Yesterday marked the first day of World Creativity and Innovation Week beginning on April 15 (which also “happens” to be Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday) and ending April 21. It originated in 2001 with four Canadians in a conversation instigated by creativity expert Marci Segal, with Canadian creativity practitioners/facilitators John Sedgwick and Paul Rousseau of Ontario and Jacynthe Bedard of Quebec, and has expanded over the years to span the globe with over 50 countries reporting their observances.
World Creativity and Innovation Week (#WCIW) is “a celebration that acknowledges, informs, inspires and encourages people to use their creativity – to generate new ideas, to make new decisions and to take new actions – that make the world a better place and to make their place in the world better too.”
Our mission at Planet Creative Studios is to inspire, nurture and share creativity and this week is a perfect opportunity to do just that by introducing the first installment in a week-long series devoted to understanding creativity and learning about ways to nurture your own creativity.
So let’s get started…
I discovered a while ago that creativity is one of my true-blue core values. It resonates with me in a way that no other core value has. It’s because through the creative process I experience a sense of freedom, joy, and accomplishment unlike any other. I can remember that even as a little girl I loved being creative. I learned to sew and crochet and even knit; as an adult I’ve explored drawing, watercolor painting, cake decorating, jewelry-making, soap-making, candle-making and I’ve really developed my sewing, paper crafting/rubber stamping, digital designing and scrapbooking muscles. Now, even though, these are more visual hands-on types of creativity, I have come to realize that as I acknowledged and started nurturing my own creativity, I have become more creative and I have started to notice where creativity shows up in other areas of my life. I couldn’t imagine my life without creativity. But this isn’t about me…
How many of you have ever wanted to be more creative, yet under your breath or in bold statements of (misguided) “truth” say to yourselves or to others, “I’m not creative?” Can you relate? Have you ever wanted to “be more creative?”
Say this with me:
“I was created for a purpose.”
Think about this for a moment: you are a one in a billion…out of all the billions of seeds that were seeking to fertilize the egg, you are the result of just one. You are the answer to someone’s prayer; you potentially hold the key to unlocking someone else’s dream.
I believe that the first “step” to becoming more creative is to acknowledge that you were created for a purpose. You’re probably wondering why this is important to your creativity, right? Here’s the thing, the prevailing belief about creativity has us thinking that we have to be artsy-fartsy to be considered creative. {Please do not be offended by the artsy-fartsy comment — it is all in love and I count myself in that group.} My response to that prevailing belief is that there’s much more to creativity than just creating visually appealing works of art or hand-crafted masterpieces.
Creativity’s scope is much broader than that and I believe it begins with a very foundational understanding of who you are and what you bring to the world by your very existence: you were created for a very specific purpose and your unique and creative contributions will flourish in your specific domain.
Some will ask, “how can I discover my purpose?” According to Dr. Myles Munroe, your purpose can be found by evaluating and answering the following two questions:
- What do you dream of doing when you’re doing what you have to do; what would you do for the rest of your life, whether you got paid for it or not?
- What angers you to the point that you want to make a change to the situation and make it better for yourself and others?
There are many books devoted to the topic of discovering one’s purpose. If you’ve never thought about it before, take some time to delve deeply and discover your true passion in life.
You are creative and that your creative genius lies in your living out your purpose.
Share below what you believe your purpose is.
