Honor Your Creativity

Many years ago, I saw a movie entitled 'The Last of
Sheila', starring James Coburn, Dyan Cannon, James Mason,
to name just a few. I love mysteries and I still remember
this as one of the best I've ever seen. The overall mystery
was very enjoyable and the individual puzzles were finely
crafted and quite ingenious.

What really struck me about this movie, however, is the fact
that it was written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony
Perkins.

Sondheim is a composer, famous for the score to 'West Side
Story'. Anthony Perkins was an actor, famous for his role
in 'Psycho'. It seemed to me that these two were very
lucky. Not only were they creative to the point of
celebrity in one area, here they were exhibiting genius in a
whole other arena.

I was also awed on a recent trip to San Francisco. Across
the street from our hotel was an art gallery that was
displaying the work of actors Anthony Quinn and Tony
Curtis. Much of the work in this gallery was done in the
past ten years or so and was incredibly bold. If both of
these individuals had focused on their art, they still would
have become famous. Again, I was struck by how creative some
people allow themselves to be. They didn't put stoppers on
their creativity, allowing it to spill over into an entirely
different sphere.

Between these two events I realized that I have come to a
different understanding about creativity. When I first saw
'The Last of Shiela', I thought creativity was something
of a 'have or have-not' situation. Either you had it (and
then you had a LOT of it), or you didn't have any at all.
Indeed, for many years, I was positive I fit into the
'none at all' category. I also thought it was restricted
to the 'creative' arts such as drawing, painting,
sculpture, etc.

Today I know that creativity is something that everyone
has, just like the ability to run. Both are on a continuum
of expression and excellence. If creativity is a straight
line with going from Point A to Point Z, we all fall
somewhere along that line. Mozart, Michaelangelo and
Olympic gold medalist Michael Johnson might have ended up at
Point Z, but that was because they recognized their talent
and did a lot of work to develop their skill.

According to Linda Naiman, of www.creativityatwork.com, the
belief that only special, talented people are creative --
and you have to be born that way -- diminishes our
confidence in our own creative abilities. She goes on to say
that the notion that geniuses such as Shakespeare, Picasso
and Mozart were `gifted' is a myth.

In a study Naiman references, conducted at Exeter
University, researchers examined outstanding performances in
the arts, mathematics and sports, to find out if the
widespread belief that to reach high levels of ability a
person must possess an innate potential called talent. The
study concludes that excellence is determined by
opportunities, encouragement, training, motivation, and most
of all, practice.

According to Webster's Dictionary, creativity is 'marked
by the ability or power to create - to bring into
existence, to invest with a new form, to produce through
imaginative skill, to make or bring into existence
something new.' So, where do you allow your creativity and
excellence to come through? Where do you find yourself
saying 'Let's try to put this with that and see what
happens?' What activities bring you joy? What activities
make you feel connected to lots of other pieces of yourself
and others? What activities bring you a strong sense of
accomplishment and achievement? These are most likely the
areas where we express our creativity.

It is vital that each one of us recognize that spark of
creativity, nurture it and allow it to grow. You are
creative; you just might not have figured out where yet.
Honor your creativity. It is a critical component in
achieving the life of your dreams.