Defining Creativity
When we think of creativity we normally think of artists, writers, actors, musicians, architects, and so on.  However, creativity is really much broader than that.  It also applies to businesses where people develop more efficient business models, or physics and other sciences where people define clever experiments or theories to resolve challenging problems.  In fact, it generally applies to our ability to visualize and provide a new and different perspectives on almost anything.  It is also usually associated with the functionality of the right brain.

The Importance of Creativity
There has always been a number of very good reasons to have a creative outlet like painting, writing, or music.  Amongst them is as a vehicle to exercise your creativity, stretching and strengthening it much like going to the gym.  Other reasons include:

Now there's another reason! 
It's good for your career (or small business).  In fact it might be essential. 

Times have changed and there's fewer and fewer places to serve out your career in a 9 to 5 organization.  Creativity is becoming the essential skill in the workplace.  Large numbers of people are creating income with blogs, iphone apps, online boutiques, youtube videos, and more.  Some of the enterprises produce 6 and 7 figure income streams and have evolved into small businesses.  Creative companies like Apple and Google are doing great, companies that do not have innovative products...not so much.  So take a break from the mundane, put on your smock and recharge some of your childhood creativity.  This time it could be for more than just the fun of it.

But You're Not Creative
If you don't have any artistic skills it doesn't mean that you're not creative or artistic.  It may mean you just haven't tried.  In fact if you look back at your childhood you can probably recall some of your fanciful game playing.  So it's not that you're not creative it's more likely that you just haven't used it in a while.

Furthermore, even if you're the penultimate meat and potatoes guy neurological research over the past few years has shown that you can develop new neurological paths in your brain allowing you to build skills that you never thought you had.  Amongst them is creativity.  The ability of your brain to physically change as a result of mental exercise is called neuroplasticity.  So with a little bit of effort you may be surprised how capable you are of being creative.


The Goal
The goal for this blog is to strengthen your creativity muscle by committing to learning an art form and delivering a product.  If you choose sculpting the product could be a polished stone sculpture that you enter in an exhibition at your art school.  If you choose music a goal could be to participate in a recital.  The point is commit to some creative endeavor and showing it to the world.

Action Steps

To Do Helper