When most people hear the word creativity, they picture paintbrushes, poetry readings, or symphonies played in grand halls. Creativity, for many, lives in the realm of artists, musicians, and designers—something you either “have” or “don’t.” But creativity is far more expansive than that. It is not just a talent but a way of seeing and moving through the world. When we begin to view creativity as a mindset rather than a single act of making, it becomes a practice anyone can embrace—whether or not they’ve ever touched a canvas.
The Narrow Lens of Creativity
I grew up believing creativity belonged to a select few. In school, “creative” kids were the ones who could sketch lifelike portraits or perform lead roles in the school play. If you weren’t good at art class or couldn’t hold a tune, you weren’t considered creative. That belief stuck with me well into adulthood—until I started noticing how much creativity lived quietly in other places.
My grandmother, for instance, never thought of herself as an artist. She couldn’t draw a stick figure. But she could take the most mismatched pantry ingredients and turn them into a delicious, comforting meal. She could patch clothes so invisibly you’d never know they’d been torn. Her creativity wasn’t on a stage—it was in her resourcefulness, in her ability to solve problems and create beauty in daily life.
Creativity as a Way of Seeing
At its core, creativity is about connecting things that don’t appear to go together, reframing problems, and imagining new possibilities. It’s less about producing something beautiful and more about cultivating curiosity and playfulness in the way we think.
Consider the entrepreneur who looks at a common inconvenience—say, tangled charging cables—and invents a simple, elegant solution. Or the teacher who transforms a dry history lesson into a game so her students actually look forward to class. These are acts of creativity just as much as a sculpture or symphony might be.
Creativity begins with noticing. The artist notices how light hits the corner of a building at sunset, but the same attention can help an engineer spot an inefficiency in a workflow or a parent sense when their child needs connection over correction. When you train yourself to see differently, you train yourself to create differently.
The Mindset of the Creative
So what does it mean to live creatively? Psychologists and creativity researchers often point to a set of attitudes and behaviors rather than just skills. Creative people—whether they are artists, scientists, or everyday problem-solvers—tend to share several traits:
- Curiosity: They ask questions, even inconvenient ones.
- Openness: They allow for ambiguity and are willing to explore unfamiliar paths.
- Playfulness: They experiment, knowing not everything has to “work.”
- Resilience: They keep iterating when things don’t go as planned.
Living with a creative mindset means letting these traits guide your day-to-day decisions. It’s choosing to look for more than one solution to a problem, or taking the long way home just to see what you might discover.
Storytelling: Small Moments of Creativity
When I first began working from home, I struggled with feeling disconnected and uninspired. My days felt repetitive, almost mechanical: coffee, computer, dinner, bed. One morning, I decided to rearrange my workspace just to see if it might change the way I felt. I put my desk near a window, brought in a few plants, and added a small corkboard for ideas.
That tiny change did more than brighten my office—it sparked a cascade of other small experiments. I started writing one “micro-story” a day, just 100 words, about something I noticed outside my window. Some days it was about the neighbor’s cat perched like royalty on the fence; other days, the play of clouds over the rooftops.
Soon, I wasn’t just rearranging furniture. I was rearranging how I approached problems. My projects felt lighter, my solutions more imaginative. I wasn’t waiting for inspiration to strike; I was creating the conditions for it to visit.
Everyday Creativity in Action
Let’s look at how creativity can show up in everyday life:
- In the kitchen: Swapping ingredients to create a meal when you’re “out of everything” is creative problem-solving.
- At work: Designing a new way to present data so your team actually engages with it is a creative act.
- In relationships: Finding a playful way to defuse tension with a partner or friend is an act of relational creativity.
- In personal growth: Journaling to uncover hidden beliefs and then reframing them is creativity applied to your inner life.
By broadening your definition of creativity, you give yourself permission to recognize how often you are already practicing it—and to practice it more deliberately.
Barriers to Living Creatively
If creativity is available to everyone, why do so many of us feel disconnected from it? There are common barriers:
- Perfectionism: The belief that creativity must result in something impressive.
- Time Pressure: Feeling too busy to pause, experiment, or daydream.
- Fear of Judgment: Worrying about what others will think of your ideas.
These barriers can be softened with gentle shifts. Set a timer for 10 minutes of “creative play” each day where no one has to see what you make. Redefine success as showing up, not producing brilliance. Allow space for mess and iteration.
Practices to Invite Creativity
Here are some simple ways to cultivate creativity as a mindset:
- Keep a curiosity journal: Write down questions that pop into your head, no matter how random.
- Change one thing a day: Move an object, take a different route, try a new word in conversation.
- Collect inspiration: Save images, quotes, or sounds that spark something in you—without the pressure to “use” them.
- Play with constraints: Give yourself limitations (write a poem in six words, cook with three ingredients) to push inventive thinking.
- Allow for stillness: Many breakthroughs arrive when your mind is at rest—during a walk, a shower, or a quiet moment before bed.
Creativity as a Lifelong Practice
Creativity is not a one-time event but a practice we can deepen over time. When we approach life as something we are actively shaping—not just passively consuming—it becomes richer. Challenges turn into puzzles. Mundane tasks turn into rituals.
One of the most beautiful parts of living creatively is that it ripples outward. When you embody curiosity and playfulness, you invite others to do the same. Your coworkers may feel encouraged to share their unconventional ideas. Your children may feel safe to explore their own.
Final Thoughts
When we expand the definition of creativity beyond art, we free it from the gallery and bring it into the kitchen, the office, the street corner, and the quiet corners of our own minds. Creativity becomes a lens we can wear every day, shaping how we work, connect, and grow.
You don’t have to be a painter to live creatively. You just have to be willing to notice, imagine, and experiment—again and again. Creativity is not just something we do; it is a way of being fully alive.
If you’d like to explore this more deeply, our guide on Creativity as a Way of Living: Making Space for Expression offers gentle practices for creative presence.
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