Three ways to Build Creativity so you Can Survive in the Modern Economy

Creativity is not optional if you want to thrive. Learn it, Write it, Make it.

Learn

First, we often misunderstand what it takes to be creative. You need empty spaces to create in. A blank canvas, a blank page, a blank bit of time you have set aside. But there is one thing that needs to be filled to the brim, and that is you mind.

You have to learn before you can be creative. You need great ideas to connect before you can make new connections.

“Creativity is just connecting things.” Steve Jobs

This is why highly successful people read a lot. It is the first step towards creativity. Gaining the raw knowledge needed so you know what you are doing.

The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. This can spur creativity. It helps us see problems that need solving. Studying the problem brings us into the awareness of the complexity and that the solution is not simple.

Once we find problems that need solving, we find a reason to be creative. A purpose to our creations, whatever those may be.

Successful people are often polymaths, who are obsessed with learning.

Be obsessed with learning.

Write It

Don’t be a passive learner.

Learn actively, take notes, write down quotes that speak to you. You are not going to remember everything you read. Taking notes and quotes not only strengthens your memory, but allows you to quickly and easily review the big take-away’s, until you feel you have internalized the information.

Part of information overload is that we don’t go deep with our learning. We skim the top, think we are thinking about the new concepts critically, when really we are just doubting and too scared to actually try changing our lives.

Because that would be work, and who knows if it would be worth it? Learn deeply by applying it to your life or using the information actively.

If you aren’t sure how to make your learning more active, turn what you are learning into a presentation. Teach it to someone, then you will know it more deeply.

“Knowledge is only a rumor until lives in the muscle.” Asaro Tribe (From Indonesia & Papau New Guinea)

Start Flexing Your Creative Muscles While You Learn

We all need to be writing down our ideas, even if we are not writers. Forcing them out onto the page creates more space for new ideas to come into our minds.

Forcing yourself to write 10 ideas a day is one great way to become more creative. In this case, you are actively searching out new ideas. Reaching into your brain and forcefully pulling out ideas sends a clear message to your brain. You want ideas, and your brain is smart, it will see what you want and start shoving them up to the top for you.

Write down all your ideas when you have them, don’t save them for the next morning when it is time to come up with 10 ideas. Don’t worry about how stupid the ideas are, or if they have anything to do with what you are trying to accomplish, just get them all down, you can contemplate their validity later.

I allow my self to write questions in my idea list also. In a world full of answers we have forgotten the value of a question. The question leads you on a quest. Going on a quest is creative, even if that quest is just to try to figure out how to streamline chores so the house doesn’t collapse into mayhem.

“Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our head to our hearts through our hands.” Brene Brown

Do It

Being creative is an action. Being creative improves with practice.

The list of 10 new ideas a day is like a piano player practicing their scales everyday to warm up.

Then comes the real practice, and as the player improves each day, so will you.

Try to be open minded about creativity. You do not have to be producing art to be creative. Applying knowledge to our lives to solve complicated problems is a creative act.

Creativity is a lot of hard work and takes courage, but you can’t afford to not have this skill.

The modern economy can be very demanding. You may have to be highly creative just to get bread on the table.

People who apply creative thinking to their careers soon become indispensable to their employers.

They cannot be replaced with robots.

This is the edge you need in any field.

So study up, be an active learner, get your ideas onto paper, and turn the best ones into action.

Be My Groupie & Never Miss a Post