I have always been very interested in how I might be able to tap into my creative side more. Although I am a marketer by profession, I am a creative spirit at heart and I have a deep love for content especially emotive content that really speaks to others, that shares an important message and speaks to the heart.
In my career to date, I have led teams of content creators and marketing managers to deliver marketing campaigns and content for large organisations. Creating structured campaigns created pressure to deliver differentiated content on a daily basis which converted prospects into clients. Leading creative staff is a challenge especially in the world of marketing which is increasingly being led by evidence-based statistics. This started to go against the grain a little for me, as much as evidence-based marketing is crucial as important groundwork, using statistics daily was not a part of the creative process and I began to feel the team’s frustration with the lack of space and freedom for their own creative thinking. I needed to find a better way as we were losing the whole magic of creativity. We had lost the ability to lead and be our own heroes.
Stepping back in time, I remember my parents telling me that I needed to work really hard to get my maths exam if I wanted to get a job when I grew up. I was told weekly by my parents that I must stop daydreaming and live in the real world. You can imagine that my choice to go against the grain and attend art college to study graphic arts and media did not go down well but my gut was telling me what I really was meant to do, be creative! not logical!
Why is this important? Because that was my one of my character defining moments. I was defining my story and my truth in that moment. I defied my parents and said ‘no I am going to be an artist and you’ll see I will be successful!’. I went through some emotional pain to go against my parents that day. And some small way I had challenged the norm, I had stepped out of the box, I had created my story. I had become my own hero.
We all have external voices, my parents were mine, telling me how I needed to live, what path I needed to follow and what sort of person I ‘should’ grow up to be. These external voice moments happen to us all, throughout our whole lives in fact. Of course, my parents in my example were also my voice of reason throughout my whole life over most things but in that defining moment, I needed to follow my instinct to my creative future and it was only me that could do that.
You have probably at some point found your gut talking to you prompting you to act, in that split second you had a pang of excitement to share your view but then you didn’t because you listened to those external voices and decided to nod along with everyone else’s idea or opinion.
Do you know that you are blocking your creativity by doing this and denying your intuition a voice which could leverage you to places you only dreamed of! That moment could have been your character defining moment.
These defining moments are those that create our own incredible and unique stories. So think about it – what defining character moments have you had in your life? And how could you open yourself up to having more? Your defining moments are closely linked to your mission and true purpose and they are a marketers dream!
Last year, I started looking inside myself much more, knowing that is where my creativity lies. I have since been learning about the power of intuition and listening to my gut in order to tap back into my creative side. I am making more and more creative and intuitive decisions on my journey both in my professional and personal life. I am ‘tuning in’ more. I am meditating daily, giving my ‘gut voice’ a better chance to get through to me and acting on it (even if it scares me).
I am keeping a journal, writing down what is coming up from the right-side of my brain (the side that performs the tasks that deal with creativity and problem-solving). I am finding that it is OK to lose control, to go against the grain and to release what was there all along – my amazing creative gifts! This is what was missing all along! Now I give myself space and a little time in my day to do the following and you can do the same:
- Respond freely – trying not to control everything in my future. In turn, I am now opening myself up to more opportunities and thinking patterns that I had previously dismissed
- Create freely – the content I create now comes from the heart from my core and not from the ‘shoulds’
- Be quiet and listen to my inner voice at least once per pay, daydreaming is good for the soul and for your marketing!
- Get outside in the fresh air daily and think about nothing. Clearing your mind makes way for clarity, fresh ideas and if nothing else the peace of nature will calm your soul.
Start listening today to what you ‘could’ do instead of what you ‘should’ do. Go against the grain, say what you feel and not what you think you should feel. Watch your amazing story unfold before your very eyes! Reflect on where you have come from, recall those defining moments and start sharing your story today.
If you have the time, watch the video below of this Steven Spielberg Speech at Harvard. Steven speaks of his own journey, using his intuition, his passion for stories and the importance of human connection.
And if you’d like to find out more about creating space to connect to your intuition follow me at TheBigPictureCoaching
Start being your own hero today.
Originally published at karenramsay.wordpress.com