The Case For Creativity

Regardless of the kind of job you have or the type of business you have built. We all find ourselves having to manage repetitive and uninspiring tasks. Even the artist has to catalog her work, and the chef still has to dice onions for dinner service. It is the ability to do these tasks consistently well that drives us to consistent success. Unfortunately, it’s easy for us to get lost in these tasks and lose sight of what brought us here to begin with. For instance, as an accountant I can spend day after day running numbers and reviewing data. And believe me, I’ve spent a lot of my professional life doing just that. However, that day to day work doesn’t always inspire me to build something bigger and more exciting for myself and my team.

You know what inspires me, and I think probably inspires you too? Creativity. I am very serious about carving time out of my day to be creative because I know that my creative endeavours light up the part of me that has the ability to dream big dreams, inspire my staff, and move forward to a better future for all of us. 

There are many different ways in which you can integrate creativity into your day. You don't need to take up water colors or pantomime, but instead you should look for hints in your everyday life. Do you love to draw, dance, or sing? These creative activities can help to revv up the creative part of your brain.

Research actually shows that the creative parts of your brain switch off when you’re doing “business as usual” thinking. That might seem like a good problem to have, but its not. Even in my day-to-day work as an accountant  (which to you might seem boring) I run into complex and difficult problems. We’re talking about clients who owe hundreds of thousands of dollars to the IRS, often because of the mistakes made by someone else. I can’t turn my technical accounting mind to this issue, these clients need and deserve a creative solution to their complicated issue.

So how can you turn on your creative mind to better serve your clients and your company? I start each day by journaling. Just a few minutes first thing in the morning to help light up my mind and get those creative juices flowing. I also dedicate portions of my week to focusing on marketing my business to a whole new clientele. Hiring marketing professionals has been one of the best decisions I have made for my business. Lastly, I’ve given away a lot of my responsibilities to make time to focus my mind on growth. There is nothing more creatively engaging to me than thinking about how to take this business to the next level. 

We’re all different, and different activities will excite each of us. But the most important thing is not how to engage your creative mind, but that you commit to doing it at all. I urge you to set aside some time for yourself today to feed your creative mind in order to make yourself more successful. For more information about how I can help you become and more creative business leader, contact me today.