​I know something about you. 

You are creative. 

Okay, I can hear the arguments already: “But you don’t know me. I’m the exception that proves the rule. I’ve not got a creative bone in my body.” 

If this sounds like you, pause and pay careful attention to your thoughts.

As you craft your argument against my statement, you are mentally gathering pictures, words, feelings, memories, imaginations, and projections, as evidence. Then, you select the best parts and position them to have the most impact.

In effect, you are using creative thinking techniques to prove that you can’t think creatively.  

Ironic, isn’t it?

You might as well accept it, you are creative – although perhaps you’ve forgotten how to be so, and especially how to be so on purpose.

Many adults believe only a select few are born with creative talent. They also tend to believe they’re not one of the lucky ones to be apportioned any of it. However, in truth, creativity isn’t the rare privilege of a gifted minority but is a learned skill, and one we all can develop.

Back in the late 1980s, I was the guitarist in a band and used to have a big, heavy rock hairstyle. It wasn’t so much sleek, flowing locks as it was a privet hedge; its monumental proportions and flair for self-governance meant that whenever I stopped, my hair would keep going.

Can you picture that?

Good.

This is evidence enough to prove that you have what it takes to be creative, because creativity is rooted in your ability to imagine. The problem is, as we journey through life, we let ourselves be talked out of it.

And I want to talk us back into it.

So, I’m on a mission. A mission to wake up a generation of sleeping artists. A mission to stir the dormant talent in those of us born to create.

Which includes you.

Because you were born to create.

I’m convinced of this because creative ability is inherent in us all, it’s just that not everybody knows it. Some once did, but have long since forgotten.

On reaching the lofty peaks of adulthood, many of us relegate imagination to being just kids’ stuff, and go on to live as though our highest calling is compliance, not creativity. We never lose the ability, though, we just lock away our maker-of-interesting-things and try to forget.

But if you’ll indulge me for a brief moment, and cast your mind back, do you remember as a child when you met everything with curiosity and imagination?

That is still you.

And no matter how inept you may feel right now, you are capable of far more than you realise. You have it in you to be an artist of one kind or another.

Of course, not everybody aspires to be an ‘arty type’. You may never want to be a painter, writer, or musician, and that’s okay because creativity applies to not only the arts, but to the whole of life. You’d expect artists to be creative, of course, but creativity is not the exclusive domain of those who paint, write, or play an instrument. It is a treasure hidden within every human heart and it yearns to be unearthed from the moment we take our first breath.

And we depend on its manifestation in so many ways.

It is my belief that a creative spirit, a curious mind, and a heart after beauty hold the answers to many of the serious problems we face today.

Whether you want to start your own business, write a song, innovate at work, or see the world through new eyes, producing anything that is meaningful, lasting, and significant demands a continual flow of creative ideas.

Although, that said, they are only part of the story.

Beyond creative ideas, you must be brave.

It takes bravery to try something new.
It takes bravery to revive something old.
It takes bravery to share your ideas.
It takes bravery to show your work.
It takes bravery to admit that you experience doubt.
It takes bravery to overcome fear.
It takes bravery to be vulnerable.
It takes bravery to say what needs to be said.
It takes bravery to be the only one standing.
It takes bravery to build when everyone else is tearing down.
It takes bravery to create.
It takes bravery to confront difficulty, uncertainty, pain, intimidation, and even danger.

But given enough time, your courage can become immovable, and eventually release you to produce your truest work: the work of an artist.

It’s the artist who expresses the impact of life on the human heart. It’s the artist who ignites fresh hope in the weary. It’s the artist who offers beauty for ashes. And it’s the brave artist who does this with love, and without apology.

Does this sound like you? Or who you want to be? Perhaps who you were born to be?

If so, consider this an invitation to take your place in the emerging creative revolution.

This is your call to renewed innocence and wonder, to have more questions than answers, but through those questions discover better answers.

This is your call to experiment, explore, and uncover hidden treasure, to embrace mystery and uncertainty with enthusiasm, and discover what might be possible beyond all that you currently know.

This is your call to help shape the world that is shaping us. So treat this book as a guided tour of the creative mind’s luminous pathways and darkened alleys, and as a reminder of our indispensable need for imagination and beauty.

This is your call to brave art.