How to find and fire up your creativity
May 23rd, 2008 by spaceagesage
Creativity can be elusive. We want to build, draw, sing, write, problem solve, and figure out how to reach our potential, but those things can stay just out of our reach. Wouldn’t it be nice to be Harry Potter and have a magic wand or word to generate whatever we want?
Unfortunately, you and I are the mundane muggles of the world, bereft of magical powers. We must use our creativity to bring us our much-wanted answers, art, and artifacts through our very human imagination and desires.
Here are seven ways, in no particular order, to access your creativity
1) See it
To power up creativity, we first need to “think from the end” or to “play the whole movie.” This doesn’t mean crimp your creativity by over thinking, but let your mind focus on a successful end to what you are creating. It is much like a “name it to claim it” concept. Ask yourself questions such as:
- What do I really want to create or solve? What impact do I want it to make? Get specific.
- What will it do for me or how will it make me feel?
- Is there another way to create or solve it?
By exploring your expectations and defining them, they become more real and tangible. Writing down your ideas and goals helps. Creativity, imagination, and desire have to grow from something and to something.
2) Trust your purpose and your core
Remember these lyrics from a popular song by Natasha Bedingfield, “Feel the rain on your skin. No one else can feel it for you”? Your creativity is unique and can’t be summoned up for you by anyone else.
At your core, your heart, your center being is your purpose or inner drive in life. We are all wired to being drawn to something in this life, whether it is song writing, building bridges, child rearing, blog writing, or just improving things. Ask yourself:
- Where have I been really successful before and how can I duplicate it?
- What do I like to do so much, I would even consider doing it for free?
- What mark would I want to leave on the world?
- Answer this question 25 times, but answer it differently and more deeply each time, “Who are you?”
Einstein moved mathematics forward, not the world of ice skating. Oprah changes lives, not the construction materials for earthquake-proof buildings. Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mt. Everest, not to the top of a corporate ladder. Once armed with the inner understanding of your unique perspectives, you can better access your own creativity. Have confidence in you own powers of insight and innovation!
3) Trust Source, God, Creator
In ancient days, a Muse was a being that supposedly came to whisper inspiration into a person’s ear for art or music or writing. I don’t believe in Muses, but I do know a wellspring of insight comes from the Holy Spirit. Dyer calls it the Source or Intention. Some might call it the Tao. Star Wars fans know it as The Force. Whatever you want to call it, there exists a power greater than ourselves we can tap into for creative insights.
To access it, you must do as Luke Skywalker, “Let go Luke …” Letting go, putting ego aside, tossing away the manic, must-have thoughts, dumping the doubts, and powering down stress are the keys to finding this source. One must come seeking it humbly, honestly, and with an open heart. It is surrendering to wisdom. We often reach this overnight when we sleep on a problem and the answer comes in the next day.
My husband has learned to surrender his stress, problems, and heartaches to God. When he is bogged down at work on some difficult aspect of a new Content Management System or other problem, he turns to God for help. The answer may pop in his head, come by an informative email, or in conversation with a colleague. He has learned to trust, honor, and appreciate this relationship with God, and by doing so – instead of thinking of it as a magic wand — the answers come even faster and more insightfully.
4) Embrace success now
The I can’t mindset tells us we are victims and unable to access our creativity. The “If only I could … mindset has already bought into failure. The It’s too hard mindset bogs us down in barriers, usually of our own making. If you keep saying you are not creative, you can’t figure this out, or you don’t deserve the success, you very well may live through a self-fulfilling prophecy!
When you get into a new or foreign car, you know it is still going to have controls for the lights, the radio, and the climate control, but you may not see them right away. I just drove one of my brothers’ cars, the Toyota Prius, a hybrid vehicle. It took a few moments, but I finally figured it out. I didn’t give up looking because I knew those controls had to be there. Creativity is something we all have. It comes in different packages and is wired in each of us perhaps differently, but it is there. Just keep looking until you find it!
5) Nourish to flourish
Creativity doesn’t do well in a dusty or humorless environment. You have to nourish it with the miracle grow food of fun, imagination, child-like wonder, curiosity, and new learning curves. Brain plasticity research shows us that the brain loves to adjust to new things. Doing the same old things, the same old ways makes the brain a dull organ. Doesn’t do much for the soul or spirit, either. Bust up the routines and jump out of your ruts to make creativity flourish. Focusing a problem or trying to force an idea can work for awhile, but creativity needs freedom, change, and recharging.
Do something that makes you feel alive, tickles your funny bone, or refreshes your being, then come back to the problem or project.
6) Think differently
My family is blessed with engineering minds in that we can problem solve with lateral thinking. Most people learn to tackle problems by taking apart the components of the problem, analyzing or improving the parts, and putting it all back together to see if things work out better. Lateral thinking goes outside the problem to bring in new thinking processes. I explain it more fully in a post here.
For example, firefighters must think on their feet when faced by the amazingly different variables that arise in emergency situations, such as an injured passenger trapped inside a wrecked vehicle. The extrication could require raising one side of the car with jacks to get a better angle, sawing into the metal, using a pulley system to lift the person, tearing out surrounding seat cushions, picking it up with a forklift to access another side – the list goes on.
Ask yourself:
- What if I looked at this from another angle or perspective? Do I have all the pieces to the problem – what am I missing?
- Is there some way I can question the process, problem, or project, even if it will ruffle feathers, step on toes, or kill sacred cows?
- Can another person’s opinion help me?
- Where can I go to learn more about this?
Opening yourself up to the boundless nature of creativity helps you fully utilize it.
7) Give it away
Creativity is, in its nature, expansive. To keep it for yourself like Scrooge or hoard it for a rainy day is counterproductive. When my husband gets an idea that he can’t use for himself or that he can share, he passes it on as quickly as he can. He says it makes room for more ideas. The energy of the exchange boosts his creativity even more.
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Creativity is an expression of our inner genius. Yes, you have one. So do I. It doesn’t mean we have to have a great IQ, it means we can combine imagination with desire to manifest something unique to us. Moms have created games or fun things for kids since Adam and Eve. People in emergency services have to think fast to adapt a solution to the situation. Comedians churn out more humor every day. When you align with your passion, magic really can happen, including in the form of creativity. You and I don’t have to be Einsteins or Oprahs or Sir Edmund Hillarys, we just need to honor and have fun with that wonderfully human urge to create and be creative.