Living in a creative way, makes us live better. You will see it at the end of this post and as applying little by little what you will see here you will fall in love with this lifestyle because I promise you that you will be a better human being, mother, wife, and citizen.
Remember, if we work in a creative business, creativity is our best asset. We must take care of it, train it, and keep it alive.
And if it is not your job, but your hobby, it is also important that you can be your most creative version so that you can do many beautiful things that fill your heart.
For me creativity is in everything we do. We must be creative for everything, including cooking, sending lunch boxes to our children, organizing our day to day. Share quality time with our love ones and ourselves.
Did you know that you already have all the creative skills that you need?
My approach is to live the life you live from the awareness of your creative potential, to fear less difficulties, to trust more in your options, to ultimately allow yourself to dare to create the life you want to create.
I fully trust and believe that all human beings are creative.
So, my number one tip to boost your creativity is to stay away from technology. Go back to writing, to manual, to taking notes in a notebook, to drawing, to painting, to meeting more with people instead of talking on the phone, of course, as much as you can. I understand that many of us are far from our families, but look for friends, talk to your neighbor, look for relationships. They are good for our brain.
Practicing manual or “old” activities, such as going for a walk outside, drawing, painting, writing by hand, playing cards, talking with a friend, even singing in the shower, are things that help us stimulate our brain. And one that I love, driving. Going out for a drive with loud music I love, and sometimes, I realized this while I made my trip in the RV, that feeling in movement made me have new ideas.
Second, let’s define art and craft, let’s see, we are going to take into account two things: art is the concept that encompasses all the creations made by the human being to express a sensitive vision about the world, whether real or imaginary. And crafting or crafts is the ability to create objects by hand, resulting in a work.
What does this mean? That crafting is the way, the work to get to art. Both are abilities, one of execution and the other of observation. There is no art without work, art is the result, and why do I define this? Because I want you to know that nothing comes from nothing. Everything has a job and it is very well defined.
The third point I want you to keep in mind is: Overcome fear. Trust yourself. Don’t look for perfectionism. And less at the beginning, things are not going to look good the first time you do them, remember, crafting, or handicrafts, is a job, and therefore, it requires practice, patience, and persistence to achieve a result that you like. And remember, “pretty” is subjective. For you it may be something beautiful and for others it may not. Learn to trust yourself, and that brings me to the third tip, which is
Get inspired daily. This way you will refine your eye, you will have more ideas, you will have better results. Every day I spend about 20-30 minutes just “looking” things on the Internet. I love this time because it is a bit of what we like, which is “seeing” little things on social networks, but this time with a better purpose. Let’s inspire, nurture ourselves, just as you don’t go to the bank, and take money out of an account in which you haven’t deposited, likewise, you can’t get new ideas from a brain that isn’t full of them.
5. Playing is important. This is the hardest thing of all hahahaha, at least for me. I don’t know if it’s the same for them, but it’s hard for me to play as a little girl, and disconnect from the real world, as if there were no time, no responsibilities, or anything that matters more than the character I have in my hand, and “if the dinosaur is angry, or how will you escape from that castle”.
It is one of the most challenging things about motherhood, in my personal case. And if I didn’t have children, it would be even more difficult. But you know? The results I have achieved when I do it (and if you do it you will know it), are INCREDIBLE. I feel much more relaxed, less burdened. Because in reality, I have no responsibility, I don’t have things to finish or anyone who depends on me, even for 15 minutes. That is VERY GOOD to our creativity.
Get out of the role of victim. We love (I include myself) to think that if he had better conditions, he would do such a thing, or if he were like such another person, he could be more, fill in the blank.
The truth is that we are free to be what we want. But we don’t realize it. We don’t need that extra time, those materials, that space to create, or whatever it is that you are putting in the way of not letting your imagination out.
When we start being more responsible for our microdecisions (like grabbing a blank sheet of paper and drawing something instead of comparing ourselves to the people on Instagram) everything changes. We go from “poor little me”, “it’s just that I”, to “Let me try this”, “I don’t have this but I can try this”, and so on.
Let’s continue. I love this. Creativity is not an exclusive circle. It is not that you are or you are not. It’s not that “I don’t belong to the group of creatives”. Creativity is for everyone.
Each in her own authenticity, with his own style. Free. Creativity frees us, and you will discover it as you write more, draw more, let go more. I promise.
Seven. Be careful how you use your time. As I said before, you can use those extra minutes you have by taking a sheet and drawing or scrolling down in social media, or getting inspired by intentionally seeking inspiration.
You can choose to stay in bed just thinking the worst scenarios that could happen (this is me haha), or you can choose to work on that project you want to do, after the kids fall asleep, and you fall asleep in front of the computer, or at the table.
Keep the unicorn alive, keep the spaceship alive, keep your inner little girl alive. I heard this in a BBVA talk AND I LOVED IT! We no longer believe in unicorns, nor in astronauts. Stop believing takes the magic out of EVERYTHING. I tell my kids at Christmas. If you stop believing, the magic goes away. And that is life. If you stop believing, the magic will go away. And it will take with it your innocence to create things that don’t exist, your illusion of believing that everything is possible.
Number 9. Don’t be afraid of multitasking. Human multitasking is the concept that one can divide one’s attention on more than one task or activity at the same time, such as talking on the phone while driving. I know that in the early 2000s, it was very famous concept, and the more things you could do at the same time, the more “productive”, the better.
Now, there is a wave trying to demonize it because it is said that it can result in wasted time due to human context switching and become error prone due to insufficient attention.
But this, for creatives, IS THE BEST thing that can happen to us. Having the freedom to open a project, and close it to start another (or have both open lol) is VERY IMPORTANT. It is not possible, IT IS NOT POSSIBLE, to finish something, and then, and only then, start something else.
Eleven, or I don’t know, I already lost count. Next… I’m not telling you to think outside the box, I’m telling you to get used to living OUTSIDE OF THE BOX, and change it from time to time. The same as the previous topic, you can neither get out of the box, nor think outside it, nor inside it. LOL
The boxes are endless, of different colors, sizes, purposes. Drop in and out of what you want, when you want. Think conservative when it suits you and not so much when it doesn’t. Break it if necessary. Or have none.
Be free, creative, you. Authentic, at your ease. With tools, empowered.
“Park” your ideas. Take a notebook. I learned this from the book “Steal like an artist”, and you don’t know how having my robbery notebook has helped me, as Austin Kleon says, the author of this book, which by the way, I highly recommend it to you, it is a short book and practical but very condensed and precise about creativity. The name is “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon. I got used to having a small notebook in my bag and wherever I go I take ideas, “STEAL” but like an artist. To give you an example, the other day I was sitting in a room and the carpet of the place inspired me. They were many oval lines that did not follow any pattern. Some were pastels, then black interrupted, then red, then more pastels, and so on.
Make powerful microdecisions. With powerful questions. Again, instead of looking at Instagram for 10 minutes, maybe it would help you to get up from your chair and walk outside the house for a while, or read a little bit of that book you want, or maybe if you want to look at Instagram, but what It’s your decision, once I understood that EVERYTHING that happens in my day is the product of my decisions, even those 10-minute micros. We do not realize it, and that is why it is important to pause, breathe, think, that makes us get off the wheel and be able to see things more clearly.
Be perseverant. Steve Jobs once said “I am convinced that the only thing that separates successful entrepreneurs from those who have failed is perseverance”
And I agree, and not only do I agree, but I think that applies to everything else, too. Persevering is an act of courage that brings us closer to our dreams, even the simplest, the smallest. That for me they are all important, because making my son 3D letters for his birthday (for example) is not just a project, for me, it is a dream, and it requires all the stages that any other big and ambitious dream requires.
Rest, eat well, hydrate. and you already know how to do this.
I hope this post helps you live better, and if you want to delve into all this creativity, I invite you to my online school. I leave you the link with all the information here, just CLICK HERE!
