One of my soapboxes is creativity, and how we (mis)define it.
Creativity has become one of those words associated with certain activities: crafty things, artsy things. If you paint a picture, sew a dress, take a photograph, you’re being creative. And it’s true: those activities all require creativity, a whole sparkly heap of it (more than I have, apparently).
But the “artistic endeavors” are just a single piece of the pie that is creativity.
- It’s creative to write a novel… or a really good email or thank-you note.
- It’s creative to write a poem… or a press release.
- It’s creative to paint a picture… or to come up with a stellar business proposal.
- It’s creative to sew a dress… or to say no to some socially expected thing because you realize it’s not you and it’s not necessary.
- It’s creative to take a photograph… or to take a child on a hike that helps them to love the world and adventures in it.
Creativity is less about what you do and more about how you do it.
And now I’m going to climb down from the soap box so I can share my 10-list of ways you can be more creative – everyday – no matter what you’re doing.
1. Limit the information being shoved at your brain in tiny bits and pieces.
I love text messaging, talk radio, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, magazines, quotes, news: all those “tidbit” info/communication sources that give you little tasty morsels without really nourishing anything lasting or internal. But I see a huge :: HUGE :: difference in how I work and how creative I am when I
start spending less time with those tidbits.
Why? I guess your brain (or at least mine) starts thinking in tiny pieces when that’s all it gets fed.. and creativity is a process that needs broader sweeps of thought, because creativity involves connecting seemingly unrelated things.
“Creativity is the ability to connect disparate ideas in new and useful ways,” says Sara C. Mednick, PhD, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego in this article.
(See? I told you.)
If your brain is only willing to munch on one tidbit at a time,
you’ll find it nearly impossible to see the hidden connections and pull them out.
So try limiting those tiny information sources and give your mind time to get back in the habit of thinking bigger thoughts.
2. Find time for bigger stories.
Look for meals instead of munchies. Read a whole book. Have a long conversation. Get out, for more than five minutes and without staring at your phone the whole time, in that gigantic ongoing story we call nature. Give yourself some solitude and reconnect with your own story. Take time to think, really, just sit and think…
3. Hang out with creative people
First, creative people are just funny and far more entertaining than, well, other people…
And second, you’ll start picking up on their strange, abnormal, creative ways.
4. Expand your idea of what creativity is.
Read my long soapbox of an intro above, in case you missed it… Or check out 27 ways you are a creative person.
5. Be more silly, unafraid, juvenile, child-like.
Kids are the ultimate in unabashed creativity. Imitate the best. Hang out with kids to get really good at this. If you don’t have any, you can borrow a couple of mine…
6. Reject the first five ideas/solutions/answers you come up with for any given need/problem/question.
Forcing yourself beyond the quick-and-easy gets your creative self working.
7. Give yourself limits:
- a $50/week grocery budget [money limit]
- 15 minutes to cook dinner [time limit]
- use your non-dominant hand to write or draw [ability limit]
- find a decent outfit at the thrift store [resource limit]
I’m sure you can think of other types of limits too, if you get… you know… creative with it.
8. Get around different cultures, different people, different ways of life.
We get to boxed into our own version of normal, and when that’s all we see, we forget that normal is an arbitrary thing, defined differently by different people in different places and different times. Even in the same place and time, you can find all sorts of differences of normal when you venture into different subcultures. Are you a Christian? Hang out with some atheists. Are you from the city? Spend a weekend with a family of farmers; it’s a whole new normal. From the North? Go down South.
9. Fire your critic.
Your critic leans heavily upon a particular definition of “good” and it usually is established in our childhood, based on our childish understanding and interpretation of life, and, often, is closer to demanding something unattainable like perfection than setting realistic standards of good work accomplished.
Let go of the critic. You can always rehire later.
10. Get into unfamiliar, uncomfortable, strange, new, unnerving situations.
Try new things. Break your routine. Eat food you don’t like. Read books you don’t understand. Watch movies in languages you don’t speak. Go to places where you don’t know the acceptable social codes and just stumble your way through it. Ask questions. Admit to not knowing. Talk to strangers. Climb trees. Sit quietly. Do something too easy for you and something too difficult for you. Try the thing that scares you. Say yes. Be spontaneous. Don’t hesitate.