When I was younger I always thought of my creative space as being centered around all things drumming. It wasn’t until I took a step back from playing the drums for a bit that I realized my creative space was all in my head, not just sitting behind a drum kit, but any place I needed to be creative.

The challenge for me was teaching myself how to think creatively in a different space. A space that isn’t always defined by music or art but one that is defined by just something new I can recreate.

A new idea.

A new business.

A new strategy.

A new talk.

A new way of marketing a product or idea.

A new way to communicate with a mass audience.

Today, I help people dream up new ideas… any ideas. I help them brainstorm ideas for their business, help create social media strategies, marketing plans and talk to people about new ways of looking at life. I write and I still play the drums. That’s just a small part of my creative life.

The point is this.

Creativity comes in many forms and lives in many spaces. Anytime I see an “artist” stuck in their creativity, I think “They don’t realize there are so many other ways to be creative and to express that creativity. They need to stop limiting themselves to what they think their craft is or what they are called to and exercise some different creative muscles.”

When I realized this for myself. My main creative outlet, drums, took on a whole new life. I could experience playing the drums from a whole new angle and more fresh perspective.

Think about it this way.

One guy puts on some old ratty expensive skinny jeans, a v-neck t-shirt, grabs a starbucks with his other hipster friend before heading off to write the next big hit song.

Another guy puts on a pair of jeans, a black crew neck long sleeve shirt and gives us the mac book, iphone and ipad. Thanks Steve Jobs.

A woman walks into a office building somewhere in Southern California dressed in nice dress pants, nice leather shoes, and a nice jacket. She gave us eBay.

A man in a nice suit who like to draw cartoons decides he wants to create the happiest place on earth… so he does. They call it Walt Disney World.

A college student sits in his marketing class working on a project. To come up with an idea that has been done and create a marketing plan around it. His idea got a “C” in the class and was told it probably wouldn’t work. His name is Fred Smith. He created Fed Ex.

In 1948, a Swiss electrical engineer named George de Mestral created Velcro. You wouldn’t think of an electrical engineer as a creative person, but he was. Velcro was and still is one of the greatest ideas to date.

All of these examples are creative. They just live in different spaces and wear different clothes than you would think creative people wear. In fact, they might even look normal to you as in… not the artistic type.

So, when I think about my abilities to create something, I’m only limited by my ability to put an idea into a creative space that births action.

The mind is an amazing tool. We can create so much if we just think in a different space.

Don’t limit yourself to what you think your creative space is and don’t think your one creative outlet is all you have. It’s not.

The essence of creativity is to be able to CREATE and expand the mind in such a way that one can continue to create in any space that needs filling and feels appropriate to the one who is creating.

Question: Where is your creative space… or spaces?

This post was inspired by the Luminous Project. Luminous is an event in Nashville for creatives on May 9-11, 2012. To find out more, check out luminousproject.com. You can use the promo code ‘luminousLOVE’ to get 30% off the ticket price.