“Creativity is one of the last remaining legal ways of gaining an unfair advantage over the competition.”—Ed McCabe
LOOP THOUGHT EXPERIMENT
Imagine if your entire life was an endless one-hour loop until you died.
What would you fill your hour with? Maybe you’d choose to eat a tasty sandwich, watch a short episode of your favorite show, and chat with your friend. Then it all repeats. You’d experience the same thing repeating every hour, 24 times every day. At first, you’ll feel fine, but eventually, the sandwich will lose its luster, the show will be too predictable, and the conversation will bore you.
The lack of change will soon become mind-numbing, and you lose track of time in the repetitiveness of it all. After a few months, this loop will become your new normal, but you’ll feel completely empty. You’ll question the purpose of life. What started as an hour of enjoyment quickly turned into a life of misery. You’d give anything to take a key that would free you from this endless trap.
Let’s bring this thought experiment to reality. The effect a looping hour has on you is the same effect a looping day has on you. Unfortunately, we live in a world where living the same day over and over is the norm. Wake up. Eat. Work. Eat. Work. Eat. Relax. Sleep. Repeat.
But that is the norm. It almost seems like your entire life has led up to this moment. You went to school, followed the rules, and passed those tests because that’s what you were told you were supposed to do to become a contributing member of society. Then you reached the goal they told you to pursue. You moved into your new house, landed your dream job, and settled into a routine. The first few months of this lifestyle probably felt invigorating. I mean, you made it, right?
But over time, just like the effects of a looping hour, you get lost in the sameness of your days. You start to feel like you’re operating on autopilot. You wake up at the same time as yesterday. You mindlessly drive to work. You interact with the same people. You eat one of the few meals you typically eat. You take a shower and get dressed for bed. Soon, the only thing that excites you is the novelty of the content you consume—news, streaming services, and social media feeds. This cycle makes you lose track of time. Multiple days blend into one. Then into weeks, then months, and, before you know it, years fly by. Eventually, you lose yourself.
Many of us are trapped in this endless loop. Some of us have been in it so long that we don’t even notice it. “It’s just life,” we tell ourselves. Everyone around us is doing it, so it feels like the way of life. Nobody questions it. But for a second, ignore what everyone else is doing with their lives and ask yourself: I know I am alive, but am I really living?
If you yearn to break free from this cycle, I have a gift for you. It’s a key that can unlock the days in your life, allowing them all to be novel.
That key is called creativity.
EVERYDAY CREATIVITY
When it comes to creativity, we often think of artists, musicians, or writers. However, drop your paint brushes, mics, and pens because creativity is not limited to those fields alone.
The Encyclopedia of Creativity by Mark A. Runco and Steven R. Pritzker covers a concept called Everyday Creativity that expands the standard definition of creativity to touch all aspects of our lives. Painting, building products, dancing, or singing don’t classify Everyday Creativity. Instead, it’s the creativity that flows through the originality of your day-to-day life. It’s demonstrated in how you raise your kids, garden your plants, cook a meal, or even choose an outfit.
Everyday Creativity is typically undervalued and unnoticed, yet it’s one of the most practical ways to exercise your creativity. Instead of reserving creative thinking to specific activities, you can apply it to your personal life, too.
THE DEMAND FOR CREATIVITY
According to a LinkedIn report, the number one soft skill employers look for is, you guessed it, creativity. That’s because, over the last couple of years, top companies have shifted their views on creativity. So why the change of heart?