I finally got my hair cut in London. I was sitting (shaking) in the hair hoping the chick wouldn’t shred my locks into wispy frays. I opened up immediately and started telling her about how I quit my job and have been traveling the world. After a few careful questions and a pregnant pause, she politely asked, “Would you say that you’re going through a sort of crisis?”

I laughed. “Um, yeah… Actually, no. I would really call it more of a renaissance.” I explained that I used to be extremely stressed by the workload, travel, and culture of my old job. I wore suits and formalwear every day and sit in boardrooms with gray-haired executives who were meant to be my peers. My impetus for leaving? I just didn’t feel like me anymore. I wanted to do something “creative.”

Why do we create a division in this world between creative and not creative? What is not creative? Activities that are rote or analytical? Even when working on an assembly line, it is possible to innovate or bring a different process to what you do. In laziness even, there is great creativity. I spend countless hours in bed envisioning scenarios or creating meaning out of my disparate thought processes.

When I was in a corporate role, I felt that almost everything I did was creative actually. My days were spent figuring out how to creatively deal with people, build good-ish products, find white space to create competitive differentiation, build teams that were a good balance of skills and personality. Sometimes I drew things on paper or PowerPoint. Other times, I sketched things out in my mind. I created publications and marketing materials, websites, and product interfaces. Was that creative?

Maybe creativity is more about a spirit you bring to your endeavors?

I suppose my working definition of creative would be to build something new that expresses your intention. It could be an idea, book, community, company, painting, sandwich…yummm, sandwich…ooh, pasta. Right.

I suppose sex is among the most creative acts all (or most) of us engage in.

For me, it is about getting more in tune with my authentic self and using my imagination to envision and actualize the contribution I feel I can most genuinely make to the world. All of this without pressure, with a sense of ease.

Everyone is creative. I don’t want to hear someone single out one particular person as more creative than anyone else.

A week or so ago, I had a phone chat with someone who wanted to be a fashion designer and in the end realized there were others who were naturally more creative than she was. Last I checked, my favorite item of clothing was a pair of jazzy black yoga pants. I personally don’t like walking around wearing feathers and glitter.

Brain fragmentation. Coffee time. The end.

I will continue to think about this.