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by Steven Gillman
To have more creativity, follow this two-step plan:
1. Encourage creativity.
2. Train your brain to be more creative.
Start on both of these right now, and you can experience greater
creativity today.
Encourage your creativity and you'll increase your creativity. Of
course, this is true of most things you want to see more of in your
life. Encouragement can work wonders, but how do you encourage
creativity?
Start by paying attention to it. Our subconscious minds tends to
give us more of what we pay attention to. Ignore the creative
aspects of your life, and you are telling your subconscious that
they are unimportant. Consciously note when you're creative, and
your subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas.
Just look for it and you'll find more of it.
You can encourage creativity by writing your ideas down. Start
keeping an "idea journal." Do this regularly, and you'll
notice that you often start having more ideas the moment you start
to write. A so-so idea may normally be forgotten, but by writing it
down, you may remember it. Then your subconscious can work on it,
and may transform into something very creative.
For more creativity in your life, start putting creative ideas
into practice. If you paint, paint something totally different from
your usual subjects. If you sell houses, try a new approach. Even
just driving a different route to work to see if it is quicker can
encourage your creativity. Just get your mind working outside of its
regular patterns.
Changing your surroundings can encourage creativity. For more
creativity in your love life, go hike up a mountain with your
partner. If you write, try sitting on a roof to write. For new ideas
for your business, take a notebook to the park and sit by the duck
pond. Any change of enviroment can get your brain out of it's ruts.
Creativity Training
To dramatically increase your creativity, develop creative habits
of mind. If you watch a good comedian, you'll see that she has
trained her mind to look for the "different angle" on
everyday things. Why not train your mind to do the same?
Start challenging assumptions, for example, until it becomes
habit. If you're looking for ways to get more customers, stop and
say, "Do I really need more customers?" It's a question
that suggests other creative solutions, like finding ways to make
more money off existing customers, or ways to cut expenses. It could
lead to more profitable ideas. Challenge assumptions is a great way
to have more creativity in your problem solving.
While driving to work, randomly choose anything you see and ask
what it can teach you about whatever problem you are working on. A
helicopter might make you think about a way to track where the car
goes when you loan it to your kids. Palm trees may lead to a new
design for patio umbrellas.
These two techniques are called "Assumption
Challenging" and "Random Presentation," and are
classic creative problem solving techniques. There are dozens more.
If you train your brain to habitually use these or other techniques,
and provide it with a little encouragement, you really can have more
creativity.
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