So very often when encouraging moms to craft with their kids or cultivate a hobby of their own, I hear reluctant words like: “But I’m not creative. I can barely draw a stick figure, and my five-year old paints better than I do!”
And the thing is, I get it. Because just a few years ago I was on that same team–making those same claims.
I started out creative—as most of us do—spending my early years sitting on my grandma’s kitchen counter stirring bread dough in her giant green Tupperware bowl, watercolor painting to the click-click sound of her old typewriter, watching my grandpa dissect and then reassemble old cuckoo clocks, building block castles, making playdough with my mom, and using my birthday money to choose a new box of crayons over other toys.
But by high school I sat back and watched friends take art classes, guitar lessons, and participate in drama club—and just wished for the courage to join them.
Creativity was for “talented people” I thought, and so I privately doodled and daydreamed while taking “practical” classes and working at an after-school waitressing job.
After college I started teaching elementary school and once surrounded by the fresh perspective of first graders, some of those deeply buried creative desires began to unroot. With six-year olds as my congregation, it was safe to let creative yearnings emerge and I continuously searched for ways to supplement the core curriculum with innovative teaching methods and artistic projects. They were my safest critics, and most enthusiastic fans!
When I left the classroom to become a full-time mom, I spent many of those early days taking my newborn to the craft store for an afternoon of reading creative magazines and picking out pretty scrapbooking papers. And then while nursing the little bundle I’d just co-created, I’d devour graphic design tutorials to learn Photoshop and fill my newly awakened desire to create.
Yet, it took many years to say I was “creative.”
It seems the default to feel if we’re not expertly trained, earning a full-time income from art, or “abundantly blessed” with that “creative gene,” that we can’t claim a creative title. And so we minimize ourselves and our abilities, cheating ourselves from owning that we (simply because we are living, breathing, human beings) are creative.
I’m saying this because I believe inside every one of us is a spark of creativity. And we all have that creative potential because we were made in the image of the ultimate Creator. We were made to be like Him.
So if you feel you’re not creative, I invite you to consider why you feel that way.
Is there an experience, or series of experiences that influenced these thoughts?
And maybe you really aren’t creative—right now. But do you want to be?
By divine design, if deep within each of us is the inherent ability to create, maybe your ability just needs more development.
My perspective and opinion about my own creativity has evolved over the years. It took learning to kick aside creative fear, recognizing the deep sense of fulfillment creation brings me, and learning to trust my creative instincts. But mostly, it developed through practice.
Because the more I engage in creative activities, the more creative I become. And the more creative I become, the more connected I feel to that divine quality implanted inside my soul.
If you were to spend an hour each day working on something creative, where do you think you could you be in three or five years? If you did something creative every day (even for just a few minutes!), it would be impossible not to get better.
So if creativity is something you crave, listen to and trust your creative sixth sense, and go practice. Now. You owe it to the world, your family, and yourself.
I really needed this article tonight!!!! Thank you so much!!!
I used to think I wasn’t creative because I don’t paint, or draw or anything along those lines. But my creativity is shown best in my writing. I can express my creativity that way. The more I write/journal the more I express my creative side.
Thanks for sharing Pam!
I have always been a creative person. I am thankful to my mom who allowed us to rearrange the furniture, use chalk on the floors and walls and allowed me to play “school” with the rest of my eight brothers and sisters (I think she saw me as her babysitter) and put up my brother’s green army sheets to play “camp-out” in the living room. It certainly helps develop creative problem solving skills in all areas of my life.
I have always been creative in one way or another. I was the only one in my family for years that was even the least bit creative, and there are six of us! I am still the only one that does anything really creative still. My dad was artistic, but my mom loved to read and that was about the end of what she enjoyed doing. She did eventually learn to knit enough to make two of her grandchildren sweaters.
I always loved to sew, decorate and cook and as I’ve gotten older I enjoy all of that even more than ever.
Have a wonderful day!
I have always considered myself creative. However, over the years I have realized there are pockets of time that has not been the case, and I can directly associate that with being boxed into a creative stifling atmosphere of daytime work! Those experiences have made it easy for me to see why so many people don’t think they are creative.
Children love to learn and try new things, but at some point they begin to feel the fear of what others will think and say. Sadly, some people stay in that mode the rest of their life.
It’s important to see that many things we enjoy in life are full of color and design, and be able to translate that into realizing that the beauty we enjoy around us is that creative spark, that can be fanned into a flame! Our current age of online video has made it easy to learn things we may be interested in in trying. Art journaling is popular and a great way to try new techniques in a personal way! Nobody has to see what you do, and you get the opportunity to practice and play!
I think it is so wonderful that so many hand and needle crafts are being rediscovered and allowing a perfectly acceptable form of creative expression for many. Just picking out yarn for a particular project is actually a creative process! Everybody — get there and try something today!
I too, consider myself to be creative. but that wasn’t always the case. My brother was the artist growing up and while I liked to sew and knit and play musical instruments somehow I didn’t associate that with being an artist. Shortly before my husband and I were married I attended a Career Path seminar during which it was pointed out to me how passionate I became when I talked about interior design. I’m a Libra so love beauty and order. I guess it’s natural that creating beauty and order around me lit my inner fire! I set out on a path to pursue a career in the arts and haven’t looked back since. The scrapbooking was an after thought to be honest. Something to fill my time until I could devote myself fully to design. What a happy accident!! I now consider myself as both creative AND and artist. And I know that anyone can become the same!!
Thanks for sharing this!
@Alison Day, Thanks for sharing your story! That’s so cool that you discovered your natural creativity through a career seminar! And it’s even more awesome that you took the advice and set out to build a career in it. I think so many people (including me!) are afraid to follow their creative passions because it doesn’t seem practical, or monetizing. But if you can do something you love, and make money, it’s definitely the best of both worlds!
I do consider myself creative. And I’ve noticed that becoming more creative in one area makes me more creative in all areas.
As with most “gifts,” I think that there are some who are endowed with more natural creativity than others (just as some people can sing on key and others — like me — will never be on the stage with Celine Dion!).
But we can nurture our creativity and grow it and improve, just as we can become better singers (or in my case, slightly less bad singers. LOL!).
@Lain, Yes! You said it perfectly. And I agree and can see in my case, as I’ve “nurtured” my creative interests, I’ve become more creative and the perspective shift has come.