How to Be Creative

Great news! You can be a creator. Follow these steps to find your inner writer, composer, finger-painter, chef, lyricist, entrepreneur or professional Tweeter.

Illustrations: Christopher DeLorenzo

You know how you’ve got this image of the creator as a somewhat crazy, slightly unbalanced person lost in his or her own head? I have great news. You are one, too! Everyone — adults and children alike — has a creative streak. But while most of us have a spirit of invention, major or minor, for too many of us it lies dormant even though it can be awakened with the simplest of acts. Follow these steps to find your inner writer, composer, finger painter, chef, lyricist, entrepreneur, filmmaker, comedian, politician or professional Tweeter.

First, give permission

Tapping into your thoughts, dreams and imaginations is the first step to finding your inner creativity.

I think I know what you do before you go to bed every night. Don’t worry, everyone does it. You imagine. You imagine some or another version of: If I only had this much money, I’d spend a weekend in the Caribbean; if I’d had just a second more to think, I know what I would’ve said to that jerk who had too many items in the express checkout aisle; or if I’d had…