The Truth About Creativity

It kills me to hear people say to me, "I'm just not creative like you are." I just look at them like they're nuts, which they kind of are.

EVERYONE is creative - absolutely everyone.

Did you put together that outfit you're wearing? Did you have a conversation wtih someone today? Did you ever cook a meal?

Every time you turn around, you're creating something. You're creating relationships, you're creating conversations, you're creating email messages, you're creating stuff ALL the time. So don't let me hear you say ever again that you're "not creative." It's a hoax.

But here's the rub...

If you want to create truly fantastic things in reality (not just inside your head), you've got to incorporate a little sense of adventure. Consider this formula:

CREATIVITY + ADVENTURE = SOMETHING NEW

See, nothing big ever happens with creativity alone. There's got to be a sense of adventure to actually take action and get things done.

If you have the world's greatest idea, but you have no sense of adventure, you'll never share your idea with anyone, and you'll never pursue making it a reality. It'll just rattle around in your head. Until someday, when someone else uses my little formula above to actually make it a reality.

Then you'll say, "hey, they stole my idea!"

Ah, if only you had followed the formula, then you could get all teh credit (plus whatever profit is involved).

I often marvel at the stuff we eat...I mean, think about it.

What do you think was going through the mind of the first person to ever eat a mushroom? They were walking along, saw some cow patties and some stuff growing around the cow poop and decided to eat it.

What about the first person to eat shellfish? They found something crawling around on the bottom of the ocean, feeding off crap in the silt, sand and muck, and they decided to eat it.

Well, being a person who enjoys mushrooms as well as shellfish, I'm pretty appreciative for that person's sense of adventure.

Last night my sister and I went to a little Mexican restaurant here in Spring, Texas (near my father-in-law's place). There was an appetizer on the menu that really caught our eye, and we just had to try it.

Listen to this:

Half an avocado, stuffed with cheese and steak strips, breaded and deep-fried, served with queso on the side.

Well, we just had to try it. We figured it would either be delicious...or it would suck. We just couldn't see any middle ground with this one, so we ordered, and waited with bated breath.

When it arrived, there were 2 halves of deep-fried avocado, so we each got our own.

We cut into it....we each blew on our bite to cool it - it was steaming and had clearly just come out of the hot grease.

We tentatively tasted it....

and

OH MY GOODNESS

it was soooooooooo yummy!!!

Truly one of the most unique and succulent creations I've enjoyed in a very long time.

As we savored this culinary delight, we got to thinking, and talking.

How did someone come up with this? Who thought to fry an avocado? Then we talked about the strangest things we had fried. Then we wondered what else we could fry.

Creativity was flowing. But then reality kicked in. I'm supposed to be off wheat for awhile, and my sister doesn't fry foods at home. So we had a bout of creativity, but we weren't committed to that sense of adventure. So the things we thought of to fry....will just remain unfried. Well, at least until someone else has the idea.

But whoever created that avocado sensation...now that person had creativity AND a sense of adventure! And it's certainly paid off!

Remember:

CREATIVITY + ADVENTURE = MAGIC RESULTS

So your QoD is this, dear reader:

What's a great idea that you've had that you never acted upon? Can you see how a sense of adventure can turn a mere idea into a reality? What will you take action on TODAY to turn one of your ideas into a reality?

Go for it!