Learn How To Enhance Your Creativity.

Start Imagining The Possibilities, Learn How to Enhance Your Creativity.

Before you start thinking about how to be more creative, let me begin point out some of the real barriers that some people seem to have when wanting to enhance their creativity. Think a moment and consider if any of these things are applicable to you and your life.

Lack Of Time

This is not as major as you may think. Linking thoughts and ideas only takes seconds. It can happen anytime, anywhere. Provided you are in the right state of mind and pay attention to your own experiences.

Creativity in my opinion is more about the quality of the time you have and being receptive to yourself. Though this does take some time.

Fear Of Being Judged

When I worked for a national newspaper and we had brainstorming sessions, individuals were often scared of expressing ideas. Creativity results in unusual ideas and perhaps even being different in some way.

They can be thought of as strange, odd or challenging. Fear of being considered weird, stupid or just different often kills creativity. If I feared people thinking any of those things about me, I would not bother getting out of bed in the mornings.

I love the fact that people think I am all of those things!! I might even go as far as to say that it drives me!

Lack Of Self Esteem

When you do something creative, you go beyond the bounds of what has been safe and familiar in the past, both to yourself and maybe even to others.

When you are not sure about yourself, being different in any way can feel risky or make you feel vulnerable. The danger is that you give up your new insight to just blend in. Smash out of those shackles!

Fear Of Failure

This inhibits us the most. If you are making a new connection in your brain there can be no inherent “right” or “wrong” about it. Failure can only have two meanings really; firstly, that it didn’t work in the way you wanted it to.

Secondly, someone else did not like it. But so what?!?! I have to tell you all that I get many comments on how I generate so many successful projects and am often asked how I do it.

I always point out that these projects are actually only about 10% of what I have imagined. The other 90% didn’t work or didn’t get out of my brain.

Creativity is not reserved for genius only. Einstein was brilliant but he is not necessarily the best model of creativity for us. You do not need specialist expertise to be creative. The fruits of your creativity may manifest in many different ways, in fact I expect that they will.

If at any time you doubt your ability to be creative, remind yourself that several times every night you create an entirely new dream, which you script, act in and watch, which involves all your senses and has effects that can last long after they are over.

This creation is so very effortless most people don’t even recognize it as such.

Okay, So What Now???

Ok, so how does one actually go about getting the creative juices flowing? Let me give you some ideas to help;

Step 1 - Find the Right Frame of Mind

Explore what mental states you associate with being creative. Discover what it is that triggers and maintains your being creative.

What’s your favorite time of day?
The best environment for your creativity?
Do you need to be alone or with others?
Do you need sounds or silence or background noise?

Build a profile of your creative state, then make time and space for it on a regular basis instead of waiting for some divine intervention for it to just happen on it’s own.

Step 2 - Cultivate Dreaming

Pay close attention to your experience in life and also pay attention to your existing creativity rather than dismissing day-dreams or sub-conscious dreams.

Don’t allow yourself to waste what you may already be discovering by ignoring it or discounting it.

Step 3 - Ask Yourself, What-if?

Follow up with “What else?” and “How else?” Always go beyond what you first thought.

Make it a point to find as many different ideas as possible just by asking yourself how much further you can express the thought.

Step 4 - When You Encounter A Problem

…Pretend your usual go-to solution is not available. This can work in many different ways.

If your PC crashes today, how else might you do your work? If you usually argue face to face, what would happen if you wrote your feelings down instead?

Some solutions may be no better than the ones you’re used to using, some others may offer you brilliant new opportunities.

Do something different!

Step 5 - See How Many Different Results You Get With The Same Ingredients

I am sure many of you know that there is a cookbook called “Recipes 1-2-3” by Rozanne Gold, in which every recipe is made out of only three ingredients.

Some recipes use the same three ingredients but different processes or quantities come up with different results. You can have some great fun by taking an everyday object and imagine or think about how many other uses it can have, you can even think about how to combine them with other objects.

Can you imagine if Rozanne stepped outside of that box with her recipes? Oh the possibilities!