How You Can Become More Creative

No one knows exactly when that creative spark will strike, and few people realize that with practice, they can become more creative. Creativity can happen at any time, and it often happens when you can’t immediately capture it.

However, it is possible to set up yourself for optimal creativity.

It would be best if you found what works for you. That may seem obvious, but too many people disregard it.

For instance, if you do your best writing work on Monday in the morning, why aren’t you writing more on Monday mornings? That is the right time for you, use it to your advantage. Many people ignore this.

Last update on 2024-09-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Look at what others have created for a source of inspiration. It’s easy to spend time on the internet and discover great ideas.

Wikipedia and Reddit are other websites that offer up random pages. Using resources like this can be a great way to generate new inspiration.

Most ideas are not truly original; they stem from past creations. For instance, songwriters often use the structure of their favorite songs as the base for their work. Every so often, a unique idea comes along.

However, by peeling back the layers of how the idea developed, you will often see inspiration elsewhere.

One important point is never to copy ideas. It’s okay to use other people’s ideas to generate new ideas. But if you simply copy what others have done, people will pick up on that and consider you a fraud.

Besides, it’s an illegal practice that can get you into trouble. Please don’t do it. It’s not worth the risk.

Listen to music to help you be more creative when you work. That can help a lot. Choose music that is easy to listen to without distracting you too much. Many people find classical music a good fit here, as it contains no lyrics. However, if you find that you do well with another style, don’t limit yourself.

Give something a try that falls outside your zone of normalcy. For instance, try reading magazines you wouldn’t typically read to get different perspectives. Try browsing websites that you wouldn’t typically browse, etc.

The idea is to use a pattern interrupt within your brain, making it use different pathways. Doing that can generate ideas you would have never had before. The results will likely surprise you.

Creativity is the key to realizing your full potential and excelling in all areas of your life. However, it’s something that many people struggle to unlock, which is a great pity.

Failing to use your creativity can cause you to fall into a predictable routine and create persistent feelings of frustration, regret, and resentment.

How To Get Into A More Creative Mode

One of the most important aspects of life is to become more creative. You use it every day without realizing it: when you cook breakfast, when you write your resume, and when decorating your house.

Businessmen use it in marketing. Filmmakers spend months applying creativity to scripts and film visuals. Authors use this resource to get through every chapter of their books. It’s how we come up with new ideas and make progress.

The problem is that most people never get the chance to unlock their creativity. The average person cannot live up to his or her creative potential. One reason is self-doubt. People don’t think they are creative enough. They get by doing the same things every day.

That’s why you see most of them growing old in their cubicles, doing the same 9-5 job until retirement. That’s not necessarily bad. For many people, it’s their idea of life. But if you wish to lead a different path, unlocking your creativity may be just what you need to get started.

The question is, how?

Learn How To Embrace Imperfection

Hardly any creative person worries about perfection. Creativity is inconsistent, unpredictable, and whimsical. It abides by no rules. It is essentially a world of its own. There is no right or wrong when it comes to art. Every artist gets away with his or her freedom to create.

So, this idea of perfection is not applicable, and starting today, you can stop obsessing with it.

Turn off your inner critic that abides by the rules. Keep doing something. Do the polishing later.

Choose Something You Enjoy Doing

Many people get into the habit of doing something because others do it.

Talk about fad! Blogging seemed cool in the late 2000s and even in the 2010s. But what’s the point in blogging if you hate it?

Certainly, this isn’t going to be the kind of activity that unleashes your slumbering creativity.

Find an activity that you are not only good at but also enjoy. Everyone has hobbies they want to hone. It doesn’t matter if it’s growing ornamental gardens or designing kitchens.

Creativity happens when you love what you do.

Don’t Be Afraid To Be Someone’s Copycat

Many people become someone else’s crude version. We usually pattern our lives after people we love and look up to. Young singers emulate older singers and try to sound like them. That’s okay. It means you know what works.

Don’t feel guilty if your photos look like those you see on Flickr or Pinterest because you thought those were perfect.

Everyone had to start by using someone’s work as inspiration and a template to begin with and evolve from. The mistake, however, is to stay a copycat. This is just your stepping stone.

The inspiration should lead you to produce new ideas that you fuse with those that first inspired you.

Clear Your Mind

Ideas that spark creativity happen when your mind is clear. Mental stress is the number one killer of creativity. When you’re brooding about many things, great ideas do not come in, because your brain has yet to sort out everything that’s bothering you.

Well, it’s hard to clear your mind by simply just concentrating in the corner and pretending you’re not paying attention to anything. A few things can help, like de-cluttering your desk or cleaning up your room. The less clutter you see, the more your mind can focus.

Relaxation techniques help.

Become More Creative

Creativity doesn’t only take time. It requires time! You can’t start brainstorming new ideas when you’re busy. You can’t do anything about a blank canvas or a blank sheet when you’re having a drinking spree with your friends.

Creative people require much time in solitude. It is during their quiet moments alone that they do their best work. Maybe some good music can help. Sculptors don’t carve wood while chatting with friends.

A novelist doesn’t write his book while he’s on Facebook.

Creativity can be daunting, but the alternative is mediocrity, and mediocrity leads nowhere.

How To Stop Restricting Yourself

Do you feel as though you’re working in a box?

Does it seem as if you cannot express your craft because many things are limiting you, keeping you from seeing your true potential as an artist? Every person has to go through this stage wherein they feel like they have hit the ceiling of their abilities.

But human experience is supposed to be limitless.

Demise is the final stop.

As long as you breathe, you can explore and exhaust the possibilities.

How You Can Become More Creative Video

Here’s how:

Break The Rules

Rules are important. Photographers must follow composition and exposure rules to produce decent pictures. Rules also exist in interior design.

Everything we do adheres to some conventional rule. Rules do have an important role in the learning and experience of amateurs and beginners. However, there comes a point when rules cause our work to become predictable, ordinary, average, and typical.

For instance, the rule of thirds in a composition can become too boring. Some scenes don’t require it, making a few other images look odd. At some point, it may seem as though the only purpose of learning the rules is for you to know when to break them.

Have It Your Way

A True artist creates their own product and brand. Don’t wind up trying to copy someone else’s signature. Sure, you have someone ahead of you who you look up to. That’s good. Everyone had to start seeing someone as an inspiration, emulating their works.

Beginners usually start trying to copy their elder’s craft. That’s okay.

But the successful ones never ended up being just copycats. Copycats don’t last long in the field. Originality stomps even something else’s best copy. Eventually, you will realize you want to head in a different direction.

Try new things. It’s good.

Nurture that feeling, and let it steer you in the direction you want your craft to proceed.

Do Something New

It doesn’t necessarily mean abandoning your craft. Doing something new, in this case, means exploring new avenues within your art. For instance, if you’re a photographer, you will eventually get too used to taking portrait photos.

Your work becomes banal. If you look at your portfolio of photos from the last five years, they all look the same—different faces but quite similar composition, style, and tone.

Maybe you can do the same thing differently if that makes sense. Try checking out the work of younger artists. You can learn a few things from the novices. See how they do things now, and figure out where your creativity stands amid everyone else’s and the new trend.

It’s good to explore different aspects of your art. It doesn’t matter whether you make pots, arrange flowers, or decorate homes.

At some point, you will have to learn to do it differently.

Last update on 2024-09-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Try A New Hobby

Even artists suffer from burnout. Writers are a good example. Being a wordsmith can eventually be draining. Soon, attempting to put words on a blank sheet becomes a struggle. Sometimes it takes forever to think of a title or develop a good introduction, which can be frustrating.

There are many ways to deal with this issue. One is to leave your desk; in some cases, this may mean leaving your desk for quite some time. Maybe you can revisit an old hobby or try something you have been contemplating on trying for a while now. It’s okay.

Don’t think as though you’re about to abandon something that’s dear to you. You’re coming back to it, but right now, you have to give your mind a new kind of stimulation and activity.

This way, you can come back to the former craft with a fresh perspective.

Explore

One of the reasons why authors, poets, painters, or sculptors run out of inspiration and fall into the trap of doing cliché work is because they stop exploring. Exploration breeds inspiration. That’s how people learn new things. T

hat’s how they discover new things about their world see it in a whole new perspective, and apply it to their craft.

Take Risks

Sometimes, doing something new can be daunting. You don’t know what works or what people like. It becomes a hit-or-miss approach. But at the same time, it is a learning opportunity. Without taking risks to know what works and what doesn’t, you will not know what works and what doesn’t.

Eventually, the advantages of taking risks outweigh the drawbacks. All successful artists had to take risks and spend their first few years broke.

They built their names in the end.

Make Time for Solitude

Being alone is not a bad thing. It may be just what you need to start writing your next book or building your next work of art. Solitude is a powerful element. Poets need it, authors need it, and different types of artists do their work best when they are alone.

What’s In Being Alone That Sparks Creativity?

Solitude offers opportunities for introspection and reflection. It is during those quiet moments that you tune in to yourself. When you are alone, you get in touch with your core again, and that’s when thoughts begin to come out.

Your aspirations begin to resurface, and because you have nothing else to do and nothing that bothers you, you instead focus on these loud thoughts, these salient images that run across your mind during serene moments. In many cases, these thoughts and images are the precursors of a new creation.

You do not usually get them while drinking with your friends. You get them when you sit quietly in your room or on the beach alone.

Another explanation of why solitude enhances creativity is it frees your mind from so many stimuli and stress. A part-time artist who has a 9-5 job will less likely to come up with brilliant plans for his next project during his work shift. They most likely will conceive images of a new project during the quiet hours in the evening before they sleep.

Solitude has a relaxing effect, making it a crucial element in meditation. That is the thing about solitude. It isolates you from the distracting chatter and clutter. It puts you right into your world. It reconnects you to your inner self.

That is when ideas come out. Let them pour out of you.

How Do You Make Time For Solitude?

Introverts don’t have a problem making time for themselves. They prefer being alone. Many accomplished artists are introverts. However, if you like hanging out with friends more than being alone, your artistry can suffer. That is even truer if you do not share the same hobby as your friends.

Eventually, it would be best if you gave yourself enough time to devote to your craft—if you are dedicated to it. Here are ways to free up more time for solitude.

Go Home Right After Work

Artists usually do not quit their day job. That’s how they pay the bills and get by. You don’t want to go broke because you chased your childhood dream of becoming a cartoonist or costume designer.

Even today’s established artists once started having full-time day jobs while honing their artistry and working as part-time apprentices. The risk of having a full-time job is that it eats a lot of your waking time, and little is left to nurture your passion. However, those truly dedicated to their art make time for it.

Can’t you free at least an hour after work for creativity time? Make it a point to be alone and undisturbed after work to make even little progress on your project, whether it’s a sculpture or an oil painting.

Weekends Are Your Best Days

If you are too stressed out at night after work, just spend the rest of the night relaxing, but make sure you free the weekend or at least a part of it for your hobby.

Tell Your Friends You Will Not Be Joining Them For Saturday Night-Outs

You have to make sacrifices. Authors had to miss out on hanging out with friends while writing their book. Composers must spend hours with their piano or guitar to make new music. You can’t pull them out of it, and they most likely would not want to be bothered when they are too engrossed in creating a new masterpiece.

Turn Off The Internet

Turn off any source of distraction–loud music, radio, television, and phone. Maybe a bit of music will do. Anything that distracts you forfeits the purpose of solitude to your art. Creative ideas rarely come from Facebook.

Drive To The Countryside Alone

Sometimes the urban noise and activity become your creative blocks. Get in touch with nature. Maybe you need to go to the beach alone. Or go to a nearby hiking trail. Enjoy the countryside scenery.

Everyone needs fresh air and fresh perspective sometimes.

Adapt Your Environment To Become More Creative

Research has shown that your environment is crucial to how creative you can get. So if you’re sitting in your office and you can’t seem to navigate towards smart solutions to preclude an impending project fiasco, maybe you can tell your chattering colleagues to zip it or buy a new lamp. Does that make any sense?

De-Clutter

This is one of the most important pieces of advice on creativity. Creativity is like a delicate creature that doesn’t show up until it knows the environment is right. A cluttered room doesn’t inspire creativity; it inspires annoyance, irritability, anxiety, and other sorts of negative emotions.

Amid the clutter are files need to be sorted out or soiled clothes that need to be washed. Clutter tells your brain you have to fix your environment, and anxiety ensues when you don’t do as your brains tell you.

This is why it’s hard to focus when your room, office, or desk is cluttered—you end up really wanting to clean up your room!

A messy room does not inspire creativity. Remember that. Your mind freaks out at the sight of clutter and mess. But what if it’s impossible to remove the clutter? What if you cannot do anything about the files on your desk that cry out loud?

One solution is to have a separate desk, or better yet, a clean and organized separate room.

In other words, you can have two workstations. One is for busy, regular work, and the other is for creative work.

Keep The Noise Down

It’s hard to work on new marketing strategies or conceive ideas for next month’s magazine issue when you can hear the traffic outside. Research has shown that some noise is necessary for activating the areas of the brain responsible for creativity.

Neither silence nor loud sound has a similar effect. Moderate noise heightens your brain’s ability to process abstract thoughts, allowing us to navigate more difficult problems that require creative thinking.

However, this advantage of sound gradually disappears as it becomes more intense. The louder the noise, the less you are likely to develop creative solutions. A loud sound, whether it’s noise or music, can dampen your creative juices.

So playing Metallica at full volume isn’t help you much with your science project.

Chatter, ringing phones, car horns, and machinery noise have the same effect. They serve as creative blocks. What if it’s impossible to get away from them? You have a few options. One is to play nature sounds in your office or workplace.

To optimize the masking effect of the sound, put the speakers in every corner of the room so as to bathe you in relaxing noise. An alternative is listening to nature sounds or white noise on headphones.

Get More Natural Light

People who work near windows where natural light gets intended to be more productive than those who work with just lamps above their heads. Natural light has mood-enhancing properties, whereas artificial light does not.

The reason for such differences between natural and artificial lighting is unclear. Working in areas where you can peek outdoors and see the sky makes sense.

However, this is not always the case. For instance, if you are an office employee, you may have little or zero control of your workspace. The alternative is to make sure the work environment is well lit.

A sufficiently lit environment allows you to focus more and work faster. However, watch out for over-lighting, which is counterproductive.

Too much light can serve as a distraction.

What about dim lights? Dim lighting has a key purpose in stimulating creativity. When brainstorming ideas, dim lighting can help.

Dim lighting, not total darkness, reduces visual stimuli and thus allows you to focus more on your inner thoughts.

Don’t get confused! You may need dim lighting when collecting and synthesizing ideas, but you need sufficient lighting when you’re already putting your ideas to work.

Make Your Room Cozy

Ambient temperature affects creativity. You’re at your creative peak when you’re not bothered by icy chill or sultriness. Research shows that people are most productive at 70-73 degrees Fahrenheit. So, try to keep your office or work environment close to these temperatures.

How To Deal With Creative Blocks

Everyone suffers from creative blocks at least at one point in their lives. You’re probably struggling with them right now. How do you deal with them? How do you break through those blocks and start doing productive things again?

Have A Vacation

Take a break. You’re probably just stressed. Stress blocks the flow of creative juices. One way to deal with stress is to remove yourself from it. Have a break. Expose your brain to a new environment. Come back refreshed.

Get Up And Leave

This is the much less expensive version of the first advice. If you get a little cranky in the middle of the project and can’t navigate the creative block, you may step away for a while. Get out of the room. Walk outdoors. Or go shopping. Have fun with friends. Come back to the project with a fresh mind.

Maybe a quick break is what you need to get some air and reboot your creative faculties.

Keep A Pen And Paper Or A Recorder

Your brain comes up with good ideas during the most unexpected time. You’re sitting on a train to work, and suddenly images of a new short story run across your mind. You suddenly come up with a crude plot for the story, and then you get vivid imagery of the characters. It seems a great story to write.

You tell yourself you’re going to do it as soon as you have the time. You sit by your table next Saturday, trying to recall what you had in mind on the train, but most of it has already slipped out of your memory.

The spark of creativity is spontaneous and fleeting. It can happen anytime, when you wake up in the middle of the night, while you’re in the shower, or during sex. Many authors and writers know this.

So when vivid images of words or scenes suddenly strike you, get a pen or paper and write what comes out of your mind quickly. If you have a voice recorder, that would be better. Preserve the spontaneous idea, and return to it once free.

Just Do Something

If you have no idea what to work on, do something. You will be surprised at where your ideas flow will later take you. Then, the next thing you know, you have done quite a handful of work that requires just a bit of tweaking later. Here’s what you should do. Commit to a weekly or monthly project. Make sure you finish something regularly.

Make Small Weekly Or Monthly Projects

Creative people hate deadlines. So, instead of beating yourself up by imposing unreasonable time frames for large projects, do small projects regularly instead. Many professional photographers do a weekly photo walk.

Bloggers write updates on their blogs every week, too. They do small tasks that are not intimidating.

Small goals are more attainable than major ones, and they are probably what you need to make small accomplishments that reinforce your creativity and motivate you to take on bigger projects.

Use Your Experience

It’s hard to do something you can’t relate to. Painters, illustrators, and cartoonists recreate their experience, their version of the world, or their perception of their surroundings through their art brand. They don’t recreate someone else’s impression of the world.

So when you look at a painting, you look at a portion of their mind and personality. Similarly, when you read a novel, you’re seeing into the subconscious mind of the author. It’s her aspirations and dreams weaved into words and the personalities of the people she knows assigned onto the characters she created.

Your experience gives you a lot of opportunities for creativity and creation.

Stop Making Excuses

Excuses are for losers.

Sit down, contemplate your project, and do something. Don’t spend all your day chatting with happy-go-lucky blokes on Facebook, and don’t be too complacent about your past accomplishments. Sure, you’re proud of your recent award-winning mosaic or locally renowned furniture designs, but people forget about your accolades after a few months.

Remember you are just as good as your recent work. But if your last notable work was 9 months ago, your recognition probably slipped into oblivion. Work on something new.

Start a new project after the last one. Don’t wait too long.

Stop Consuming Information and Start Creating

Information is good because it provides a stimulus that your brain can process and integrate with existing information in the memory. However, too much information can overload your brain and keep it from generating a meaningful synthesis.

This goes to show that consuming too much information can be counterproductive.

Are You Unsure Of Yourself?

One reason writers or artists forgo work, seek information, and waste time trying to get “as much inspiration” as they can is that they are suddenly paralyzed by self-doubt. It happens. Even the best authors struggle with self-doubt.

Watching your blog slip into oblivion can make it hard to figure out what to do next. It can be hard to fill a blank page with something meaningful. Create anyway! Create new stuff. Write a new post. Forget about traffic.

Forget about what’s going to be trendy. You’re a writer, an artist, not an Internet sensation.

Last update on 2024-09-30 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Why Are You Procrastinating?

Searching the internet for wonderful photos is a good excuse for stalling your photography project. You probably have good reasons, like looking at successful photographers’ works.

But something’s not adding up when you’ve been doing this for months without putting out new work.

Artists procrastinate.

Sometimes, it’s not because they are lazy. Sometimes, it’s because they think they are doing something productive. When you spend too much time gathering information for a book you’re writing, you’re stalling, and stalling doesn’t help you finish your material.

Suddenly, you realize the manuscripts are sitting idly for too long.

Are You Scared Of Imperfection?

Many people are so obsessed with perfection that they delay important tasks or do nothing at all. When the fear of imperfection renders you immobile, you are doing yourself a disservice.

Sure, being a perfectionist has its role in the professional world. It keeps us on our toes, sharpens our skills, and makes us more responsible and attentive.

But obsessing with perfection has its drawbacks.

It renders us impotent. In your earnest hopes of not making even a small mistake, you look around for as much detail as possible.

Too much detail can sometimes overwhelm you and prevent you from producing meaningful work.

Snap out of it. Perfection is boring. Perfection is subjective.

Do something today, and polish it later.

Are You Unsure Of Where To Steer Your Creativity?

You sit down and try to mull over your next project but can’t think of anything. You look around instead and try to figure out where the next stop is. Bloggers go through this, and their blogs languish for months without new content.

Composers may spend some time listening to the works of their contemporaries but failing to create their new music.

Novelists can spend years reading fiction but are unable to create the next chapter of the book they are currently writing. Sometimes, creative people spend too much time looking around because they don’t know what to do or where to steer their creativity.

Sometimes this becomes a vicious cycle of consuming so much information that they get consumed by information instead. The idea should be to consume information but not be too engrossed.

Keep in mind you have work to do.

Are You Avoiding Creative Accountability?

Many creative people work independently. Some are freelancers. Some have their own businesses. No one bosses them around. No one gives them deadlines.

No one holds them accountable for missed appointments or late submissions, and this is why you have authors who haven’t published work for years or painters who keep their canvas blank for several months.

Committing to developing your craft and creating new work is hard when no one manages you. You end up just savoring old or other people’s accomplishments and not making new accomplishments of your own.

For instance, you’re supposed to write songs, but you’re listening to songwriters’ lyrics ten years your junior.

Stop this! Sit down and write new songs.

Sit down, do something now, and Become More Creative.