find the joy again in this art form that I love so much. Why am I telling you the story?

Because since that time in my life, which now was a long time ago, I mean, in my early 40s,

I was a long time ago, my experience with dance and that being a creative outlet for me really shaped

my view of what creativity is and how I am creative. And I have for years held this really limited

view of what creativity is. And I have recently tapped back into the idea that I am creative. That

dance was one form and expression of that. But I am creative. And there are lots of ways I can

find and tap into and express my creativity. But I held these myths and these are really common myths

that I carried about creativity. And I want to share a few of them with you because you might be

carrying them too. The first is the artistic myth. The myth that real creativity only applies to our

music design that that's real creativity and really ignoring that creativity is also crucial to

other parts of our lives, like problem solving and business and science and valuing those equally.

I think I understood that that was true, but I didn't value them in the same way. And this

eureka myth, this eureka myth is what I described as hearing music and being inspired and having

this urge to create and thinking that that's how creativity comes in these moments of urgent

inspiration. And that's a myth. That is not the only vehicle for your creativity.

The other myth I held is this originality myth, which is that creating something means that you're

doing something new, right, that it's original in some way. When I was dancing, I was taking the

steps that I knew and putting them together into something new. And there was something really

original and uniquely from me there, but that isn't always what creativity needs to look like

to be creativity. And so I had this feeling that I'd never really be able to experience that

level of creativity again. And I am unlearning that currently and finding new ways to express myself

that have helped me understand that creativity is all of these many different things.

And so I share that with you because maybe like me, you've applied different belief systems or

narratives around creativity that just are not serving you and are just holding you back from

experiencing the joy, the fulfillment, the achievement that can be earned through a creative

practice. So what's creativity? I could not find one holistic definition that really seemed to

encompass any fields and also resonate with me. What I did see though is that there was themes in

terms of outcomes. And that's the way I've sort of hung on to the idea of creativity. There is

creativity that has an outcome, that is outcome focused, in fact, where creativity is the vehicle

of producing or achieving something. And then there's also the creativity that has no point,

that is pointless, that is purely more about wonder and emotional release.

And this helps me think about my own exploration of creativity. In many ways, dance was much more

of this pointless creativity. I didn't end up doing anything with it, right? I did perform

at times in various moments, but so much of what I did was just purely about love of the art,

love of the movement, and feeling drawn to this creative outlet as a form of expression.

And I think that's really important. And that is so much of what I'm trying to tap into again now.

And this way of thinking about creativity reminds me of something that my pastor said once about

church. You don't come here and you don't sit here and listen with a goal in mind. It's not like,

okay, I'm going to leave today and I'm going to be saved or I'm going to leave today and I'm

going to get a miracle or I'm going to leave today and my prayers are going to be answered. So in

some ways, you could consider it pointless. At the same time, you come here and you keep coming

here because there is something in just being here. Even though you're not necessarily getting

this tangible thing out of it, that's also a way of thinking about a passion. You do something,

not because you're going to get something out of it, but because there is love in the labor of

it, even though it might not have a point or an outcome, it still has meaning. It still holds value

for you. It's something that is giving back to you in some way. And so this is one way that I have

personally started to define creativity. The spaces where I feel like I can just have curiosity and

play and express emotion without they're necessarily needing to be a point to it. Something that

feels more like getting lost and feels a little more raw and the act in and of itself is providing

some value for me. And then there's the other side of it, which I mentioned, which is the

outcome-based creativity. And this works really well in business and in work and in problem-solving.

And many of the day-to-day ways we can leverage creativity to help us achieve something.

And there is a definition of this type of creativity that I did latch onto from Brunei Brown.

And it's from her latest book that I just finished called Strong Ground, The Lessons of Daring

Leadership, The Tenacity of Paradox, and The Wisdom of the Human Spirit. Brunei Brown is a renowned

researcher in the space of leadership. And this is a quote from the book. Many employees believe

that perfectionism and performance pressures are so great and that failure is so stigmatized

that armor is required and often rewarded. And this type of culture is obviously the opposite

of what's needed to have creativity. On the other side, and this is the paradox, she sees

leaders who really center creativity and build these highly innovative cultures that are drifting

further and further away from customers' needs. What starts to take center stage in these

types of environments is the needs of the creatives and what's cool versus what the customer really

needs. And so she shifts into this mindset of design thinking as a way to approach creativity

in the workplace, especially when you're trying to create change or manage transformation.

And it starts with the customer or starts with people and empathy. And the work that she is

sharing is work that is originally from Tim Brown. He's the former CEO of Ideo. And there's a

process that she shares in this book that anybody can do, not just professional designers,

and it holds creativity to an actual process and frames creativity as a way to solve something.

So this is not just creativity for creativity sake, not for wonder and joy, but really creativity

as a framework, as the ground for thinking and problem solving and innovation. And with three

steps, it starts with the person you're trying to serve. So for some of us that might be our

customers, that might be our community members, maybe we're trying to solve for ourselves,

right, whoever you're trying to solve for. So you put them first and then you fully understand

the problem. So what's the problem they're experiencing or what's the problem they're going to face?

And then you explore a wide range of possible solutions. And then you iterate extensively.

So you test and you try and you refine and you ultimately end up implementing something

with whoever you're trying to serve. So you're understanding the problem, you're exploring a

wide range of possible solutions and then you're iterating. And it sounds so simple.

And it is simple. However, I have never really thought about creativity in this type of

process when I'm trying to be outcome oriented. And I love it because it's something we can practice

and that we can get better at over time. Just like we can practice dancing and get better at

over time or we can practice, you know, drawing and get better at over time. This is a way we can

think about outcome focus creativity and get better at over time, better at solving problems,

better at innovating. And it makes me think of something that I went through because I was trying

to put this into practical trend for myself, this idea of design thinking and I actually went

directly to design. And I went to a really personal story of when we moved into my house. We moved

in three years ago and the kitchen had recently been redone and it was really pretty. It was a

gorgeous wood kitchen. As I started using the kitchen and cooking it and preparing things and

putting things away and all the stuff living in the kitchen, I realized it did not make any sense.

It was completely unfunctional. There was an island that was right in front of the refrigerator

and in a corner. So you literally could not open the refrigerator door without your back being

against the island, which allowed for no-through traffic and made it really complicated trying to

get things in and out of the refrigerator. The oven was positioned as soon as you walked into

the kitchen, which is obviously a weird place to put an oven. And then there was a fireplace

in the middle of the kitchen. There was an empty wall that had nothing but a fireplace,

total waste of space that actually to me felt like more like a hazard. So we did a big kitchen

redesign. And in thinking about it, the designers that I worked with, we used this process.

So we fully understood the problem. So I walked them through. Look, the refrigerators make sense.

The oven doesn't make sense. Like there were other things that didn't make sense.

Then we went through all of these different changes we could make. All the different possible

solutions. I wanted to keep that as budget friendly as possible. So it's like I want to keep

as much of the existing stuff as possible. So we played around with different configurations and

moving things. And then we refined this design. There was a lot of iteration. I won't say that

there was a lot of testing because once you install something, it's done. But I did ask multiple

people's opinions on this. I played around with it. I taped things out in my kitchen just to see

what it might feel like when it actually gets done. And then the actual renovation started.

I now have my new kitchen. And it works. It works so well. It works as intended. And it solves the

problems that we had. And it also felt like a very creative process. This wasn't black and white.

There were a lot of different options that we could have gone in. And I had a pretty complicated

project. My kitchen is not that big. There wasn't a whole lot of extra real estate.

There were certain things that I was not willing to move like electricity and gas lines.

And so there was a lot of creative thinking that went into how do we solve this problem

in a way that makes it a much better experience living in the kitchen, but also looks good.

And it was the balance of both. I've shared two ways of thinking about creativity with you.

More of an outcome focused creativity and a process around that from Bernay Brown's book Strong

Ground. And then also this pointless form of creativity that's really just for the creativity

in and of itself, the exploration and the expression and the emotion and the wonder.

So let's transition now to the last part of what I want to share, which is how I've been trying

these on and how I've been trying to actually incorporate it into my life. So the outcome one,

I think it's pretty straightforward. As I'm facing customer challenges, as I'm building

programs for clients, I'm really trying to center on fully understanding the problem first,

looking through all types of possible solutions and building my muscle around each of those steps.

Like really pushing myself, do I really understand this problem? What's at the crux of it?

And what are all the different ways I could solve this and being unlimited in that thinking?

So there are some tried entry ways that I've done before, but challenging myself,

is there a video I could use this time or is there a different story or a different exercise

that I could use this time? So really spending time in each of those steps and pushing what I

would typically do and trying to find new ideas. And in the more unrestricted space of creativity where

you don't have to be focused on a particular outcome. So I started playing tennis about seven

months ago. I go once a week to tennis lessons, but very recently I've I signed up for a league.

So I'm playing matches, doubles matches, competitive doubles matches. I did my first one maybe two

weeks ago, and it didn't go well. I had fun, and I had some good moments, but it did not go well.

I think of this, obviously it's an athletic sport. I think of this as a practice in building my

discipline around creativity, because tennis has a lot of technique to it. Like it's really technical,

and it uses your entire body, your hips and your feet and your wrists and your shoulders and your

back, and the whole body is moving together in this coordinated stroke. And so it does remind me

of dance in some ways, because there's the technique that you have to get, but then putting it all

together and then responding to it in a moment and not really knowing what's coming at you,

right? You're standing there waiting for the ball. You don't know where it's going to land,

and then you've got to just react. You've got to impulsively just feel where that ball is going to

go, and then you've just got to allow your body to do. You cannot overthink it in tennis. You can't

think, okay, I've got to put my arm here and my hip here, and I've got to turn my foot here,

because if you do that, you've missed the shot. So it's all got to come together and be fluid. And for

me, physicality really is a way in which I connect with creativity. I am experimenting with that.

I'm having some fun with it, and it's also forcing me to put down some of my perfectionist

tendencies, because I have no control, and I am still very much a student in this sport and still

learning. So there's just an element of just trust and enjoying the process. I just got to trust.

It's going to come together, even when it doesn't, and I got to keep going, and I'm just going to

learn with every hit. I'm learning something new about the way my body moves in this sport, and I'm

going to take that with me and bring it into the next shot. I've been prioritizing it because

creativity requires us to be vulnerable. Creating is not clean. It's messy, and it's unpredictable,

and we don't know what's going to come out of it. And so this is my way of getting more comfortable

with all of those things, of things being messy, and not really knowing that I'm going to hit the

shop, but still just being brave enough to do it anyway, and vulnerable enough to step on that

court and say, hey guys, this is my second, my second match. Here I am. I'm going to do my best,

and just feeling in the flow of that. We all have creative spirit inside of us. There's

something that we uniquely have to offer to our workplaces and our families and our teams,

and I believe that tapping into our creativity is a way we can tap deeper into how we create value

and meaning in all of those different things. So I want to ask you, what myths are you telling

yourself about creativity? Are you telling yourself that you're not creative? How would creativity

help you? It can be used to help you connect with yourself, to help you connect with others,

to help you connect with your customers or whoever you're serving. For me, it's becoming the

antidote for perfectionism and control, things that I struggle with. It's a way of releasing

stress and expressing your emotions in a safe way. And we all know the world is changing so rapidly.

We need to build our resilience. We need to build our reserves for change and creativity can help

us do that. So how can it help you? And what's the risk in not doing it? What's the risk in not tapping

into your creativity and not allowing yourself to explore the side of your humanity? I know for me

things get boring when I'm not tapping into my creativity. So my challenge to you is before this

episode ends, which hint it's about to end, text yourself one thing you want to do as it connects

to your creativity. I truly believe that creativity creates compassion. The more we are in tune with

our own feelings and our own ideas and our own ways of expression, the more we can see the worlds

and the people around us and the experiences we may find ourselves in with an open mind and heart.

I'll see you next time.