Do you enjoy music? Do you play any musical instrument?

Do you enjoy literature? Do you ever write poems or stories?

Do you enjoy art? Do you ever draw, paint or sculpt?

What are you doing on a weekly basis that would fit into the category of ‘creative’? Perhaps you make things, fix things, draw, paint, play music, dance, write.

If not, why not? Perhaps an inner voice pops up and says ‘I’m no good at that. It’s not my natural talent.’ But how do you know if you’ve never tried it and you don’t have to be Rembrandt to enjoy painting or Jimi Hendrix to enjoy playing a guitar.

It is never too late to learn a musical instrument, or take up creative writing, or art. Why not join a local course or attend a workshop or find yourself a teacher? Maybe a drumming group.

Ever written a poem? It’s good to be creative with words. Here’s a challenge. Write about something that concerns you and think what the core issue is and somehow put it into words. Shorter the better. Even better of it rhymes. Give it a go. Join a writing class, if you like. Keep a note of sayings you hear or expressions you like.

Here’s a few:

“Experience is what you learn just after you needed to know it.” Isabelle Allende.

“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” George Bernard Shaw.

“I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy” Anon.

Words are fun.

Being bad at something is good. Embracing failure is necessary to become good at anything. But do you need to be ‘good’? is there some inner perfectionist that stops you learning something new and creative just because you’ll never be a maestro? Who cares? Who are you trying to impress? All that counts is that you enjoy it, have some fun and stretch your experience in some new direction. Anything creative is good for your brain.

Make a list of three new creative skills you’d like to develop. Pick one and go for it.