The terms imagination, creativity and innovation have separate definitions. Imagination is the capability of the mind to structure new ideas, creativity
is applying imagination, and innovation is the use of creativity for a cause. To
someone wanting a career filled with creativity, understanding all these
processes is important. Yet, imagination, creativity and innovation may not always
be recognizable within ourselves. This makes it difficult to use of them in our
everyday life. In this blog text I aim to define the reasons why this is, and
to propose how we could all make use of our hiding capabilities.
Imagine an ideal
life path: you end up in college at 18, you graduate on time, find a partner, enroll
to a well-paying and interesting permanent job, get married, start practicing trendy
hobbies, get married and have children. You proceed in your career through a senior
position to become a respected leader in your field, while you watch your
family excelling at your side (children in great schools getting all scholarships
and eventually following your footsteps). During this time your parents are enjoying
their retirement days. A nice image, I would say. But how many of us have led
this type of life? At least in my circle of friends, I must say not everyone
had it so smooth, more often quite the opposite.
Building a
set of images of a life one should accomplish is dangerous. Comparing yourself
to such an unreal person, made up of the impressions you have of people presenting
their best sides on Facebook, is – I claim – one of the main reasons why we are
unhappy and lack creativity. We waste most of our time trying to match to an
ideal, which is not possible to achieve, and get disappointed with ourselves
failing to do so. Why do we do this? Instead of following a fulfilling life
path, we purposefully seem to make ourselves miserable. I believe the answer is
simple: we try too hard to be perfect.
Let’s face
it. Today’s job market is completely different from those days when our parents
graduated. Those days, most people with any degree were guaranteed a permanent
job and secure pension. The path of life described above was a standard achieved
by many those days. Nowadays, when my generation is approaching 40, we feel as
if we failed it all. We do not gain permanent jobs. Not all of us succeed to
have children. Also, not all of us enjoy a house without a mortgage. Comparing
these “pitfalls” in your life to the description above makes it look as if we
failed. The truth is, however, that while we are required to re-educate
ourselves voluntarily to keep up with the pace of technological changes, while
holding fulltime jobs (some feeding the children or paying our debt), we are also
expected to look happy on the outside. As my aunt might say “In our days, when
being young, we would not complain. We would just do it”. This creates a huge
generation gap. The world is completely different than what it was about 40
years ago.
So, what
then, should we think of all this? I believe we should give ourselves a break.
I do not think it will change how we are seen by our parents’ generation; the
trick is to change how we see ourselves. It is not our fault that there are no
permanent jobs out there or that stable career paths do not exist. Also, we
should not feel guilty that not all of us can have children or afford a big house.
It is fine, that we search for our identity still in our 30s and wonder what
job would suit us. It is also not a failure that we do not receive pension when
we retire.
We try just
as hard as everyone else have tried before us. It is ok not to be perfect.
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