Many people think they’re not creative—are you one of them? People are naturally creative, they just haven’t found a way to harness it yet. If you can imagine, you sure can create and share. You just need to put the pieces together.
Others are making the most of their creative instincts and the results is what see around us-everyday products, resources and services we constantly use.
Your job is to find the pieces from your imagination and begin the creative process. Forget what makes sense, pay more attention to what calls to you and what you passionately love to do (which you wouldn’t call work). Give airtime to the crazy ideas you have, take them seriously. Don’t be too quick to dismiss what to you seems impractical.
–Imagine
Every human has four endowments – self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom… The power to choose, to respond, to change.–Stephen Covey
–If you can see it, you can become it!
You either think you can or cannot. Self-doubt can cripple your ambition. Doubts, fears, insecurities, worry and counter-thoughts blur your mental pictures of your targeted success. Be clear in your mind about what you really want.
You must see yourself see to become it. Imagination requires constant and repeated focus on the same mental image. Everything that exists today is the result of an idea in someone’s mind who pictured it then pursued it.
You are no different from that smart inspirational person you read about. If you can keep the same mental image of success before you and never let up, you will accelerate the imagination process and eventually get to the interesting part-creating real interesting things people will love or can actually use.
“Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will” – George Bernard Shaw
–Create
Creativity, as has been said, consists largely of rearranging what we know in order to find out what we do not know. Hence, to think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.— George Knelle
The next phase of of imagination is creation. Imagination is the fuel for creation. You’re not going to be creative if you don’t have imagination. The creative process starts with a curious mind that explores opportunities. Challenge yourself to experience new things or embark on new adventures and endeavours.
There are really only two possible options for handling any situation. You can do. Or you can doubt. If you believe you have something meaningful to share, begin your creative process today, break the rules if you must.
“Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things” – Ray Bradbury
If you’re thinking about something too much, chances are you’re killing it. Forget what other people might think. Get them out of the room, and out of your head.
If your goals are simply ordinary don’t expect to do what is extraordinary. If you expect to see something different from your creative process, begin to do things differently. Start looking at things differently in your home, office or when in a meeting. This will give you a fresh approach to things that may even trigger new ideas that you once thought were not possible.
Better isn’t good enough. You have to want to be amazing. Being good isn’t the goal. Being amazing is.
–Share
Once you have accomplished something meaningful, you can easily share with your target audience. The best part of creativity is that, if you are solving a problem people actually have, your target market will find you.
When you are so great at what you do, you won’t be ignored. People notice greatness when they see it and guess what they tend to share it. Creativity is contagious, people pass them on. And the best part of creativity is that your audience build your tribe or community for you. People come to you instead of finding them. Think dedication, think Apple.
If you are on to something, don’t hesitate to share. Be generous with your ideas. Educate your audience. By generously sharing your ideas and knowledge, you often gain an audience you can leverage when you need it for feedback or patronage.
During your creative process, don’t hesitate to regularly connect and share your work, setbacks, and insights with trusted friends and colleagues. So the next time you get stuck, don’t go it alone. Rally your colleagues, or even just a friend, to talk over the problem, and see what happens.
But don’t wait for permission to be bold or creative. Don’t plan on another chance to be amazing. Be amazing now!
–Repeat
If you stick around long enough, the creative process will become like a cycle: image-create-share and repeat.
Start you creative process by silencing your inner critic. The inner critic tightens your mind and blocks creative flow, so find any way to silence this negative voice. Branch out of your comfort zone and start experimenting today!
