How to Become More Creative

But are you creative?

I’m of the position that it’s not a question of: “Are you creative?” The real question is: “How are you creative?” Being creative is not just for the artists, musicians or writers. We all have creative urges and abilities – we are all creative and innovative in our own unique way.

Your unique brand of creativity and ability to innovate is at the very core of what makes you interesting and attractive – a magnet that captures (and holds) the attention of your market persona. Want to increase your conversion rate? Want to provide a compelling call-to-action? Become the creative you. Knowing and living your creativity is key to building your personal brand.

Your personal brand, now more than ever is what shapes and characterizes not only the personal you, but the professional you – your business brand. Who you are, what you’re good at, what you’re passionate about and how you choose to connect and communicate with others is today, inexorably linked to your creative nature.

Creativity suppressed

A huge influence for me in this line of thinking is Sir Ken Robinson and his book, The Element – How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything. A leading thinker in education, creativity and innovation, Robinson indicates how the education system, from early childhood can be detrimental to fostering and developing our creative urges and direction. Too many have been wrongly diagnosed with learning or behavioral disorders when in fact they just didn’t fit the rigid and regimented requirements of the system. Their creativity and unique talents effectively being suppressed, even squelched because they seemed resistive or incapable of learning the traditional way.

In the book, Robinson tells the story of Gillian Lynne who, suspected of having a learning disorder, was recommended by officials to be placed in a school for children with special needs. Gillian didn’t get her work done on time, had bad handwriting, didn’t test well and “fidgeted noisily.” Her mother took her to a psychologist who, after observing her, saw a glimpse of something quite contrary to what school officials concluded. Turning on some music, the psychologist and mother left the room for a private conversation leaving Gillian behind. Watching from just outside the office but out of Gillian’s view, they observed her as she got to her feet and began to move gracefully and beautifully to the music. To which the psychologist turned to Gillian’s mother and said, “You know, Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn’t sick. She’s a dancer. Take her to a dance school.” The mother did, and the rest is history. Gillian Lynne went on to a brilliant career as a dancer and became a world-renowned choreographer. Teaming up with Andrew Lloyd Weber she gave us such treasures as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera.

Some people, like Gillian Lynne (and I think the late Michael Jackson) just have to move to think. They are at their best creative self when in motion. Gillian’s creative awakening came in the 1930’s. Today, as Robinson points out should someone be found exhibiting her classroom behavior they’d likely be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and put on Ritalin! Maybe they’re dancers, or musicians, basketball players or scientists who just need to move – or be taught differently.

Creativity found

Whether you’ve discovered your Element (the intersection of personal passion and natural aptitude) or are still on the journey; expressing it,channeling it and living it is what you are compelled to do. And when you do, creativity and innovation becomes you. It’s not an activity or goal you must strive to achieve. Sure, there’s effort and practice involved. But when you do what you love and love what you do – you’re great at it and others benefit from it – your work, life, brand all become one. And when you’re operating in this zone you’ll lose track of time, you’ll be filled with energy, you’ll inspire and move others and you’ll feel the most natural you have ever felt. And so whether you write, speak, solve problems, paint houses, draw, stage homes, knit, scrapbook, take pictures, dance, play music, sing, golf, provide counsel, shoot videos, cook, develop software, fix cars…whatever…become the creative you and publish remarkable content about it.

There’s much buzz these days about publishing remarkable content. Doing so is your ticket to people (your market persona/target audience) hooking up with you, becoming your friends, followers and fans. Incoming links to your blog or wherever you publish your remarkable content is achieved resulting in increased SEO authority. But what is remarkable content and how do I know I have it? The simple answer is, you’ll know when you know. Partly because connecting with your Element is deeply personal, intuitive, instinctive, purposeful and self-fulfilling. And, partly because of the affirmation you get from those who benefit by it and are themselves moved by it.

Furthering your creativity

Sometimes we get a little stuck and stale on being innovative or creative. Here’s a list of ideas and tips I’ve gleaned from a variety of sources you might find helpful in furthering your creativity.

Strike up conversations with “different” people. Go outside your regular network of friends, colleagues and industry to get fresh perspectives and ideas. The term for this is “cross-contextual learning.”
Expose yourself to different surroundings, routines and experiences. The other day I walked into a music store. Hadn’t been in a music store for years. I wound up buying tickets to a concert featuring a pair of guitarists, one a virtuoso acoustic guitarist from Italy, Peppino D’Agostino. And the other a lead electric guitarist with Huey Lewis and the News, Stef Burns. Turns out both artists live in my town and were giving a hometown concert at the high school auditorium for $22 a ticket. It also turned out to be an amazing, diverse, interesting and stimulating concert – one of the best I’ve been to. Think this experience might enrich and inspire my own creativity? Think I might re-mark about the “content” of their concert? Think I might become a fan of their Facebook Fan Pages?
Expand your horizons and intakes. Try a new restaurant that offers a unique environment or menu. Read a different kind of book than you normally would read. If your favorite genre of music is pop try something different like new age, country or hip-hop. Scary I know!
Go to a playground or shopping mall and observe how kids are curious and creative.
Re-arrange your living room/office/family room furniture. Then go have a meeting with someone outside your living room/office/family room – like maybe the dog park, fishing pier, winery or a veteran’s cemetery.
Do not multi-task (unless you’re exercising).
Exercise. And as you do, listen to music or a podcast. Keep a notebook handy as you’re likely to get new ideas and will want to jot them down when you’re done working out.
Embrace conflict and face your fears. They are opportunity for, and a source of creativity and personal growth.
Cultivate a sense of awareness in how you respond to live’s challenges. “Greater awareness leads to better choices, better choices leads to better results” (Robin Sharma).
Make your own luck. Understand that: “It’s not what happens to us that makes the difference in our lives, what makes the difference is how we respond to what happens” (Ken Robinson).
Stretch your thoughts and let them percolate before you publish. Beginning my run before stretching often causes muscle pulls and injury. Stretching gets me in a better condition of readiness to get the most out of my run. Same is true with the creative process – it takes some time to stretch out your thoughts. If you rush it you may miss something that can really add to your idea. Recently, I published a video blog, Stop Innovating and Die. But it took me a week before I felt I had the key content pieces together. A few days into developing the idea a quote from Jack Welch popped into my head and it was the perfect thought that became the central theme of what I wanted to communicate.
Relax and refresh yourself daily. Spending all your time working won’t make you more productive or creative. “Creativity comes when you are relaxed, happy and enjoying the moment” (Robin Sharma). Go for a walk, take a nap, meditate, sit on a beach, a hill, or on the deck. Play a game, put together a puzzle, go for a drive…do something you enjoy, or practice the art of doing nothing at all. Relax and have fun for 20-30 minutes each day (without checking email or Twitter) and let creativity come to you.
Believe in yourself and trust your instincts. When you know, deep down you’re beginning to do what you’re meant to do, move forward and keep doing it. I have a fortune from a fortune cookie taped to my desk: “You are headed in the right direction. Trust your instincts.” Perfect.
Focus on what you want more of, not on want you don’t want. Laura Goodrich has produced an entertaining and insightful video called Seeing Red Cars. In it she points out that by focusing on what we don’t want we actually get more of the very thing we want to avoid. We get whatever we focus on. Zone in on creating stunning ideas and solutions that will blow your customers away.
Play. “Play is tactile, active experiential, imaginative and collaborative…play is social…play is art, messy, innovation, terrifying, joyful, discovery, challenging, relaxing and purposeful. Play is serious in business…play is making mistakes, freedom, resourceful, wise, chaos, untapped, laughter, boundless, Ah ha! Play is strategic, a living lab…play is the mother of all invention and play is genius” (Seth Godin, The Big Moo – Stop trying to be Perfect and Start being Remarkable).
Read a book on becoming more creative. Read Roger Von Oech’s book: A Whack on the Side of the Head – How you can be more creative. Read anything by Seth Godin, Robin Sharma, Gary Vaynerchuk (also video blog), Ken Robinson, Alvin Toffler…
Create something new – start now.