Creativity is something we all use to one degree or an- other. Some people use it more some less, but nonetheless, creativity is an important part we need to harness to become more successful in our lives.
The question is, how do you increase your creativity?
I’m going to tell you something that you’ve probably never heard, and it will sound strange. My suggestion is to start by rambling. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s one way I find solutions to the problems that I personally have in life. While it sounds funny, it truly is an amazing way to increase creativity if you do it right.
Start by talking out loud about what you want to accomplish. The important thing is to do it OUT LOUD. You need to actually hear what you are saying and thinking. Verbally go through what you know about your project or essentially what your objective is. Start at the very beginning saying step one, I did this. Step two, I did this. Step three, do this and go through an entire process to the point where you get stuck.
The key to making this work is asking yourself a simple question. “In a perfect world, how should this work?” Remember, you are talking out loud. This can be done alone or with others. The purpose of this exercise is so you hear what you’re saying.
The “perfect world scenario” is some- thing I came up with a number of years ago. It’s a world where anything and
everything is possible — nothing is limited. Money, time or skill limita- tions don’t exist in a perfect world sce- nario like they do in the real world. It’s almost like an alternate universe. This is a powerful visualization technique.
If there were no limitations on what we could do, then how would our solution or problem work for us? You can’t do this wrong; you can only succeed.
Hearing yourself talk out loud will force you to think more clearly about the situation. Doing this will cause your brain to naturally start to won- der. It starts to think of possibilities and that’s just what we want — the “what-if.” What if I did this or what if I did that, what would the results look like? The brain starts to visualize this; we are almost tricking our brain into thinking in a different way and that will get us thinking more creatively.
Curiosity builds creativity, and that’s what we’re doing in this exercise. As your brain starts thinking of alternatives, it becomes curious of the out- come. The more alternatives we have, the more choices we have to choose from, and that’s the beautiful part of creativity.
Successful people are creative people. This doesn’t mean that they’re smarter. It just means they can assess a situation and look at the various alternatives and make an educated choice of which one is best for that particular situation.
Another way to be creative is to relax. Too many times we’re going through a problem, and we get tense and as our body freezes up, so does our mind.
Physically relaxing is always a good thing, but you really need mental re- laxation. We want our brains to relax. Don’t think about anything; just let your brain go on a mental vacation so it can recoup and ultimately regroup. Another way to say this is to simply get away from the situation.
How do we mentally relax?
Music naturally lets people wander because music brings back memo- ries, and it causes you to visualize what the music is about if there are words and even with no words, your brain just wanders a bit and relaxes.
“…mentally relax and give yourself time to do this.”
Something that’s been proven time and time again when talking about the brain and how it works is get- ting back to nature. Nature naturally causes your brain to relax, so if you like walking, whether in a park, in the woods or hiking, then nature is some- thing you can use to mentally relax.
For some people doing nothing is a great thing, whereas, for some, it’s complete torture, but just sitting with your eyes closed, thinking of nothing and letting your brain wander is perfect. The hard part for many people is not to focus on a single subject.
Physical exercise is another way to mentally relax because we’re not thinking about a situation, we’re thinking about exercising, and most people think of exercising as “me time.”
When I’m in Vegas. I can sit in front of a slot machine and not think of anything else because I’m focusing on the wheel spinning, looking at combinations, and I’m not thinking about anything. I can do this for hours!
Any one of the ideas I’ve mentioned will work, choose one, mentally re- lax and give yourself time to do this. You’ll find taking that talking out loud and allowing yourself to see other alternatives and taking an occasional mental break from reality will give you that creative jump start you might just need to make your next successful online venture.
