Creative and reactive—these words look almost the same but are polar opposites.
Creative people live their lives with active choice and a sense of agency, discovering new opportunities, creating new possibilities for themselves and those around them.
Reactive people surrender their agency and control of their lives, programmed by external pressures.
It's a challenge to live creatively today when we're inundated by tidal waves of advertising and social media, competing for the valuable asset of our attention. It's all too easy to get dragged down into an undertow of enticing information, to surrender our time, our energy, and our sense of self.
Yet each of us is a unique, creative individual with our own special strengths. As I explain in my book, Your Personal Renaissance,[1] when people began believing that they had their own unique strengths to discover and use, this belief inspired the Renaissance. In an unprecedented wave of creativity, artists, writers, scientists, and leaders in many fields flourished. And a poor boy from the English countryside whose parents could only sign their names with an X brought his strengths to the London stage as William Shakespeare.
In our own time, positive psychology has confirmed the power of discovering and using our strengths. Extensive international research has revealed that beyond our cultural differences, there are 24 character strengths common to humankind. The researchers found and that discovering and using our top strengths can make us happier, healthier, and more successful.[2]
You can discover your own top character strengths by taking the free online survey at https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths-via which should take only ten to fifteen minutes.
What are your top strengths? Can you begin using some of them in new ways to begin living more creatively?
Who knows? If enough of us start using our strengths, we can make a positive difference in our lives. And we may even reverse the reactive trend in our culture to create a new Renaissance for our time.
References
[1] Dreher, D. E. (2008). Your Personal Renaissance: 12 Steps to Finding Your Life's True Calling. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo.
[2] Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2004). Character strengths and virtues. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association; Seligman, M. E. P., Steen, T. A., Park, N, & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 410-421.