If I asked you what you create throughout your day, many of you would answer “nothing”. Perhaps you do and you’re just not aware of it, and perhaps you really don’t create almost anything, but the important thing to bare in mind is that humans are creators by nature. Often it is this lack of creating something useful, purposeful and for others that makes us feel that our days are spent in a dull, purposeless way.

In today’s post I’d like to explore why creating makes us happy and should be an important activity in our life, the difference and tendencies of creating vs consuming, and some ideas on how to create more. 

Why are we happy creating stuff? 

Albert Einstein said “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” And that’s the point. Creating something – cooking dinner, baking a cake, drawing a sketch, making a plan, writing some lines, planting a tree etc. – is a way adults play. Just like kids have their ways to play, adults do as well.

Of course you can play without creating anything – sports is a good example. But there’s something more to the beauty of creating: Your creation is adding some value, it’s you leaving something behind. And that’s what makes it so satisfactory. The feeling of you having a purpose, making a difference. You may say that frying an egg for breakfast is a creation but won’t bring any value to the world. That’s a reasonable argument! 🙂 However, the very fact of creating something generates dopamine, a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Meaning, it makes us happy. 

Creating vs Consuming

Creating is an inherent need of humans. We carry it in our DNA, as there has never been a time we haven’t been creating things. On the other hand, we are also consumers. Consuming goods is necessary for our survival and there’s nothing wrong with it. But as it’s often the case, imbalance is causing troubles. And there has been definitely an imbalance between consuming and creating after the industrial revolution, when massive consumerism started.

Nowadays there’s so much goods you can consume that you don’t need to create anymore to survive. The result is that many of us just forgot our deeply rooted creative needs, don’t create anything and feel empty or unfulfilled. 

The solution? Get back yo your roots, let your intelligence have fun.

How can you create more?

So how can you create stuff and see if this gives you a dopamine kick? Ideally you’d create at work. Maybe you’re lucky and you already get to create things at work – great! See if you can get more original and make some changes, to keep your work challenging. And if you don’t have a job you get to leave something tangible behind notice if there are any tasks that are creative, where you can build something, do some plans, come up with new ideas, improve processes, whatever you see possible. 

If you can’t or don’t want to do this, be creative in your free time! There’s loads of hobbies that activate your artistic, culinary or musical vein. Look for something you really enjoy – do it for the sake of the activity, not the result. 

I myself am getting more and more attentive to my needs to be creative. That’s why I started this blog and share y thoughts with you.

Hope you enjoyed this and get your inherent creator to do some amazing stuff!