Cracking Your Code on Creativity

Finding the Right Light to See What You Can Build

Creativity does not usually start with a lightning bolt.

I think we like to pretend it does. We imagine the artist sitting in a perfect room, the entrepreneur having the perfect idea, the writer getting hit with inspiration, or the inventor waking up at 3:00 a.m. with the answer.

Sometimes that happens. Most of the time, creativity starts much quieter than that.

It starts when you finally get enough space to hear yourself think, when you are around the right people, and when you feel safe enough to say something that might sound stupid at first.

That is why I think creativity is not just about talent. It is about environment, courage, and self-awareness. It is about figuring out where you actually shine, then putting yourself in enough of the right light to see what is already there.

That is part of what I mean by cracking your code.

Finding the Right Light

In Cracking Your Calling Code, the idea was simple but not easy: you have to understand yourself — your strengths, weaknesses, wiring, patterns, blind spots, and gifts.

Not because self-awareness is some soft little exercise people do when they have extra time. It matters because you cannot build well if you do not know what you are working with.

You have to know where you shine and, maybe just as important, where you do not.

That does not mean you only do things you are already good at. That is not growth. But it does mean paying attention to the conditions where you come alive.

Some people light up in a room full of people. Some need quiet. Some create through conversation. Others need a whiteboard, a walk, a team, or time alone.

The mistake is thinking creativity has one personality type.

Creativity is not reserved for artists, musicians, writers, designers, or entrepreneurs. Creativity is problem-solving. It is building. It is making something better than it was and seeing a path where other people only see a wall.

To do that well, you have to get in the right light.

Safety Comes Before Risk

Creativity requires risk. It may not be financial risk or career risk, but there is almost always some emotional risk in putting something you made in front of other people.

An idea. A sentence. A project. A song. A business. A solution.

Once it is out there, people can react to it. They can misunderstand it, ignore it, criticize it, or tell you it is not good enough. That is scary, and it is why the environment matters so much.

People are more willing to take creative risks when they feel safe enough to be honest. When they believe the people around them are not waiting to crush the first bad idea. When they know they can say, “This may not be fully formed yet, but what if…”

What if?

That little question matters. If you are surrounded by people who punish every “what if,” eventually you stop asking. And when you stop asking, you stop creating.

Adam Turner, host of Dancing With Depression, makes me think about this too. His story goes into places people do not always like to go, but he goes there anyway. There is creativity in that kind of honesty — being willing to say what is real because real is where you can start fixing things.

Builders Build Builders

One of the biggest questions we have to ask ourselves is simple:

Who is around me?

There are people who hear your idea and start helping you shape it. There are also people who hear your idea and immediately start explaining why it will not work.

There are people who tell you the truth because they want you to get better, and people who use “truth” as a weapon because they are uncomfortable with your growth. You have to learn the difference.

This does not mean you only surround yourself with cheerleaders. That is not healthy either. You need honest people. You need people who will tell you when something is weak, unclear, unrealistic, or half-baked.

But there is a difference between constructive challenge and destructive energy.

Builders can challenge you and still build you up.

Get Off the Wrong Bus

There are environments where creativity dies slowly.

A comment here. A little ridicule there. A boss who only wants compliance. A group of people who mock effort. A workplace where new ideas are punished unless they come from the right person.

After a while, people stop creating. Not because they are not creative, but because they learned it was safer to stay quiet.

There are people walking around with books in them, businesses in them, songs in them, designs in them, and solutions in them who have convinced themselves those things do not matter.

Or worse, someone else convinced them.

Jon Gordon’s The Energy Bus has always stuck with me. I take the idea a little differently: if you realize you are on the wrong bus, surrounded by people committed to being negative, bitter, cynical, or stuck, be honest about what that ride is costing you.

Maybe you cannot jump off immediately. Life is complicated. There are responsibilities, bills, jobs, family, and real constraints.

But do not lie to yourself about the environment. Name it, then start creating a way toward something better.

Even if the first creative act is simply admitting, “This is not where I am supposed to stay.”

The Noise Is Real

It is easy to say, “Be creative.” It is much harder to actually create when life is loud.

Deadlines are loud. Jobs are loud. Phones are loud. Other people’s opinions are loud. Your own self-talk may be the loudest thing in the room.

So when people say they do not feel creative, I get it. Sometimes the issue is not a lack of creativity. Sometimes the issue is that there is no room for creativity to breathe.

That is why you need space. Not a month in the mountains or a perfect studio. Not some fantasy version of life where all responsibilities disappear.

You may need ten minutes. A walk. A bike ride. A swim. Prayer. Meditation. A drive with no radio. A notebook before anyone else wakes up.

Or a quiet lap in the pool where all you can hear is water and your own thoughts.

Whatever it is, find it. Creativity needs oxygen, and if your mind is constantly being hijacked by noise, you may never hear the idea trying to surface.

Create for Yourself Too

We often talk about creativity in terms of output. What did you make? Did it sell? Did it work? Did people like it?

Those questions matter, but they are not the only questions.

Sometimes you need to create for yourself — not selfishly, but honestly. You create because you are more alive when you do. Because it helps you process. Because it gives shape to something you have been carrying.

And contribution does not always start as a business plan.

Sometimes it starts as a journal entry, a sketch, a conversation, a rough draft, a song no one hears, or a book no one asked you to write.

That counts.

Creativity is bigger than work. It is one of the ways we participate in making life better.

The Second Act Matters

One of the inspirations for this article is Jerry Kasimov.

Here is a man who already went all out in job one. He built a highly successful career as a dentist, served people, created value, and earned respect. He could have stopped there.

But then another side started coming out.

Books.

Not one little side project. Books about what matters to him. Books that show creativity, depth, thought, care, and another dimension of who he is.

That inspires me because it reminds me that creativity is not reserved for the young, the undiscovered, or people just getting started.

Sometimes creativity is the second act.

Sometimes it is the part of a person that was always there, waiting for enough space, courage, and permission to come out. And when it does, it makes you wonder how many other people have a second act sitting inside them.

How many people are not done, even though the world already labeled them?

Fear Is Usually at the Door

If you are trying to create, expect fear to show up.

What if they hate it? What if it is not good? What if nobody cares? What if I fail?

Fear is clever. It does not always tell you to quit. Sometimes it tells you to wait — until you have more time, until you are more ready, until work slows down, until the idea is perfect.

That day is not coming.

At some point, you have to move. You have to create the first version, let it be imperfect, and stop worshiping the imaginary version long enough to start working on the real one.

The real one can improve.

The imaginary one cannot.

Sometimes you also need something to interrupt that loop. For me, one of those things is NF — HOPE.

Go to YouTube and type it in. I am serious. It may not be your vibe, but listen to what is being said.

Not because a song is going to magically solve your life. That is not the point. The song hits me every time because it feels like a fight between fear and the part of you that still believes there is something more.

Sometimes that is what you need: something that interrupts the noise long enough for you to hear a different voice.

Then come back and build something.

Cracking Your Code on Creativity

So what is the code?

I think it starts here.

Get in the right light. Find the places, people, and rhythms where you can actually see yourself clearly.

Clear the noise. Even ten or fifteen minutes can matter if you use it to think, pray, walk, swim, write, or breathe.

Find the builders. Surround yourself with people who challenge you forward, not people who need you small so they can stay comfortable.

Create honestly. Do not perform creativity for applause. Build something real because something in you is trying to come out.

Share before it is perfect. Let people see the work. Let feedback sharpen it. Let the process teach you.

Keep going. Creativity is not one moment. It is a practice — a rhythm, a decision to keep making, adjusting, overcoming, adapting, and building.

That is the code.