What is Your Creative Output?

Leonardo Da Vinci was one of the most creative minds that ever lived. He designed mechanical contraptions, painted several masterpieces including the Mona Lisa and got involved in science and engineering innovations. He is the epitome of a creative person.

Photo Credit: mrsdkrebs (Creative Commons)

Although it's unlikely for most people to reach the level of creativity of a Leonardo Da Vinci, I believe most of us can and should strive to improve our creativity and the output that we produce as a result.

When we work to create, we force our minds to think. Of course, the opposite of that is when we stop creating our minds lie dormant without any stimulation. This eventually degrades the brain's capacity to think which further diminishes creativity. It's a vicious cycle that we shouldn't let happen to each of us.

Everybody Can Be Creative

Creating something good is not exclusive to any group of people or profession. Everyone can do it. The question is not about capability, it's about willingness. If you and I are willing to work for it to happen, we can produce something. It does not matter what our background is or what our status in life is. Creation won't be hindered whether someone is working the most menial jobs or the most prestigious as long as he or she has the right attitude.

It is therefore right to say that our inability to create is the result of the wrong attitude that we carry. It's not because we lack talent or our status in life handicaps our work. It's because we choose not to do it and so we fail to succeed.

Fruits of Creativity

When we talk about creative works, we often associate it to artists. We think of paintings, music, plays, and sculptures. Although those are indeed creative works, there are many more works that we can consider creative. As I have said, everyone can create so there must be a lot of ways to do it.

The most ubiquitous proof of this is social media. People create stuff everyday that they share to everybody in the world. We produce photos that we work on as best as we can and post them on Instagram or Facebook. We produce short videos on Vine or YouTube. We write to express our thoughts on our blogs in long form or on Twitter in short form.

We don't just do all these instantly without applying some of our creative abilities. That's because we know people are discriminating as to what they think is worth their time or what they consider to be junks. So we understandably do our best to create something people will find appealing while we try to give it our personal touch.

How to Be Creative at Work

Ideally, however, we should be able to create on our job. The place we work. That would eliminate the need to find extra time to be creative elsewhere. We are, after all, spending much of our time at work. I understand that this may be difficult for some but I believe it is a reality for most.

We can associate creativity with improving our work. We can create something to make our job easier or more effective. That will surely use our creativity and help us produce something good. If you think about it, there is nothing in this world that is so perfect it can't be improved anymore. There is no job out there where everything is set in place to make it impossible for innovative ideas to make a difference.

Improving the Quality of Our Creative Output

We need, however, to acknowledge that our creations will not always be as good as we'd like it to be or what other people would appreciate. There will be times when we or others will hate our work. But hopefully those will occur less and less as time passes. The key is to make sure we are persistent. We can't give up because if we do, we will fail to improve.

So I believe it's best to try to produce in a consistent manner to hone our skills and become more effective. Imagine if Justin Beiber had stopped making new songs, what do you think would happen to his career? Can he bank on all the popular songs he already has? I don't believe so.

All of us are capable of making something great. But we need to start acting now to create what we can be proud of and figure out ways to do it consistently over time. If we do this, we can count on a progression that will take us higher than where we were before. That's our best bet to live a purposeful life and hopefully make a difference in this world.