Creativity for Growth

Synonyms: inventiveness, imagination, innovation, innovativeness, originality, individuality.

You may not equate growth with creativity; however, I think creativity is often the vehicle for growth.

I’ve been thinking about creativity quite a bit lately. I blogged about it over on my sister-site, The Unleashed Creative. Coincidentally, today is launch day for #The100DayProject.

What better way to incorporate more creativity into your life than by doing this project and having some accountability and motivation by the masses?!

I decided to incorporate my old flame (photography) with a gratitude practice I’ve wanted to do for quite some time. By taking little snippets of my life every day, I’m not only acknowledging something I’m grateful for but also being present in the moment. Today, it’s so easy to go about our day without pausing to be alone with our thoughts for even a few minutes.

Today, I was listening to a masterclass on the  Calm app about social media and screen addiction. Dr. Adam Alter,  a psychologist, and best-selling author leads the masterclass; sharing some staggering statistics. One being, 75% of phone users at any given time, can access their phone without having to move their feet. Also, a couple thousand phone users were asked to answer a survey and of the teens/adolescents that responded that when given the choice of either having their phone fall out of their pocket and shattering to pieces when it hits the ground or having a small bone broken in their hand, 46% said they’d prefer to have a bone in their hand broken. Ridiculous, right?

One point raised that I found interesting was that we don’t know how the screen generation (around 10-years-old now) will be as doctors, lawyers, or any profession for that matter. Why? There’s a face-to-face interaction necessary to those types of occupations and how can kids learn those skills when screen time is starting younger and younger. Are they learning how to interact with other humans?

You probably wondering what screen addiction has to do with creativity. The point I would like to add to the Dr.’s masterclass is this: creativity is taking a backseat when children (or even adults) are glued to a virtual world, social media, or the like.

Ever wonder why your best ideas or things to add to your to-do list or grocery list, come to you while you’re in the shower? It’s because it’s probably the only time of day you’re not buried in your phone or distracted. You’re alone – your thoughts allowed to flow free.

It’s also in boredom where we can let our minds go but how often do we lean into boredom rather than occupy every waking moment of silence/boredom. Being in an elevator, waiting in line, being in the shower, taking a walk outdoors, meditating, even running, are all opportunities for thoughts to flow – which often leads to an inspired idea, followed by creativity, then action.