How to Spark Creativity

Since graduating from college and becoming a mother, my priorities, energy, and brain has drastically shifted from formatting academic papers and citing articles to giving bubble baths and changing diapers.  It’s thrilling to change my focus and challenge my skill sets, but I like to stay fresh and current with my writing and creative projects.  I’m happy to know that I’m not alone.  Many fellow mothers, writers, entrepreneurs, and creative explorers are constantly seeking ways to learn, grow, create, and improve.  This led me to wonder how others find inspiration to get their creative juices flowing.  What is your secret?  Yoga every morning?  Doodling in a notebook with Netflix in the background?  A shot of whiskey and a chocolate truffle?

As for me, I have found inspiration through several outlets, and I know every person is capable of sparking creativity through these exercises:

HAVE CONVERSATIONS WITH STRANGERS.  Some of my most memorable lightbulb moments came from having random conversations with people I did not know– at the book store, on an airplane, and even online through a fellow blogger.  So many people walk around with interesting, engaging stories, waiting for a kind person to engage in conversation with them and move them away from their sunglasses, lattes, and cell phones.  I have also noticed that a random person imparting a simple pearl of wisdom upon me seems to stick in my brain so much more than when my mother says it (Sorry, Mom.).  Even if you never see these people again, they can touch your life and inspire you to do something great.

READ A CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK.  Other sources will tell you to read articles and read books, but sometimes busy people don’t have as much time as they would like to read everything they want to read.  So I extend a simpler challenge: read a children’s picture book.  It can be a picture book that you haven’t read since you were a child, such as The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein, or a new one that is sitting on the promotion table of the book store, like Sam and Dave Dig a Hole, by Mac Barnett.  Why read a children’s picture book?  Sure, I’m a children’s librarian and love them.  But children’s picture books can be short reads that take eight minutes out of your day.  Their illustrations can make your inner child smile.  They are brimming with humor and existential life lessons about friendship, love, family, nature, death, and other challenges and beauties of life.  There are TONS of children’s picture books out there that can really brighten your day and make you feel motivated to start something new.

ATTEND A WORKSHOP.  Look up local workshops in your area of interest, from a floristry design class at your local flower shop to a one-day business class at your local adult school.  There are also countless webinars, videos, and podcasts that can make you feel like a student again.  Best of all, you don’t take home a report card with a grade!  However, you might be able to score a completion certificate that will look stellar on your résumé.

GO FOR A WALK.  Sometimes a little fresh air and a date with Mother Nature helps you reset your brain, gain some endorphins, and forget your stresses.  It opens you up and unwinds your tight spots and anxious energy.  It gives you a break to think about random things.

RIDE A BUS.  Riding a bus or other form of public transportation with no specific destination allows you to people-watch.  It’s amazing how much insight you can get by observing behaviors and relationships.  You see sights that you’ve never noticed before.  You notice what people carry with them, what they do when they ride alone, and where their eyes wander as they travel home or wherever they are going.

VISIT A MUSEUM.  Museums are not only contemplative environments where you can learn something new, but they also tend to feature a special exhibit that highlights a time period, artist, or genre that can birth epiphanies.  In addition, being close to an artifact or work of art can ignite feelings you would not have if you saw the same piece in a book or on the Internet.

ATTEND A CITY MEETING, TOWN MEETING, OR OTHER OPEN BOARD MEETING.  Sometimes we see new additions to our city, like a statue or a line of trees, and we don’t know the story behind it  Or sometimes we wonder why no one is fixing the ten potholes on one street, unaware that it has been an agenda item for several years with no progress.  Attending a city meeting, town meeting, or other open board meeting, such as for a school district or water district, can be eye-opening and educating.  This can motivate you to research improvements, write articles, create a political piece of artwork, meet and interview prominent stakeholders, or brainstorm for a documentary.  It is always interesting to find out about local issues and hot topics, like cutting public library hours or adding a strip mall with dollar stores and cash advance centers to fit a lower income demographic.

MAKE A VISION BOARD.  An afternoon of scrapbooking and magazine clipping can be easy, fun, and inspiring.  Putting motivational quotes, life goals, and dream destinations on a board can help you to remember a passion that you put on the back burner and are willing to revisit with more gusto.  Take these ideas and run with them.

RESEARCH A RANDOM PLACE.  When one of my favorite podcast hosts and successful entrepreneurs, Jess Lively, announced that she would be moving to Ann Arbor, MI, I felt an urge to look up Ann Arbor to see what it offered a thriving businesswoman like her, and if it was the kind of environment I needed to attain similar victories.  Especially since I adore her style, intelligence, and ambition, I knew that she probably wouldn’t move someplace where her creative energies would go to die.  So I Googled “Ann Arbor” to learn more about the town, which made me smile.  Ann Arbor is full of young energy with unique shops and restaurants and an ideal cost of living.  By learning about a new place, my brain nearly exploded!  I suddenly felt inspired to look up different quaint towns in the United States that I had never visited, peruse flights, browse potential jobs and places to live, and dream about a new and exciting adventure in another place.  For you, it could be the historic architecture and luxurious gardens that inspires you.  It could be the hiking trails or the history.  This exercise can really surprise you and make you want to hop in your car and disappear for a few days, giving you the gift of incomparable exhilaration, wild stories, and life lessons that push you to pursue your passions with either a fresh perspective or a renewed energy.

What are some ways you spark creativity in your life? Etsy? Pinterest?  The local open mic night?  Please share your ideas in the comments! I would love to hear from you and I know others would too!

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Does your COLLEGE DEGREE mean anything?

Whenever I read the “About Me” page on a blog, I always smile when I notice the energy of the author jumping off the screen, passionate about life and his or her interests and goals.  I want to catch the “bug” and I subscribe to their posts, eager to absorb their positivity.

But recently, I stumbled upon a blog whose author mentioned having a degree in theology, but feeling it was a pointless degree because she did not want to be a pastor.  This made me sad, wondering if perhaps she was experiencing something in life that devalued her achievements or if she was never guided to defend and boast of the skills she acquired in earning her degree.

Then I remembered a man I met on a flight to Atlanta a few years ago.  He told me that he earned his master’s degree in puppetry arts.  I was intrigued by such a narrow choice of expertise.  After talking to him throughout the flight, I learned that his love for puppeteering encouraged him to be the best puppeteer he could be, earning the highest level of education attainable.  Did others laugh at him and judge him? Undoubtedly.  However, he felt no shame in pursuing a lifelong goal and dream.

These experiences inspired me to think of all the hard-working undergraduate students, disheartened graduates, and fearful stay-at-home and work-at-home moms and dads who want to go to college.  When you are in college, you reach a point where most of your peers are on the same track as you, hoping to graduate with the same degree.  You are among “your own,” bright-eyed and bushy-tailed hopefuls who see light at the end of the tunnel.  But seldom do we prepare for the superficial and harsh preconceived notions about degrees that do not fall under the umbrella of “finance,” “business,” “accounting,” or any other “pragmatic” field.  Opinions are thrown at us from ignorant, however innocent people: “What are you going to do with a History degree?  Teach?” “Why do you need a master’s degree to become a librarian?  I thought they only shelved the books.  Aren’t libraries going to disappear soon because of the Internet?”

So to those college students who suddenly feel choked up about picking “the wrong major;” to graduates who have celebrated but now feel panicked in the “Now what do I do?” post-graduate-six-month period; and to the terrified stay-at-home and work-at-home moms and dads who want to go back to college or want to go to college for the first time but don’t know where to start, I say:

DO WHAT YOU LOVE.  The amount of pressure placed on college students to decide on their major is excruciatingly burdensome.  This weight comes from the dreaded “interrogation” at family reunions, over holidays, and on first dates.  Others define us by the path we take in college, sometimes forgetting that many people switch jobs, explore new careers, or choose to stay home after having children.  Therefore, it is better to find a major that interests you. For most people, spending 4-6 years in classes that you loathe is impossible. I started my college career in Hospitality, believing that one day, I would be happy working as a Hotel Manager at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.  After a few classes, I realized that I hated it.  Instead, I was drawn to my English and History classes.  I never wanted to miss one.  I wrote detailed notes, studied diligently, and sought relationships with my professors.  I learned that in life, I wanted my actions to define me: my kindness, my hard work, my positive attitude, and interest in learning and discovering.  So why would I make an exception with my degree?  I found it contradictory to live my life passionately, yet pursue a degree that bored me to tears.  I would do lots of things in life that I did not want to do: pay taxes, scrub the toilet, endure labor contractions, and stand in line at the DMV.  I did not want my college experience to be one of those things.

DON’T LET THE PRICE TAG SCARE YOU. I have met a lot of tenth-year college students who never graduated because college was “too expensive.”  I quickly learned that this was code for “I did not plan ahead,” “I missed the financial aid deadline,” “I was too lazy to apply for scholarships,” or “I would rather spend my waitressing money on going to Las Vegas this summer than on the Fall semester.”  These people dress up their excuses in a bane for student loans.  While I understand this need for freedom from debt, I also understand the shackles of minimum wage.  I think about disciplined students who save every penny and take one class at a time in order to accomplish their goals.  I think about the opportunities for loan forgiveness, like Teacher Loan Forgiveness, Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and Obama Student Loan Forgiveness.  People will take out auto loans on ever-depreciating vehicles and mortgages for homes they can hardly afford, but refuse to invest in their education because of its high ticket.  At some point, the bill comes to the table, and you either have the bills or the pennies.

YOU ACQUIRE MORE SKILLS THAN YOU MIGHT REALIZE. I smile when I speak with others about having a History Degree and a Master’s Degree in Library Science because it baffles them.  Why would I invest so much time, energy, and money into disciplines that are not booming with jobs?  I get a thrill from defending my choices because degrees of these natures required lots of critical thinking skills.  During my six years in college, I honed my professional writing, public speaking, and oral presentation skills.  I gained experience collaborating with others, both in person and online.  I assumed leadership positions in these groups as well as in extra-curricular activities and clubs.  By earning a degree, I proved that I could turn in assignments in a timely manner, complete tasks expected of me, think creatively, find balance between professional and social life, be organized, and be self-disciplined for several years.  At minimum, these are the skills acquired by college students. I failed to mention acquired grant writing skills (when applying for scholarships and financial aid), technological skills (using a computer and its various programs to type papers, create slideshow presentations, format spreadsheets, and use social media), understanding target audiences (professors, students, parents, friends, and other people I needed to please throughout college), and countless other skills.  The list goes on and on IF AND ONLY IF you feel confident to defend yourself.  If you believe that these skills were among many valuable treasures you took from your college experience, you can sell a puppetry arts degree to a potential employer and ice to an eskimo.  Attitude and perspective is CRUCIAL.

DON’T BE DISCOURAGED BY THE 4-YEAR GRADUATE. This past June, my brother graduated with his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Entrepreneurship.  He has been in and out of college since 2004.  Pride and joy filled my heart on his graduation day because he never gave up. “Taking a semester off” never meant quitting. Similarly, my college classmate earned his Bachelor’s Degree in 1986 and went back to school in 2012 to earn his Master’s Degree in Public Administration.  As the Director of Public Transportation at our university, he knew that other commitments to his family, his job, and his Church justified taking one class at a time.  These people amaze me because they model the tortoise in the “Tortoise and the Hare” fable.  Slow and steady DOES win the race if you don’t stop.

FIND MENTORS. I met many amazing, inspiring people in college who enriched my experience, either challenging me to be better or encouraging me to keep going.  Some people helped me avoid certain mistakes or find golden opportunities.  Never be afraid to ask for help or ask for advice.  I will never forget the day I asked a girl in my history class where I could find the bathroom, which quickly led to a conversation about Library and Information Science, changing my life forever.

I would be happy to offer more guidance and tips!  Leave a comment or send me an email (email found on my Work with Me page).  At very least, I hope I have encouraged you to remember that your degree, your goals, your ambition, and your ideas have worth.  They mean something.