Do you give yourself credit for your creativity? A lot of us don’t, including people you wouldn’t expect. You really should recognize your own creativity regularly—I’ll explain why in this short episode.
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Transcript
Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. Hey, everybody. This is Nancy Norbeck here with this week’s Creative Pep Talk. And I have just been to a Doctor Who convention this weekend, and I had the most interesting experience while I was there in many respects.
Nancy Norbeck [00:00:33]:
But I was talking to one of the guests, an actress who I will not name. And, you know, I was talking to her about what I do on this podcast. And at one point in the conversation, she said, well, I’m not really creative. Of all the things that I was expected to hear, that was not one of them because it’s also obviously not true. I mean, this is someone who has a career as an actress. She’s obviously creative. I don’t know what caused her to say that or think that, and I’m not going to attempt to come up with a reason because that’s not what I do. But it really, really struck me because I am used to people who live a so called ordinary life with an ordinary day job, you know, doing something that people don’t tend to think of as creative saying that they’re not.
Nancy Norbeck [00:01:28]:
Right? If you work as a secretary or, you know, doing data entry or even doing tech support, which is something that I used to do, and I know there that it’s incredibly creative, because problem solving by definition is. It’s really easy to think of yourself as not a creative person. Because a lot of us think that in order to be creative, we have to be doing something artistic. You know, we have to be painting or dancing or a photographer or writing a novel or a poet or something. The thing is it’s just not true. It is not true at all. Like I said, tech support is incredibly creative. Baking is incredibly creative.
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:10]:
You know, a lot of things that we do, I guarantee you you do at least a 100 creative things every day, and you just don’t think of them that way. Right? The reason I’m telling this story is that if someone who has an inherently creative occupation can think of herself as not creative. It’s just as a reminder that we all do this to ourselves all the time. We forget how creative we are. Human beings are by definition creative creatures. We can’t not be. It is how we are wired. Brene Brown talks about how we’re wired for story and so do plenty of other people, but she’s one of the first people that came to mind.
Nancy Norbeck [00:02:54]:
Story is inherently creative. We are problem solvers. There’s a reason why we have smartphones and our dogs don’t. It’s because human beings create things. So if you catch yourself thinking that you’re not creative, please remind yourself that that is just not true, and that seeing creativity is as much about acknowledging creativity in places where we don’t tend to think that it happens as it is about feeling that, you know, you have to be a poet. You have to be a singer. You have to be whatever. Now a lot of people do both of those, and that’s great.
Nancy Norbeck [00:03:36]:
But that doesn’t mean that the thing that they do that is not the artistic thing is not creative. I promise you, if you are able to listen to this podcast, you are creative by definition. Losing sight of your creativity, saying that you don’t have it, all of those things get in the way of experiencing it because we stop seeing ourselves that way. So remind yourself, I am creative. I am a human being, therefore, I am creative. As often as you need to. I guarantee you, it will help you to see yourself in a different light. It will help you to get more of your creative work done because when we think of ourselves as creative, we tend to create more.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:21]:
Funny how that works. And it’ll just give you a better outlook on life. So go try that out. Let me know how it goes or if you have questions. And with that, I will see you next creative process right now, join me at the spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage. It’s free, and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today. See you there, and see you next week.
Nancy Norbeck [00:04:59]:
Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade. If you like follow your curiosity, please subscribe, rate, and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And don’t forget to tell your friends. It really helps me reach new listeners.