How Do We Define Creativity?

On Breaking Rules and Defining What Matters Most


Creative Business Owner


MAY 26, 2023

We all remember permission slips in middle school right? Those little pieces of paper signed by parents to grant approval for partaking in that field trip to the zoo or museum you lost sleep over because you couldn’t contain the sheer excitement to pet llamas or play with slime (or insert other beloved field trip past time).

Not that we need ANYONE to grant us permission for anything in life anymore (bc #adulting and #autonomy, yay!) but sometimes a reminder to push past any fears or self-imposed limitations can help 🙂

As a multi-passionate that always wants to try or move on to the “next thing” I feel like I crippled myself for years feeling like I have to only choose one lane, or do one job, or focus on one task at hand. Like my creativity had to be “contained” into one pretty little neat box to appease society, my parents, my teachers, my religion, etc.

It wasn’t until I started questioning why that I started to peel back the layers of a lot of my conditioning and began to understand that not every structure or rule had to be followed (we can call this the “awakening” and it really rocked my late 20’s 😆 ).

Additionally to that, came the desire and curiosity to start defining a lot of those things according to my own terms. Especially after starting my design studio and stepping into the world of entrepreneurship, I realized that I had *ultimate freedom*. That I was truly in charge (of my own business, yes) but more so of LIFE.

While this may seem like a given and an obvious for many, I saw it as a BIG breakthrough. Never before did I have THIS level of autonomy in my life, and while I could say it was empowering, exciting, and beautiful, it was also paralyzing, scary and really uncertain at times.

I would catch myself resorting back to many “safe” and “familiar” rules, like:

📏 Seeking approval from other people (ie: my clients with design projects), instead of taking charge and making decisions. There was no more boss or manager I could turn to for final blessings — this time it was me and me alone. It wasn’t until I truly “anointed” myself and stepped into these roles fully myself that I began to break this pattern.

📏 Using “busy” as an excuse for all things, especially when it came to friend and family commitments. Yes, there was a bit of a “martyr” mask I was wearing (unconsciously, perhaps to garner attention and validation for “how hard I’m working”) but also, there was just A LOT of pent up programming regarding the hustle hard culture that I was operating on. It wasn’t until I took a hard look at this and reframed my narrative from “It has to be hard” to “It gets to be easy” that I freed myself from this cycle.

These examples, plus many more, are ways in which my business has helped me to lean deeper in to not only breaking more “rules” in life, but also / simultaneously defining new ones that ring true to ME.

With something like creativity especially, my multi-passionate self has been truly thriving in rethinking all of the ways that I can embody ways to share my creative spirit with the world.

Design and art things aside (because those will forever be my inherent creative outlets), creativity for me as of late looks like:

  • Leaning into more writing and expression through written word (Image 01 above)

  • Having more fun with Reels and dreaming into different ways that I can share my story with my audience

  • Harvesting the seasons wildflowers and pressing them between my favorite hardcover coffee table books (Image 02 above)

  • Having deeper, more vulnerable conversations with my clients (and moving forward with an exciting podcast idea (!!) I’ve had in the works for some time 🥰) (Image 03 above)

Because we’re all #adulting and fully #autonomous:

What are some "rules" in your life that you can start to break because they don't serve you anymore?
What can creativity look like for YOU, especially given you can defy some structures along the process?


Previous
Previous

What Does It Take To Stand Out? Brand Differentiation Lessons From 7 Years In Digital Design

Next
Next

My Journey From Lost & Unfulfilling 9-5 To Purpose-Driven Design Studio