I was struck with a thought the other day. To be exceptional, you must be the exception. At first, it seemed so simple. But then I dug deeper to find out how to be the exception. My initial thought was to throw away all the rules, start from scratch, be original. But then I read a two-part series from my friend Jim’s blog, Obsessed with Conformity,  about how no one is truly original, and they shouldn’t be. You should read it.

So I have to work within the guidelines, in the ruleset that has already been established. But how can I be the exception to the rule and still follow it? That’s when I stumbled onto a blog from the Copywriter’s Roundtable about What is Creativity? In it, he quotes Marissa Ann Mayer, a VP at Google:

“Creativity is often misunderstood. People often think of it in terms of artistic work — unbridled, unguided effort that leads to beautiful effect. If you look deeper, however, you’ll find that some of the most inspiring art forms — haikus, sonatas, and religious paintings — are fraught with constraints.

“They’re beautiful because creativity triumphed over the rules. Constraints shape and focus problems, and provide clear challenges to overcome as well as inspiration. Creativity, in fact, thrives best when constrained.

“Yet constraints must be balanced with a healthy disregard for the impossible. Disregarding the bounds of what we know or what we accept gives rise to ideas that are non-obvious, unconventional, or simply unexplored. The creativity realized in this balance between constraint and disregard for the impossible are fueled by passion and result in revolutionary change.”

Follow the rules, but be the exception in how you do so. It’s not about finding a completely new thing to do, it’s about finding a new way to do something old.