Creativity - How To Have More
2686
Self Improvement > Creativity
Mar 1, 2007
Steve Gillman
Creativity - How To Have More
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. Steve Gillman has been studying brainpower and related topics for years. For more on How To Increase Brain Power, and to get the Brain Power Newsletter and other free gifts, visit: www.IncreaseBrainPower.com
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. Steve Gillman has been studying brainpower and related topics for years. For more on How To Increase Brain Power, and to get the Brain Power Newsletter and other free gifts, visit: www.IncreaseBrainPower.com
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links owned by this user
Many of us remember the oil shortages of the late seventies. They caused more than just the inconvenience of occasional gasoline rationing. Several elderly people actually died in the New York City area because of a lack of heating oil. Some people
Category:
Creative imagination is more than just active imagination. To be able to actively imagine things, to see and hear things in one's mind, is an important ability. It doesn't have to involve much creativity, though, does it? Daydreaming, for example, is a
Category:
Most of us kno the usual ays for kids to make money, hich include lemonade stands, nespaper routes and moing lans. Hoever, there are more unusual ays. Some of the ays listed belo are from my on childhood, hen I as alays looking for another
Category:
When innovators talk about thinking outside the box, they mean coming up with creative ways to solve problems - new ways to look at things. How do they do it? How can you do it too? We first have to ask what the "box" is. Then we can look at how to get
Category:
Watching the news the other day, it occurred to me that people who have "words to live by" often begin to attack and even kill others. I thought back to my own angry youth, when I could easily use words to justify violent thoughts which might have
Category:
Success in life? What is it? If you're making money doing something you enjoy, are you less successful than someone who happens to make more money? Of course not! Your life isn't a competition against others, to be fought on their terms. Two
Category:
To creatively solve problems you need to get your mind looking in new directions. You can systematically do this by using a list of words, primarily adjectives, to create "what if?" scenarios. You start with the question, "what if it was..." and then
Category:
Problem solving games are a natural when you want brain exercise and fun. Some of the best problem solving games can be played as a group. The added element of competition and "showing off" can stimulate some truly creative ideas. These games are
Category:
There are many different types of poetry. I counted 50 on a quick search of the internet. You may have heard of Haiku and Limericks. There are the more obscure types too, like Terzanelle and Sestina. Learning different types of poetry though, isn't
Category:
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
Category:
You probably know the myth of innovation as a sudden flash of insiht that comes from nowhere. We read about that "aha" moment, or that liht bulb turnin on in the mind of some inventor or innovator, and this is true to an extent. Einstein really did
Category:
I get half of the world traffic for the term "dirtbagging," on one page of my backpacking site, but that only means ten visitors a month. Without decent keyword demand you can't ever get much traffic. Total demand is just one factor to consider,
Category:
There are so many different types of meditation. How many? Who knows, but enough so that you can find the one that's right for you. To get your search started, here are six types of meditation you can try. 1. Breath watching. Can meditating
Category:
It can be tedious to arn a language. There will always be a certain amount of rote memorization required. However, there are also many litt techniques for more easily arning a language. Labeling things around the house in the language you want to
Category:
Can a bad dit rating save you from bigger problems? Hasn't it done just that for many young people? I'll explain how with a couple true stories. Good Credit Rating Story My friend started his adult years with good
Category:
Thought provoking questions usually put forth a certain viewpoint, if only because they inherently challenge the accepted one. However, they don't require you to agree with that viewpoint, and a question is just a question. We'll each have different
Category:
17. Mind Power Games
Want a fun way to tune up your brain? Why not use some classic mind games to help you increase your brainpower and get you out of your inking "ruts." Good mind games habituate you to using creative problem solving as a normal part of inking about
Category:
What makes an aist? Is he or she one who says "God absolutely does not exist"? Certainly most aists I know wouldn't say that. Unfortunately, like most religious people, most dictionaries misrepresent aism, with definitions like "Denial of
Category:
Let's not pretend that third world debt is about wise investment of borrowed money in order to develop a country's economy more quickly. If it were so, the countries which borrowed the most would be the ones doing well. Without getting into statistics,
Category:
Does your mnd sometmes feel lke a televson staton you can't qute tune n? You know there's an nterestng program on - or several, but everythng s mxed wth statc. What f you could "tune n" at wll, have clear thnkng whenever you want
Category:
Other links at Self Improvement > Creativity
Many great things have started as an simple, creative idea. Consider donating some of your best ideas to help others. The more creative you are, the more ideas you will be able to create. You can be creative even if you don't think you
Category:
Creativity is a quality that we all have buried inside of us, one way or the other. It involves the invention of something new or the re-invention of something already existing to make it useful of interesting. Some people?s creative
Category:
In the middle f the night I awaken with a sparkling idea that squeezes every unce f sleep right ut f me. Fr a few mments I lie unmving, trying t cnvince myself that I?ll remember it in the mrning if I drp ff again nw. The merciless wisdm
Category:
At about the same time I started to think about building an Internet website, I considered my personal strengths and resources. It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to make a list of all the things I in my life, as well as the things I
Category:
Have you tried creative loafing? It is a good excuse to relax, and also a great way to come up with new ideas and solutions to problems. How does one creatively loaf? Just relax, open your mind, and use one of the many idea-generating
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68228
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
