Creativity, it really is one of your strongest assets!

A while back I received an email from Cory Huff on a blog post that he had written.  Cory is author and art coach behind the website "theabundantartist.com"

About a third way into the article, Cory states:

"Paradigm Shift #2: It doesn’t matter what you do for a living. It does matter how you define yourself. You’re an artist, and creativity is your strength, not a weakness. Use it to your advantage."

Here's the link to the full article.

http://theabundantartist.com/art-and-leadership-the-power-and-purpose-of-creativity

For me, this was not a paradigm shift.  It simply was a statement of fact in my own life as I walked in this mode for many years. 

For the budding artist however, it is advice well taken, and to even understand that it exists will strengthen your situation no matter what your walk in life may be.

When I read that portion of the article, I was flooded with a memory of when I "worked for living" in industry.  For those that don't know me, I worked for over 30 years in industry first as an electronic technician then moving up into supervision and finally as a mid-level manager of the electronic/electrical department. 

I was in charge of a fairly large group of electronic technicians, technologists, electricians and engineering staff.  (with a multi-million dollar budget).  We helped keep the plant running, from production lines to infrastructure to security.  Needless to say, it was FUN, and rewarding.  Our work was meaningful, exciting, and demanding.

Make sure your work is in fact meaningful.

The obvious sometimes is like seeing the forest in its entire glory, when you were looking at individual trees all along. 

Yes, you are working for a paycheck, but you need to really find the purpose and meaning behind your work.  It really makes getting up, slugging down that coffee, and heading off into the office all that much better. Otherwise, you simply become miserable, and your creativity will suffer.

Reminding yourself of that purpose goes a long way in keeping you sane too!

Using your creativity on your job.

After a particular difficult troubleshooting period and a successful repair (in my younger days) a debrief of sorts was taking place when engineering and management pull together to understand what happened and how to prevent or predict the failure in future. 

When asked "Delmus, how did you figure this one out?"  another engineer friend spoke up on my behalf saying, Delmus gets his problem solving skills because he is an "artist". His thinking outside the box is his strongest asset.

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That was probably one of the most affirming compliments I ever received.

Yes, some knew I was a painter.  I was never ashamed to let folks know this. 

Others knew me as the guy they could call at 3 am to get an answer on how to fix something.

The jist of what I'm saying is this. 

Never look down on yourself because you have a creative spirit.  It is never, ever a weakness, but rather, one of your most powerful assets!