Creativity is your key to success.

When I was employed as a corporate executive we were often told in meetings, you don’t know what you don’t know – you must dig deeper.  Although resistant we dug deeper.  Suddenly amazing ideas and opportunities originally rejected blossomed because “we didn’t know what we didn’t know!”

You can expand your opportunities and creativity by participating in something that you don’t know about, don’t think you need to do, or makes you feel uncomfortable. For business owners who are facing challenges this is a perfect solution for exploring what you don’t know but could know. You must be open to new ideas and experiences in order to learn more about what you don’t know. Sometimes the experiences may not even be related to what you think you want to know.

Awakening your true purpose and creativity isn’t always comfortable.  For many people new experiences make them uncomfortable. It’s in the discomfort of the new ways, new thoughts, new activities, or new feelings that creates an “aha” or awakening.  Once that happens the uncomfortable-ness rapidly dissolves.

The first time I skydived I was terrified, resistant, and almost refused to jump. A feeling within kept pushing me to take an uncomfortable risk to change my life.  I was stuck, unhappy, and without purpose in my career. The jump became my metaphor for success. I was going to fully embrace life and “jump” into new adventures.  It was an amazing experience and opened a grand feeling of freedom and expansion.

I’m not saying that you must skydive to learn what you don’t know – but for me I had BIG unconscious barriers and I purposely put myself in a very uncomfortable place and it worked.

Here are 10 activities that might “awaken” an untapped layer of your natural born creativity. We all have unconscious barriers or dormant desires that are untapped. Try one or all ten.

1. Enroll a creative class such as painting, sculpture, drawing, woodworking, dancing, acting, etc. Forget the myth that you are not creative – you were born creative.
2. Join a self-development program.  Find a workshop or class that will guide you in learning about your personality and how to enhance or improve your outcomes on life.
3. Immerse yourself in nature without any electronics.  Plan a day of hiking, walking in the park, or just sitting on your patio and “be” in the “moment” outside. Leave your computer, phone and music machines elsewhere.
4. Go to the bookstore and let a book “jump” off the shelf.  Just for fun, blindly pick a book off the shelf somewhere open it randomly and read what messages it has for you.
5. Get in your car and just drive.  Explore your city or countryside with no agenda and observe where you end up, who you meet or what you learn.
6. Go for an entire week without listening to the radio or watching TV.  The mind clutter starts to clear and your sub-conscious mind emerges.
7. Volunteer.  Giving of yourself or your time can enrich you more than you know and volunteering for a cause opens new feelings.
8. Paint or draw with a child 4-8 years old. Share stories about your creations and observe their natural uninhibited imagination and how they just make up a fun story.
9. Skydive.  This isn’t for everyone but it sure worked for me. You could also bungee jump, mountain climb or ride one of those terrifying rides at Six Flags you’ve been afraid to do.
10. Doodle Journaling.  Not everyone will set aside time to write down thoughts, feelings and desires. Doodling is much easier and takes the place of words.  Doodle in a journal or notebook every day and you’ll be surprised how good you start feeling.