Is Your Creative Life Spontaneous or Planned?

What does it take to have a creative lifestyle? A recent study found that only one in four people believe they are living up to their creative potential.

I’ve had the privilege of observing some of the most creative people in society: architects testing the limits of physics, singers making up and singing their own songs, dancers moving with total freedom, and painters who break every rule of color and perspective — and they are all being themselves!  Of course you can observe them too at any playground.  All preschoolers are living a creative life but what happens to us as we grow up?

Where Our Creativity is Discouraged

For many of us, our creativity is discouraged away as children. Our education socializes us but in the process of learning to fit in, our most valuable part, our uniqueness is pulled out of us.  While our creative sparks can be snuffed, the good news is that they are inborn in all of us and can’t be extinguished.

Today, as an artist and writer I have reclaimed my creative life and my freedom. My paintings have been exhibited internationally and the book I wrote Creative You has been launched by a major publisher. Now I see myself as living a creative life; however it wasn’t always like this.

With all the demands of being a student and then an entrepreneur, I didn’t have time for any of the creative activities that I loved as a child — so after many years without picking up a brush; I made a resolution to get back to painting.  I took one beginner watercolor class  after another and each instructor showed how to paint their way with their rules — but it wasn’t my way. I was discouraged by the criticism to do things their way and started to feel uncreative.

Your Creative Style and Your Personality Type

Then, the way I’ve learned to gain confidence to live a creative life was to discover a connection between our natural creative style and our personality type and this is what I’ve spent years researching with bestselling author and personality type expert Otto Kroeger. We found and it was evident just by looking at the different styles of the art teachers instructions that there are many different ways of being creative. Some asked the students to make preliminary sketches and choose their colors in advance, while others advocated their students to serendipitously follow their bliss.

Making art and being creative have no right or wrong ways and some people like to plan while others like to be spontaneous, both are valid. This is only the beginning of seeing how living a creative life is about knowing and being yourself.  By understanding our personality preferences we can all live a creative life in our own way. Instead of making the mistake of some of my art teachers and showing that there is only one ways to be creative, by understanding your personality type, you can find your own way!

To Boost Your Creativity

If you are a person who likes to plan:

• Choose ideas worth following
• Organizing materials
• Persisting to finish
• Managing resources.

If you are a spontaneous person:

• Staying flexible
• Encouraging curiosity
• Managing change
• Producing where there is no known outcome.

This is only one aspect of your personality type but it’s one where many people get blocked. If someone in your life discouraged you from thinking of yourself as creative, they were wrong! By knowing your personality type along with your lifetime of experiences, now is a perfect time to follow your passion and live a creative life. We all can have a second chance to live a creative life by using our uniqueness and following our passions.