So many kids these days seem to look elsewhere for fun and excitement. You know what I’m talking about: all those Xbox’s, PlayStations, movies and so many other things, not to mention all the false heroes.

Alone time is considered “boring.” It seems kids just aren’t comfortable in their own skins these days, constantly looking outward for stimulation and gratification. Little time is spent with only themselves, creating the quietness conducive for introspection and true creativity.

When my children were young, I took advantage of the time I had with them before they would be old enough to protest. I knew those days wouldn’t last forever… when they were a lot more open to my way of doing things, instead of everything being “me, me, me.” I thought if I “brainwashed” them young, they’d be good to go when the teen years hit.

Well…

The teenage years hit… and I only met that hunch with limited success. But my wife and I did do a few things right and I think our kids are the better for it. One of the things I always made sure of, was that we look at things together — I mean, really LOOK! I exposed them to beautiful design, wonderful storybooks and “adventure” drives where we would make our fun as we went, being open to serendipity and continuously pointing out everything along the way.

It is also important to nurture dreaming and the imagination — we would make up your own stories together, especially at bedtime beneath the glow-in-the-dark stars covering their bedroom ceilings. Holidays are another great opportunity to dream. For Halloween, we would invent costume ideas and do sketches to plan the pumpkins we would carve later. Everything should be part of the creative/learning process. Even a breakfast with Cheerios was turned into a game. There are so many ways to nurture creativity in kids and a dozen of them are discussed in this other post I contributed to, 12 Most Loving Ways to Spark Creativity in your Child.

Once kids truly show an interest in something, I think it’s extremely important to go with their passions. Rather than dictating what they should like, or pushing certain talents we think they possess but they show no interest in, it is much better to nurture what they naturally gravitate towards instead. And then feed those interests by always having the supplies they need at the ready, from simply having enough drawing paper available to buying the right creative software that fulfills their needs. 

Fight the good fight

Although we can’t determine what it is exactly our kids will show an affinity for, we can still influence them. And while it may be a thankless job many times, I believe our kids are better off in the long run for the encouragement we provide, enabling them to follow their passions. It is the way to a rich, enjoyable life and offers a myriad of alternatives to the ready-made ways of having fun that are always so prevalent. Forming this foundation for creative thinking is important to establish early on, so children grow up with a creative outlook where possibilities are endless. It can even alter the brain itself as the post, Pondering: Brain Overload, discusses so nicely.

There is plenty of time for the world to try and put its own restrictions on things. Most schools do little to encourage individualism and place limits on it by a one-size-fits-all mentality that does little to foster creativity in our children. Companies do the same, where toting the corporate line and appeasing one’s bosses largely keeps the boat from being rocked and provides the best chance for a good review.

But our leaders of tomorrow will be those who see things differently, for innovation never comes from the status quo. Successful companies will depend on them. So will whole societies and the world at large. Bigger populations fighting for a smaller piece of turf will naturally increase competition substantially — successfully navigating this and coming out on top will require even more crafty ways of doing things a little differently and a notch above everybody else. Likewise, the many challenges we face in the world will increasingly require inspired thinking to get us out of trouble. It all begins by raising creative children.

Why is nurturing the creative spirit important to you? I’d love to see what you have to say in the comments section below!

A friend of mine who I’ve come to know through the online community known as #UsGuys, is a popular DJ in Vancouver, British Columbia. His name is Dave Reynolds of 99.7 FM The River, the morning DJ of a rock station with an eclectic playlist. He has a voice you can’t stop listening to and a heart bigger than the Great White North. Put it all together and his show is irresistible.

Every year at this time, Dave raises money and food donations to feed those less fortunate in the Campbell River area. But how he does it is quite a story…

The River Relief Truck

Dave lives in an extremely big but unfancy 53' transport trailor, called the River Relief Truck, until he fills it with food. This year, he suffered through freezing cold nights when his heater wouldn’t work but he had a bigger mission and a higher call. Somewhere along the line, he cut his hands adding blood to the equation (and perhaps, a certain amount of symbolism as well). Helping Dave get out of that truck became almost as important as feeding the hungry and people responded — not just those local to Campbell River, but from all over the nation and even the world.

The power of community

Remember that online community I mentioned? Well, it’s a pretty special group of people and Dave leveraged not just the power of radio, but the power of social media to get the story out (my friend, Ty Sullivan, wrote a wonderful post on this). Live video streaming along with his live radio show brought his efforts home for us all and inspired people all over the world. Over time, Dave has forged bonds with many people online — through Twitter, Facebook and even through some live video chats I hosted where you really get a sense for a person (somehow video makes smoking cigars and drinking tequila as you are shown the outside of somebody’s home very real).

Now it was time to bring this all together in an effort to help others. When the first truck was filled and we thought Dave would finally be able to go home to a warm bed, he threw us a curve ball: he announced that he was staying on and would now fill a second truck too!

People responded again. A third truck, over 1000 turkeys, countless boxes of food and A MILLION DOLLARS later, 9000 families would now have a holiday meal that they wouldn’t have had otherwise. In fact, they were able to not only fill the Campbell River Food Bank, but went on to fill the Gold River Food Bank too!

Creativity and labor of love in action

Dave put a stake in the ground and together with the help of countless volunteers, the world responded. He inconvenienced himself in a creative, dramatic display of helping others. And it worked!

It kind of makes me think of someone else who suffered to help others, especially during this time of year. I don’t think this idea was lost on others, either — and the payoff was turkeys, food and dollars. As Dave said, it was nothing short of a miracle.

But we can do this stuff.

Happy Holidays!

Here’s a great video on the River Relief Truck and this news article did a nice job introducing the initiative.