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Creativity Tip 15 – Building Everyday Creativity
Anyone and everyone possessing any level of intelligence and natural ability, is capable of engaging in fulfilling creative processes. Just about anything we do can be addressed in a creative manner - from housecleaning to personal hobbies to work.
Cognitive scientist Art Markman, co-editor of the book Tools for Innovation says "Every day, we use language to speak sentences that have never been spoken before. We express thoughts that have never been expressed. All of this is so deeply ingrained that we don't notice how creative it is."
Zorana Ivcevic, a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at Tufts University found that students who practised forms of everyday creativity exhibit a tendency toward open-mindedness and curiosity, are persistent, more flexible and less judgmental. They are also positive, energetic, and intrinsically motivated by their chosen activities.
Here are some tips for injecting the powers of innovation into your daily life:
- Wake 'n' Write: Creativity guru Julia Cameron swears by free writing (no self-censoring) until you fill three pages. Get intrusive worries out and productive ideas flowing.
- Relationship Shake-Up: Practise creative loving. If your partner annoys or upsets you, react the opposite way you usually do. You might be pleasantly surprised with the result.
- Disrupt the Daily Grind: Jolt your brain out of automatic pilot by taking a new route to work.
- Don't Compete, Collaborate: Team up with a co-worker who has complementary skills: if you're a detail-oriented person, find a big-picture partner, or vice versa.
- Daydream in Long Distance: Psychologically distant thoughts spur creativity. Think about designing a new product in Bali and your perceptual abilities will soar.
- Search for Inspiration: Go to a museum or sit for a few minutes in a beautiful building or park on your lunch break. Try to notice all of the aesthetically pleasing details surrounding you.
- Get Ahead: Start tackling big projects now. Procrastination does not fuel creativity, despite what procrastinators tell themselves.
- Hit a Blue Note: Decorate your cubicle or home office in blue, since a study showed that blue surroundings boost creativity.
- Be an Aficionado: Creative people often have hobbies, and those who play musical instruments are better at associative thinking. So dust off your old guitar or stamp collection.
- Sleep on It: Think about a thorny problem before you go to bed. Rapid eye movement enhances creative problem-solving and may even deliver the answer to you at dawn.
Taken from an article in Psychology Today by Carlin Flora, published on November 2009.
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