What is creativity?

and should I be brave enough to live beyond the box I keep myself in?

Being a creative person, I bring ideas, concepts, and images to life. This is a natural part of who I am and something I'm truly passionate about. It also brings with it a freedom of expression that not everyone is able to experience.

Incredibly, as wonderful as that sounds, I have been known to climb into the box of conformity and close the lid. On the one hand, I can take an idea and run with it as far as I can; I am able to experiment freely with techniques and materials, push the boundaries of design and ultimately have fun. On the other hand, I feel the need for acceptance, to fit in with the norm of what already exists. It is certainly a dichotomy and I would suggest I am not the only one to feel this way.

I am wondering if this is more to do with my introverted personality than anything else. The fact I don’t want to draw too much attention to myself would suggest this is the case. For years I self-sabotaged my businesses because I was actually afraid of becoming successful. It wasn’t a conscious decision to stand in my own way, but looking back that’s definitely what I was doing.

I would catastrophise the whole thing. The “what if’s” became the truth. What if nobody likes my products? What if someone steals my ideas? What if I receive negative feedback?

In response to my fear of success, I chose to stay within my comfort zone. I observed as others displayed the courage to pursue their visions and adapt to success, taking incremental steps forward.

I should point out that I wasn’t afraid of failing, I could handle that. I could pick my self up and start again, change what I needed to and move on. Failing wouldn’t require stepping outside of my comfort zone.

Ironically, these limitations can actually ignite my creativity and help me to move forward in a way that suits my personality.

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Embracing Constraints

Understanding the boundaries of the box I climb into helps me feel secure. It prevents me from attracting unnecessary attention to myself or what I create.

The balance between living outside the rules and knowing where the edges of the box are, is an art in itself. It's a dance between chaos and order, freedom and structure, and it's one that totally perplexes my husband! He doesn’t understand how I can be so creative in so many ways and yet be more conservative than him in others.

Embrace your own unique style of creativity, in or out of the box!

So, if you are an enigma too, embrace your own style of creativity, cherish your uniqueness, and let your imagination run wild.

Please feel free to leave a comment below and join the conversation.

Until next time…

Gaynor xx

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