“Creative“

Few words carry as much power to affect your self-image as does creative.
As a descriptive label, it can be used to praise:

“She is one of the most creative people I know.”

It can also be used to criticize or rebuff:

“He’s so creative that he never gets anything done.”

An advertising agency in San Francisco once occupied three floors of a building, one of which was strictly off-limits to anyone but members of the “creative team.” I knew a CPA in the 1970s whose firm was named Creative Accounting.
In just about every instance, the word creative–and its derivatives–is used to separate and draw distinctions. Something or someone is deemed creative, or they aren’t. Most people who are tagged as creative are proud of the label, despite the occasional jab they get when their ideas are criticized for being “too” creative. Conversely, folks who have repeatedly been told they lack creativity will occasionally have feelings of envy or frustration when their own, perfectly good solutions, are dismissed as being  “not creative enough.”
This short video from tech solutions company WACOM suggests that everyone is creative. The line that jumped at at me in the video is: “Creativity is the way your heart translates what your mind thinks.”
No matter what you’ve been told, you are creative. From the moment you roll out of bed each morning, you are doing something that’s never been done before. Each step you take is–until that very moment–a step you’ve never taken. The things you do–based on the thoughts and feelings you have–are the images you are painting on the canvas of your life.
The manifestation of your creativity may not hang in a gallery, play on the radio or be hailed in the latest business journals but that doesn’t detract from or lessen its value. Creativity may not be the role your circle of influence needs the most from you, but you are still creating YOUR masterpiece, one minute at a time.
What will you create, today?