The myth that becomes a road block

“But I lack creativity.”

It’s becoming an anthem as our education system seems to favor gutting these programs first whenever the belt tightens for school funding. It’s the resulting mentality among students that has become a cop out for many to avoid anything that might be remotely challenging. As screens become the primary thing that most people are willing to or even eager to stare at for increasing periods of time, this phrase has become a nice, neat cop out statement.

With AI, it’s pretty much guaranteed that this is the excuse people will use with increasing frequency to defend their (ab)use of it.

Don’t punt into a prompt puppet and start identifying your primary modes of self-expression. Let’s munch on this idea today.

What makes you feel alive?

There are many forms of art.

It’s not just visual arts, music, dance, theater, and creative writing. While these are the five general categories that most forms of expression fall into, cooking, the performing arts, the martial arts, and many other forms have different combinations of these as well. There are many aspects of self-expression that don’t fall into cookie-cutter labels, just as there’s no way to label every person neatly into different groups.

Think about what it is that you can spend hours talking about or doing (yes, even if it involves a screen). I’m not talking about scrolling on social media or gaming. I’m not even talking about performative arts for mass consumption.

I’m talking about art for personal discovery.

How do you naturally express yourself on a regular basis?

• Do you like to doodle on a whiteboard?

• Do you like to share your personal stories?

• Do you like use your arms to gesture often when sharing thoughts?

Another clue to this little mystery is how you prefer to learn as well.

• Are you a visual learner who prefers graphs and diagrams?

• Are you a tactile learner who uses your hands and make models?

• Are you an auditory learner who prefers listening to podcasts and audiobooks?

Each person uses combinations of all these to communicate and learn, but it’s the dominant one that tends to be a natural mode for absorbing material and expression. You’re not entirely one or the other, and it definitely helps to make an effort into emphasizing the areas that you tend not to use to get a point across. However, that’s more for performative arts. This is just for yourself.

For me, I’ve always tended to learn by doing.

That’s why I became an engineer as well as a martial artist. I’m naturally inclined to be on the go and moving around at all times (which makes me a perfect kiddy resort manager). It’s only after I’ve repeated something to proficiency that I switch to a visual presentation format in writing articles and creating videos or diagrams.

When I was young, I didn’t see myself as someone who was “artistic” or “creative” because I was just doing the things. I played the piano and the violin, but I only executed on sheet music. It wasn’t until I got older that I started improvising, choreographing, and designing.

Creating requires a foundation of ideas and experiences to draw from as well as a powerful reason to do so. That’s what creating a digital heirloom does. It’s a process that enables you to uncover both.

Make no mistake. You have a creative capacity. You have a creative voice. Even if you don’t consider yourself “artistic”, your drive to create something is part of being human.

Which are you?

Take a little while to think about what you’ve been doing throughout your life.

This process takes time. There’s nothing wrong with letting your brain take it to the back and work on it as you are busy with other things. Just take little notes on what you tend to do throughout the day as you move from one activity to another.

At the end of it all, ask yourself: “what was my default mode of expression?”

Whatever your answer, it’s also the one that you use for the topic of discussion: emotional resilience and recovery.