Create to Consume

Create to Consume

Thursdays are trash and recycling days in my neighbourhood. The recyclable items are picked up every two weeks and each time I take out those bags, I think, “Did we really eat and drink all of this? In just two weeks!?” I blame the teenager living in my house, who is hungry 94% of the time.

It serves as a visual reminder of everything we “consume” as a household, whether it is food, toiletries or cleaning products. This got me thinking about all the other things I consume during a normal week: I listen to a lot of music during the day, podcasts while I’m cycling, watch specific channels on YouTube, and then read quite a lot too. I also fall prey to mindless social media scrolling if I’m not careful. Early in the year, I came across a post (I cannot recall where), where the author spoke about being more deliberate about creating instead of just consuming. That struck a chord.

I’ve never considered myself creative in the typical artsy sense. I don’t draw or paint (except for the odd room or cupboard), can’t really sing well or play music (yet), but I do write (with an Afrikaans accent). Nevertheless, I am making an effort to create more useful things this year and do less mindless consumption. You might already be doing a lot of creating, without having noticed it. Thinking about what we keep ourselves busy with, the following came to mind:

• As a company, we are always looking to create fresh and relevant solutions for our clients to help them flourish in business and life. Since we work with people, unexpected twists are a constant part of our professional lives.
• Shinell recently developed a platform to help people, who don’t know where to start, get into better physical shape. By all accounts, it has been very successful.
• She also regularly creates beautiful meals for her family (she is a great cook) and I get to taste the pictures.
• I’m being more deliberate about putting myself in situations where I can create memories with the people I care about.
• I have been writing more, trying to synthesize knowledge from different areas of interest into something new and valuable.
• The two of us recently created our own YouTube channel where we post conversations on topics from the world of work and life that impact human flourishing. Go have a look!
• As an alternative to screens, I have been building jigsaw puzzles on the dining room table to relax after work. It’s not immensely creative, but still gives a sense of accomplishment (and it is surprisingly peaceful).

What do you create? You might solve challenging problems for clients. Write code or build presentations. Build things with your hands or give valuable advice. Maybe you design beautiful things that make people happy or create environments where people feel welcome and enjoy spending time.

Every one of us has something to contribute, big or small. But we won’t do it by passively consuming. Go and make something to be proud of.

If you would like to share where you have created something to be proud of, get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.