August: Creativity and Confidence

Posted August 1, 2023

As we move with the gifts of the seasons, mid/late summer offers us a portal to building our creativity and confidence if we make the conscious choice to enter it! Every season has a gift in store; something that if we focus our attention and efforts on, we can see it flourish. The efforts we put in during this time may feel like they have rocket fuel behind them, with fewer obstacles. 

This season asks us to take some time to reflect. What does the most confident version of yourself look like? And how different does your life look when you are confident? And the same with creativity - What does the most creative version of yourself look like? And how different does your life look when you are creative?

As you’re reflecting, notice what comes to mind when you think of creativity and confidence. We often have a negative bias around confidence in thinking it can be interpreted as arrogance. But it’s actually the opposite! At your most confident, you have the lowest level of egotism. Confidence gives us the gift of not taking things personally, feeling comfortable with ourselves and where we are at, in turn making us less judgmental or critical of ourselves or others. We also have a greater sense of being in control of ourselves so we have less of a desire to control the things we cannot control. You can see that confidence has such a direct impact with mental health.

When it comes to creativity, one of the main misconceptions is that there is a certain type of person that is creative. In reality you don’t have to be an artist, a performer, or an author to be creative. It takes creativity to lead a team, to plan your grocery list and menu for the week, to manage your time, or to navigate relationships with others. 

Confidence and creativity are two of the highest states of consciousness that anyone can access rather than just a gift that some people have. The work is in figuring out what you can do to tap into these aspects of yourself. 

We’ve outlined a mindful approach to building confidence and creativity in your daily life and in your work.

Confidence and Creativity Builders:

1. Start the day with your own thoughts. This means not taking in other people’s voices or opinions just yet. Create a time to meditate, journal, go for a walk or sit quietly with your coffee. Ideally this is spent in silence or alone and device free! If you live with others, even 10 minutes of this quiet time period can be a major game changer. 

2. Create an inspiration list. This can include people that you emulate, music that lifts your mood, uplifting content, etc. For a week, notice how often you’re in the energy of what inspires you. Whether it’s simply having a conversation with someone that inspires you or listening to your favorite song, and then track your confidence level alongside what you consumed or were exposed to. This gives you a tangible way to really understand impact.

3. Make a list of everything that actually feels like you that is part of your every day 9-5. This could be using your favorite mug each morning, or a lamp on your desk, or the way you communicate with others. Authenticity and tapping into what makes us feel like ourselves has a profound impact on feeling creative and confident. This can feel so obvious, but is so easy to overlook. On laundry week when you were left with a shirt that you actually hate but kept in your closet, how did wearing it shift your vibe for the day? The more we surround ourselves with energy that makes us feel like ourselves, the more comforting the day feels and the more our natural guards and anxieties start to dissipate. 

4. Create boundaries and structure around anything that overwhelms you. Is there a meeting that always seems to drag on or is hard to get everyone on the same page? When there is not only a clear agenda but an idea of what everyone wants to come out of the meeting knowing, you have to put so much less intellectual and mental energy into the meeting that you have more energy for creativity.

Your values are the greatest fuel for seeing the creative possibilities and for building confidence. When we align our daily life to our values, we feel more motivated and we doubt ourselves less. We don’t wonder if we “did a good job.” Make a list of your top 5-10 values. A value is your personal moral compass and sense of what is right. This could be that teams function better with empathy. Or it could be that those with more power have more responsibility. Once you know your values, you can reflect on your day and find the ways you lived out or didn’t live out your values over the course of the day or week.