I did not always think of myself as a creative person.
I thought of myself as a strategy person. The person who comes up with plans, strategies,tactics and implementation procedures. I always thought of creative people as having to do with something aesthetic. Something attractive. Something pretty.
In 1994, I was sitting in a meeting with some executives from my team and a consultant when one of them made this statement after one of my suggestions. He said “You are pretty crafty”.
“Crafty” I thought. No one had ever used a term like that to describe me.
Then a breakthrough happened. I realized every thing I was coming up with, I was creating.
It didn’t matter if it were a report, a letter, a dinner or an opportunity, I was creating it. I realized I was a creator.
I realized something else.
There are two ways we can see ourselves in our lives, as a creator or a victim.
Victims are disempowered. Totally powerless against anything and everything. Things happen to a victim and they can’t change it.
Creators are empowered. They realize as a human being, they have the ability and power to change their circumstances and create the life they imagine. For one of my favorite examples of this, see the movie “The Persuit of Happiness” starring Will Smith in the real-life story of Chris Gardner. It will totally kill your favorite example or argument against my principle here. If anyone could have decided to be a victim it was Chris Gardner, but he choose to be relentless and create a better situation for himself.
Think about all the things in your life you have created. Sometimes we are proud and sometimes we are not so proud of the things we have created in our lives.
The main thing we have to remember is, we have the power of choice.
We can create.