SUCCESS MAKING

How To Increase Creativity

To increase creativity, you need to do two things. First, you
need to encourage it. Second, you need to train your brain.
Start on both of these right now, and you can experience greater
creativity today.

Encourage creativity and you’ll increase creativity. This is
true of most things you want to see more of in your life.
Encouragement can work wonders. How do you encourage creativity,
though?

First, by paying attention to it. Your subconscious mind tends
to give you more of what you pay attention to. If you ignore the
creative aspects of your life, you are telling your subconscious
that they are unimportant. If you consciously note when you are
creative, and you look for opportunities to be creative, your
subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas.
Look for it and you’ll find more of it.

Another way to encourage and increase creativity, is to write
your ideas down. Keep an “idea journal.” If you do this
regularly, 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, your
subconscious works on it, and it can transform into something
very creative.

You can also encourage greater creativity in yourself by putting
creative ideas into practice. If you paint or write, for
example, try anything new. Even just driving a different route
to work to see if it is quicker can help. The point is to get
you mind working outside of its regular patterns.

Just changing your surroundings can encourage creativity. If you
want more creativity in your love life, go hike up a mountain
with your partner. If you write, try sitting on a roof to write.
If you need new ideas for your business, take a notebook to the
park and sit by the duck pond. A change of enviroment can get
your brain out of it’s ruts.

Creativity Training

If you want to dramatically increase creativity, develop
creative habits of mind. Watch a good comedian and you’ll see
that she has trained her mind to look for the “different angle”
on everyday things. You can train your mind to do the same.

Challenge assumptions, for example, until it becomes habit.
Looking for ways to get customers into your store? Stop and say,
“Do I really need more customers?” The question suggests other
creative solutions, like finding ways to make more money off
existing customers, or ways to cut expenses. These may lead to
more profitable ideas. Challenge assumptions to increase the
creativity of your solutions.

As you drive to work, randomly choose anything around you and
ask how it may be connected to whatever problem you are working
on. A helicopter overhead might make you think about a way to
track where the car goes when you loan it to your kids. A palm
tree may lead to a new design for patio umbrellas.

The above techniques are called “Assumption Challenging” and
“Random Presentation,” and are two classic creative problem
solving techniques. There are dozens more. Train your brain to
habitually use these, and provide it with a little
encouragement, and you really can increase your creativity.

About the Author

Steve Gillman is a long-time backpacker, and advocate of
lightweight backpacking. He has also made over 200 hiking
sticks. His advice and stories can be found at http://www.TheUltraligh
tBackpackingSite.com