What risks have you taken this week?
Perhaps applied for a job. Put your CV together, and put yourself out there to be judged and assessed for your potential suitability.
Perhaps given someone in need some money that you really couldn’t afford, but knew was the right thing to do.
Perhaps challenged someone you love for their destructive behaviour, risking losing the relationship.
Maybe you have taken physical risks – done something for the first time, jumped off or out of something.
Whatever it was, what was the outcome?
And more importantly, what did you learn about yourself and your abilities in the process?
Part of being creative is being free and willing to take risks. Risks often lead to failure – as discussed here recently in relation to exams, negative self talk and innovation.
Last week, I was again involved in the sixth year induction week for pupils at our local (and our daughters’) secondary school.
[Similar contribution last year – must have been acceptable because I was asked back….]
The key message of one of the other contributors was the necessity of trying things out and not being afraid of making U-turns or of failing. Taking risks and grabbing opportunities without any clarity or certainty of a positive outcome is an important part of growing up.
On our trawl through the habits of creative people, as listed in The Huffington Post highlights the link between willingness to take risks and creativity.
“There is a deep and meaningful connection between risk taking and creativity and it’s one that’s often overlooked. Creativity is the act of making something from nothing. It requires making public those bets first placed by imagination. This is not a job for the timid. Time wasted, reputation tarnished, money not well spent — these are all by-products of creativity gone awry.” [Steven Kotler in Forbes Magazine]
You take risks, it goes wrong.
You have not necessarily failed, you have just learned that that specific approach did not work. With jobs, this can feel like a relentless picking-yourself-up-and-trying-again. But taking courage and choosing to see that we are ‘making public those bets first placed by imagination’ gives renewed vigour to learn, re-assess, change perspective and try again.
Connected to this is having a wide range of experience – not getting stuck in the mundane.
New and varied experiences, seeking to shake things up a bit, diversity, are all important to develop our creative juices. And of course, taking risks is one route to this.
How often do we get trapped on the merry-go-round of routine, normal life with very little variation?
Monotonous.
Mundane.
No doubt, necessary and important.
But just plain dull….and often a bit life-sapping.
We do things ‘because we have always done them this way’ or because that is our habit. But habit kills off spontaneity and creativity – the idea of doing something new.
This week, where could you push against the mundane and take a few risks? Try something completely new? Step out to speak to that person you have been admiring from afar? Contact someone you miss but have lost touch with? Or push yourself to go for that job?
Taking risks is part of life and stretches and grows our creativity as we try – and often create – something new.