Creativity is an unpredictable thing. It can be fickle, leaving for days, weeks, and months at a time if you don’t practice (and sometimes still leaving even when you do practice). It can strike at the most random times, leaving us feeling a sudden rush of inspiration that can disappear again as quickly as it appeared in the first place. To keep creativity around longer, practice looking for inspiration. The following are a few ideas to spark your creative process.
How to Be More Creative
1. Notice Details
Allow your mind to wander and think freely of the world around you. Give yourself the grace of filling a blank canvas with something new every day. Pay attention to the people walking by. What are they wearing? What are their expressions like? Notice the architecture of the buildings around you instead of what’s inside your phone. What is the texture of the wall? Are there windows? How many? Is there construction being done? What are the construction workers doing? Do they look happy? Allow yourself to be present and notice the “trivial” details of life. Do this and you will find inspiration in the unlikeliest of places.
2. Read
Read a book, read a magazine, read the news, read a page of the dictionary (read our blog!). Stop scrolling and choose to read something with more substance. Reading every day is not only good for the mind, but it is good for the creative soul. Learning new and interesting words through reading is a great way to expand your vocabulary, and reading other people’s work can inspire you to think about something old in a new way or discover something new altogether. Reading can help you see and experience the world through another person’s lens, with new perspectives and experiences to discover. Now that can get pretty creative.
3. Try New Things
Be more creative by listening to new music, watching new movies, going to new places (even in the city you’ve lived in for years), trying new groups or classes, trying to work in new places, taking walks to new spots, just doing something different. Mixing up your routine, and seeing the world from a slightly different perspective in the process, can do amazing things for the creative mind. Trying new things can not only open new doors and windows of opportunity. It will allow you to discover your world in a new way. Just sitting in your same old routine every day can get boring. Trying new things leads to new discoveries. New discoveries lead to new creations.
4. Do Your Research
Have a topic in mind but don’t know where to begin? Got a case of writer’s block? Research your topic. Keep researching until you are inspired and then research some more. Know your topic and you will have a much easier time writing (or painting, etc.) it. Once you have more knowledge of how to express your ideas, you will be more confident in what you are doing. With more knowledge and more confidence, it will be easier to be more naturally creative without forcing it.
5. Allow Mistakes
Some of the greatest mistakes in history have led to some of the most amazing things. Imagine if we lived in a world without penicillin, super glue, chocolate chip cookies, and champagne. We don’t want to live in a world in which all these amazing inventions & discoveries made by mistake don’t exist (especially chocolate chip cookies). Famous inventors and scientists have made mistakes for centuries, but so many of their mistakes turned out not to be mistakes at all. Why should making mistakes be considered so bad? To be more creative and be okay with making mistakes means you are trying. Trying means you are creating. Keep creating and your mistakes will turn into something extraordinary. Never allow the fear of making a mistake stop you from taking the risk. Let go of the fear of failure, and let a flawed idea develop into something more.
Be More Creative in Your Business and Your Book
Creativity isn’t for the faint of heart. Even the best of will face a creativity slump or writer’s block. Leo Tolstoy wrote lengthy novels such as War and Peace but suffered from writer’s block for months or years at a time during his lifetime. If you have a book deep inside you but have been struggling to get it out, Watch Media Group can help you make that dream a reality. Reach out to us here for more book writing tips and ways to be more creative with your content marketing.
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