Creativity- One of Your Greatest Assets

Creativity is a blend of Knowledge, Imagination and Evaluation working together to "create" a new idea.

So how can you get more creative?

1) increase knowledge
-greater knowledge means that you'll get more ideas and more patterns will be created, new combinations and fresher ideas.

2) increase imagination
-think in pictures more
-pay attention to creativity
-different situations and surroundings
-play games that exercise creative imagination

3) Evaluation
-Evaluate your idea, decide whether you can do it yet or not
-brainstorm potential ways of doing your idea
-if its something you think will work, DO IT

There are many mental locks in learning to be more creative, but by becoming aware of them, you can in turn learn to be more creative!
1) Looking for the "right" answer. Depending on your perspective, a given problem can have many "right" answers.
2) Always trying to be logical. Logic doesn't always prevail, since human emotions and organizational inconsistencies, ambiguity and contradictions come up.
3) Strictly following the rules. If things are going to get better, you need to get right of arbitrary limits on thinking and behavior.
4) Insisting on being practical. Impractical answers to "what-if" questions can become stepping stones to creative insights.
5) Avoiding ambiguity. Creativity can be stunted by too much objectivity and/or specificity.
6) Fearing and avoiding failure. Fear of failure can be a paralyzing factor and prohibits us from acting on good ideas. Learn from your mistakes! Make mistakes, its okay, you can learn from them.
7) Forgetting how to play. I love this one because playing is what we were born to do, as children we were always happy "playing" so don't be ashamed to have fun like you were a child!
8) Becoming too specialized. A lot of knowledge helps you with finding answers, learn about a lot!
9) Not wanting to look foolish. Humor releases tension and unlocks creative energies. Foolish questions enhance understanding.
10) Saying "I'm not creative". You should have the mindset of "I am creative" since we all know that what you think about comes about.

By conquering these "mental locks", you'll be able to be happier and more creative!

Chris Hughes
http://chughes15.magneticsponsoringonline.com