What do supermarket coupon collectors and creativity have in common?                    

I’m an artist and I love museums. One day I talked a girlfriend into going to a new exhibit at one our local museums. She was in awe of all the art and creations. She kept repeating to me over and over, “I could never do that, I’m not creative at all.” I said, “you’re one of the most creative people I know. What makes you say such a negative thing about yourself?” She looked at me and said,” Because I can’t draw to save my life and I think I’m colorblind.  I can’t tell the difference between navy blue and black.” I laughed and said, “what makes you so special?” Many people cannot tell the difference between navy and black because black is really the darkest blue on earth. Black is a combination of dark green, dark blue and dark red “.

On the way home riding in her car, we stopped at the supermarket.  I was shocked to see a big folder in her back seat with meticulously filed coupons. Each food category was labeled and dated.  She carefully looked through it and extracted about ten clipped coupons. She neatly placed them in a zip lock. I could not help feeling terribly disorganized as I fished through my bag for the few loose coupons I had thrown into it before leaving the house. I thought of the kitchen drawer where I carelessly housed them until I happened to remember that I had saved them. Usually I would not remember until they expired.

Creativity in the supermarket?

As we entered the store she said, ” I have some serious shopping to do”. At check out I spent $63.27 and she had spent $42.01.  Her basket was twice as full as mine.  If that’s not creativity I don’t know what is. Her skilled organization and extreme care in money manipulation was amazing.

We all use our brains differently and in various degrees of creativity depending on what activity we are performing. Are you doing something you are passionate about or could care less about?

Is a skilled and talented prizefighter as creative when he is gardening or doing something he feels is unexciting?  If he does not love gardening as much as boxing, it’s highly unlikely that he will be as creative finding the perfect spot for the rose bush, as when he is looking for an opening to land a right hook.

Needless to say, I am passionate when I have a paintbrush in my hands and absolutely bored when clipping coupons, which I always throw haphazardly into a kitchen drawer.

Do the job with passion and you will naturally find new and innovative ways to complete the task!

So to answer my original question about organized coupon collectors, in my opinion the answer is they have everything in common with creativity.  I’m not a scientist and I can not tell which side of the brain my girlfriend is using when she puts together that meticulously organized coupon planner, but it is nothing short of creative and ingenious.

The bottom line is anything we love to do and put lots of effort into doing becomes a creative task.