I believe that we are all creative. Some people need to express themselves creatively and feel lost if they don’t get to do that. Everyone has creative thinking skills that contribute to the process of creating new things or changing existing ones.

But we don’t always realise this or embrace these skills and creative needs.

I think that things like personality profiles, coaching (group or 1:1), creative workshops and just being around other creative minds in a community are invaluable in helping us see it.

I didn’t really start thinking about all this until I was in my thirties though, having abandoned my own creative interests in my school days. I only got back into writing creatively when I had some 1:1 career coaching, started coming across people online who ran courses and month long creative programmes, and met other people who were interested in being more creative. Which got me back into photography as well as writing.

And it sent me on a fascinating journey through all manner of self-help books and courses, including different personality profiles. Where one of the first (among many) things I realised was that I have an introverted brain – and gradually understood why I didn’t enjoy being in open plan offices all day, why I needed to sneak away and go for a walk by myself on many lunchtimes, and why I never felt like I was useful or visible in group discussions.

I’d love for everyone to understand themselves better, see how their interactions with people are different depending on the other person’s personality traits, know how to get the environment they need to thrive in their work, and how to find the space they need for their own creativity.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if children could also learn this about themselves? If they knew that everyone has something they are good at and love doing – it just might not be something immediately obvious, and they might have to have help to seek it out.

And if they knew that people have different personality traits and behaviours, that they are not the same as everyone else – and how to manage things like their interactions with different types of people.

Where am I going with this?

Honestly, I have no idea right now.

I am still doing coaching (etc), but I’m trying to figure out the best way to describe how I help people and exactly who I help. So for now, I’m just using this website as a blog and a place to keep some of my videos about creativity.

I figured that if I need to start my thinking again, a good place to start is by pointing out the things I know for sure. The things that I do want to talk about, that I have always talked about, and that I have been adding layers to over the last 10-15 years.

If any of this resonates, please do say hello via a message here or on social media. You can find all my contact details here.

Photo credit: Nina Lenton, 2014. Subject: the inside of a raspberry tea bag.