I’ll share how your creativity works, how to find your hidden creative genius and how to create meaningful work by learning how to turn creative thinking into habits.
What is creativity?
Let’s define creativity.
Creative thinking is not about creating something new from a blank slate, but rather about taking what is already present and putting together those parts and parts in a way that has not been done before.
In 1940, an advertising executive named James Webb Young published a short guide titled A Technique for Generating Ideas.
The creative process
Let your Creative Process Idea come to you. At some point, but only after you stop thinking about it, your idea will come back to you with insight and renewed energy. Shape and develop your idea based on the feedback. For any idea to be successful, you must spread it to the world, bring it to criticism, and adapt it as needed.
Is there something like “naturally creative”?
All of that to say, to say that “I’m just not the creative type” is a pretty weak excuse to avoid creative thinking. Certainly, some people are ready to be more creative than others. However, almost everyone is born with some level of creative skill, and the majority of our creative thinking skills can be trained.
How to be Creative
Step 1: Allow yourself to generate garbage
In any creative endeavor you must allow yourself to generate garbage. Sometimes you have to write 4 horrible pages just to find out that you wrote a good sentence in the second paragraph of the third page.
You have to sift through weights of earth, rock, and silt just to find a golden spot in the middle of it all.
Step 2: Create on a schedule
No single action will reveal more creative genius than forcing yourself to consistently create. The only way to become decent is to practice your craft over and over again. Meanwhile, a writer who shows up every day and puts his ass in a chair and his hands on the keyboard is learning how to do the job.
Set a schedule for your work.
Step 3: Complete Something
Complete Something. Whatever. Stop researching, planning, and preparing to get the job done and just get the job done. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. You don’t need to set the world on fire with your first try. There are no artists, athletes, entrepreneurs or scientists who have grown up by half-finishing their jobs.
Step 4: Stop judging your own work
Everyone struggles to create great art. Even great artists.
Anyone who creates something on a consistent basis will begin to judge their own work. After sticking to this broadcast schedule for three months, I started judging everything I had created. It is natural to be disappointed that your creation is not as great as you hoped, or that you are not getting better at your job. However, the important thing is not to let your discontent keep you from continuing to do the job.
Step 5: Hold Yourself Accountable
Share your work publicly. It will hold you accountable for creating your best work. And when you see other people connecting with what you create, it will inspire you and make you care more.
What seems simple to you is often brilliant for someone else.
