How To Stay Creative With A Corporate Job

It is easy to get comfortable with a steady job, and fall into the office-trap and narrow down our likes, conversations, interests and even new things we seek to learn to only work-related topics. So how can we keep our minds growing without feeling that we are distracting ourselves from the things we have to do?

Sometimes we forget other sides of our personality that shine as much as the skills that we put into our day-jobs.

At the end of the summer I started a new job. A very-corporate-job, office style, 9 to 5 kind of job. I like to call it my first big girl's job, and with that comes a lot of responsibility and a lot of learning. Completely new environment for me, and learning the basics and absorbing everything I could is part of the process, but I didn't want to leave behind my other layers, the ones that build up my personality and my internal growth, the layers that make you able to be awesome at whatever you do. So, I put in practice a few things that have helped me not only keep my mind going, constantly learning and decompress from the day, but also enhance my ability to perform better at my day-job.

Be curious. Read books about different topics, magazine articles, read about subjects you find interesting that are outside what you do every day. We stop our growing process if we only focus in learning one thing. Another thing we can do is surround ourselves with different people, out of our inner circle and with different perspectives. And it has nothing to do with being shy or introverted. I recently heard a new term that I will adopt for myself, I am not introverted, I am a shy extrovert. Doing these things help me to disconnect from my job whenever I get home, or during lunch or dinner, and keep me growing and learning. We miss so many opportunities and unique experiences in life by acting out of fear of something new, and building imaginary barriers that only keep us from improving ourselves.
Listen to podcasts. Ok, podcasts? B-F-F. I don't listen to music anymore. They provide so much value, whether is learning about something, interviews with interesting people or even funny radio-esque shows talking about the latests trends or celebrities, whatever you want. You are detaching your mind from your work and absorbing something easy and lightweight instead. Its a great way to stay on track of things that you might not know or learn otherwise. Some of my favorites at the moment are NPR Hidden Brain and The Accidental Creative.
The third thing is talking daily walks. I know it is kind of random and you are probably thinking how is that related to stay creative? Whether is walking to work in the morning, or talking a walk during your lunch break, movement allows your brain to decompress. If you are trying to find a solution, or you are feeling stuck on something, taking a walk will oxygenize your brain and you will be able to see things clearer. This is my favorite thing to do on my lunch breaks. I literally look forward this walk every day because it relaxes me, and allows me to see my work from another perspective whenever I am overwhelmed. Its like recharging my energy to be able to perform better.

These are things we can incorporate daily and will enhance our performance at work, help us come up with new ideas and even build a new perspective about things, work and life that can be very meaningful. It is thinking about what things take us out of our comfort zones, out of what is known and familiar that maybe is holding us from growing.

Again, thank you for reading!
Xoxo,
Esther