Creative Threads — Are You Wearing the Clothing that Fits YOUR Creative Life?

By Dan Goodwin

Imagine for a moment that each part of your life was a garment of clothing. Your life as a whole is therefore a set of clothes that you wear, a complete outfit that represents you and the life that you lead.

Now each garment may not match any of the others, at least not in the conventional sense. Some of your clothes may appear freshly washed and pressed with the precision of the finest Savile Row tailor, whilst others may be looking a little tattered and the worse for wear, more Skid Row than Savile.

Some may fit perfectly, literally like a glove! Others may be too big for you — large enough to handily double up as a marquee for summer garden parties — or so tight they look like you’ve just raided a toddler’s wardrobe.

And as for coordinating colours, well, move over Joseph, there's a new rainbow in town...

(But who wants to wear an all beige suit all the time anyway?!)

Anyway, however it may look on the outside, the clothing of your life makes up the unique person you are, in all your colours, variety and complexity.

So where does creativity fit into all this?

Well here’s the connection. In this analogy, your creativity is simply the thread that holds the clothing of your life all together.

Without this thread you'd simply be draped in random pieces of disparate rags, a walking disintegrating patchwork quilt!

It's your creativity that gives your life shape and binds it all together. It's your creativity that allows you to fit all these parts as one. A collection of individual pieces of clothing, becomes coordinated into the complete outfit that is your life.

The more you trust your creativity and let it bind your various parts together into a powerful whole, the more comfortable you'll feel in your clothes.

As you discard or recycle old parts of your outfit and replace them newer clothes — ones more fitting with where you are right now in your life — your creativity will be the constant common thread — quite literally — that runs through your life and keeps you feeling elegantly dressed and prepared for whatever comes next.

And remember, being stylish and keeping with the latest high street fashions is one thing. But surely the most important thing we all strive for in clothes and in our life, is a fit that's right for us, and that helps us to feel comfortable, confident and good about ourselves.

As we’ve no doubt all found at various times in our lives, the people who are most assured, happy and attractive to others are not those that are always impeccably dressed or living adverts for designer clothing.

No, the people who are most attractive, and who are most at peace with who they are and where they are in their lives, are those who just appear comfortable in their clothes, and in the person they are, WHATEVER that may look like.

So maybe you’re already more than comfortable in what you’re wearing. Maybe though, it's time you thought about letting your creativity take centre stage on the catwalk and updating your wardrobe to something more fitting and reflective of the person you are today. •

© Copyright 2006 Dan Goodwin.

05/20/06