Begin the work...
Creativity is a verb sandwiched between nouns.
Creativity is sometimes seen as a genetic trait passed down from artistic parents to their offspring. You either got it or you don't. I believe that for us to unlock the productivity buried inside of us, we need to demystify the creative process. Maybe you've heard these sentences come out of your own mouth:
"I'm not creative."
"I wasn't born with that ability."
"Creativity is not something I'm good at."
I don't believe these tripes. These are excuses used to absolve ourselves from the responsibility creative work demands. I'm a firm believer creativity is not genetically passed down, but is a basic human trait. Creativity is what separates us from all other mammals -- the ability to look at an obstacle, conceptualize a solution, and deliver a way out, but somewhere in early development we stalled out and became apathetic or ignorant to the work needed to sustain creative output. It's time to reframe our thinking.
Creativity is a skill and we need to think about it as we do any other competence. Creativity needs to be honed by practice, failure, time, and progression. The artist was once an amateur, the musician was once a pupil, and the builder was once an apprentice. Framing creativity as a skill moves it away from the realm of ideas and dreams and into reality . Creativity is found in movement. It is the verb within the story.
What is creativity but envisioning a future scene and bringing it to life? Can creativity be labeled if there was not something deposited? Must there be an artifact of the creativity?
What is creativity without delivery? A dream? An idea?
Creativity is seeing something not yet seen and building something visible.
Creativity is feeling something not yet felt and manifesting something touchable.
Creativity is hearing something not yet heard and recording something audible.
Creativity is a verb sandwiched between nouns.
The artist paints pictures. The musician plays a song. The writer types stories. The architect manipulates spaces. The builder constructs a house. The developer codes experiences. The designer iterates patterns. The newcomer begins the work.
I feel the most alive when I am building my own dreams, writing my own stories and painting my own scene. I'm more comfortable in the verb than with the noun.
Begin your great work by first getting comfortable in the verb, because only in the verb can others observe you as the noun.
Sam DuRegger Founder, Begin the work, LLC [beginthework.com] (http://beginthework.com)