Unlocking Your Creativity: 7 Steps to increase creativity

Introduction

A common question that crosses the mind of a person who wants to enhance his/her creativity is – how to unlock your creativity? Creativity literally refers to the use of imagination or original ideas to create something new. It is an innate function of the human mind and hence, a governing force of humanity. It is basically an outward expression of your inward thought or emotion.

The creativity of a person can be limited due to two hindrances:

1. Internal Barrier: It limits your imagination and inspiration.

2. External barrier: It limits your expression or presentation of your creativity.

There are simple but very effective techniques of unlocking your creativity, which include various mental and environmental approaches. Out of them, there are mainly, 7 steps to increase the creativity of a person.

7 Steps to increase your creativity

1. Find Your Source of Inspiration: 

The first step of the 7 steps to increase creativity is to find your source of inspiration. It is the doorway to your creativity. You can find your muse in nature, people, music, memory, or in a particular situation. One finding is, you can activate your creativity on demand rather than waiting for the moments of inspiration. Thus, it is very important to find the source of inspiration for oneself if you want to increase your creativity.

2. Surround Yourself with Talented and Positive People:

Surrounding yourself with talented and positive people is the second step for unlocking your creativity. Good artists generally observe great artists, and great artists observe extraordinary artists. You should surround yourself with quality people, great art, great music, and great literature. This can set a standard of quality and standard of excellence in your mind that can ultimately help in pushing your creativity forward. Our best creative work is done during strong positive moods. Positive people, positive space, quick exercise, envisioning the future, recalling good memories are some great mood boosters that help our creativity to grow. 

Watch our latest video:

3. Start Creating:

The third step of the 7 steps to increase creativity is to just start creating. If you want to improve your creativity, you should use your creativity. You should try something new and original, put yourself in situations and positions that require creativity, and practice your art continuously. This is what decides that your creativity will flourish or die. Initially, it might not be to your desired standard, but history’s most creative heroes started off with a failed attempts. But they worked until their finished product finally matched what they imagined, that is, their mental image.

4. Re-conceptualize the problem:

The fourth step for unlocking your creativity is to re-conceptualize the problem. Most of the creative people generally re-conceptualize problems most of the time before starting a creative task. You should re-visualize the problem from a different, more meaningful angle before starting instead of looking at the end goal of a creative project. Picture the intended audience of your next creative project and try to find out what inspires them, their problems about which they don’t talk, etc.

5. Think about others: 

The fifth step is to think about others. When our creation is inclusive of other people, their problems, their needs, it tends to be more novel. People who thought their work would be used by someone else came up with more novel ideas rather than the ones who thought that they would be using their own creation. Hence, when you are creating, even for personal projects, try to think about how someone else will enjoy, use, and incorporate your creation into their lives.

6. Limit Amusement

Limiting Amusement is the sixth step for unlocking your creativity. ‘Muse’ is a Greek term that means to be absorbed in thought or inspired and refers to your creative source. Amusement refers to the absence of thought or inspiration. Amusement can be healthy in small doses but you might end up deteriorating your creativity by over saturating yourself with it. You can use literature, audiobooks, or good storytelling songs as a form of entertainment to exercise your creativity as there is generally no imagery to go along with the story which ultimately forces you to use your imagination. 

7. Take Care of Yourself and Ignore the Negativity:

The seventh step of the 7 steps to increase creativity is to take care of yourself and ignore the negativity. Distractions, both physical and environmental, can easily destroy the creative process. You need to keep your body healthy and your workplace tidy to enhance your ability to imagine and create. Creativity must be expressed but this leaves a person in a vulnerable state, open to scrutiny and judgment. You will come across discouraging critics in business, athletics, the arts, and in life by people who feel that they can build themselves up by pushing you down. You should keep yourself open to suggestions from those who have your best interest at heart but ignore the comments from the scoffers. It’s better to use their negativity as motivation.

Summary

The above-mentioned steps can help you in unlocking your creativity. You can always find inspiration from different sources. It’s just that you have to set an environment that is conducive to new ideas. So, if you follow these 7 steps to increase creativity, you can definitely enhance your creativity.