Want to be more creative?

Then you’ve got to push past these boundaries. 

A) Asking these two questions will increase your creativity

I get the urge to create something new and fresh and life changing every  12 months or so.

Where does it come from? Well, by asking myself two questions: 

1) What if? 

2) Why not? 

The first question signifies a feeling that I get when I recognise that something is missing and I think that I can fix it (this can be in my personal life or in my profession). This question allows me to have plural answers to a singular problem.   

The second question get me into a solution thinking mode. It’s inevitable that I will devise a plan to fill the need and usually nothing keeps me back  from implementing it. This  leads to a never ending creative process in my life. I am thankful that I don’t ever see life as a routine or a pattern that can’t be broken.

B) Creativity evolves from pushing the boundaries 

I suppose when opportunity knocks many folks take out the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. You see  opportunity seldom knocks without obstacles strewn  around and  that’s where the the mental locks get snapped in tight. 

Let’s get specific. Let’s think about it for a moment.

Ideas are everywhere, you can create something new from something old or you can think of something new from scratch (very rare). In my experience though 99% of the time, the hard part about creativity isn't coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you've thought of. 

You may be brilliant at at  coding, for instance, but finding the  licensing strategy rattles you so you stop coding. Or you may have  written a great  manuscript but finding a publisher is problematic so the manuscript sits on your shelf. You may also have this great idea for a business but it needs  venture capital, you don’t have the time to go after it so the business plan get buried  into the  top drawer. 

The ability to create and be creative requires pushing past the rules, the constraints, the boundaries. That’s when breakthrough moments occur and the best ideas are brought to life.

It’s never about one idea,  that’s not creativity 

My husband, a musician/composer always says musical notes in a scale can only be understood in relation to other notes. I think the same  with an idea, that it is best understood  only in the context of other ideas. 

When creating, it is best to have many ideas, having one means you don’t have anything to compare it to. This was really useful when Giovanni (husband ) and I opened our preparatory school three months ago. The form it takes now, a real life children’s learning wonderland, didn’t start off that way, but when we looked at other schools it inspired the way we wanted ours to be.  We looked at a plethora of models until we settled on a unique vision that blended the strengths and weaknesses of others as well as our own points of view.

The lifeblood of creativity is in looking at different approaches and looking for more than one right answer, it is the only way your  imagination can open up.