How to be creative
There are many books out there that will teach you to be creative, so I will not go into listing the various ways you can try to increase your creativity. What I’d like to talk about is about our mindset and 1 specific and simple idea about how to increase your creativity on a daily basis.
Mindset – I believe that all of us share a basic fundamental need to create. It is a universal human need to create. Why do I say that? To create something means to express yourself and all of us has our own unique way of expressing ourselves. It is the medium that we choose to express that differs. Writing this blog is my way of expressing an idea in my head, and by doing so, I am creating a piece of work. I am being creative. If you have an opinion about an issue or topic and expresses it by telling someone, or by writing about it or making a song out of it, you are being creative. There are infinite ways to be creative and the great thing is, we are creating every single day. We just don’t see it that way. So, the first step to be creative is to decide that you are creative. When you believe it, you will see it.
It’s the degree of creativity that differs among people. Some people are able to produce more original ideas that others but I believe all of us can become highly creative. It lies dormant within us - with the right triggers, environment(peers or community or work), support and own initiative, the innate creativity will spring forth and flourish. It gives great joy when we express our creativity because it satisfies a very basic human need in all of us.
A simple way you can become more creative is create metaphors or analogies. How do you do that? Creating analogies involve linking seemingly different things together. You can do this whenever you’re commuting or in your spare time. You start by thinking of a topic or subject – that can come from what you’re working on at the moment, at work or some issue at home for example. The next step is to ask questions. Ask yourself how is the topic or issue like the weather, or the train you’re travelling on, or what you see in your surronding at that point in time. Just by asking this question, you are exercising your creativity. For example, you may sitting down trying to figure out what to write for your next hub. You struggle for a while. Then you ask yourself, how is finding what to write like exercising, because you could see the gym from where you’re currently sitting. The link suddenly comes. Writing is like exercising. One needs to be disciplined and keep on at it. The more I write, the stonger my writing muscle becomes. You’ve just created an analogy!
Give it a try every time you’re in between things or have some free time. Streeetcch that imagination of yours!
