How to be Creative

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How to be Creative

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesise new things. ” – Steve Jobs

A definition of creativity could be the “capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual”. 

Goran @ AltusHost describes creativity as the ‘ability to look at your surroundings and the tools at hand, then harness them in a way that is novel, unique and has the capacity to be made real.”

This I personally think this definition is far more accurate, for me any way. We are all creative beings, it’s in our nature. An architect creates a building, first in their mind’s eye, then as a physical item. Children create spontaneous games, stories, toys and models. Chefs create gastronomic wizardry, mathematicians work with numbers to create and solve numerals sequences such as the fibonacci sequence, and the Golden section has been utilised in nature, art, geometry, architecture and music.

Creativity is the solving of a problem, through being open to other influences and thought patterns and channeling them into a physical or thought form. The Guardian states that “Creativity is all about finding links between apparently unrelated situations”, or as Goran says in the link above, “creativity is a form of analogical reasoning.” Spiritually, creativity is life, the pure creative energy that runs through us all, and throughout the universe.

It is outside opinions, from our families, siblings, teachers, colleagues that tell us we’re not creative. If we get told this often enough we start to believe it. This shuts us down to the creative universal life force and stops us listening and looking and being open to ideas.

Here are some tips to help develop your creativity (in no particular order)

Understand the problem

Particularly in a business situation, understanding exactly what the problem is, can help get the thinking and creative process working.

Look/observe

Look around you with open eyes, with an open mind and with curiosity and wonder. Don’t judge. Be open minded. Look for potential.

Think

As with looking and observing, think without filters. Be open to new ideas and concepts, even if you disagree with them, they can still provide creative inspiration.

Collect

Collect things that uplift you, inspire you and can be used as reference. When I was at art college we were encouraged to collect images from magazines, leaflets, logos and other things to provide inspiration. With the internet, and platforms such as Pinterest, this is so much easier. But it’s still good to have physical, tangible things to help spark inspiration.

Read

Be eclectic in your reading. Be interested in lots of different things. Learn as much as you can about lots of things. This gives your brain lots of new material to work with and helps spark new ideas.

Interests

Most people have one or two things that they’re interested which is good. But by having lots of interests, researching and learning about them, gives you a broader range of information to work with, which again helps to spark new ideas.

Ask questions

Question everything. Question your perceptions. Ask new and/or different questions.

Use what you know

Use what you know and bring in influences and ideas from other areas – create a ‘creative mixing and blending’ of ideas through what you know from one area and what you’ve seen somewhere else.

Experiment

Don’t be put off if your project doesn’t work the first time. Eddison made 1,000 attempts to create his lightbulb, before finding success. Try and try again. Each time you will learn more about what you’re trying to create. You will learn what works and what doesn’t, so that your next attempt will include the lessons you’ve learnt and be better for it.

Don’t get het up on your project having to be perfect. It’s better to actually start something and be able to develop it, than to not start because you’re so constrained by perfectionism.

Be open

Be open to risk and trying new things. If your mind is closed and you’re not prepared to try and investigate anything new, you’re unlikely to come up with an inspired ideas or inventions. The more open you are, the more you’re like to see opportunities and the more like inspiration is likely to strike.

Be highly motivated and passionate

What you put in, you get out. So your efforts are lacklustre and half hearted, the resulting project will reflect that. The more passionate you are, the more effort, excitement and passion you put into your idea, the more your body and mind will respond to that and the more likely inspiration will strike, providing you lots of creative options to pick from.

Be confident in yourself and your idea

Don’t let criticism from others put you off. There is constructive criticism and negative criticism, one helps build and the other knocks you down. Search out people who’s opinion you respect and ask for input and feedback. You don’t have to implement their suggestions, but they provide a new perspective and can act as jump start to take your idea even further than you might have achieved on your own.

Ignore the negative criticism and don’t let it crush your ideas and your dreams. Lots of people are negative because they’re scared to see others doing well, as often they have given up on their ideas and dreams.

Spend time alone and in quiet

We’re bombarded by so much input these days, from TV, radio, adverts ipods, Spotify and other music streaming options, wifi signals, phones, texting etc etc. This is almost an overload situation. Learning to spend time alone, and in quiet is a great way to reconnect to your inner self and your creativity. Take some out without an digital appliances, to just be with yourself. Take a bath, take a walk in nature (without your phone), go for a cycle ride (with headphones). Look around you and just Be.

Relax – empty your mind

Another way to reconnect to your inner self and your innate creativity is to meditate. Many people think they can’t meditate, but we all do it every day, when we go off into a world of our own whilst on the bus or train, or if we’re sitting in a cafe. We do it when we daydream. I find a lot of my ideas come to me when I’m on the loo or in the bath, because my mind is idling and I’m not really thinking about anything.

Learn something new

Learning something new, like a language or a skill is another great way of opening up and sparking new ideas.

Journal

Many people journal to help them release issues and also to help create new ideas. Others keep a diary. Richard Branson keeps all his old notebooks, where he jots down ideas and often comes back to them years later. I also keep all my old notebooks.

Trust your instincts, and your body – gut reaction

I think this is the most important one. Once you start to work on developing your creativity and being open to new ideas, you may find that you will just ‘know’ when an idea or solution is a good idea. You may even get a physical reaction, such as a feeling in your stomach – your ‘gut reaction’. Learn to trust this.

A book that can be very helpful to help you develop your creativity, especially those that don’t consider themselves creative, is The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

The book provides chapters that include exercises to help encourage readers to work through their “I’m not creative” blocks and offers ways to deal with criticism, workaholism and perfectionism. Having worked through the book myself, I can highly recommend this as a way to learn to love your creative self.

To help your creative projects, learn about The Colour Wheel and colour basics here.

Learn about some of the benefits of using good design here.

To discuss your creative project requirements call 0775 341 3005 or email info @ iconiccreative.co.uk.