7 Ways to Become More Creative

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Most people think that being creative is something you are born with. Although to some people it can come more easily, creativity is something you can develop. Here are 7 ways to become more creative.

1. Think Like A Child
As adults we tend to think in a conditioned way aimed at showing how clever we are. Yet, as children, we were simply spontaneous and far more creative in our thinking. To re-capture your childhood curiosity, allow yourself to just wonder at things, to be completely present in the here and now, and to detach yourself from what you thought was real.

2. Make New Connections
To be innovative does not require a university degree; it simply requires making a connection between existing ideas. For instance, did you know that ice cream was invented in 2000 BC yet it took another 3900 years for someone to come up with the idea of a cone? It is when you take two seemingly unrelated items and use the spark of creativity that genius happens.

3. Be A Little Illogical
It is a peculiarly Western trait to want to tie things up in neat bundles. We prefer solutions to problems, and answers to questions. To be creative, you need to be comfortable with things that don’t fit. The Eastern tradition is more in tune with incongruence. As in this Zen koan, or problem: what is the sound of one hand clapping?

4. Laugh More
Tom Peters says that the creativity of a workplace can be measured by a laughometer, ie how much it laughs. Humor is one of the greatest creative devices. It gets us out of our normal patterns and puts ideas together that shouldn’t go together. It has been found that after listening to comedy tapes, the ability of students ability to solve problems rises by 60%.

5. Think Outside Your Limits
Many of the products we take for granted today are the result of people thinking outside their limits. A good example of this is science fiction. Science fiction writers came up with things like sliding doors before we all took it for granted.

6. Adopt and Adapt
To be creative doesn’t require blue-sky thinking. You can still be creative by adapting what works elsewhere. An American airline that wanted quicker turnarounds on their flights adopted the techniques of Formula One pit crews. Another source of ideas is nature. Georges de Mestral adapted the way certain seeds stick to clothing and invented Velcro.

7. Remember Your Dreams
Dreaming and day-dreaming can create a rich stream of ideas, because that’s when we relax and let the subconscious mind work by itself. Most flashes of inspiration come when we are walking the dog, taking a shower, or cleaning around the house. A great book related to this subject is The Einstein Factor by Win Wenger.

Apply these 7 creative thinking techniques and make them part of your daily thinking. New solutions to your problems will open up to you with ease and speed.

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