Finding Your Creative Outlet

Apr 21, 2024

A couple of years ago, I would have never considered myself a “creative” person. In elementary school, I absolutely could not stand art classes, coloring, painting, or anything of the sort for a combination of reasons that simplified to me not having the patience for the activities, and that I did not think anything I produced was “good enough.” Because of this, I never put in a lot of effort in these classes and would rush to finish every project. However, simultaneously, I excelled in reading and writing and it was those classes that were and have always been my favorite.

My love of reading and writing has shaped me into the person I am. It is what inspired me to create this blog, to be involved in various organizations in my school, and has helped me decide what I want to do in the future in terms of a career. Since elementary school, I have found more outlets for my creative side that I did not know existed at the time because then, I only attributed being creative to being talented in art classes. Photography, cinema, graphic design, and fashion among others are all sources of my creative outlets and are subjects that provide endless amounts of inspiration in my life.

The beauty of finding my outlets was that initially, being so infatuated with reading was what allowed me to be introduced to all the other aspects of creativity that I consider to be vital to my life. These outlets are all quintessential parts of my day…listening to music, reading a new book I bought about a niche topic (currently reading about Sidney Lumet’s journey of filmmaking and the Montauk Project), flipping through my monthly Vogue edition, or watching movies off my Letterboxd watchlist at night, I am feeding my creative side, and just doing things that I love.

Writing blog posts, creating collages or mood boards, curating music playlists, exposing myself to different genres of music, watching different films, or taking photos or videos of people and places, are my outlets and I have several methods on how anyone can find theirs!

Lily’s Guide to Finding Your Creative Outlet

1) Stemming and Expanding

The first step I would give to anyone who is struggling to find a creative outlet is to think about what you already love to do and expand on it. For example, if you love to listen to music, stem from what you listen to on an everyday basis, and expand your palette by exploring different artists and genres. Or, if you love to read fiction, consider expanding your literary palette by reading newspapers or buying a magazine subscription to expand your knowledge and your range of literature.

2) Take Advantage of Social Media

If I’ve learned one thing in the past year about social media, it is to use it to my advantage. Social media is a unique concept that has a lot of faults but can also be an endless source of inspiration if you are utilizing it correctly. I’d say that 70% of the few amount of people I choose to connect myself to on social media are all accounts that inspire me in some way. Fashion, film, music, photography, travel, and even art-based accounts make up the majority of my following feed and I have been able to gain knowledge, inspiration, or just positivity from viewing the content. In short, you are responsible for what you see on social media every day, so might as well tailor your account so you can view content that benefits you in some way.

I would also highly recommend Pinterest for creating personalized boards based on your interests, as well as to look for inspiration on really any aspect of your life.

3) Endless Evolving

The only way to grow is to continuously evolve, so to find a source of creativity you have yet to come across, you have to try new things. One night of watching a random movie I found turned into a deep admiration of love of all different types of films, and it has served as a true endless cycle of inspiration for me.

Making the time to try new things that benefit the soul and mind is crucial to living a content and interesting life. Endlessly learning and creating are the key methods. While the outlet of creativity will be different for everyone, having at least one outlet will positively impact your life in numerous ways.

Humans are naturally creative in one way or another, it is simply a measure of what aspect of creativity one chooses to dedicate their time to.

“Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.” - Kurt Vonnegut