Following is a quick list of 7 items that you can turn into habits to become highly creative regardless of which area of your life you want to be creative in. Creativity is the act of taking your imaginative ideas and making them real. (Note: imaginative does not need to mean completely new and never thought of before!) Innovation is the process of implementing your creative ideas. You can be imaginative but not creative or innovative – or you can turn those creative thoughts and ideas into reality.
1. Preparation
“In creating, the only hard thing’s to begin; a grass-blade’s no easier to make than an oak.”-James Russell Lowell
Have you ever been in ‘the zone’? That timeless, almost magical place in which everything just flows naturally and nothing seems to go wrong? Give yourself time and space to get completely absorbed by your creativity. Once you are completely absorbed, the zone comes into play.
2. Planting
“We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we create the world.” -The Buddha Don’t waste your energy thinking about the negatives and the details. Think about what you want to create, put your soul into it. Send those vibes and intentions out into the universe. This will amplify what you most crave.
3. Question Like a 5 Year Old
In one of my earlier articles I wrote about the decline of creativity from the age of around 5 – coinciding with when we begin to learn in a more structured environment. We go from asking 100’s of questions a day to our more adult self of only asking at most, around 5!
We need to take heed of our inner child, hark back to the early days when we knew nothing and start asking more questions! Listen to the questions that come from others as well. Let go of the adult part of you that insists on trying to answer these questions. Enjoy the unknown and the re-learning. Let go of preconceived notions.
4. Get Curious, It’s Only Cats that Need to Worry
“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films, comic strips, magazines, music, you automatically explode every morning like old faithful. I have never had a dry spell in my life, mainly because I feed myself well, to the point of bursting.” -Ray Bradbury
The human mind is an amazing machine. The most complex machine that we have ever seen. Get interested in anything, in everything. Read, write, watch as many different things as you can. Your creative genius will literally take feeds and all matter of things that may seem unconnected and give you something truly unique and wonderful to get going on.
5. Don’t Be Afraid to Fail
“I make more mistakes than anyone else I know, and sooner or later, I patent most of them.”-Thomas Edison Everyone knows who Thomas Edison was. Inventor and innovator! After his death in 1931, it was discovered that Edison had left behind over 3,500 notebooks filled with ideas and thoughts. Not all of them were winners! Keep creating and striving to get better. You’ll learn from your mistakes and be even more creative the following time.
6. Avoid Burn Out
As with everything else in our lives, we need to be able to take a break from it now and then. Switch over to reading a book, or writing some poetry, art or song writing. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed and burnt out.
7. The Final Secret
The final secret to unleashing your creative potential lies within you. It’s not a secret that you don’t know but rather something that you un-learned as you grew up… Unleash Your Inner Child. See With Your Childs’ Eye. There are no limitations on your imagination.
Imagine It. Think It. Be It. Live It!