Connecting the Seemingly Unconnected

Creativity is basically about problem solving. Being able and willing to try something different and recover if it doesn’t work or keep going when it does. Be it an artist choosing how to layout a work in progress or a mother working to make ends meet when the grocery bill has been impacted by inflation. Creativity means seeing what’s happening and doing something new, different, alternative about it.

I truly believe that everyone is creative. We may not all be creative in the same way, yet we are all creative in some form or fashion. I have a friend who’s business has slowed to a snails crawl so she is evaluating other avenues where she can apply her skill set. I have an artist friend who is having trouble finding her usual tools and supplies, so she is reevaluating what she does by trying completely different papers, glues, colors and mixes to reach her creative result.

In both cases, both of these women are seeing the current “problem” and applying creative ideas to get to the other side of it all. Problems are a creative gift. They demand that we change in order to survive, which means we have to think, act, work and live a bit differently in order to move forward. Both of these women could have thrown up their hands and just given into their situations. Both could have quit and done something else. Both could have just sat like a lump and waited for things to get better…but they didn’t. They got creative!

What problem, situation, circumstance or ‘thing’ are you facing where it is time for you to get creative? Doing what you always did will only get you what you’ve always had. When things change we must put on our adult pants and get to work thinking, evaluating, problem solving AND allowing ourselves to grow up by being creative. This means pushing back on age old borders, flattening respected methods and practices, and even giving up what is no longer working by being open to something different. Life is about change, it is about connecting the seemingly unconnected and turning it around. Just because it has always been this way DOES NOT mean it needs to stay that way. And if you get stuck, ask for help, phone a friend, ask someone you respect for their advice…then listen and get moving. Creativity can solve a multitude of problems and issues BUT only if we are willing to change.