Surprise! You’re a Creative.

You know how you’ve been told all your life that there are creative’s and non-creative’s. Like the people who took art and band in school, those are “Creative Types,” and you? You’re just… not. Well I really hate to bust that bubble for you (actually I don’t mind at all) because I know it’s nice to hide in there and pretend you just weren’t gifted with creativity. That way you’re excused from making stuff right? Wrong. You were gifted with creativity. You are a creative. Deal with it.

Here’s the thing: You don’t have to do this for a living to be creative. You don’t have to quit your job, become a vagabond painter, and never make money again to be an artist either. That’s not what being a creative (or an artist) means. What being a creative means is that you have the ability to make things that do not exist and share them with the world. You have the ability to be creative as a parent. You have the ability to be creative as a doctor. You have the ability to be a creative as a vagabond painter if you want! Just don’t get lost in the fantasy that’s been drawn for you of what a creative really is. Because the truth? The truth is that we were born creative. We are made to create. You don’t have to have a certain job title to do that. Being a creative has nothing to do with your job and everything to do with the fact that you are a human.

My friend David Duchemin wrote an awesome book called A Beautiful Anarchy: When The Life Creative Becomes The Life Created here is his weigh in on the subject:

“… Anyone who persists in the idea that “I’m just not really creative” is unlikely to read this book, believing instead that the die has been cast and they’ve been excluded. They, of all people, need most to read it, and I hope they do.”

and also, David depicts our lives as a canvas. We’re free to put on it what every we want. We’re free to wreck it and make it messy. But, as David says, “Don’t you dare let it be blank.” You want it to be messy. You want it to be full. You want it to be yours. Just don’t leave it blank.

If you don’t want to be a creative for a living, then don’t. But that doesn’t mean you get to bow out. Sooner or later, the creative that lives in you will want out. The one that had his crayons taken away and was told it was time to do the real work. Let him out now. Take your crayons back. Go ‘head. Make stuff. Share it with the world.

Be a creative… because you are.

Happy Wednesday!