Does Your Creative Mind Make You a Fringe Dweller?

Creativity is something borne of imagination. It is something that is new and different. It is not imitative or already in existence. Something truly created by the mind is not something that is brought forth through any type of training – good or bad. It is fresh, it is exciting, it is conceived.

Anna Freud says”Creative minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.”

Bad training – what is that anyway? Is it something we learn as children, decide to believe and carry it with us throughout our lives? And who says we have to believe it anyway? As adults, surely we can make up our own minds, regardless of what we were taught as kids. Sometimes though, it’s just not that easy to let go of these teachings, even when we see that there’s something else that we feel is better than what we originally learned.

And what makes training bad? To say that training is either good or bad is to place judgment on it. And judgment, as we all know, is a human distinction born of our ego. For example, there are many moms and dads who allow their kids to play in the mud. The moms and dads who allow this obviously think it’s okay. They think it promotes creativity and out of the box thinking. They think that being dirty and creative is more important than being clean and a “stick in the mud”. The parents who would never allow their kids to play in the mud may value cleanliness above this form of creative exploration. They may worry about what other parents (and their own parents) would think of them if they allowed this behavior or action. They are simply trying to be good parents and have their kids “fit in”. Whether the parent allows their child to play in the mud or not, they are simply doing what they feel is best for their child and the child’s future. They do this by drawing on what they themselves have learned from their upbringing, schooling and life experience. And it’s all born of love.

Training of children, adolescents and even adults is something we do to create a smooth-functioning, cohesive existence in our household, in our place of business and on our planet. We have designed rules and regulations to keep us all in sync. Societal norms are pretty easy to spot in any country and any community. The people with the biggest, most different ideas who buck the system, think outside the box and live on the fringe of these norms are often outcast and considered to be crazy, weird and strange by those who live within the norm. However, all we have to do is look back in history to recognize that these “fringe-dwellers”, nuts and weirdos have proven to be respected as some of the greatest minds, and often with the biggest most beautiful hearts, in the world.

Names like Picasso, Joan of Arc, Thomas Edison, Beethoven, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Clara Barton, Deepak Chopra, Elanor Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, Frank Lloyd Wright, Helen Keller, Barbara Walters, Maya Angelou, Princess Diana, Ben Franklin, Gloria Steinem, The Wright Brothers, Walt Disney…. the list of creative minds, beautiful hearts and huge contributors goes on and on.

Are you a fringe-dweller? Do you think outside the box? Are you willing to use your great mind beyond what you now consider to be “normal”? Are you ready to unleash your creativity? Will your name be added to the list of great minds in this world? And perhaps more importantly, will your name be great to those you count as closest, dearest and most beloved to you right now?

Now that’s Powerful!