The Creative Lens

(photo credit: efraserphoto.com)

In recent months I have come to understand that we are all naturally creative. In fact we need to be creative on a daily basis in order to feel like we are truly living. I don’t mean that you need to be an amazing painter or pianist but you do need to find solutions to problems or doodle in a notebook because it allows you to fill an inherent need to make something out of nothing. Develop something unique and interesting that forces you to ask questions of yourself and the world around you along the way.

I didn’t always have this belief or understanding. I have always been creative in some way, shape or form, but I haven’t been aware of the need for that creativity to exist in my life. I became aware of that need after a sustained period of time in my life where I was simply ‘droning on.’ I was going to work, doing the simple mechanics of the job and collecting the paycheck. Then I was coming home and watching youtube or netflix or a movie. Perhaps I was playing a video game or just wasting time on social media. I really was just ‘droning on’ and it got to the point where I was in such desperate need for something interesting - creative - to happen in my life that I just got up off the couch and walked outside. I don’t know why I chose to go for a walk but that is what I was drawn to do. I needed a positive action of some kind and it came in the form of a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood. A subtle and wonderful thing occurred on that walk - I recognized that I needed to ‘disconnect from the matrix,’ so to speak, and begin to let my mind wander.

I began reading as much as I could; anything and everything. I began working out again to get my body into a positive physical state that would be prepared to be excited and ambitious. I began engaging more freely with my coworkers and friends as well as assessing my work and seeking to find ways to better achieve my work goals. If I am being honest, it was quite challenging at first because I was saying ‘no’ to the comfort I had fostered over the previous couple of months and said ‘yes’ to constant stimulation and challenge. It was the best! It continues to be the best! I am becoming a more valuable person to the people in my life, but more importantly I am becoming a more loving person of myself and all the ways that I see I am able to contribute to life.

When you open yourself up to life and all of the creative activity that comes as a result of choosing to engage instead of withdraw amazing things begin to happen. New relationships begin. Old relationships enhance. New passions and hobbies emerge. Old challenges that felt insurmountable become minor speed bumps with outcomes that are inevitably positive. Life simply becomes much more optimistic!

Choosing to be creative is really choosing to be challenged. The challenges that we face everyday are what draw the best out of us. All of the greatest contributions from humanity have come in response to great challenges. Those solutions come forth from those who have looked at the world through a creative lens and have been willing to accept a challenge as an opportunity. I don’t know about you but I am inspired to be one of those people that see the world through the lens of creativity because the view of the world is full of so much more optimism and hope!

Will you join me in that vision?  

note: the photo above is my wife, Sarah, and I from our anniversary photo shoot. Incredible creativity from Erin Fraser as our photographer and my wife as the florist.