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?

Re-launching and uncertainty

Well  the day has come and went and it felt really good. The Creativision website has officially been re-launched and finally I am happy with it.

It is amazing how picky one can be. A couple of weeks ago I decided that a relaunch was necessary. So I went to work fixing up the website. I asked a bunch of people what they would like on a coaching website and got some feedback. I worked for probably 3 weeks on the re-design and had really liked the process of having to re-write everything and coming up with new ideas and incorporating old ideas that had worked in the past. I finally had a product at the end of it all that was publish worthy. And that's what I did, I hit the publish key but never really told anyone, I just let it sit there. Then as I would go through my day in and out I noticed I was constantly looking at the site, if not in real life, in my head, and I came to realize I didn't like it! What? Why? I had worked so hard on the site re-design and as I was doing it I felt really good about. But then that nasty entrepreneurship, solo guy going at it alone little flaw crept in-I was having self-doubt. Was this the site I really wanted? Could it be better? Was I missing something?

I also asked myself the biggest question of all-why didn't I tell anyone about this re-launch? Why did I just change the site?

Well I thought about this lots and I think I knew all along that I was not happy with the site therefore I just did it and didn't "put it out there". I find it amazing what our minds can do to us. I spent that whole 2 weeks that the first re-design was up second guessing myself to the point where I got very little sleep. I think I was right in second guessing myself as I think this version of the website is much more attune to the type of site and work that I do.

I am fascinated though that without thinking about it or being strategic that before this launch I made a big hubbub about it. I was so excited to unveil this site to the world and to see how people would react.

Why was I so proud of this one and not the other? I'm not 100% sure about the answer but all I know is that I think there is something in an entrepreneur that just tells you-"this is right".

Every now and again you just find a groove and you believe. So this is the point of this post-even when everything feels wrong and you're not quite sure about anything hold onto trust and belief. Trust in your own capabilities and believe that you can pull through.

Although this was just a little website re-design it was a big reminder for me. Entrepreneurs are stubborn, me included. And sometimes even the guy who is giving advice to others needs to listen to his own head. I had to relax and just believe that eventually something good would come. The piece I wrote about self-doubt just a couple of weeks ago certainly played into my head on this one and I didn't even realize it (hmmm....maybe that's another reason why I wrote that post).


Have you ever found yourself second-guessing yourself on even the smallest of details? What have you second guessed yourself about? How did you come through it?

Doubt in Entrepreneurship

Lately I have been dealing with several clients who are going through the stages of doubt. This is not abnormal by any stretch of the imagination as these clients are all striving to become entrepreneurs.

It is both my experience personally and my experience as a coach that almost every entrepreneur goes through this at some point in their career. For some this little bit of doubt may in fact never leave them. As a matter of fact I have been working with one lady who has been in business now for 5 years and because she does not have any formal training in her field she believes that she is just not truly an expert.

My thoughts on this are as follows: a little bit of doubt is GREAT for entrepreneurs. If you are not doubting yourself and your business then you are not evolving. If you are not evolving then someone else and some other business is going to eat you up as they grow and expand.

On the flip side, too much doubt can really knock you back. The trick is to make sure that you are continually showing yourself and reminding yourself that there are at least a few things that you are doing EXTREMELY well! This strength again does not have to be anything big but if you can find a few small things each week that you are doing better than anyone else you are doing well. If you can continue to talk yourself through the hard times with past good times then you will come out on the other side of doubt a much stronger person.

Remember there are no SURE things in life. There is no 'given' path in life, sure some paths are easier than others but you are an entrepreneur, you are meant to make life difficult, you are meant to solve challenges, and no one ever said that would be easy work.

thePULSE in Ottawa

Last night was the second night of the first ever Canadian PULSE. It was spent laughing, solving,  and some amazing brainstorming around various challenges that people all over Ontario are having. thePULSE is an opportunity for entrepreneurial people to come together and talk about their challenges and their opportunities. Then for almost 1 full hour the full group of 12 plus myself from Creativision step in to help brainstorm ideas and unstick or in some cases motivate the entrepreneurial minded person to start moving.

Last night we also had the chance to interview one of the participants in the group and it was so wonderful to hear some of the responses he had to give. When asked what the difference was between thePULSE and any other networking event the response was that thePULSE bring the human side to this thing we call business. This absolutely warmed my heart. As an entrepreneur myself I have always struggled with the notion that I have to go at this alone and I alone have to be a hero. I have to be the accountant, I have to be the manager, I have to be the visionary, I just have to be so many damn things to so many different people it can be overwhelming. The interview shed light on exactly what my vision for thePULSE is---allow other business people to come together, talk, share, capture, and shape each others stories. 

On a final note there was one more thing that happened at thePULSE that was magnificent to watch. Near the end of the group session people banded together to talk about how they could work together to help each other in new ways that they had never tried before-ie: forming a blogging group, forming a website design support group, and other ideas. This was music to my ears-such talk of collaboration and camaraderie is what thePULSE is supposed to be. I have loved every minute of both of the groups and I can only say that this is going to get better! 

Oh and how could I forget after the evening was over I got talking to two students who were helping me and they saw a vision that I had also seen. This kind of event where people are given free reign and permission to talk about themselves and listen to what others have to say would work for students as well. thePULSE is something that I think will help almost anyone looking for answers. My hope is that as we grow thePULSE that students will begin to start their own groups and begin to talk about their next steps be it high school students talking about what universities to go to? where to live? what to take? or be it university students looking to share their fears about the work world? or money problems. I am loving where this group is going and I am getting tons of energy. 

The second group of thePULSE in Ottawa will be taking place soon and once the introductory date for group 2 is set I will make sure and let everyone know. In the meantime a PULSE event is slotted to occur in Cornwall, On and I am looking very forward to that. 

If you would like to find out more about thePULSE, how we operate, and what it is all about please do not hesitate to give me a call or read a little bit about it in this initial PULSE flyer:

Welcome

Alright so it has been a while since I have blogged and this is the latest and now the only Blog I will be writing on. I have been working with entrepreneurs for quite some time both facilitating their learning and coaching them through some decisions. It has been a lot of fun but it occurred to me the other day that perhaps it was ironic that I was telling them the benefits of blogging and that I myself was not engaged in it.

I am hoping that this blog will be a place for me to continue to gather, shape, and share the stories of the tens of thousands of people I meet each and every year. I hear inspiring stories of entrepreneurs, athletes, students, executives, and all kinds of interesting people that I find inspiring so hopefully you will as well.