The Reluctant Creative: 5 Effortless Habits to Expand your Comfort Zone

Creativity is a philosophy, and a daily practice, that improves your performance, mood, leadership style, and so much more. A creative mindset will amplify your originality to find novel solutions to chronic problems. No arts and crafts required.

Are You Ready to:

• Boost resilience and stress management?
• Supercharge your problem-solving skills?
• Find your voice and stand out with confidence?
• Experience more joy and job satisfaction?
• Inoculate yourself against burnout?

You might not be an artist, but everyday creativity is in you. In a good way, like a deliciously warm meal, not an alien-took-over-your-body way. When you make a presentation plant a garden, braid your unicorn's mane, or sneak vegetables into smoothies - you’re practicing creativity and building resilience. Every step into creativity forces you to face failure, judgment, and confront uncertainty with a positive attitude.

"This practical and funny book can help anyone find their creative spark. Equally important, it will make you smile" - Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WHEN, TO SELL IS HUMAN, and DRIVE.

The Reluctant Creative is your guide to unleashing the hidden power of creativity to transform your work and life. Whether you're in HR, healthcare, leadership, or just feeling stuck, this book is for you. A refreshing and unique perspective on career development and problem solving, read this book if you’re looking for a new approach to personal growth and leadership. Whether you lead a team or you want to lead yourself more effectively to a bright future, creativity is the skill you need to set yourself apart.

The Reluctant Creative is a literary mullet: fun in the front, data in the back. A colorful tossed salad with humor and exercises to help you embed five effortless habits to expand your comfort zone. Supported by research and personal stories about my experiences as a veterinarian, mom, and stand up comic, and stories about others who have used creativity to make their lives better.

What happens when you cross a veterinarian with a researcher and a stand-up comedian? You get a writer with a delightful sense of humor providing an evidence-based dissection of creativity with a step-by-step guide on how to nurture it in your daily life. - David Newman, PhD - Creativity Alchemist – Creatific Culture Labs; UBC Creativity professor.

All you have to do is D.A.N.C.E. Explore 5 effortless habits to expand your comfort zone in a few minutes a day:

Daydreaming: in a specific way for best results to gain disruptive insights

Ambiguity for confidence when you don’t know the answer

Novelty to fuel your creativity for groundbreaking ideas

Curiosity to wonder how things could be different

Edit Later to stop crushing creativity before it has the chance to speak up

If you're ready to tap into your hidden creative potential and transform your personal and professional life, start dancing with The Reluctant Creative today!

Dr. Caroline Brookfield is a Reluctant Creative. She is a veterinarian, creativity speaker, stand-up comic, mom, and now an author. Faced with a false ultimatum of art or science, she chose science. Like many "left brainers," her creativity persistently demanded attention like a cat at dinnertime. Luckily, she learned, that with art and science we can have our cake and eat it too. Balance data and rigor with creative expression to survive the gusting winds of change, with a smile on your face. Caroline received her D.V.M with honours from the Ontario Veterinary College. She is a certified level 2 Creative Problem Solving facilitator, and holds a Certificate of Professional Management from the University of Calgary.Caroline plays in the Rocky Mountains near her home in Calgary, Alberta, that she shares with her long suffering husband, her brilliant teenage boys, a lazy rescue dog, and two cockatiels. Her lectures go unheeded by her family. The dog listens, sometimes.