Creative Skills in Your Fifties

Our guest author shares her thoughts on an article that refers to some Nobel Prize winning research on creativity, stating that there are two peaks of creativity in our lives – one in our late 20’s and one when we’re 57.

We are honoured to have the popular and awarded Midlife Blogger Leanne from Cresting the Hill to share this exciting subject with us.

Enjoy New Creative Skills in Your Fifties

It got me thinking about whether I’d experienced a surge of creativity in Midlife or whether things were much the same as they’d always been.

I cut out the article at the time, and it’s been sitting in my journal just waiting for me to ponder it a little. The time has come to see how it applies to me, and to give others the opportunity of wondering if they agree with it or not. So before we go any further, here’s the article:

Enjoy New Creative Skills in Your Fifties

I’ve been 57 all this year until a couple of weeks ago when I rolled over to 58 – time is speeding by!  I find myself agreeing with the idea of having a second wind of creativity that appears in our 50’s. I’m not sure how they chose 57 as the peak moment, but for me, it’s been an upward swing since I reached Midlife.

I’ve never really considered myself someone who could create anything, or who was good at right-brain activities, or who was anything other than pragmatic and practical – but since I turned 50, things have changed and I feel like I’m embracing this new facet of life. I’ve read other bloggers who have been using their retirement to re-discover their artistic skills, or the joy of writing, or learning a language, a new skill, or something quite out of character for them that raises a few eyebrows.

More Time and Freedom for New Creative Skills in Your Fifties

With the kids off our hands, the job winding down, the debts paid off (or under control), we find ourselves with more time and more headspace and the freedom to wonder about how we’ll fill that time. For me, it started with blogging and that’s been an amazing journey that’s connected me with women all over the world, improved my writing skills, and even made me a little bit famous for 2 minutes!

From there I bought a bike and started riding again, took some classes in stained glass and created our stair rail,  dabbled in Tai Chi, joined an exercise class, stopped being embarrassed about my love for colouring in and bought some adult colouring books, and I have plans for other creative pursuits still in the pipeline.

Many Forms of Creativity

My idea of being creative will be completely different from yours. As I mentioned, I’ve always seen myself as practical and not in the slightest bit creative, but my 50’s have given me the opportunity to play around a little bit with the idea of what “artistic” or “creative” look like for me. I may not end up painting a new version of the Mona Lisa, or becoming the next JK Rowling, but I can give myself the space to find the “non-practical” parts of life that I’m actually quite good at and then allow myself the time and freedom to indulge myself a little in activities that use my brain in a different way and bring a lot of pleasure along with them.

What I’ve discovered is that it’s never too late to change your perception of yourself, we’re given labels from an early age and tend to carry them with us for decades. Things like being “brainy” or “clumsy” or “scatty” or “messy” or “hopeless” or “helpless”. I think it’s time we peeled off all the labels and started redefining ourselves in the light of who we’ve become, rather than who we may have been when we were younger. It’s time to dabble in things that interest us and (whether we do them well or not) enjoy the fun of trying something new and deciding if we want to include it in our life from here on out.

Have You Found More Creativity in Your Second Half?

Do you have any newly discovered creative pastimes? Do you agree that we get a new lease on creativity in our 50’s? Are you embracing who you are now and letting go of some of the old, preconceived ideas about yourself? I really hope that Midlife is unleashing new and interesting facets of life for you because it certainly is for me.

Thank you so much, Leanne, for sharing your experience with becoming more creative and for encouraging our readers to explore what could develop a wonderful addition to their daily lives.