Top 10 Ways To Enhance Creativity
Creativity is generally regarded as desirable, and something to be enhanced. With this view in mind, below are some steps to help the development of creativity. However, although creativity is often thought of as relating to the creative and performing arts, remember that can take many forms. The criminal can turn creativity to illegal use as easily as the artist puts brush to canvas. Do not assume, therefore, that creativity is good in and of itself. Like most forms of power, it can be used for good or for harm.
1. Insist on giving yourself daydreaming time.
Schedule it if necessary. During that time allow no shoulds or musts to intrude. Give your mind this time to float freely, untethered to tasks. Do not think of what you will be doing when this time is over. Allow yourself to gaze out of the window, stare at the clouds, daydream.
2. Be curious.
Ask why? How? How come? Don’t accept easy answers if they don’t make sense to you.
3. Ignore tradition.
Just because something has always been done that way, or used for that purpose, doesn’t mean things can’t change.
4. Play a game with yourself–or with others–in trying to find the most uses other than the obvious ones for every-day items like paperclips, bricks, anything that comes to mind.
Like most of these points, this will stretch and develop your creativity muscles.
5. Ask “What if?”
Pick one aspect of an ordinary situation and imagine what would change if that one aspect were different. Follow this through in all its implications.
6. Read science fiction.
Allow yourself to become immersed in the worlds it depicts. Contemplate impossible things and parallel universes. The Queen of Hearts advised Alice to believe one impossible thing every day before breakfast. It was good advice.
7. Accept your initial ideas without judgment.
Give them time to grow and develop before you test them. Butterflies that have just emerged from the crysalis have wet, crumpled wings. Give them time to develop before you decide if they can fly. The reason brainstorming has become such a standby when group creativity is involved is that all criticism is put on hold during the initial idea-generating phase. Allow yourself the same freedom.
8. Take risks.
It’s okay to be wrong. By definition, to be creative you must consider new, and therefore untested, ideas. Einstein said that he could have ninety-nine ideas that were wrong before he got the one that was right.
9. Enjoy the PROCESS of creation.
Do not focus on the result. The secret and ecstasy of creating is being in the flow, of losing yourself in the process. If you constantly break the flow to check to how the final result will look to others, to ask yourself, “Will it sell?” “Will it win?” you will subvert the process and possibly damage your creation.
10. Go ahead and DO IT!
Don’t wait for the perfect moment, it won’t arrive. Painters paint, scrape the paint off and paint again. Writers write and delete. They don’t wait until they can do it perfectly before they start. You do not need twelve sharpened pencils and perfect silence before you put pen to paper. Remember that Shakespeare wrote in an age when the whole family sat at the same table and shared the same oil lamp. It is unlikely that he had a separate study or could wait until the family had gone to bed in order to write. You CAN follow your muse.
About The Author
This piece was originally submitted by Diana Robinson, Ph.D., Personal & Career Coach, who can be reached at Diana@ChoiceCoach.com, or visited on the web at http://www.choicecoach.com/. Diana Robinson wants you to know: By focusing on their values, integrity and authenticity, my clients enhance their ability to know what is truly important to them, and to focus their time and energy on these things. Result–tremendous growth in both their outward success and their inner joy. I write two free e-mail newsletters: Grounded in the Earth, Reaching for the Sky relates to spirituality and inner joy; Work in Progress relates to outer success. To subscribe to either or both, e-mail me.
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No tag for this post.How To Enhance Creativity
Topics such as ways to enhance the mind or your creativity have always interested me. I’m very much a believer in things such as astrology, numerology, ability to see/feel the future or events. Call it what you may, but there are infinte possibilities out there and we need to be open to everything.
That being said, is there a way to enhance creativity? I believe there is but I also do not believe that there is any one exercise, process or procedure that can help achieve this.
For example, before I started travelling internationally my viewpoints were really limited to what I saw on TV, read in newspapers, magazines and books. Though I’ve always been open minded, it was difficult to expand your viewpoints unless you can experience something different.
As I started travelling more and seeing the world, meeting other people I could better appreciate what I saw on TV and other media.
Creativity works in the same way. You need to expose yourself to other people, places and ideas.
For example, I love to write. I’ve always had an interest in writing short-stories (science fiction). I don’t really have a knack for it - but how can I develop my skills? Read. Read other stories, look at how other authors pick and choose their words, look at how they cultivate the story from beginning to end. I don’t want to emulate what they’ve done — my writings would not be original or ‘me’ but it would give me more insight into how to write.
Developing and enhancing your creativity is a similar process.
I read an excellent article by Keith Sawyer just recently entitled The Hidden Secrets Of The Creative Mind. I will post some of the more interesting points from the story, but the full URL is shown below.
Keith Sawyer, Ph.D., associate professor of education and psychology in Arts & Sciences, is one of the country’s leading scientific experts on creativity. His research spans creativity, collaboration, learning and play. A jazz pianist for more than 20 years, Sawyer combines his research expertise with a strong hands-on background in real world creativity. His eighth book, Explaining Creativity, was the subject of a recent Time magazine interview.
What is creativity? Where does it come from? The workings of the creative mind have been subjected to intense scrutiny over the past 25 years by an army of researchers in psychology, sociology, anthropology and neuroscience. But no one has a better overview of this mysterious mental process than Washington University psychologist R. Keith Sawyer, author of the new book Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation (Oxford; 336 pages). He’s working on a version for the lay reader, due out in 2007 from Basic Books. In an interview with Francine Russo, Sawyer shares some of his findings and suggests ways in which we can enhance our creativity not just in art, science or business but in everyday life.
QUESTION - Then how do you explain the “aha!” moment we’ve all had in the shower or the gym — or anywhere but at work?
ANSWER - In creativity research, we refer to the three — or the bathtub, the bed and the bus — places where ideas have famously and suddenly emerged. When we take time off from working on a problem, we change what we’re doing and our context, and that can activate different areas of our brain. If the answer wasn’t in the part of the brain we were using, it might be in another. If we’re lucky, in the next context we may hear or see something that relates — distantly — to the problem that we had temporarily put aside.
So remember earlier where I said that as I travelled more, understood other people and cultures I could better appreciate the world around me? In the same way Dr. Sawyer explains that the “aha” moment comes when we use different parts of our brain; that’s why many people suggest that you should get away from what you’re doing and look at the problem from a different light.
For example, when I’m developing scripts or software and I’m stuck on how to do something - I stop working. I may go out for a walk, or just stare out the window. By giving my mind a break I feel as if my subconscious is still working on the problem and soon enough the solution surfaces and the answer is as clear as day.
QUESTION - How have researchers studied this creative flash?
ANSWER - By using many cleverly designed experiments. Some psychologists set up video cameras to watch creative people work, asking them to describe their thought processes out loud or interrupting them frequently to ask how close they were to a solution. Invariably, they were closer than they realized. In other experiments, subjects worked on problems that, when solved, tend to result in the sensation of sudden insight. In one experiment, they were asked to look at words that came up one at a time on a computer screen and to think of the one word that was associated with all of them. After each word — red, nut, bowl, loom, cup, basket, jelly, fresh, cocktail, candy, pie, baking, salad, tree, fly, etc. — they had to give their best guess. Although many swore they had no idea until a sudden burst of insight at about the 12th word, their guesses got progressively closer to the solution: fruit. Even when an idea seems sudden, our minds have actually been working on it all along.
This would seem to validate what I thought all along. Eventhough I’m not actively working on the problem - my subconsious is.
The final bit that I’ll snip from the article are these two Q & A’s:
QUESTION - Are there other generalizations you can make about creative people?
ANSWER - Yes. They have tons of ideas, many of them bad. The trick is to evaluate them and mercilessly purge the bad ones. But even bad ideas can be useful. Darwin’s notebooks, for example, show us that he went down many dead ends — like his theory of monads. These were tiny hypothetical life forms that sprang spontaneously from inanimate matter. If they died, they took with them all the species into which they had evolved. Darwin spent years refining this bizarre theory before ultimately rejecting it. But it was a critical link in the chain that led to his branching model of evolution. Sometimes you don’t know which sparks are important until later, but the more ideas you have, the better.
QUESTION - So how can the average person get more ideas?
ANSWER - Ah, here’s where we come up against another of our cultural myths about creativity — that of the lone genius. Ideas don’t magically appear in a genius’ head from nowhere. They always build on what came before. And collaboration is key. Look at what others in your field are doing. Brainstorm with people in different fields. Research and anecdotal evidence suggest that distant analogies lead to new ideas — like when a heart surgeon bounces things off an architect or a graphic designer.
The article is excellent reading, and I would highly recommend that you read it. Here is the URL to the page that hosts the article. You can read the full article by following another link on that page.
From the entire article, which can be found on the Time website this one line stuck out to me the most:
All the research shows that the creative process is basically the same: generating ideas, evaluating them and executing them, with many creative sparks over time.
http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/6354.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1147152-1,00.html
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Page Load Times
There is nothing worse than visiting a site that is taking minutes to load. When I was on dial-up (which was for only a few years), it was acceptable but at the same time there was not a lot of javascript, flash or large images and “bling” on websites.
Today it is not acceptable. I won’t wait more than 10 or 15 seconds for a page to load. If it takes too long, I leave the site.
So you can imagine how surprise I was when I saw the site on a list that said my pages were slow loading and the size of the page! PimpMyPageRank had offered a free service that measures loading times of sites on the Top 100 blog list at 45n5.com - we ranked 21 (the higher you rank, the worse offender you are).
What to see where you sit on the rank? Check out this post - Does your page load time STILL suck?.
If you are on the 45n5.com site and the Top 100 Blog List then you will appear on PimpMyPageRank site.
Check it out…
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I Don’t Have Time For Chronic Complainers, Whiners Or Negative People
My post on 8 Strategies To Handle Negative People In Your Life Or On Your Blog has struck a chord with a lot of people. That’s one post that keeps getting hundreds of searches daily and just about as many visits to the site.
But onto this post…
I Don’t Have Time For Chronic Complainers, Whiners Or Negative People
Not one bit. I don’t care if they are friends, or family or in-laws. I don’t have time for them at all. You want to whine? Go whine to someone who cares, because I don’t.
While I mentioned 8 great strategies to handle negative people in your life there is one strategy that has worked so well that I had to share it with you. Now I can’t take credit for this. One of my customer service agents uses this technique all the time when he gets an angry customer on the phone. He swears by it, and says that once he uses this line on them - they stop yelling/shouting/swearing immediately. First off lets go over a typical conversation:
- Customer: I bought blah-blah and it doesn’t work. I’ve called the number on the back and they can’t help me. I went back to the store and they won’t help me. Now I have to talk to you. Are you going to help me or do I have to go to the BBB about this? They are yelling at the top of their lungs, thinking that we’re deaf or somehow yelling will prove that they are right.
- Agent: You know, I am sorry for the trouble that you’ve experienced with blah-blah and I can tell that you are very upset.
That’s when the line goes silent. You’ve just told the caller that you sympathize with them and that they are upset. That’s when they realize that they don’t need to yell. From then on, the call goes so smoothly.
Ok so you’re probably saying to yourself - but I face people day-to-day that whine, and whine, and whine.
What do they whine about? The weather, family problems, taxes, politics, religion, society… whatever they can think of.
Try this out on them “Wow! How do you deal with all those problems?”.
I’ve used this on people that are so negative that you wonder how they managed to survive in society and have maintained any type of relationship with anyone for any period of time. As I was writing this post, and doing some research on the topic I came across an excellent post on a site called Goals To Action. It’s short, sweet and to the point and you should read it. The post, 5 Tips for Handling Negative People you will learn more great techniques to deal with negative people.
Another excellent post that I found while researching is this one on Postive Sharing entitled How To Handle Chronic Complainers. I really enjoyed this post because I’ve been there AND I know people who have been there and some who are still there.
Got any chronic complainers where you work? It seems like every workplace has them - the people for whom the weather is always too warm or too cold, the boss is a jerk, the food is lousy, work sucks and … you fill out the list.
Alexander goes on to say that there are several things hat we normally try with complainers, but they don’t work. Here is the list of things that we try with complainers and whiners - you need to read the full post to learn why the techniques don’t work…
- Cheering them up doesn’t work
- Suggesting solutions doesn’t work
- Telling them to pull themselves together doesn’t work
- Complaining about the complainers doesn’t work
- Ignoring them / avoiding them doesn’t work
- Complaining along with them doesn’t work
- Confronting them doesn’t work
The cool thing is that he doesn’t leave you hanging. He actually gives you a secret about what just may work…
A Trick That Does Work
So what does work? Here’s a simple but very effective trick:
A friend of mine who’s a dentist told me about an elderly, grouchy patient of hers. Every time he came in for an appointment he’d complain about the weather, his children, his car, taxes, society, and any other topic that might come up.
Now you might think “Hey, she’s a dentist, fill his mouth with gauze and cotton and let’s see him complain then!” but my friend is a naturally happy person and would instead try to cheer him up. Didn’t work, just made him complain even more.
So I taught her this trick and the next time he came in for an appointment she was ready. He went in the chair, and immediately started complaining.
After listening to his usual litany for a while my dentist friend said, with deep sympathy in her voice…
You will have to read the post to learn the secret…
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Tags: dealing with chronic complainers, dealing with negative people, handling negative people, whinersGetting Ahead In Life Or Business
Unless you’re in the enviable position where you are making a gajillion dollars per year blogging or some other internet business or internet marketing venture, chances are you’re working (hopefully while working you are building your business).
But what kills me are those people that whine about what they are making (or not), whining all the time that they can’t seem to get a break or get a promotion or raise but all the while they are not willing to step up to the plate to do prove that they can do more.
For example I know someone that works in a call center. They get paid a OK wage for what they do, they certainly could not feed a family but as a single person he does OK.
So he complains to me the other day about his salary, blah-blah-blah. So I asked him a few questions:
- Do you do anything extra at work to get a raise or promotion?
- ANSWER - No, why should I do extra work if I won’t get paid for it?
- Excuse me? If you’re not showing your boss that you’ve got the mettle why should s/he ever (ever) consider you for a raise or promotion?
- Have you tried looking for another job?
- ANSWER - Jeez… no.
- Yah - how did I know he would say that.
Uh-huh. So you’re not making enough. You don’t want to do anything extra at work to prove your stuff and you don’t want to look for another job.
Two words for him - lazy ass.
Regardless of whether you’re trying to build an online business, or build your career - you need to work at it to get ahead.
If career/job is your goal - WORK AT IT! I understand that not everyone can run a business; if everyone could then we would not have people that are willing to work in labor positions or things like cleaning washrooms. Any job, regardless of what it is requires that the individual put in a level of effort to do the BEST DAMN JOB THEY CAN - anything less and you’re fooling yourself and wasting your time.
Either do the best you can, or quit and look for something else. You are not doing yourself or the company you are working for any favours. In fact you are doing more harm to yourself than good.
Regardless of where you are in the ladder, you are reporting to someone. Granted the lower you are on the ladder the more you have to prove yourself but as you make your way up - life does get easier.
- PEON > Reports to manager, MUCH more pressure to perform, less flexability in day-to-day activities and little control over work.
- MANAGER > Reports to senior manager, EVEN MORE pressure to perform however MORE flexability in day-to-day activities and more control over the work environment
- SENIOR MANAGER > Reports to VP/SVP. Think manager x 10.
- VP/SVP/CEO etc., > Reporting to someone. Maybe shareholders? Maybe to fund managers?
Regardless of where you are at in the organization you are reporting to someone. Don’t think for a minute that if you’re the owner you have nobody to report to. If you’re employing 100 people (or 10) you are responsible for those individuals. If you need to lay people off - it’s YOU doing the dirty-deed. Those people are looking to you as a leader, and possibly as a mentor.
If you’re not getting ahead in your business, or personal life or professional life - step back and take a serious look at what YOU are doing or not doing. You MUST be brutally honest with yourself, and you must stop making excuses.
- If you’re supposed to be at work at 7:00am but show up at 7:15am every day — resolve to come to work on time.
- If you’re only entitled to a 30 minute lunch break, but decide to take 45 minutes — resolve to take only a 30 minute break.
Remember others around you are watching what you do, and they talk — trust me do they ever talk. I get lots of news from my team about who has done what. I take it all with a grain of salt, but as I make the rounds (I like MBWA - management by walking around) I can see who is doing what or not doing.
So let me ask you again - what are you doing to get ahead in life - business or personal? You won’t be able to fake it till you make it. Be honest, and assess yourself and you will be surprised at where you can go once you have an honest appraisal of yourself.
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Tags: get ahead in business, get ahead in your career, how to get a head in lifeInternet Business Blog Carnival - Edition 20
Welcome to Edition 20 of the Internet Business Blog Carnival. This week there are some FANTASTIC posts that you simply must read. Our Blog Carnival Picks are back, minus the podcast. We visited all the sites in this weeks edition, and found that there are a few that really stand out.
Now without further delay, here are our Blog Carnival Picks along with the rest of the submissions for this Edition of the Internet Business Blog Carnival.
Mo ‘n Robs Blog Carnival Picks
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The rest of the submissions for Edition 20 of the Internet Business Blog Carnival…
- Brian Terry presents Centralize, Systemetize then Monetize posted at Big Selling Website Design.
- Brian Terry presents 6 Hot Tips For Successful Split Testing posted at Big Selling Website Design.
- Carl Ringwall presents Call Only To The Readers That Are Ready posted at Data SystemsPlus.
- Carol Bentley presents advertising images posted at Carol Bentley.
- Cindy King presents Sunday Book Review - Mastering Online Marketing posted at Cindy King, saying, “Mastering Online Marketing starts off with a few of the principles in The E-Myth. There is a Business Mindset Self-Assessment Test and a Marketing Mindset Self-Assessment Test. At the end of each of these chapters a check list helps you to clearly identify your action plan. Your action items are business focused.”
- Diego Norte presents Buying Product Rights posted at Internet Business 101.
- Diego Norte presents Company Or J.O.B.? posted at Internet Business 101.
- Dr. Joe Capista presents Success Involves An Attitude of Service posted at The Success Triangle, saying, “There is one thing that will bring you more success and fulfillment than just about anything. Success in your life is directly proportional to the number of people you serve and the quality of your service. As simple as it may sound, a lot of people do not follow this principle and keep wondering why they are not successful in their business.”
- Dr. Joe Capista presents The Role of Customer Service in Business Success posted at The Success Triangle, saying, “Business success is dependent of many factors; namely a realistic business idea, an outstanding business plan, a superior marketing strategy and great customer service. Although you may tend to put customer service in the same category as marketing, it has its own purpose in making a business successful. Find out the difference and how that difference can impact your business.”
- James Lee presents The Power of True Storytelling posted at Online Business Freedom.
- John Szram presents Spy On Your Competition With Search Status posted at Internet Business Blog By John Szram.
- Jon Anderson presents Help a Blogger out posted at SuccessPart2.Com, saying, “An old blogging buddy of mine, Vlad over at go-beyond-mls.com is being sued over a paid post where the comments spun out of his control. This could happen to any of one us. Check it out…”
- Jordanv presents Ideas from Campaign 08: Provide clear and obvious calls to action throughout your Web site posted at Connection Cafe.
- Kathleen Gage presents Social Networking; A great resource or simply a waste of time? posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, “It seems at every turn we are hearing about the “latest and greatest” place to network and build market reach on the Internet. Regardless of the size of your business, there are likely things you could be doing to increase your market reach, but knowing which is the best for your particular needs can be a daunting task. arn how to choose the best avenue for your social networking”
- Kathleen Gage presents Internet marketing! It’s driving me crazy! posted at Street Smarts Marketing & Promotions, saying, “Although the Internet is a great tool for building a business, it is not for everyone. Far too often people see it in a light other than it really is. Find out if you are meant to use the Internet in your business and in your marketing. Discover what one top Internet marketing learned along the way.”
- Kenton Newby presents What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid? posted at KentonNewby.com.
- Mark Monaghan presents Learn how to earn money online posted at earn easy money online.
- Mark Russell presents Marko’s Quest For The Ultimate Wordpress Theme posted at MarkDRussell.com.
- Mark Russell presents SEO Wordpress Themes | Internet Marketing | Mark D. Russell posted at MarkDRussell.com.
- Matthew Paulson presents Customer Service Communication Tips posted at American Entrepreneurship.
- Melanie presents 10 Questions to Never Ask a Reporter posted at Rembrandt’s PR and Writing Blog for Startup Success, saying, “Discover how to use the power of the press to boost sales!”
- Michael Beck presents 7 Ways To Drive Traffic To Your Chiropractic Website posted at Chiropractic Marketing | Chiropractic Advertising.
- Neelakantha presents How to Turn Your Network into Fort Knox: 100 Tips + Tutorials posted at Internet Service Deals.
- Online Dividends presents Passive Income As of 06/30/2008 posted at Track Monthly Passive Income.
- Raymond presents Best Locations To Blog With Free WiFi Internet Access posted at Money Blue Book.
- Robert Phillips presents The Modern Fundamentals of Making Money posted at CYBERCA$HOLOGY.
- Roger Smith presents Building A Network Marketer’s Mindset…The Keys to your MLM Success For the Long Haul posted at Magnetic Leadership Marketing.
- SEO Genius presents SEO Tutorials | Handy Hints for Website Submission posted at SEO Tutorials - SEO Tips and Tricks - Marketing Articles, saying, “Increase your websites popularity and start earning more! These techniques will help your website become a success in no time!”
- Sam presents Become a Millionaire posted at Surfer Sam and Friends, saying, “The Four-Hour Workweek, a new book by Timothy Ferriss, is for people who were not born rich, people who want more free time and want to live like a millionaire. The most entertaining part of the book is the author’s own work history and the way he created his own Internet business for himself.”
- Stephen Ward presents Launching a Successful Website, Step One: Answering the Question of Purpose posted at Ward on the Web, saying, “This is the first post in a seven-part series on how to launch a successful website.”
- Tip Diva presents Tip Diva | Top Ten Tips - Typing A Business Letter posted at Tip Diva, saying, “Writing a business letter is not like writing to your parents from summer camp. There are rules you must follow, especially when typing out your letter”
- Traffic2mypage presents Traffic2MyPage.com» Using OPB to build your web traffic - Introduction posted at Traffic2MyPage Blog, saying, “this is about how to increase web traffic to your site by using OBP… ‘Other People’s Blogs’ to redirect traffic to your page.. a step by step guide and a 6 part series”
- WM Media presents Do You Intend To Sell Your Website? Find Out Its Value First posted at Buy And Sell Websites, saying, “If you are into Internet entrepreneurship, then selling your website requires a lot of ground work”
- Woman Tribune presents Mind Your Own Business Girls: Business Coaching, Education & Empowerment for Woman Entrepreneurs posted at Woman Tribune.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Tags: Blog Carnival, blog carnivals, internet business blog, internet business blog carnival
