My creativity gets sparked when I’m around other people making something happen out of nothing.
That’s why I was drawn to the theater from a very early age. I know I’m in my ‘happy (creative) place’ when the outside world disappears and I’m simultaneously engrossed and actively engaged in storytelling.
Two elements are necessary when tapping into a happy place: Full engagement and active participation. I could binge my favorite shows all day and be engrossed, but not enlivened because I’m not actively involved in making the stories happen.
That defines a ‘happy place’: When you’re feeling fully engaged and utilized. Your ‘happy place’, is where you express your innate creativity.
Sometimes tapping into that happy place is tough because we have to spend time making a living. Finding a way to make a living from our happy place is what everyone I coach wants.
I suggest the use of a Ven Diagram to clarify and begin to solve that conundrum:
For me, when I broke it down this way, I realized that to function regularly from my happy place in a world where I had to earn a living, coaching brought together what I love, something people need, and what they are willing to pay for to get it.
I love acting. Getting the opportunity to do it proved to be more difficult than I could handle at the time, but I’m really glad I went at it as full out as I did. That doesn’t mean I don’t have regrets or that I’ll never do it again. In fact, I like to say that I act by invitation and sometimes the invitations come. In terms of making a living, I found transferable skills that allow me to make money by regularly inhabiting my happy place.
So back to you: Whether it’s a matter of survival or not, do you know (or remember) what you love to do? You know, the stuff that makes you feel alive and fully engaged. Make a list right now: is it playing softball? Writing? Cooking? Arguing about politics? Tinkering with electronics?
Here are three more questions that are meant to help you tap into your innate creativity more fully. So grab a journal and start writing:
What is your ‘happy place’? Do you get to be there as often as you’d like? How could you live from your ‘happy place’ more regularly? In lieu of that paper and pen, feel free to share in the comments.
