Being More Creative Is An Achievable Goal

Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Freud, Eliot, Graham, Gandhi. The greatest achievements in human history are all products of creativity. They had an eye for details that others missed… they asked questions and gave answers that no one else had. Is being more creative one of your goals? Then read how you can achieve this goal!

Creativity is a process, a personality trait and also a product that belongs to a specific context or field. People who make creative things (products) have a certain way of doing this (their processes), and they act in a certain way (their personality traits).

Some researchers say that being more creative requires you to have the technical skills and knowledge about your field (the subject or place where you do your creative work). You also need to be extremely motivated to do what you are going to do. And finally, you need certain skills, such as flexible thinking and the ability to use heuristics (unconscious rules of thumb) well.

Be more creative, how do I do that?

When used properly, creativity is a skill that helps you adapt better to different situations in life. So here are some poses and techniques to awaken, grow and stimulate your creativity.

• Breaking your routine: Try to end monotony, drop some repetitive habits, and challenge yourself to do things you’ve never done before.
• Internalize: Be as aware of your insecurities and fears as you are of your strengths. Change your perspective, try to be a different person…
• Look for knowledge and inspiration: read about things that interest you. Explore the lives of creative people. Try things out, go to new places, ask yourself new questions…

• Bring your imagination to life: Visualize new scenarios and then try to explain how they will go.
• Create inspiring situations:   get out of your comfort zone! Even if it turns out afterwards that you were wrong, take a chance and look for new incentives (books, films, people, paintings…).
• Take advantage of the moments when you can relax: create time to rest, daydream and play.

Be more creative: well-known techniques

Here are some of the best-known techniques for being more creative.

• Robert W. Olsen’s DO IT Method: A Structured Problem Solving Process.
• The SCAMPER method invented by Bob Eberlee: a technique to promote creativity and creative thinking.

• The 3-6-5 method: a simple technique involving collaboration with others.
• The mental map method: a very effective method for summarizing information logically and creatively and expressing ideas.

4 tools you need to come up with creative solutions

According to Guilford, these are the most important skills and tools you need to creatively solve problems:

• Expression skills: It has been shown that the more ideas you come up with, the more likely you are to come up with a good solution. Brainstorming is thus a good example of a problem solving tool.
• Flexibility: Being flexible in your thinking will help you to change your ideas and get closer to the solution to a specific problem or challenge. More specifically, there are the creative tools known as “verbal verification lists.” These will help you to be innovative.

• Originality: This means breaking out of your routine and going beyond the obvious answers. Image-based stimulation, photographic excursions and object-based stimulation are well-known techniques for generating original ideas. You can also use analogies and metaphors.
• Productivity: This is about working on and finding alternatives. It’s a convergent procedure that you run after you run a deviant process. For example, the mental map is a visual and verbal tool that you can use to associate ideas, thoughts, objects (etc.).

We are more creative in extreme situations. And the most creative people are very fast problem solvers. Now that you have some tools in your toolbox, you can use them to improve your quality of life. This is especially true for people who are going through difficult times in their lives.

A long time ago, creativity was seen as a quality that only a few artists and scientists had. But these days, saying you’re not creative is like saying you just haven’t bothered to be creative.

Finally…

According to Ken Robinson , we all have talents, we just need to know where to look. Would Steven Spielberg be a math genius if he had focused on that rather than film? Being more creative is achievable, but you have to challenge yourself! If you decide to do so, prepare yourself for an amazing journey that will be well worth it.