1) Survival
That which can be automated and outsourced will be automated and outsourced.
Here’s the tough news: As the global market place continues to become more and more competitive, those jobs and enterprises that a machine can do faster or someone else can do cheaper will go the way of the dinosaur and the dodo bird. Here’s the good news: Your ability to activate your own creativity will give you the ability to shape shift and morph to take advantages of rapid changes and unforeseen opportunities in the marketplace.
2) Legacy
Want to make the world a better place? Across all industries, the world is begging for creative solutions.
How can we get billions of workers to their jobs each day without exhausting the world’s fuel supplies? How can cattle be systematically raised in a way that actually leaves the land better off than it was before? How can we educate our children in a way that doesn’t just pack their brains with information but fuels their imaginations and encourages them to bring their unique gifts into the world? In every challenge there are creative solutions just waiting to be unveiled.
3) Volition
You are powerful beyond belief. Activating your creativity helps you feel truly alive and fully Self-expressed.
Author Norman Mailer once said, “Every moment of one’s existence one is growing into more or retreating into less.” The you that is uniquely you wants desperately to be fully expressed. A creative life is a life that errs on the side of growth and expansion, one that inspires you to work with your entire being, including your body, mind, and spirit, ultimately leaving you feeling deeply satisfied by engaging the world fully.
4) Love
At our core, we all want to love and be loved. To be a better lover, we must learn to be a better creator.
Creativity is love in action. You may not like your job, or certain members of you family, or your commute. You may not like what’s happening in politics, the environment, or the economy. But even in your darkest hour, if you can rise above the complaints that run through your head and return to the glue that binds us all, your world stops appearing as an endless wall of obstacles and transforms itself into a fertile field of creative opportunity.
5) Sharing
Show and tell isn’t just for children. We all have a deep desire to share our creations with others.
Do not discount the utter miraculousness of our ability to communicate. For whatever reason, through languages of various sorts, including speech and reading, the music and programming, cooking and mathematics, design and innovation, we are able to take our own unique insights and present them in ways that can be shared with others.
6) Mission
A creative life has both power and direction. In a world full of info-noise, our natural desire to explore certain creative paths over others naturally unveils our purpose in life.
Our innate creative awareness is vast and expands in all directions. A clearly defined mission, however, enables us to stay focused on what’s truly enlivening to us. Moreover, when we keep ourselves focused, learning from others while honing our craft, we inspire and are inspired by others.
7) Meaning
As a species, we have a unique desire to feel that our lives have significance. Creativity as a way of life brings a profound sense of meaning to our lives.
Through the nourishment of creative insights, the joy of bringing those insights into the world, the ecstatic joy of dropping in the experience of creative flow, and the excitement we feel when we are wowed by the creations of others, the creative process quite naturally brings fulfillment and meaning to our lives.
What type of creator are you? Take the Creativity Quiz and find out!
As a Creative oil painter for the past 14 years , I get caught up in the creating and selling of my original oil paintings, I tend to forget that my oil paintings continue bring joy and love to strangers homes all over the world. Paintings are more than blobs of pretty paint on bare canvas. Paintings remind collectors of memories when they travel to interesting places in the world. Folks continue to buy loal art from local artists as a way to relive those fond memories. Thanks for sharing this important article.
Thank you Michael! It is easy to forget about all the creations we’ve created already, and the enduring joy and meaning they bring to those who have purchased them from us. I experience the same thing when I’m designing people’s homes and business. It’s great to go back and visit with former clients for those reasons, getting how the our creations have affected them over time.