Whypeople believe they arent creative and how to changeit

why do people believe

they aren’t creative and how to change

it

so just remember when you were a little

kid

you painted all these crazy paintings

colorful

it made no sense it was just scribbles

but it was a lot of fun

or when your parents took you on a road

trip and you were sitting in the car and

you just looked out of the window

there’s a big factory a big chimney and

yeah it’s not smoke that came outside it

was a cloud machine

it produced the clouds in the sky so as

a kid

your mind had all these crazy but funny

ideas

and you try to make sense of the world

in your own creative way

puzzling the pieces together in your

mind by yourself

without anyone telling you how it’s

supposed to be so the question comes up

when

and why did the world become such a

great place

well before it was crazy and fun and

colorful

and it was mysterious and you explored

why suddenly is everything gray and

structured

and a lot of people feel trapped when

did that happen

and and why i think that everyone

watching this

is a unique and amazing person and that

everyone

deeply inside is creative it’s just your

beliefs in your mind

and society that is forcing you to think

in certain patterns and over time you

neglect your inner child your inner self

your inner

creativity so let’s figure out why is

that so

and let’s take a look at a couple

stories from

my experience there are certain key

events in everyone’s life

which try to destroy one’s creativity

for a certain purpose

the first big event for me was when i

went to school for the very first time

and suddenly i was confronted with a new

mindset

for my life while i think you should

never stop learning and

that studying is very important schools

at that age

to me felt like you have to remember the

facts

if you forget them you get punished and

if you remember them you get a reward

your parents will be happy

make me feel very trapped and stressed i

felt like

i wasn’t myself one day my father

bought this really strange

old computer like a really big one white

and it was windows 95 big gray keyboard

very slow and having these strange

beeping sounds

my mom always got very angry when i used

it because she couldn’t use the

telephone while i was in the internet

but

well school was very gray for me at home

i had this

yeah this this outlet at this computer

and this like

mysterious new world that was waiting

inside of it

and it made life very very pleasant

and i was i always looked forward

forward to it i rushed home and i just

i was just happy from the basic

paintings

in microsoft paint to exploring

microsoft word

to lightsaber effects and video editing

explosions on on homemade camcorder

footage

i try to explore as much as i can and it

was

very fun i tried to balance my boring

school life

with this amazing digital colorful world

that was waiting outside while this was

a lot of fun

it came with a little problem

one day when i went to school i wanted

to

really excited tell the kids about what

i can do

that you can create imaginary worlds in

the computer

that you can explore your wildest

yeah your sci-fi worlds fantasy worlds

the kids they didn’t like that so much

they

quickly said things like oh look at timo

he’s going to the forest with sticks he

thinks he’s a

star wars fighter and while

this was my big passion it quickly made

me a target

and yeah kids started to pick on me

they started to attack me for no reason

simply because

maybe because i was different and now

thinking back

while my parents always gave me complete

freedom

to choose whatever i want to do their

parents

didn’t they forced them into soccer

clubs

football playing instruments they had a

tight schedule

they had school and then more more more

more which was the was the society

average

everyone did it they all hang out

together

so if there’s a kid who goes to the

forest

and creates a digital world in a

computer which nobody had at that time

of course that’s different of course

that makes him a target

so at the time i quickly learned that

following your passion your your

pure passion what interests you

it can be whatever you want might be not

the best idea because

society has these standards and these

ideals

how everyone should be and in germany at

the time it was

soccer instruments a lot of sports for

guys

so you quickly find out that if you

follow your creative

and artistic inspiration

you look odd you stick out you become

the nail that sticks out

and oh boy there are plenty plenty of

hammers out there

then i was 16 years old and

it was hard for me the kids still didn’t

like me

and suddenly my parents also were

against me because

my grades were suddenly becoming worse

and worse because

school was not a place of fun anymore it

was more like

a place i was forced to go where people

attacked me

where people tried to force me into

something that i wasn’t

and it felt like the entire world was

against me

it i almost failed in class several

times

i almost got kicked from school and yeah

because i didn’t fit in so

at the time i thought of myself as crazy

as strange what is wrong with me

but now i look at it as unique

so what did i do

i buried it i

buried it my life got splitted

while this was my life before it split

into the creative part which

is what i really want to do and the mask

for school where i just put it on

i just act like i’m interested in cars

and in sports

in soccer and yeah my life just became

incredibly splitted

while in school i had this boring

average life i fit in but

kids finally left me alone and when i

came home

everything was colorful it was i could i

could follow my passion

and oh boy i became probably the biggest

nerd

in my town in in my area about visual

effects

it was it reached the point where

i got requests from agencies if i can do

visual effects for them

and they wanted to call me but i

couldn’t pick up the phone because

my voice was like a 16 year old and i

tried to hide it

but they thought that i was yeah much

older that i had

experience that i studied it it was very

it was a funny time

it really split into the two extremes

so at the time since i couldn’t take the

course or i couldn’t

get money for it i just did a lot for

free

it was my playground really then the

second key that

came after i graduated from university i

started my first job

can you believe it someone said i can

choose

finally choose my passion and make money

from it

what did i get tight schedule

low payment lots of deadlines co-workers

which secretly hate you because your

chair is better than theirs

so instead of amazing creative

projects and amazing challenges and

learning opportunities

there was a lot of micromanagement tight

deadlines

stress and again from passion

became a strict prison

a schedule a grey life

which i wasn’t really proud to go to

every day

i was trapped again really ironic

actually

all these years you go to school and

university to study for something

and then society tells you finally you

can do

you can follow your passion you can do

whatever you want

and you follow your passion in a job and

this job

just takes your passion your creativity

and tries to monetize it and kills it

turns your passion into something that

yeah becomes a routine becomes a cage

again

and you end up with nothing the thing

the only thing that inspired you

that how you daydreaming now is a

struggle

is pain so very similar to how it was in

school

where people just try to fit in so they

don’t become a target

your first job is level number two

it takes the only thing left over which

is your true

passion your true inspiration your

little escape

and freedom and it takes your

creative approach your free thinking

into

an effective system

which yes and then if you look around

yourself in your job

you can see that many people get stuck

in this loop

this cycle and they continue and

continue till it becomes a burnout

or midlife crisis there is even the word

these days

is the quarter life crisis many of my

friends have felt it

i complained enough so let’s take a look

at some ways

how you can break the cycle and break

free

to embrace your creativity about

two years ago i started a little

experiment while i was still working

i said to myself what if

each evening i take 30 minutes each

evening

to takes to do something that i like to

do for example

to create an artwork something that has

nothing to do with work

just something that i personally i’m

very curious about and want to try

so if you like painting you can paint

for 30 minutes each evening

or if you like to make crazy lightsaber

movies in the forest

you can also do that the important thing

is

don’t force it don’t don’t pressure it

block out 30 minutes if you can just for

yourself

so you can have freedom and fun and

if you don’t want to do anything don’t

do anything it’s really about just

bringing this playfulness time for

playfulness back into your life

because everything is determined by

other people so you want to make some

time for yourself

so in the first year it started from

literally nothing i just posted my

artworks on instagram

one every day just a little bit no

pressure

just something i really want to do i got

feedback

and i felt more creative than ever it

was amazing

i felt like every day during these 30

minutes my

soul really gets recharged and

when i do it it’s like a meditation i

just forget about time

i forget about everything i just focus

truly on the moment

and i just i’m just very happy also i

could see the learning curve

while at the beginning my art i thought

it was good

by posting every day you could really

see how it improved

step by step and after one year you

could see that

my creative ideas just went from

level one to level 100 it was just a

difference like day and night it was

very interesting

then in the second year something crazy

happened

co with 19. i wasn’t able to go outside

my friends were locked up and since i

live in germany i have many friends in

italy

and i saw that the quarantine affected

them

most yeah insanely

so i wanted to use my my new hobby

my creativity to do something for all

the people affected by the quarantine

so i picked a city which was most

affected the first one was milan

and i created a series called the return

of nature

where i take a city and i envision it in

beautiful flowers and nature

so for all the people who cannot go

outside to

experience this spring they can at least

see it digitally

and it draws all the way back to when i

was a kid where i built these dream

worlds

now i could do it for people affected by

a pandemic which was very cool and then

the crazy thing happened it didn’t take

long and the series went from

a few hundred clicks to 20 million

20 million views and my profile

my little art profile went from 10 000

followers

to a hundred thousand there were 90 000

new people

who were inspired by my little creative

hobby

and shared it with their friends it

helped them during the pandemic

and that was just mind-blowing for me

and then quickly after all the emails

rushed in

two per week three per week the world’s

largest clients

the brands fashion music technology

and guess what i did i quit my job and

now i’m here i have no body to

micromanage me

i simply sell ideas to dream worlds

what i did as a kid everyone attacked me

about it

my my inner creativity just how crazy is

that

so i asked myself if

30 minutes each evening had

so much impact on me my job

but also all the people that got

inspired that might have started

and that that helped their friends

during the pandemic

that yeah loved my art enjoyed it

what could 30 minutes do for another

person

my little series changed the fashion

industry and also the music industry

in this year quite a bit really a bit

so i’m asking myself what if someone

from another profession from another job

maybe someone who does something great

for the environment

or someone in technology what if they

start

a challenge where for 30 minutes each

evening they just do something that is

truly from their heart that is their

creativity

that is playful that is something where

they completely forget about time

a simple move that you only block out

30 minutes each day for yourself or even

less maybe 10 minutes

so think about it if someone a 27 year

old from rural germany

how my art can reach 20 million people

just from committing 30 minutes

a little bit of time every day to a

creative outlet

to yourself to your inner child to your

inner creativity

how can it change your life how in

return

can it change the world what if what if

you’re an engineer

or you’re doing something completely

crazy

how could it change everything so i

encourage you

try it for yourself just try it for two

weeks

i think you will love it thank you very

much for

listening today i hope you have an

amazing day