CWL Ep 149 Creativity and transitions

Oh, welcome back to this next episode on the theme of transitions. And in the last episode, I shared with you a lot about how here I have found myself in this state of really most areas of my life, not sort of wanting that anymore, but not necessarily knowing what’s coming next and having a sense of what that was going to be, especially in a work sense for this year. And then that taking a little bit of a longer road and needing to kind of, I guess, transition into something new. And I think that this is a really common stage we all find ourselves at. I think I finished with the question of is life just one big transition? I think it really is with some extra sticky transition points in there. That’s for sure. I mean, I’ve been speaking to loads of friends whose kids have gone into their first year of high school this year, and we are talking about, it’s a big transition for them.

It was a big transition for my son. I think people, there’s lots of different reasons why some people find transitions extra tricky and others seem to just go with the flow. And I don’t know about this whole state of midlife that I’m in, but it’s feeling like a real fundamental kind of seismic transition. And I got to tell you, I am here for it. In fact, I just think the whole world is, I think that there was just so much that we realised about things in the past few years that it’s going to be revealed. We’ll end up having shifted us and transitioned us more than we realise. It’s just that we are really good at holding onto things for as long as we possibly can because change feels really scary to most people, even although change is a normal and natural part of life.

It’s so interesting thinking about midlife. I was actually talking to an old friend recently and we just had this conversation and he says, you know that they’ve done a study and they’ve figured out the point at which you go from being young to being old. There’s an age that they’ve defined as that point. I’m like, get out. I literally don’t believe you, but okay, tell me what it is based on the study. And he said, well, 44, he’s 44. I’m 44. And I was like, well, great. Super. So now we’re old. What does that even mean? And both of us were kind of reflecting on the fact that we both still feel like we’re in our thirties, not looking like we’re still in our thirties, but feeling it. And it’s just such an interesting time. I reckon this stage, I’m just loving it for all the gifts that it’s bringing.

But anyway, let’s talk about what’s been actually helping me this time. And over the years of this podcast, over the years of showing up in this business, I’ve shared all sorts of things that have helped me through particular stages of my life. I love just pick something up, I’ll share it with you. And this time it’s different only because of it’s coming from a completely different place within me. I think for a long time, many of us, I was kind of searching for the answers for things outside myself. Maybe I could read someone’s book about how they did that and then suddenly, oh, I’ll be doing that. Or I’ll be reading that.

I might think, wow, that person’s system, that’s cool. And I have bought so many books over the years. I mean, gosh, the whole journey of trying to understand yourself and using other people, their expertise to help get you there, I think is a really normal part of the process. And I think you can also get stuck there. And I see a lot of people do this just on a constant consuming this content, whether it be books or podcasts or whatever in a way to find some sort of silver bullet for where they’re at. And I have also shared with you my silver bullet. I mean, I’ve created programmes with things that have helped me. And you’re encouraged because as I think I said in the previous episode, people really like to follow some sort of a system. It’s really nice to have something to kind of, a framework to follow, to fit amongst and to help you make sense of things.

And that is so useful in a certain particular stage of your life. I mean, people pump that stuff out like nobody’s business. You can find anybody’s theory or steps or method for absolutely anything these days. There’s so much around, it’s a waterfall cascade effect. And you can just pop your hand in, take something out, and it might be super, super valuable to you at a particular stage of your life. But I don’t know about, I’m just at a stage of my life where that stuff is just kind of repelling me. I feel repelled by it.

And it’s why last year, even my own stuff was repelling me. This idea that there’s, well, look, actually that’s probably a whole other episode. Let’s not go there. I’ll share more on that with you in time. But it’s why I started telling more stories because it was actually, my stories is the most true thing that I can offer to the world. And actually, as I have discovered since writing harvest and sharing harvest, that particular story and filling my social feeds with stories for a year, is that they are absolutely enough. People are very smart. People are very attuned to what moves them. People are ripe for seeing something, having that trigger something in them and going about making shifts. I think so many of us are done with just the constant being told, just stop telling me what to do. Show me how you’re living your life.

Show me all of this in process. But I just kind of wall on the whole being told, I don’t know if this is you as well, or if it’s just that rebel part of me that’s like, shut up, give me something real. Yeah, I don’t feel anything right now from you. And just because you’re saying you’re an expert, no, not believing you. So I’ve kind of gone through this whole period of having loved that world for the gifts that it’s given me in terms of growing my own level of self-awareness and learning things that I had no idea about before Super and now, nah, you know what I did last year when I was really feeling like, oh, it’s just all, I’m just so bored of myself. I’m bored of all the things. And I just started to ask myself, what would the most creative thing I could do be? What would the most creative response be if I was to really think outside the square wall, what would come?

And I’ve shared it before on the podcast, this whole sense of just thinking creatively, stepping into being the creator of my life instead of this person just on the treadmill. I really found myself that. And I felt like I was intentionally creating my life for a long time. And then just, it just all felt a little bit boring. And I knew that I needed something, but I didn’t know what I needed. And so I just started to step into this idea that I was a creative person, that I could create different things. I ditched the idea that anybody else would have the answer for me. That there was any sort of programme to follow or perspective that would give me the answers I was looking for. I know, and we all know it all lies within us already. It’s just are we allowing ourselves to see it, hear it, be honest about it, be creative with it.

So last year when I went on the trip, all the creative juices were flowing all the time. I got a really good sense throughout that trip of the things that unlocked my creativity. But to go on that trip in the first place required me to do a lot of creative thinking. And it was the reason we ended up going on the trip. It was an idea I’d had since 2019, take the kids and go away for a while. And I needed to get creative about my life and what was in it and what I was prepared to sacrifice in order to be able to do the thing.

And how it came about. Had to be thought of creatively. And it’s, it’s just so simple. But when you start to embody being creative in any area of your life, new answers come. It’s just the ultimate in curiosity and expansive thinking. I reckon I have found it to be, anyway. It’s not boxed up. It’s not for a particular outcome. It’s not leading anywhere. It’s just creative. It’s just exploratory. It’s just interesting. And I’d been bored by continuing to make the same choices by the daily grind. And I needed to mix things up and I needed to spark that creativity. And so that’s how it happened. And off we went. And then I realised as I said, that there are certain conditions that help me feel creative. And it was a big fear of mine when I came home that I would lose that creativity. I would lose it because I wasn’t constantly seeing new things and outside my comfort zone. And there’s so much being sparked when we’re meeting new people in new places, new challenges, new smells, new tastes. It was, my God, I just salivate thinking about how I found that time to be a portal to creativity. And so much felt possible and so much still is possible, but I know it’s my job to keep that creative spark alive. So I’ve done it in some really specific ways since I got home.

I take myself to new places and I put myself in new positions. I am going out and doing more different things. I decided to book a whole heap of tickets when I came home. In fact, I’ve got loads coming up this month, which is just so exciting. Getting out and about new ideas, just mixing up the routine, which I love, our little rhythm that we’ve got. But in order to spark creativity, that usually happens outside it. And I’ve needed to be really true to myself about that. But my daily walk along the beach is an exact moment for that. The music that I choose to put on in my ears will spark certain things. I’ll think about the way that the air feels or the slight drizzle feels on my face. I get in touch with myself again, and I feel place sparks creativity every time sitting on the beach and just looking, giving myself space basically.

And it’s been a reminder to me of what’s worked well in my life before and why it’s worked. Well, without a doubt, that has been me having space for all those years of covid. It felt like there was no space solo parenting, not being able to get a night away from my kids, no space, but I can create space and I do create space. The years things were working best in my business was when I was working with someone who intrinsically understood my need for space and exploration and what sparked my creativity and my new ideas. Now it’s my job to make sure that that happens continuously. And I have experienced this in every single element of my life. I’m bringing creative thought, what I do, who I do it with, how we live, what our house looks like, our daily routine, what we’re eating, all of it through a creative lens. Anything becomes possible. And then you get to choose. But you’ve got to choose the creative lens first. And whoa, how fun, right? And there’s no freaking rules. There’s no steps. It’s just like bring a level of creativity. Let’s fricking play. And that for me, throughout this stage of midlife, throughout this stage of transition is just my favourite way of being. So in the next episode, I’m going to share with you how this has actually manifested into real things in my life. What has actually happened on the back of that over even just this last month. I’ll share that with you in the next episode. See you then.