If you practice creativity, you’ll be happier, and lead a richer and more productive life.
Creativity is the phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is created. This sounds mysterious and exciting—something only gifted people can do—but it’s not. Creativity is simply having an idea or concept and problem-solving your way to bringing it to life.
So you don’t have to be artsy to be creative. You just need to actively alternate between using both sides of your brain, the creative, right side, and the logical left side. For example, when cooking a meal, you’ll use the left side of your brain to follow the recipe and then you’ll switch to the right side to taste and tweak it. Here are twelve ways to become more creative:
- Get Eight Hours Of Sleep– Getting enough sleep allows the brain to remove useless information during NREM sleep, and to look for solutions to problems during REM sleep.
- Exercise Is Good For the Creative Brain– When trying to solve a problem, just going outside for a change of scenery doesn’t do the trick–you need to also be walking.
- Take Note Of The World Around You– It’s enjoyable to look at your surroundings and it may give you ideas or a solution to a problem in your life.
- Do Cultural Things – Go to museums, the theater, or read a book. Not only are these experiences enjoyable, they may spark ideas that you can use in your life!
- Act On Creative Impulses– Paint your kitchen a fun color or buy that crazy jacket! Creativity builds on creativity and action. See what happens next.
- Allow Disparate Things To Exist In The Same Space– When George de Mestral was hunting in the Jura Mountains in Switzerland, he noticed that the tiny hooks of the cockle-burs were stuck on his pants. This observation led to him invent VELCRO.
- Step Away From Problems To Find A Solution– If you’re having trouble coming up with a solution to a problem, don’t try to force it. Step away, go do something else, and allow your brain to work on the problem unconsciously.
- Alternate Between Creative and Mundane Pursuits– Say your writing a paper for school and it’s not going well, take a break and go mow the lawn or clean your house.
- Draw Your Ideas – There’s a reason why IKEA uses drawings and not words in their assembly instructions. If you can’t explain your idea, draw it! It doesn’t have to be pretty!
- Prototype Your Ideas– Draw, build, or tryout your ideas on a small scale before spending a lot of time or money on your concept.
- Take An Art Class– It will be fun and a new world will open up to you.
- Get These Art Supplies! If you’re still not convinced that practicing creativity is for you, at least have the tools available for your kids.
I promise that if you try some of these strategies, your life will be much more enjoyable in 2020!