Do you view yourself as creative?
Regardless of your answer, Creativity is inside your DNA!!! It came with you when you were born.
Everybody is creative, but not everybody uses their creativity regularly. If you are working on achieving your BOLD Vision, you need to use both the left and the right sides or your brain. Most of us are tuned into using the left, intellectual side just fine but need to give some attention to the creative right. Ignite your creativity with the steps below.
#1) Acknowledge Your Creativity
First things first. IF you tell yourself you’re not creative that is part of the problem. Acknowledge you are creative and work towards igniting your creativity.
#2) Consume Creativity & Deconstruct it
A great way to start getting your creative juices flowing is to consume some creativity. Watch a play, movie or improv performance. Go to a museum, art exhibit or creative exhibition. Listen to music, poetry or comedy. Read a book, an article on something interesting or something about another culture. Consume creative things and then deconstruct them, what about these things makes them creative. Ponder on what could you change to these creative items. Think about how you would go about doing this.
#3) Emulate & Originate
All artists get their inspiration from something they’ve previously seen, heard or experienced. Find some creative things that you enjoy and aim to copy something similar with your own spin. Don’t worry if it ends up looking like a Pinterest fail. Go through the exercise of doing it. Make it original. By the way I used the word “originate” out of context on purpose. You don’t have to follow the rules when you’re being creative.
#4) Use Your Imagination
Take some time to rev up the old imagination factory that you used as a kid. Use your imagination and create a new land in your mind. Dream an adventure of saving the world. Make up a new species or food. Let your mind just come up with free flowing ideas. If it seems like everyday life, keep pushing until it seems more like a fantasy.
#5) Participate in Creative
Seek an opportunity or an organization where you can surround yourself with creative people. Maybe it’s helping to make a poster, assisting an event decorator or working with a chef. Or perhaps it’s joining an organization that is full or creatives. When you surround yourself with creative people it tends to rub off.
#6) Try New Things & Get Out of Your Comfort Zone
“If you swim in the sea of same, sea of same is where you swim.” Try out some new things to break your routine. Take a new route to work. Try a new menu item. Listen to a new genre of music. Wear some new clothes. Attend an event you normally wouldn’t. Get some fresh perspective!
#7) Keep a Journal / Idea Log
As you have ideas with small sparks of creativity. Jot them down. Reflect on them. Review and reward your mind for coming up with these creative thoughts.
#8) Brainstorm / Visualize
You can build on your ideas logged in the journal by brainstorming. Select an idea use your mind to expand on the idea. Let a storm of ideas come and write them down. Don’t filter them. Let them come naturally. They don’t need to be the greatest ideas or even make sense. Just let the brain do it’s thing. Tap into your creative mind further by visualizing your thoughts and thinking of ways an idea could be altered or enhanced.
#9) Mind Maps
Mind mapping is an awesome exercise that can help solve problems by visually connecting thoughts, ideas and facts. This technique can be used for problem solving, planning or making decisions. A mind map is a diagram that includes the arranging of words, ideas and activities linked to a central idea. There are many examples online to reference. This exercise definitely gets your creative mind moving.
#10) Give Yourself a Creative Project
Perhaps one of the more direct things you can do would be to give yourself a creative project to tackle. Do a painting, write some poetry, play an instrument, cook a new dish, build something. Do something that is out of your normal comfort zone that would require you to be creative. And be sure to have fun while you’re doing it. If you’re not having fun being creative… you’re doing it wrong.
What are ways you Ignite Your Creativity?
