Building creativity is not something that is difficult to do. In fact, one of the reasons for lacking creativity has to do with the mindset you have for being open-minded to position yourself to receive new ideas. They key here is positioning.
Calling yourself or someone the word “creative” is simply an adjective. It is a state of being – not a state of acting. What this means is that we seek the goal of achieving something but don’t relish the path that we take. Becoming creative is a goal. The path that we take to become creative is the act of the word “create.”
If we start to explore this area of building creativity in the first place, we must ask ourselves why we want to be creative. Some of us are trying to figure out how to develop new ideas, explore different ways of solving a problem, trying new cooking recipes, or even think of new ideas to generate money. The frustration that we all fall prey upon is the fact that we don’t even know how to “create,” and we seek to become creative.
The root of the word creativity stems from the Latin term creō “to create or make.” So when we stay we want to be more creative – what we are really saying is the we want to create something that influences ourselves to go beyond what we have in our reach.
The truth is that what is within our reach has already been created. Look at the road you take to get to work or the same destination you go to every year. These are all prescribed methodologies that have been time-tested. Over time, things become stale and boring. Doing the same redundant exercises day after day can become monotonous – and as humans we were never built to become couch potatoes – we were always moving. In other words, we are nomadic.
So what exactly are we trying to create? If you look at how ideas are created in your life you have to look at your current environment. Answer the following:
- Do you follow prescribed actions that everyone else in the world follows?
- Are you spending time with individuals that continuously talk about the same thing or idea?
- Do you take the beaten path while traveling?
- Do you follow recipes for your favorite food item with the same ingredients?
What happen to us as we live life is that we become way to comfortable. We like to stay within certain boundaries as we feel those have been tried and tested and produce positive results for ourselves. However, what we don’t realize is that we hinder ourselves from thinking innovatively in this environment. What this leads to is boredom, frustration and stress that we create for ourselves.
Innovation comes from going outside your comfort zone. Creativity comes from going outside your boundary. Creativity comes from going against the norm of your thinking.
What this means is that the easiest and fastest way to build creativity is to do opposite to what you think – get out of your comfortable mindset. So for example, if you are thinking of ways to make more money but you are spending time with people who are not millionaires, the chances of you making money will be less as your mindset will not create drivers to increase money. You need to get yourself out of your environment where you are spending time with those who are not thinking about making money or have lots of money to spend time with those that do.
Likewise, if you are struggling to get a job and scared to do networking – networking is exactly what you need to do to shake yourself up. Yes, it will be uncomfortable but this is what is going to position you for growth.
Also, if you want to experience travel a certain way and always do tours – don’t do tours – find your own path. If you are bored with cooking the same kind of item with the same ingredients – just change it up.
Keep in mind that building a mindset to become creative stems from the risks you take to try new things. When you try a new idea or approach, you start to learn what went wrong or didn’t go wrong. You can try new ideas or approaches to obtain success and this builds creativity.
Creativity is also a personal trait. What I find creative, someone else may not. Someone may tell you that you are not creative – just ignore those people – you are as long as you are putting your two feet into the trenches of what you are trying to explore.
Creativity is exploration. It’s discovery. It’s experimentation. Creation has never been formulated through static thinking. It’s when you are dynamic, willing to extend yourself beyond boundaries that your ability to create is realized.