Your Life is a Creative Work

Lots of people say that they're not creative.

There’s this idea that creativity is a rarified thing which only a few people are capable of, and that it results in a work of art: a painting, song, sculpture or poem.

I disagree.

I think creativity is a lot bigger than that. In fact, I think pretty much everyone is creative.

“Creativity is
imagining something
that doesn't exist
and making it real.”

Everyday self-expression is creative

There is creativity in every part of daily life.

Creativity is the act of imagining something that doesn't exist and making it real.

When you look at all the clothes in your closet and put them together into an outfit, you're being creative.

When you fluff your hair this way or that, put in some product or adorn it with a bobby pin, you're being creative.

When you adorn your front door with coat of bright paint and a planter full of flowers, you're being creative.

When you festoon your new yellow car with a cat steering wheel cover, LINE friends door guards and little cat paws on the license plate bolts, you're being creative.

(This weirdly specific example brought to you by my new sister-in-law. ❤️)

Creativity is manifest in everyday life, in all the choices we make, and therefore everyone can be, and is, creative.

Creativity goes beyond aesthetics

Creativity goes beyond aesthetics and self-expression, though. It manifests in the way you solve problems and do things.

Have you ever invented just exactly the right Starbucks order? I have a friend who always orders a tall low-fat no water chai. (If you ask for no water it's spicier.) She imagined a drink that she'd never had before, and figured out how to ask for it. Creative!

Have you ever stacked up a bunch of books to make an impromptu standing desk? Propped up your phone with a tomato so you could read a recipe while your hands were sticky? Creative!

Science and technology, supposedly the “opposite” of art, depend on the ability to envision things that don't exist and make them, and imagine how things work and then run experiments to see if reality matches what you imagined.

Creating a life

To imagine your life differently from how it is now, and to make it happen, or even to just attempt to make it happen, is a creative act.

Quitting your job and starting a business is a creative act. Quitting your business and getting a job is a creative act. Quitting everything and moving to the woods to live in a hut with a small flock of ducks is a creative act.

Creating a life, especially one that diverges from the expected path, is a creative act.

Creating a new world

But creativity is even bigger than creating a new life.

To envision a world that is more just, more peaceful, or kinder. And then, to act to make it happen. That's creative.

Creativity isn't just about the production of a result. It's about envisioning something new, and acting on that vision.

Photograph of a mural by an unknown artist. Photo by Henry & Co.