In my first improv class my teacher sat ten of us down in a circle and asked what we had done creatively during the last week. The other class members, seemed to have lists of items to share; however, I was coming up blank. The next week she asked again. Uh-oh. It was clear that I was going to be held accountable for being creative…definitely a new concept for me.
It’s often been hard for me to prioritize creative projects but this question gave me permission to plug in to my creativity without feeling guilty about it. One week I created a slide set to tell the “search for my wedding dress” story to my mom who was in Florida at the time. I would not have made the time to do this without knowing that I could share this as my creative act for the week.
The impending question also encouraged me to think about what I was already doing differently; was there anything that I did this week creatively but I didn’t really think about it that way? Maybe I used a unique approach at a meeting or for a project at work. I was surprised by how much I could come up with that was creative in a non-traditional sense.
For some this is probably a non-issue but since this question was so useful to me – I though I would ask you ….How have you been creative this week? Do you have a group that you are creatively accountable to? How else might we use this concept to make time for activities that we love but maybe feel guilty doing?
I would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below or in the self improvers community.
Melissa E Anders 