Part 1 of The Corporate Creative Series

I took an 18-month sabbatical in 2020; yes, right through COVID-19!

During that time, I wrote 1 page in my journal every day about anything that came to mind. Thoughts, feelings, memories, phrases I thought of and wanted to remember, plans for life during and after the sabbatical, and my fears.

One random day, I watched a sermon that preached a message about the moral imperative of using our gifts.

Gifts? Plural? Me too - am I meant to consider myself as gifted? I honestly had to ponder what my gifts are. I am aware of my talents (attributes I’ve had the aptitude to refine through training) but I wasn’t clear on my gifts (what I thrive at naturally).

Unshackled from all past identities acquired from corporate and educational environments, I was a blank slate ready to examine the core of who I am.

I remembered a dormant desire from 2016 that failed to launch: I wanted to write a “student’s companion” about life lessons that aren’t taught in school but are important to know. It would be short and easy to read. I’d write about the stuff my teenage-self would have wanted to know. High school got rough for me. I wanted to make myself available to young people who need guidance and reassurance, knowing I had wanted the same.

Feeling inspired, I reasoned that while I didn’t know if writing is my gift, I could at least try it out. I was naturally drawn to it. Talents and gifts are discovered through experimentation, right? I read some of my journal entries and was encouraged by what I saw: I was looking for potential, not perfection. Finally, I framed the experience as a creative experiment. Gift or not, I like a good challenge and I already knew what to write about. This time, unlike in 2016, I had run out of excuses. 

That first book is called “The Gen Z Pocketbook for Teenage Girls”. I had no ambition then or now of switching to a career as a writer. I simply viewed it as a useful resource I wanted to share with students. I set a strict page limit to keep within the “short guide” target I had set. I removed several concepts and stored them in a separate file not knowing what I’d do with them later. 

Soon after self-publishing, friends and a career coach encouraged me to keep writing. I began writing blogs. I was having several conversations with peers about our careers so I captured my thoughts in a personal blog. I felt compelled to write about the discarded topics from my book BUT I was recovering from the emotional drain of book-writing. I chose to treat each topic as a blog for a second website - later Instagram page - aimed at Gen Zs. 

I set a goal to write one article per month. It could be for my personal blog or my youth blog. I doubled down on the latter as it became clearer to me that I needed to focus on the purpose of my writing now that I had nurtured consistency.

Using this slow-and-steady approach, I wrote over 30 articles of Gen Z content gathered over 2.5 years! I saw a need to go deeper on the topics based on the questions I was getting from my readers. The next logical step (in my mind) was to package the most important themes into a second book.

My creative journey went through 5 main phases.

1. Ignition: from journalling I got the confidence that I had ideas worth sharing.

2. Nurturing: I re-joined corporate life after the first book. Determined to keep writing, I set a goal to write one article per month. I didn’t focus on what I would do with the articles. Writing makes me happy and that was reason enough.

3. Refinement: I maintained both websites for roughly 18 months, proving to myself I had the discipline to keep writing. I then decided to focus on writing for Gen Zs where I felt more purposeful alignment.

4. Experimenting: I would write my Gen Z blogs for my website then convert the same content into Instagram posts. Unsurprisingly, Instagram had much more engagement. Eventually, I stopped publishing to my site and wrote my articles in post format. The goal was for students to read - I was flexible on how and where that happened.

5. Impact: I saw a bigger narrative I wanted to convey from the articles, posts and conversations I was having with GenZs. Making video reels and posts caught short term attention but the importance of what was being discussed would be lost in social media environments designed for content to be consumed, not for lessons to be absorbed. I zoomed in to engage and understand what Gen Zs need. Then I zoomed out to present what they need into a format that would serve them better. 

I share this detail because:

1. Some of you have an idea for a creative project that’s gathering dust. What is it?

2. Your creative project could be an interest, a talent or a gift. How would exploring that part of yourself impact your life?

3. Sometimes we need a catalyst or more exposure to trigger action. What are you doing to explore your creativity?

4. Some of you may have abandoned a creative project that was “taking too long”. Looking back, did you have unrealistic expectations of what it means to do something for fun on limited time versus how you approach your work? Annual-KPI-culture can make us more impatient than we realise.

5. You might already know what your creative interests are. Do you have the right habits to nurture them regularly?  

The Artist’s Way is a great resource if you are in the re-discovery phase. You might find your creativity being blocked by self-limiting beliefs that you must unlearn first before you can move forward. The book is effectively a call towards creativity as a lifestyle.

How do you relate to this topic of re-discovering creativity? Please share a comment below. Your experience might help someone.

Also, share this article with a friend or colleague who’d be interested in this conversation.