Making Millions — Part II — Creative Flex

Building Your Creative Muscle

First things first, when we build our creative muscles, we transcend fear. Whoah. 

Here’s how you build that creative muscle: Sit with your fear long enough, you stop fearing failure. Then, when you approach a scary situation, you view it as a challenge to be overcome instead of a problem you have to accept.

Can you see how these simple shifts, that are actually without action or effort, are an effortless commitment to a creative process? You trust the outcome because you’re only gathering information until you overcome the problem. Everything becomes an experiment. No right or wrong, success or failure, but an interactive process of incremental improvement.

When you try to manipulate your environment to ensure a specific outcome, you limit your experience, and in doing so, judge it as right or wrong, good or bad, and again, narrow our options to this or that, and … the outcome sucks. I mean, that is a bit judgey, so let's say the outcome is not as expansive and opportunistic as a creative process allows. 

The single most influential factor in your success is: creativity.

This is why the key to growth, and I said it before, aka the single most influential factor in your success is: creativity. Flexing your creativity muscle is a totally different way of approaching fear. It goes without saying that creativity is where innovation is born. But have you ever thought, this idea won’t cut through the competition? Your creativity is uniquely you, and no one can compete with that. Authenticity, what makes you YOU, and you are innately creative. Creativity differentiates you from the competition. 

Creativity is also a commitment to continual improvement. Have you ever noticed how your creative projects are never “done”? This is because when you approach a project from a creative place, you never settle, you never define parameters or rules, you simply brainstorm, strategize, implement, and then you get better (and better). 

Creativity is an expansive process. you start to see how everything can be improved. The world is not a static, stagnant experience, but dynamic and in desperate need of change. If you can look at problems AS challenges, and you trust that there is always another (better) way, and if you stay curious, you will discover endless opportunities. 

Practicing creativity yields confidence (huzzah! Who wants to feel more confident?!?). Tom and David Kelly, from the d.School define Creative Confidence as “An inherently optimistic way of looking at what’s possible, improving on existing ideas and positively impacting the world around you.” Sounds pretty great right? Imagine what might shift in your life if you looked at everything through that lens of creative confidence? 

When you choose creativity, you shift into a growth mindset.

This is where you decide to lean into a little bit of practice and effort, add a dash of learning and experience, and discover your exponential potential. 

I’m sure you’ve tried to explain your new idea or pitched a proposal to that stick in the mud who just snorted back all the reasons your idea won’t fly? That’s a fixed mindset. This brain sees the world as stuck, and they perceive their reality as limited, where nothing changes. Simply smile and nod, because you two see and experience two completely different worlds, and they can’t see your vision *pat their little head*.

But here’s the great thing about Creative Confidence. Creative confidence enables you to overcome obstacles (especially the naysayers in your world). You can change direction easily! You take on even bigger challenges, because you trust you’ll persevere! You believe in possibility! You let go of the useless critics and seek helpful feedback! You release what isn’t working and longer. These choices give you resilience, and a <dare I say it> faith that you can face whatever comes your way.

Ok?, OK! I hear you say, I’m sold, creativity IS for ME but I’m just an <insert boring adjective here> so how or where do I even start with building creativity. Well friend, astounding <aforementioned boring adjective>, the fact you’re still reading this means you’re 1 in a million <adjectives> so, let's get clear on what you’re trying to do with your new commitment to creativity. Check out Part 3 for the “How To Train Your Creative Muscle.”Or listen to the Quantum Business Book Club Podcast here.