558: You Can't Help It, But You Can Stop It!

Several weeks ago, we began talking about creativity. (If you haven't read my previous Memos on creativity, you may want to go to my site and review them now.) I often hear this comment from people whom I serve as a purpose coach: “I’m not that creative.”  That just isn’t true!  Most people assume that unless they have a thought or think of a design or invention that no one in the world has previously conceived, then they don't fall in the creative category.  You need to expand your idea of creativity in order to see that you have abundant creativity, for you are created in the image of the Creator!

YOU CAN'T HELP IT!

A creative God created you to be creative.  Creativity is programmed into the very fabric of your being.  Consider these expressions of creativity that are part of who you are:

1. I don’t want to be offensive in any way, but you were made to create other human beings.  When you reach maturity and marry, in most cases you must take precautions to limit your creativity, your offspring.
2. Scientists tell us that every seven years you have a totally new set of cells in your body.  Your cells are constantly dividing and creating new cells.
3. One of the first things I did when I returned home recently was to get a haircut.  In most cases, your body is creating new hair, nails and whiskers (men only, I hope) on a daily basis.
4. Your body is constantly creating what it needs to carry on life.  Your stomach creates gastric juices, sweat glands produce sweat and your ears create wax!
5. What happens when you go to sleep?  You create dreams; you are a “dream machine.”  For every eight hours you sleep, you dream almost two hours.  Your mind is constantly creating symbolic sleep scenarios that help you maintain your psychological equilibrium.
6. Every day you create thoughts and ideas; you also daydream, creating potential scenarios with you in them.
7. You talk every day, stringing words and ideas together creatively.

YOU CAN STOP IT!

Without even trying, you are naturally a creative being, but you may be hindering your own tendency to create. The big problem may be your mind.  You have been conditioned to believe that you aren’t creative, so it is possible to go through life thinking that you aren’t and consequently not creating or recognizing when you are.   The Pacific Institute has taught me this truth: "We act like the person we know or believe ourselves to be."

When you think you aren’t creative, you won’t produce or won’t recognize your creativity for what it is.  For many years, I saw myself as “only” an administrator who got things done.  Now I see myself as an administrator who creatively gets things done.  That slight change of thinking and speaking changed my life - and released my creativity.

So if you don’t do anything else this week, reassess your attitude toward your creativity.  You may not be as creative as someone else, but that doesn’t mean that you aren’t creative.  Take out a sheet of paper and begin to list all the areas in which you creatively express yourself.  The list may be longer than you thought it would be.  (If you need some help, download the "creative expression list found at the end of this Memo.) From that, begin to gradually change your mind and see that you are creative.  When you do that, it is just a matter of time before your creativity blossoms and becomes all that God intended for it to be.  Have a great week!

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KENYA TRIP 2013:  I have announced my trip to Kenya with a team next year and it is January 31 to February 15.  If you would like to be part of this life-changing trip, write me and let me know.

Comments

[Kim Hug]

HI Dr. J,

Sometimes people are dealing with life's issues and it stunned their growth in creativity.

Thanks for helping us work thru the muck and mire of the dirt people placed us in.

Weary not in well doing, you are a blessed man humbly seeking to help others and God will reward you.

Thanks for your inspiration to finish my book, you are a gifted man whose gives so much to others.

Thanks for giving to the Lord!

Blessings,

your sister in Christ,

Kim Hug