What does creative look like?

A question I have been asking lately is "How'd you know you were creative?" In essence, what does being creative look like? I ask this because when I was young, I never knew that anything I was doing would be considered creative, much less be anything I could base a career off of.

I suspect there are a ton of young people who, just like I did, do all sorts of things in a creative fashion without ever realizing the potential of that creativity. For me, it was an insane interest in visual images from magazines. I'd spend hours and hours cutting out faces and cool type and interesting shots, then an equal amount of hours arranging and re-arranging them onto a wall-size cork board.

Here's what people are saying:

I doodled everywhere, on every paper when I was in grade school.

I've hand made cards ever since I was young.

I was always drawing cartoons and making comics.

People were always coming to me to write something for them, usually something funny.

I loved drama and performing.

I was drawing and painting all the time.

We might be called creative at a young age if we had a paintbrush in hand. Or if we were drawing cartoons. People tend to use the word creative to something tangible and "art-like."

It's when we do the not-so-obvious creative things like doodling or making crafts or ripping up magazines that we may not be called out as creative.

Yet it is and we are.

Pay attention to the subtle signs of creativity from when you were young. My guess is they're steering you toward a career where these skills can flourish.