Creativity is the Ultimate Rebellion

Why You Can't Put Me In Your Box

As I started to write this, I heard a little voice in my head say, “You can’t put me in a box.” Believe me, for years, I tried…to put myself in a box…

I remember doing a business marketing workshop and struggling with something as simple as my title. Was I the President or CEO of my company? Was I an Executive Coach? Was I a Leadership Advisor? All these came up, and with each one, I silently gagged.

I was convinced that I had an acute level of ignorance about my work and my role. Something has to be wrong with a person who can’t even put a name to her work.

I settled on some inoffensive titles that I was told were SEO friendly (that is Search Engine Optimization, but basically, it means people can find you on the internet based on your words).

It still felt like I was wearing a dress that was too tight, or shoes that look really good but kill to walk in.

Now, as I look back on that time, I know why I struggled. I don’t fit into any category, any title, or even any specific career. Actually, I’ve rebelled against putting any moniker on my work as it feels insufficient and inaccurate. Not only do I enjoy many different kinds of work, but my life is rich with new adventures, crazy ideas, and bold conversations that leave no doubt that a box would simply squash all that is good and true.

In a recent post,

Emma Gannon

wrote about this dilemma, calling it “being a multi-hyphenate.” She wrote about her own experience, saying, “For years, I was told I was indecisive and scatty. In reality, I just thrive when I have multiple projects on the go. In meetings over the years, big PR CEO types have said to me, leaning back in their chair: “the problem is, we just don't know how to sum you up.”

Humans like to label things so they can understand them. We categorize our relationships, we schedule our hours, and we make lists upon lists. Like Marie Kondo, we organize our lives into neat little boxes until one day, we don’t fit into those boxes. Our first impulse is to find another box to fit into. A new job, a new title, a new relationship, something that will help define us in a way that we and others can understand, even if it is insufficient, lacking, and soul-sucking.

We are unable to grasp that which has no name.

“Real winners in a rapidly changing world will be those who are open to alternatives and able to respect and value those who are different.”
― Mary Catherine Bateson, Composing a Life

The most rebellious people are the creatives. The artists, the musicians, the writers, and all those who create for a living. We know that all creation is always in motion, never exactly as it was a few minutes ago. We know that imagination is limitless — and so are we. We don’t want to be defined by the boxes society or culture has created to make themselves comfortable, as if to name something were to know it truly.

Creatives thrive in disorder.

We see chaos as an opportunity. We’ve learned to live with the discomfort of change. We dance with the unknown with the radical trust that something will appear if we are open to receiving the unexpected, which I call synchronicity. It doesn’t make for acceptance in a society that values conformity, but it does make for a deeper, enriched life.

A while ago, a client sent me a link to a video called Screw The Box. Besides loving the title, the message hit home. The longing for a life well lived by my own standards has cost me, yet I have few regrets. (I can’t say no regrets; there have been a few). This video brings home the fear it takes to jump into the unknown and the radical faith to land well. It’s 3 minutes of your time well spent.

If you’re one of the ones longing to release yourself from your box, have faith. You’re in good company. You’ll discover that the only way to know you can fly is to leap courageously into the full creative expression of who you are.

It’s the only way you will be happy and lead a fulfilled life.

Let me know what you think in the comments below. I hope you’re inspired, too.