Time For Creators To Amp Up Their Creativity

Many experts believe creativity is something comprised of a set of cognitive skills. These skills can be learned, sharpened, and enhanced over time, leading to incredibly creative ideas and experiences

When I use the term “skill”, I don’t mean that creativity can only happen to those who have mastered it. It really takes very little to amp up your creativity. You’re part of a very special group that is going the extra mile to make that happen.

Even the top person in a field or area of business might be desperately uncreative. It won’t take much to set yourself apart from them.

Creativity isn’t just something for the younger generations.

Some people wonder about beginner’s luck and the wide-eyed dreaminess of the young. They wonder how the landscape will change and what headway will be made when younger people with newer ideas come into the picture.

As I’ll explore further on, creativity isn’t just something for the younger generations. Your set of experiences and your skills of creativity are the determining factor.

So, why do newer people often make the biggest splash in any industry? It’s because outsiders often come up with fresh ideas and new insights.

There are many pros & cons to being in the industry for a long time. People become less creative, because they are too invested in one point of view. Having outsiders with fresh perspectives can be really helpful when you want to come up with the best possible solutions. There is an interesting trend in the world right now — an instant creativity mindset. It really does seem like there’s something to it.

You, as an experienced expert in your field, can combine your experience with the new skills you’ll develop by looking at things from all different angles. You’ll generate incredible, unbeatable inventions, innovations, and ideas.

We Are at an Important Point -Decentralization

There’s never been a better time in history to be innovative. Creativity and innovation are highly valued in the current business landscape. Combine that with a wide-open path to getting new ideas into the world.

Think about it–it was just a few years ago that you couldn’t easily self publish your own infoproducts and books. It was just a few years ago that Internet marketing and business e-books didn’t even exist. It was just a few years ago that social media and viral marketing would have sounded like completely foreign concepts. It wasn’t long ago that phones were hard wired into your house, not freely connected to the world and sitting in your pocket or purse.

There is no time like the present to develop incredible ideas that take off like wildfire. You can create and make your ideas known. There’s no one to tell you no. If you can dream it, you can achieve it–that’s never been truer than it is right now.

With that said, the creative process is no walk in the park. You’re going to learn a lot about being creative, but you should know that it’s often an uncomfortable process, full of growth. You might feel uncertain and timid, and totally out of your comfort zone. This, too, is something you will learn to embrace.

You’re going to have all the tools you need to generate incredible ideas that give a powerful push to your business.

Creativity is one of the most important skills to develop. Without it, other competitors and colleagues will leave you behind. Creativity is valued so highly these days, and so many people are implementing new, powerful ideas, that this is not something you can ignore.

Let these concepts and skills transform you so you can be ahead of the creative curve in the information age.

What Does It Mean to Be Creative?

With all this talk of creativity, it’s very helpful and important to understand exactly how I’m defining it–especially as it relates to business.

Creativity means seeing something others do not see. It means making connections out of things old and new that no one else has made. It also means sharing your ideas and vision with the world.

Sharing New Disruptive Ideas With the World

The creative process can’t exist in a vacuum. You can’t come up with amazing ideas on your own, stuck in your own thoughts and worldview. The best idea means nothing at all if it hasn’t been shared with other people. Your creativity and ideas need to be incubated, put into action, and shared.

What Creativity Means for Disruptors

Regardless of your feelings on the topic, it’s impossible to know exactly what we are squashing by making others conform before their time.

Being creative means being with people who think differently. As humans, we naturally tend to conform to those around us. But, as you’ll find out, the most creative people in the world are those who seek out different views and opinions from their own. They hang out with people of different backgrounds, life stories, political and religious views, and lifestyle choices. They don’t accept the status quo, and aren’t afraid of taking chances and being different.

What Innovators and Creators Know

Even experts need to hang out with those who are not on the same level as themselves. The shop owner who sometimes takes on the role of sales clerk will have a better, more creative understanding than the shop owner who never shows up and doesn’t interact with the customers.

The expert, high-level CEO who takes the time to interact with everyone from the mail clerk to the janitor will be much more innovative, creative, and effective than the expert, high-level CEO who locks himself in his office and only talks to other high level employees and others of his income level.

Being creative means going outside of your comfort zone. It means going outside of your box and doing things you’ve never done before. It means meeting new people and gaining new experiences. I don’t care who you are or what line of work you’re in; this is something you need to do. Being around the same people, with the same thoughts, and the same set of expectations, leads to a dull lack of innovation.

Paying Close Attention to What’s Happening

Being a creative person also means paying attention to what’s happening right now. Getting stuck in the past, looking at the same data, and refusing to try new things dulls your senses. It dulls your perception of the world and gives you inaccurate data from which you try and fail to create. This is about mindfulness — being present and absorbing the world.

Having Confidence

It’s not enough to just generate new ideas. You have to put them into practice and see them through to completion. It’s not abnormal to be fearful of your ideas, but it’s deadly to squash them before they have a chance to thrive. The more you practice developing your creativity, the more confidence you will have in your creativity.

The Science of Creativity

For the more logical readers, it can be really helpful to understand that there is a science to creativity. Creativity is not an airy-fairy, wishy-washy, magic.Scientists have identified an area in the brain called the superior ant. Specifically, it is a part of the brain that coordinates and integrates visual and auditory information to create new memories that we call creative insight.

Some people are more likely to have their right hippocampus activated when seeing certain things, such as the videos of Robin Williams. Beeman and Kounios found that such activations improved success by 20%.

Where Do Great New Ideas Really Come From?

Speaking of insights and creativity, Individuals often associate creativity & inspiration with moments where they think of a new thought or idea. For example, we may say we had a lightbulb come on and suddenly make sense of something.These new combinations and connections that we see and create over time can signify our evolving thinking. There are experts who believe that we’re using old information in new, innovative ways. New ideas come from making connections across different fields, something nobody’s done before

So the question on how to become more creative becomes, “how do you make sure your brain makes more connections and has these insights more often?”

Innovation means taking old ideas and making them new. This might be a different concept than what you’re used to. Many view creativity as coming up with something that is totally new — something that has never been thought of before. But when you realize that every idea is spawned from things that already exist in the world, it suddenly becomes clear that anyone can become creative, because we all have access to these things.

Being with Other People

When scientists look at where the best ideas and innovations come from, many people self-report that they get inspired in the shower or alone in their car. I definitely think that’s true — and we’ll cover this concept at a later point.

Often, though, people really get their best ideas when they are in a group or mastermind. The best new concepts come when people are able to bounce ideas around and come up with something that looks totally new. You can’t be alone with lonely ideas if you want to be creative.

When Do You Harvest On Your Great Idea

The concept of creativity can be tricky. Some people expect to have these eureka moments and be able to generate a life changing idea right away. In some cases, that works out just fine–especially in light of how business on the Internet works today. In other cases, you have to look to history.

Some of the most important and best ideas have only come after they’ve had a chance to incubate for a while. Some of those great ideas fade away because they were not given enough power. Still others persist because of the persistence of their creator. Allow your ideas to incubate and allow them to be great.

Why Everyone Can Be Creative

It’s so important for me that I convey to you that you absolutely can become a creative thinker. It’s easy to become jealous of people you deem to be more creative than yourself. But that thought process is very damaging. You start to think that your great ideas aren’t so great, even when they are. You don’t open your mind to making new connections, letting wonderful innovations slip by you, unnoticed.

Creativity is not just for a select few — it’s something inherent in all of us. But, it’s a skill most of us lose, especially those of us who buy into the fact that those who are data and information oriented can’t also be creative.

Going to school and being in business shakes the creativity out of us. We are taught that our good ideas and different ways of doing things aren’t so good after all. We are told to submit to the status quo.

Only, now there’s been such a shift in the value people put on creativity that we are caught in limbo. If you work for yourself, you’re desperate to become creative, but this skill has been dashed for so long that you aren’t sure there’s any hope. If you work for someone else, you may not be allowed to be creative in the way you would like.

No matter what the case is with you, there’s a way to bust out of this mindset and pattern. Because that’s what it is– a pattern.

It’s time to tap into the creativity of children and of the most innovative thinkers, both past and present. We need to open our senses and view the world as if for the very first time.

There are plenty of points of inspiration you pass every single day at work and at home. There are new ways to look at the same problem. There are things you sense, smell, touch, taste, and hear that can become fodder for new ideas…but you don’t even notice them.

Creativity Might Not Pay Off Right Away

While you know the value creativity has today, it can be easy to ignore how important it is. Great new ideas might not pay off today, so you have to have a long-term vision.

Should you even try to be more creative and break out of the status quo? Maybe you have a boss and you’re given a set group of tasks to complete and you rarely deviate off course. Or maybe you’re in business for yourself and things are going well enough that you don’t want to rock the boat.

But, you can’t succeed long-term that way. Only those who dare to stand out and form new connections succeed in this life. Starting to become more creative today will pay off in the form of massive benefits in the near future.