What does it mean to be "creative"?

What image comes to mind when I ask you to think of someone who is creative?

You might picture some hipster web designer guy wearing a flannel shirt and skinny jeans and sporting a handlebar mustache.

Or a female artist with a funky haircut, black leather boots, and a bunch of tattoos.

Or some eccentric actor with long hair and a perpetual emo look on his or her face.

I'm totally typecasting here, but that's my point.

I think people who don't think they can be creative, can be. And those who are creative don't always look the part.

"Creative" comes from the word "create," and everyone can create.

You don't have to be an artist, designer, actor, or musician to create.

Anyone can create a blog post.  Anyone can cook a meal. Anyone can devise a solution to a problem.

I'm being creative right now by writing this blog post. This article didn't exist 30 minutes ago, and now it does. It might not be a painting by Picasso or a novel by Hemingway, but it's something that I created.

A software developer creates software. Though computer science is, well, science, there is certainly art in code.

An accountant can be creative in how they do the books (but not too creative, as the IRS or SEC will be suspicious). Accounting is regarded as one of the most boring and uncreative professions, but accountants create solutions to financial problems.

The next time you think "I'm not creative," think again. You can certainly create, and you don't have to wear skinny jeans to do so.

This is day 11 of my experiment to blog for 30 consecutive days.