I’ve never believed I was a creative person. Ever. Mainly these thoughts were related to the arts. I can’t draw and if I had to draw something, it’d probably be a house with a tree. Music? Definitely not. Creative writing? Nope.

Now that I’m a coach and managing my own practice, it’s key to be creating new content regularly. It is not only helpful for my clients, but for me to articulate what I want to teach and share. So, one of the main questions I’ve asked myself is how I can be more creative.

I basically just kept saying to everyone that I’m not creative. That I had no idea what content to create, mainly what to write about in my blog or Instagram or to speak about on a podcast.

How to Unblock Your Creative Genius

Ok, so creative genius may be going a bit too far, but ok. What I’ve learned is that I can be creative, and you can too.

The first thing I had to do was stop saying that I’m not creative. Any time you say out loud or to yourself that you’re not something or you are something, that’s what you create more of or in the case of creativity, you block whatever creativity you might generate.

Your brain is listening and it was a) stop trying if you are saying you can’t do something; and b) will look for evidence for what you believe, so it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The more I kept going around saying I’m not creative, I could neither generate ideas, and I kept repeating the same stories from the past several decades that I believed were confirmation of my lack of creativity.

It Doesn’t Happen Magically

To be honest, I thought being creative was something that magically just appeared. The thoughts, the ideas, that spark were supposed to just pop into my head and be brilliant. Turns out that I might just need to sit and actually think about things, write them down, and brainstorm. Some ideas will be good, some not so good. That’s OK. I can process and develop and refine something into a great idea, even if the initial concept wasn’t so great.

Give Yourself a Break

These days, I am more into ease and flow. I’m letting go of resistance and stress. The tension and pressure I once felt is slowly being eliminated. I’m learning to let go. Over the past week, I’ve been on vacation and picked Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon. It’s an easy read and fun.

Mr. Kleon articulates very well the ways in which we can be creative. Mainly, he writes about how the idea of originality and creativity is more about taking others’ ideas and building on them, putting our own spin on them.

For so long, I felt this immense pressure that everything had to be so ORIGINAL. It felt like an impossible undertaking and now that I think back on what I was thinking and feeling, no wonder it felt terrible and I didn’t do it.

Now, after reading this book, it’s finally clear that my work can be original just because it’s something that I came up with, using ideas and concepts from others, but adding to it, etc.

I feel like an huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can’t wait to create, and I am creative!

So I highly recommend that if you are interested in becoming more creative, you pick up that book.

Have fun

Now that I read that book, and I’ve taken some of the self-imposed pressure to become the next Picasso, the idea of creating is lighter, fun and I’m excited to see what I can come up with.

I want there to be an element of fun in my work as much as possible. I want to be on this journey of growth and expansion and I want it to be full of ease and flow and fun.

We are already amazing, you and I.

Upleveling ourselves and our lives is about expansion and learning to create. Anything is possible.

I don’t need to be better because there is something wrong with me.

I’m excited to see what I can create for my life just because it’s fun.

Life is a daring adventure or nothing.

Let’s go.