How To Develop A Creative Mind— Even If You Don’t Believe It
One of the biggest obstacles that you will inevitably face is the fear of your own brilliance. A big part of being human is always feeling there’s ‘more to add’ or that what you’ve done isn’t quite right — or good enough.
Being creative isn’t just something that is reserved for the elite few however. It is your birthright. And so just as you are human, you have fantastic potential to create into reality, what your mind can imagine.
I often think of Gene Wilder in the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory movie and the ‘Pure Imagination’ song when I try to conceptualise the concept of creativity.
‘Come with me and you’ll be, in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you’ll see, into your imagination…’
It’s simply a matter of looking. Perception.
There is no science to creativity, right? It simply is.
Well, not quite. Being creative is simply about self-expression in its most personal form. Yes, if you want to write a book, song, poem, or create amazing drawings — then do it. The only obstacle is yourself.
What gets in the way however is how to do this. Or the feeling that it is wrong somehow, or people will laugh. Maybe. But so what? No one has to like everything. What’s important is that if you want to do something — then do it for yourself. As there’s nothing else you would rather do.
Nurturing your creativity is a practice, much like anything else. The more you practice — the better you will become. And the more you can train your brain to reward you for the progress you are making. Therefore, the better you naturally become by default.
1) Progress Not Perfection
Being a perfectionist naturally creates set limitations. If you want to grow, you have to progress outside of your perceptions of perfections and simply begin to do — rather than think.
Your mind will tell you a million reasons why you can’t or shouldn’t do something. Yet all you need to do is make small steps every day towards your goals.
It might be as simple as studying for 10 minutes, writing your book for half an hour, or even practising your musical instrument a little more today than you did yesterday. Remember, its what you do every day consistently, that counts towards the whole.
When you choose to make progress — you train your brain towards trying, to working towards achieving success — rather than giving up at the first hurdle.
2) Take Regular Breaks
Your mind needs regular rest to recuperate and cultivate new ideas. This might mean taking a break from overstimulating your mental processes, or always being on the go with work.
Research show that if you want to develop your creative side, you sometimes need to refresh and see things from a different perspective. You may feel compelled to continue working on a problem even if it’s reaching a dead-end. Yet solutions come easily when you remember to take regular break intervals to allow your mind and memory to refresh.
3) Keep Learning New Things
If you want to nurture your creative side, you need to keep learning and focussing your desires onto acquiring a real thirst for knowledge. This might mean exploring new cultures, cultivating the seed of new ideas, and understanding various ways of living.
By staying open to new approaches, you fuel your creative side; by being able to connect concepts, information and ideas together. Staying curious is one of the best things you can do for self-progression and being able to express yourself into the world.
4) Stay Playful
Your creative nature is always there — you simply have to tap into it. When you allow yourself to delve into your playful space — and do an activity that brings you joy, you nurture your creativity.
Draw, write, sketch, knit…or simply daydream and allow yourself to really feel good with it. Focus on a positive feeling that goes beyond your limitations. When you step into your creative mindset, logic takes more of a backseat. Explore your creativity in different ways and what it means to you. Record in a journal all of your thoughts, feelings, ideas…no matter how impractical or crazy they may seem.
5) Explore Nature
They may sound unrelated, but going for a walk outside, even if its just for 30 minutes a day, can help to stimulate your creativity. A 2014 study from Stanford University found that, “Many people anecdotally claim they do their best thinking when walking.”
In all 175 participants in the study, when comparing the quality and speed of creative responses from those who walked regularly as opposed to those who were sedentary — 100% of those who took up walking were found to have produced more creative answers.
Popular writers such as Stephen King and J.K Rowling admit that they start their best day of writing when they go for a walk, to stimulate their creative flow of ideas. Taking a walk is well worth it to boost your creative side.
6) Try Something That Challenges You
Write with your non-dominant hand for a day. Take the scenic route to work instead of the motorway. Solve crossword puzzles. Read a book you wouldn’t normally read. Chat to a complete stranger. Do something completely out of character (within the remits of personal safety and legality).
The more you do things that challenge you, the more you will understand about the world, and therefore begin to create connections in your brain, along with generating new ideas in the process.
7) Stay Focussed
A big part of creativity isn’t just generating ideas — its following through to their fruition. When you focus upon an idea long enough to take action, you begin creating the self-discipline to get it done.
Perhaps you are more of an ideas person — but you need to work on following through. The only way to ground your ideas in reality is to focus upon them daily with specific action steps to get you where you need to go.
This takes us back to the first important step outlined above — progress, not perfection. Developing a creative mind is only possible when you decide to follow the steps above.
Day by day you will gradually improve and begin to allow in new ideas, opportunities, events, connections….the world really is full of many possibilities. Then all you have to do is to ground yourself enough to take action, so as to truly make your creative projects happen.
