The Short Trip From Creativity to Innovation

Having experienced a wide array of fuck ups in my life, I have developed quite a talent in the “creativity to innovation” game. I would love to share some of the big reasons for how creativity leads to innovation and can lead to some potentially cool shit in your life that you may not even know exists...

Failure Isn’t Bad

Failure can be a great motivation to get creative. And let me touch on this concept of failure a little as well. Failures are NOT bad things; they can feel bad and hurt, but they are 100% opening your life up for growth opportunities.

What we call "life" is about the experience of growing and learning; the only way we do this is through all kinds of adventures. Some adventures will be all gung-ho fantastic, and others can feel downright awful.  

Doing something creative can help snap us back into a world of hope after the adventures that leave us feeling like we just got our face slammed into the ground. When we are being creative, we have the opportunity to come into a calm, serene state of mind.

This is what you've probably heard many times as being called the FLOW STATE. This is a state of mind where we move into a place of ease. Time sort of goes away, and we're just in the moment. It’s why creativity is essential in our lives. There are many forms of what "creativity" means.

Possibilities Come From Creativity and Innovation

When we are engaged in creative activities, our minds are more open to possibilities. So we are more likely to think of solutions we wouldn’t have thought of if we were just sitting on the couch eating Cheetos. This is what I mean by understanding how to play the “creativity to innovation” angle in your life.

An excellent benefit of creativity is that creative endeavors provide a nice respite from sadness, self-judgment, and negativity. It works when you feel like a born loser because of some awful breakup or something goes awry in business (at the job or within your own business). 

You forget about your problems when you are wrapped up in something creative, and innovation is led by creativity! Do something creative the next time you’re feeling down in the dumps. And just so you know, when I say do something creative, I don’t mean that you have to paint the next Mona Lisa, and I mean ANYTHING that gets you out of mind and into more peace.

A short list of fun and easy ways to spark your creativity in a previous blog post is here if you’d like some ideas. 

Another of the benefits of getting into a creative mode is that you can often find others that are into the same thing. Finding a group of people who become new friends while doing something you enjoy is a double bonus! Everybody deserves to feel like they have a good group of people to be around, and creativity is a great way to find them. 

Another way the path from creativity to innovation can unfold is when our creative outlets lead us to new ways of making money. Of course, the most obvious way would be to turn a hobby into a money-making venture. But you could also meet someone in your creative group who introduces you to your new business partner or helps you develop a new business idea. The drum circle you become a part of could become a group that plays drums and gets paid. Who knows, the truth is that anything is possible.

You'd be surprised by the meaningful life experiences that can come when you pursue creative outlets. Often, we'll start doing new things that we weren't doing a short time ago, especially if we meet some new people. They can begin to invite us to things we never knew existed. There's a whole plethora of "new" that can come from the opening of your creative pathways. You can run into many like-minded people through those creative pursuits. 

Summary

Following your creative passion can sometimes lead you to discover another or at least a new and different path. That’s why dwelling in the space of creative flow is something we should all strive for as much as possible. It helps us to stay open to seeing the signs when new and/or better opportunities crop up so we can turn creativity into innovation!

So if you ever feel like you're a failure or having some hard times, it might really help to explore creative outlets. You never know where they will lead! It's also not a bad idea to start exploring as many creative pursuits as possible since it could potentially lead to many other opportunities.

You can find more examples of how I (and others) have turned that path of creativity to innovation by staying in the creative flow of unfolding circumstances, get my book here!