What is Creativity?

"What is Creativity?" is one of the questions I get asked the most. My answer is always simple: it is thinking without boundaries. Yes, I know there are a lot more precise, eloquent, and more correct answers out there but I never said or pretend to be anything but simple.

For me creativity is about letting loose. Everyone does this in their own way. Everyone sees the world differently, hears the space around us a bit different, tastes things that no one else can taste, feels the earth spin in their own unique way, and describes their environments in their own terms.

At least the above descriptions hold true until we get to a certain age; A certain age where we have to "behave". At some point in all of our lives we have been "shhhed" or given the glance that tells us that is not appropriate. For some of us unlucky ones perhaps we even got a gentle kick in the shin or a slight pinch on the arm when we have asked to many questions, or have spoken to loudly, or maybe even out of turn.

So we grow up and somewhere along the way after all of this squashing of our enthusiasm and our vigor to learn and ask questions we stop asking. We conform, we begin to wait our turn, we begin to say things we think others want us to say.

Creativity for me is about every once in awhile letting loose in whatever you feel comfortable doing it. Creativity does not have to be an amazing ART piece, or some aww inspiring design that you have concocted. It can be the way you tie your shoes, it can be wearing sandals until the snow hits, it can be about how you say good morning. Creativity is about finding a few things in you that you do just for yourself and that you do that some might even think is a little bit different. I mean imagine one day if you just decided to only write with a pack of crayons that you bought the night before and that you wouldn't stop writing with that pack of crayons until they were all used up? Would it be the end of the world? What if instead of making the same chicken meal you make every night you decided to go to the grocery store and buy everything and anything you have never ate in your life and tried making a dinner out of that?

My main argument for all of this is people (myself included) can sometimes be boring. So why don't you challenge yourself to just once colour outside of the lines and see what happens? Does the world fall apart?


Don't get stuck in life, be creative:

STORYTIME:

This post was inspired from a rather interesting situation I got to observe.

Imagine 7 in the morning standing in line at the grocery store in the middle of October. Yes that is right it is dark out, there is almost no one else in the store, and there is definitely not a whole lot of noise. When all of a sudden this beautiful voice belts out "Good Morning, you are here to check out and I am just the lady for you." This kind of singing certainly woke everyone up who was in the store and put a smile on everyones face.
Behind the cash one of the elderly ladies who was working said that she always sings her good mornings and sings her customers through the line because it is so early and that often she has been in the store for so many hours that she too needs to have a bit of fun.
It was amazing to see everyone in the store react so positively to this wonderful older lady who certainly was not afraid to let loose, be a little bit creative with her job, and inject a whole lot of fun for everyone around.
You know the old saying "sing like no one can hear you" well she did just that and she says that is what gets her through the late night shifts that last until the wee hours of the morning. This lady says she loves her job and she loves her job because the store manager allows her to be herself. Don't you wish more of us could be ourselves? Were allowed to be ourselves?

Adaptation

Dealing with change is never easy, unless of course you practice it every day.

I felt compelled to write this article because of all the commotion going on with Facebook and how every time they make 1 or 2 changes (big or small) the nation (really the world) seems to go into a frenzy.

  Is all of this commotion necessary? I mean isn't it a good thing that facebook keeps changing? I wonder if facebook didn't ever change if it would go stagnant and eventually people would become bored with it and heaven forbid maybe not use it. As I write this I almost wonder if facebook sometimes makes these changes just to get peoples attention and to remind them that they are there. I know that facebook has become such a common part of everyone's daily routine and for most having a change in a routine can be so harsh. However, like I have said in other posts there really are no SURE bets in life so maybe all this change is a good thing. Maybe facebook is simply challenging us to stay on our toes. I mean look at it this way-are people really going to stop using facebook because of their changes? I highly doubt it so maybe adapting is the only way.

I'm just using the most recent and most widespread example here but I want each and every one of you who are reading this to think seriously about change; How well do we deal with change? How can we make life easier for ourselves in this ever changing (notice I didn't say evolving-this might be my next post) world of ours? 

One of my big arguments in life, especially as an entrepreneur and someone who has been working in and around education for the last decade or more is that we do not prepare ourselves very well to deal with change. I am of the belief that more emphasis in schools and other areas in life should be placed on dealing with change and adapting to the unknown. 

Oh the UNKNOWN (sorry, insert tangent here), just last week I spent 5 days with a high school group talking about fears and how we as a society deal with them (a whole other story) and what came out of that discussion was that so often (in fact number 1 in this small sample size) we are afraid of the UNKNOWN. I am not perfect by any means but I have been learning to live with the UNKNOWN and to deal with CHAOS whenever I can and I have to say this has made my life much easier and a lot more flexible, something I have come to cherish.

In the end I just want people (myself included) to really think about change and how it effects your life or better yet how we LET it effect out lives. How can we change that? One suggestion is add more spontaneity into your life. As a matter of fact, think of something right now that you have always wanted to do and take this 5 minute challenge: Go look up everything you can about it (whatever IT is) on the internet and even better if you can, book it-write it down-commit to doing something different and then TELL someone else, post it on your FB page (haha if you haven't boycotted it because of all the changes) or put it in your twitter feed, or whatever you need to do just get it out there! 

Believe me the more you try new things and the more you push your limits the more comfortable you will become with change and the unknown, thus the less you will have to fear in life. Embracing change is crucial, especially since we really don't have control over much in this life time.

Life has a lot to offer if only we can reach out and grasp it all. 

A Worldly Choir

While watching this video this afternoon I am so totally blown away at this amazing idea (and execution):

I am also brought to dream, to wonder, and to become even more excited about our future and how technology, if used correctly, could really help us come together to do amazing things.

With the advances we are experiencing in virtual connections I am quite certain that our networks and our collective intelligence will grow and get stronger, deeper, more expedient, and more meaningful. 

Here is to looking forward to the future and how technology (may) help boost our productivity and usefulness on this planet.

What do you think about this video? about technology connecting us in the future? Does this change the way some of our challenges in society can be solved? Could this change how we learn about anything in life? Can we be entertained in a whole new way?

Conversations for Change interview

This last year in 2010 I learned of a book called High on Life edited by Nejeed Kassam and then later on I learned there was going to documentary called Conversations for Change. All of it seemed so wonderful, the basic concept-write a book and film a documentary around all kinds of different people that are out there making change. The age range for these changemakers? all ages-young and old.

I had the pleasure of meeting with some of the people from this project and I am continuing to be amazed as they continue to travel and edit and film and write.

A couple of days ago I was interviewed by the group and here was what I had to say: Interview with Conversations for Change



1) What inspired you to become involved in Social Change?

When I first started out I never even thought of my actions being referred to as social change. I only ever thought of the projects I was involved in as being fun and involving as many “cool” people as I could in and around the projects I was involved in. It was only after I had started, completed, and then started some new projects that I realized two things:

1. That I was actually having a ton of fun for myself and it seemed like the people around me were having fun

2. That we are actually making a difference in so many people’s lives.

This was perhaps one of the most powerful realizations that I had ever made in my life, along with the fact that I could actually make this sustainable by creating a really fun job out of it all. Once I started living and breathing in this sector it has been about the people all along, be it the people I work with, the people I work for, or the people I serve, all who inspire me. Every ounce of inspiration comes down to people. I would never have driven for 2 hours to give a 1.5 hour practice twice a week for over 5 years if I didn’t love the people I was doing it for. I wouldn’t have spent thousands of dollars and hours working on projects if I didn’t get to spend it working along side so many other hardworking and caring individuals.

So long story short, what inspires me, your everyday average Joe who cares, that is what/who inspires me.

2) What projects are you currently involved with?

Running Creativision keeps me pretty busy most of the days with everything from working with executives on creativity training, to helping university students figure out what the hell they want to do with their life, to helping companies creatively design their next brand, and everything in between.

However, there are two main things that are on the forefront of my radar these days. The first is a book I’m co-authoring with a good friend of mine, Collin Vine, called Career Chaos: What the hell are you going to do with your life? This book is interviewing literally hundreds of people all across Canada between the ages 4 and 98 asking how we figure life out? What we should do? Where we should go? If we could do it all over again what would we do? Would we change what we learned? How we learned? How would we deal with chaos? So far there have been so many amazing stories with so many surprise endings to many people’s stories.
The second major project that I’m working on is a combination of 2 things the first is a day for students to come together, get creative, and put out some useful products or services to the community. This day will be called “A Day of Play, Seriously!” This day will lead into a 5 week program in the summer where youth, ages 10-16 will be able to join for the first 4 weeks, again being challenged to solve some of our communities challenges in fun and creative ways. Then in the final week, perhaps the most fun week for me, the youth will be joined by a few adults to work on one final community challenge. The only catch, in this final week the youth will be the creative experts and will lead the adults as project managers through solving a community challenge.

To learn more, to follow along, and to find out how you can help with any of these projects come visit www.creativision.ca

3) What is, if you have one, the message that you would like others to hear? What can other inspiring young change-makers do in their communities to help enact social change?

My message is always about one thing, to have fun in life. Do the things in life that YOU want to do (believe me, many people will want to pull you in a million different ways, reflect and think about what you really want), make sure you can do it for a long time, do it with people who make you smile, and really give it (whatever “it” is) all you have. Come at the work you want to do from a million different angles (practice creativity, be creative). Finally always be willing to change the course, to learn something new, and be prepared to teach others, because believe me no one will think quite the same as you, so having all of those skills just mentioned will take you a long way in being a change-maker.

Change is really hard, but when it happens, man does it ever feel good!

Awesome Ottawa supports Project Y

Well I am excited to announce that the Awesome Ottawa Foundation has found its first project to support and that project is Project Y. I love it in less than 48 hours these two organizations have not only been formed but have found a way to work together. The best part about it all they are already doing the things they say they would love to be doing and that my friends is what I have fallen in love with-DOING! Just do, explore, change, these are the words of the most current people I am working with and they are amazing. I mean where else could this much action be happening I love the fact that it is indeed happening in Ottawa-a city where sometimes change, awesome, movement, fast, and some other words are not often heard or come in any kind of speed.

I will have lots more details on both organizations (groups) as they grow and develop so keep reading and find out how you can be a part of both of these excellent, fast moving, groups of people.

Here's to COLLABORATION and MOVEMENT!