How I Know You’re Wildly Creative (Even if You Feel Like a Total Poser Sometimes)

I’m not gonna lie, I’m not exactly what you’d call a fashionista.

Sometimes I wear clothes that are totally wrong for my shape. Sometimes I stay in sweatpants for two days straight. Sometimes I buy the cheapest thing off the sale rack just ’cause.

Sometimes I even put on leggings and try to pass them off as actual pants.

But the thing is, I looooove clothes.

I love reading fashion blogs and sipping chai tea while digging into WhoWhatWear. I love trying on outfit after outfit on Friday night (before ultimately settling on my usual jeans and tee combo, let’s be honest).

There was a time, however, that I tried really hard NOT to be into fashion. I hung out with a ridiculously angsty group of kids in high school, who wanted nothing to do with anything mainstream or popular.

And although we totally decked ourselves out in ridiculous amounts of eyeliner and outfits we meticulously curated from Hot Topic, we were still supposed to act like we didn’t care about something as “superficial” as fashion.

Stupid, right? Except not so much.

There are still a ton of people I know who think that things like perfecting your hairstyle and cruising through the mall for a pair of pumps that are “just right” is nothing but a bunch of phooey. (Except I don’t think I hang out with anyone who would actually say the word “phooey” – unless you count my mom.)

But here’s the thing:

Fashion is fucking art, people.

“One should either be a work of art, or wear a work of art.”

― Oscar Wilde

Style is hardly superficial, and here’s why:
Style is really another way to say “creativity.”
And creativity is (I believe) THE KEY to a life well-lived.

Whether you’re laboring over presenting a new dinner dish to your beau so it looks as good as it smells or working on your business or just choosing the most complementary blouse with your pencil skirt (okay, or tee shirt with your designer jeans), it’s really all the same thing.

All of it requires you to be creative.

I get it, though. As ladies who launch (read: lady biz owners), it’s easy to feel like we’re just NOT creative sometimes. It’s easy to feel like our well has all but dried up and we’ll never come up with a good, original idea ever again.

Honestly though, this is usually a result of looking outside of ourselves for our creativity. We can become so absorbed in our industries; stalking the latest gurus and trying so hard to learn the latest strategies, that we start to feel like we don’t have anything original of our own to share.

Or worse, you THINK you’ve come up with something amazing only to realize your competitor JUST launched that VERY SAME THING like, a day earlier than you.

Happens to me a-freaking-lot.

And the worst part of that is, when we’re starting to feel creatively deprived, we think that forcing ourselves to plop down in front of our MacBooks and BE CREATIVE, DAMNIT! will help.

We think that if we just force ourselves to focus ONLY on business for the next few days/hours/weeks/months, it’s somehow going to make us feel all creatively full, energized and awesome.

But seriously babe, we are SO wrong.

Here’s what I think:
You are innately creative.

Everything you do – every choice you make – is made up by you. Your entire reality stems from your creativity and your vision for what is possible in this life.

Seriously though. Next time you feel like a totally unoriginal businesswoman who’s never gonna get anywhere because all the good ideas are taken and FUCK you just can’t seem to come up with ANYTHING to write/speak/sell, take a look around you.

Think about the adorable crop-top-and-high-waisted-skirt ensemble you whipped up for that new client last week.
Or that delicious dinner recipe you pulled from Pinterest, where the presentation bordered on down right sexy.
Or how all your friends say your living room looks like something straight from Houzz.

THAT is creativity.

Creativity is NOT confined to what you create inside your computer.

And if you’re having a shitty time figuring out how to express yourself online, I want you to STAHP IT. Just for a moment, and go make something with those perfectly-manicured mitts of yours instead.

Remind yourself that creativity is your damn BIRTH RIGHT and you have ALL THE ABILITY to summon more of it into your life.

Or, you know, just look at your living room.