How to be Creative: Unleash the Genius within you!
By Anubhav Srivastava ( Register for his Workshop – Build Super Confidence For Super Success!)
Most of wonder how to be creative. But we think creativity is a natural trait that cannot be taught. Artists, writers who do great work are never told they are so skilled, they are always told, they are amazingly creative and talented. It is almost assumed that their creative works are a result of a completely god gifted talent and thinking ability that requires no skill.
The truth is that creativity in many ways is a skill, not just a talent. In other words, it is something that delivers the best results only when it is practised, learned and developed just like other skills. The more we take steps to cultivate creativity, the more our creative thinking ability grows, just like a muscle. And just like a muscle, the more we stop feeding those habits, it shrinks back quickly. Here are eleven suggestions that will teach how you to be creative in your life. But the most important part is to not just read the article but also implement these steps. So read and IMPLEMENT! Let’s go!
How to be Creative: Tip 1) Focus on quantity first, come up with lots of bad ideas.
Edison is known primarily for a few major inventions (The Light Bulb, Phonograph etc.) but do you know he also made 1093 other inventions, many of them never came into commercial use and have been forgotten? Similarly, Einstein is best known for his paper on the theory of relativity but do you know that the same genius published 247 other papers, many of which the public doesn’t even know about? It takes a lot of bad ideas to come up with a good one. It takes a lot of bad work to come up with a work of Genius. Do not be afraid of your work not being good enough, be afraid of not trying at all.
How to be Creative: Tip 2) Do what you love and what you are good at.
It is way too hard to keep going and consistently come up with new creative ideas if you don’t even do what you love. Sure, necessity is the mother of all invention so you can be creative even if you don’t love what you do, but loving what you do makes the whole process a lot more easier.
Secondly, do what you are good at. If I love being an inventor but if it is not my core talent I can come up with as many creative ideas as I want, but they will all suck. Pick a field you are good at. When you love what you do and you are good at it, now whatever ideas you come up will have at least some merit and it makes sense working on them. Whether it is writing, art or anything else, whatever you want to be creative about, first take a good hard look and evaluate your talents in it.
How to be Creative: Tip 3) Be around like minded people
When you are around like minded people, you can bounce ideas off each other. You get to interact with people who are thinking like you, who have the same goals as you and maybe trying to solve a similar problem as yours. In the process of hanging around or interacting with them, you may get ideas or advice that clicks in your head and gets your creative juices flowing. The more you are around people who are motivated and driven in your field, the more you can get ideas from them, at least numerous suggestions that you can then build upon.
How to be Creative: Tip 4) Go for a walk or a jog outside
Henry Thoreau the philosopher claimed that his thoughts began to flow the moment his legs began to move. We all know how our mind tends to function better when we exercise and now this has been backed by research. Cognitive psychologist Lorenza Colzato found that the individuals who worked out 3 to 4 times a week were able to think more creatively. She came to this conclusion by performing a series of cognitive tests where those who walked or jogged a few times a week consistently performed better than those who did not exercise at all. So if you are stuck in the mind, get your running shoes out.
How to be Creative: Tip 5) Study other existing ideas and then build upon them
Most of the great advancements in the computer industry may seem to have come from Apple. After all they introduced the mouse, they introduced the tablet computer etc. But the fact is that Apple itself as well as other computer companies got a lot of their ideas from inventions that were taking place at Xerox. They then built upon it, made it user friendly and subsequently commercially viable and successful
The lesson is this. Stop trying to be completely original. It is impossible to be so anyway. Each one of us, even the greatest thinkers in history have studied and copied ideas that already existed, then built upon them and then transformed them and make the resulting work unique and original as a result of that transformation. Creativity is not about 100 percent originality, it is about creating uniqueness from what already exists. It is about taking a block of stone that exists in nature and then having the insight and skill to carve it into a beautiful sculpture.