I've never really understood when people say, “I'm just not a creative person.” I get what they mean, they can't draw, they don't write, they don't make music, and if you handed them a blank canvas they wouldn't know where to start. But I think we've made creativity way too small. It isn't really about making art. It's about seeing something differently, and that's a skill you can practice and get better at, whether or not you've ever picked up a paintbrush.

Same House, Different Room

I see it constantly in my job. I sell mortgages, which is not exactly where you'd expect to find a room full of creative types debating their process. But think about something as simple as a house.

A buyer walks through the front door and starts imagining a life there, where the couch goes, whether that weird little room could work as an office, what mornings would feel like, whether there's enough space for everybody. Their agent is standing in the same room seeing something else entirely: does this actually fit what the buyer said they wanted, is it priced right, what did the house three streets over sell for. Then it gets to me, and I'm looking at the monthly payment, cash to close, reserves, what this house does to the rest of their budget. Somewhere behind me a lender is asking a much less romantic question: are we getting our money back. An investor might see a return. A builder might look at the empty lot next door and see another house. An architect might walk into that same weird little room everyone else hates and know exactly what to do with it.

Same house. Nobody moved a wall. But depending on who's standing in the room, it's a home, a transaction, a budget, or a risk.

That's creativity. Not the paintbrush, the perspective. The ability to look at something that's already there and ask what else it could be.

The Lens You Forgot You Were Holding

Once I started thinking about creativity that way, I noticed how often I do the opposite. I decide something just is the way it is. My mornings are always crazy. I'm stuck in this role. We never have enough time on the weekends. That's just how the industry works. Maybe. Or maybe I've been staring at the problem through the same lens for so long I forgot I was holding one at all.

So change it. Take something in your life that feels fixed and look at it like you're not you. What would a teacher notice about it? What would your kid notice? What would someone who has no idea “how it's always been done” notice walking in cold? You don't need a brilliant answer. The point is just getting out of the seat you've been sitting in.

Creativity isn't reserved for people who make things. Sometimes it's just moving your chair, and seeing what the room looks like from over there.

My question for you: what's a problem you're stuck on right now that might just need a new perspective? Hit reply and tell me. I read every one.

— Ricky