People often say that Winnipeg is a boring place, but they struggle to articulate why or how. This is a telltale sign that I am with someone who has lost the art of living creatively. As someone who frequents the To Do Canada and Tourism Winnipeg websites, I find myself with the opposite dilemma. There are numerous music events, arts festivals and special restaurants that I never get to try.

This quandary often presents itself in mid-July on the way to King’s Head Pub after a few Fringe Festival shows. I look around and witness the same allure that people move provinces to experience somewhere in Ontario or B.C.

It perplexes me that in the months when our city is undeniably lovely and lively, we opt to chase the thrill elsewhere. I wonder what other experiences our lack of creativity keeps us away from.

As more information becomes available to us via the internet, we seem to struggle to access it. I remember the staggering volume and peculiarity of the problems I solved as a kid using my computer. There was an alarming nail polish spill sopped up within minutes and a thrilling attempt at speeding up my three-legged race times. Regardless of the victories or failures, we made the internet work for us.

Nowadays, we have less of an information superhighway and more of a rapid advertisement dissemination supercentre. But as owners of more technology than is required to cause a Victorian child to have a stroke, it is our responsibility to navigate these incoming challenges using human creativity.

Instead of turning to highly inaccurate and environmentally threatening tools like AI, let’s find, foster and funnel the resources that exist before us. There is no account AI can uncover that is not already available as a YouTube guide from an unlikely expert in 2008 or as an instructive blog post by a nerd of decades past. Committing to these extra hours of fine-tuning is vital for a high-quality account of anything. Anything that is worth finding out from AI deserves our undivided attention as a separate research rabbit hole.

We may wonder how any of this qualifies as an argument for human creativity. The creativity lies not in the arts and crafts of the matter but in the ability to think beyond what is easily accessible or promoted to us. Rejecting the low-hanging fruit that Winnipeg is just boring or AI is our new best friend requires creativity that we can work to foster within our lives.

Think about the last 10 movies you watched, the last 10 songs you added to a playlist or the last 10 meals you had. Were they all from the Top 40 radio, the Oscars shortlists or the same culture you were raised with?

One of the things we cherish the most about being Canadian is our freedom. To marry whoever we would like, to pursue any number of chosen careers and more. But if we never challenge the endpoints of our freedom in ordinary circumstances, we may be doing a great disservice to our rights themselves. If we do not imagine beyond the confines that are presented to us, we will find ourselves confused at our imminent immobility.

Consistently being creative with our problem-solving is a foolproof way to identify faults in our thoughts and behaviours. One such example may be deciding how to get home after a night out and reflecting on why we always opt for Uber and never Winnipeg Transit. The reflection may stop at frustration toward our transport infrastructure, or it may lead to getting a Peggo card or more.

Much of living creatively is built on asking questions and challenging our assumptions. It is impossible to do so without understanding why falling into step comes naturally to us. Living creatively is the way to find out what our lives are missing and work toward it. It is a guide to relishing within the uncertainty of spaces we have not explored before and a manual to becoming a capable and highly intentional person.

There are a few questions you can use to centre yourself throughout the journey. How often am I having experiences that I would not have had if I did not seek them out? How often am I connecting with cultures and traditions that I am unfamiliar with? How often am I involved in conversations where I feel challenged, yet I am eager to learn without getting defensive?

Now work on living creatively until your answers become “all the time” all the time.