Every child is an artist. The problem is how he remains an artist when he grows up – By Pablo Picasso.
You don’t have to be one of the creatives among us to relate to this. Children are gifted with tons of creativity. And they need it, since they have, especially in the early years, not much knowledge to rely on. It is wonderful to think back about the life stage of free thinking where everything was possible. Our childhood is one of the best souvenirs we have.
But why should childhood be the most creative period of your life? With all the responsibilities we carry, grown-ups need it just as much! Why is it so hard for some of us, to feel like we are still creative?
Not that long ago, I joined a workshop in disruptive thinking. It is very interesting to see in which measure we rely on previous knowledge and how this negatively influences our creativity. Relying on previous knowledge also has it’s advantages of course. Your brain gets more space to think about other stuff: it is more efficient.
But it is good to know the patterns you are dealing with and how to break through them. You have to find these patterns yourself. But here a few general tips that help you start up in bringing back the artist in yourself:
- Find your inspiration and take time to soak it in.
What gives you inspiration in life? Make sure you try to gain inspiration from something that interests you. It makes things a lot easier! Also: as long as you do not give yourself time to observe the world around you, you will not get inspiration from it.
- Create a peaceful environment where you can fully focus on creating new ideas.
Make sure you are not distracted by life’s hassles. This has to do with a lot of things: the room you are in, the people around you and the time schedule you have. Sometimes people support you in the creative process, but that is not always the case (maybe something you recognize from your work environment?). If there is a person around you that always answers with a ‘but’ after you present an idea, it could be a good idea to walk away for a minute. It is also helpful to create a larger time frame in your schedule (one hour of creative thinking while knowing you have to do the housekeeping afterwards can be very distracting!). Make also sure the room does not distract you in a negative sense.
- Know you can do it and that there are other ways to do it.
This is what I learned from disruptive thinking. If you believe it is possible, you will find a way. People who assume they found the best solution to a problem already, simply stop trying. So challenge yourself, believe it is possible.. and you will find a way to do it.
This post was written for one of my previous blogs. When I still worked as a consultant, before Dutch Design Dame arose.
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