Creativity Defined
Creativity is an act of making something new. It is a mental and
social process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or new
associations of the creative mind between existing ideas or concepts.
Huge Personal Benefits
Creativity is your key to a
brighter future. Creativity
gives you an
incredible source of adventure,
achievement, self-discovery, connection, spirituality, awakening,
normalcy, self-worth, identity,
healing,
happiness, energy and power.
Huge Business Benefits
All progress and
innovation is the result of finding new – often radically new – better,
cheaper, easier, or different ways to do things and solving customer's
problems, and this requires the continual honing of your creative thinking
arts and skills. The benefits of functioning more creatively can be
enormous. You can
win customers and
retain them by producing more or of better quality or cheaper or
faster or
differently – and this requires doing things in new ways, differently,
using creativity.
You Are Creative!
Creativity is not about inventing
something totally new, it is about making new –
synergistic! – connections. You don't have to be a special
kind of person to be creative – everyone can do it. It's not about who you
are, it's about what you do. You just need to start looking for multiple
solutions rather than settling for just one, and give yourself permission to
be playful and inquisitive, flexible and versatile.
Psychologists call the activities
associated with idea generation "loose associative thinking" processes.
Associative thinking is not linear or sequential. It is jumpy.
To invent new
connections, the maintenance of uncertainty is important for a time.
"Closure is a killer; it strangles associative thinking, in favor of
arriving at "an answer". Early in the process, leveraging uncertainty,
riding it, and valuing it are critical to developing robust ideas."4
An Important Pre-Condition
Although creative people come from varied
backgrounds, they all seem to have one thing in common – they love what they
are doing.
Practice Every Day
How often should you practice if you wish to
win the World Tennis Cup: once a month? once a week? every day?
How often should you exercise your
right brain's creative muscles if you wish to master your creative
skills: once a month? once a week? every day?
Take a Different View
It was by taking a
different view of a traditional business that major
innovations were achieved. To find a better
creative solution to the current practice, force yourself to
reframe the problem, to
break down its components and assemble them in a different way.
Ask
Searching Questions
Creativity requires an inquisitive mind. Unless
you ask lots of
"Why?" and "What If"? questions, you won't generate creative insights.
"To avoid this most common of creative errors, be sure to peek under all
carpets, including your own...
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Mediation as a Source of Your Creative Power
Meditation has been scientifically proven to improve creativity,
intelligence, memory, alertness, and to integrate
left and right brain functioning. It has been shown to improve physical,
mental, and emotional health. In a word, meditation is an invaluable tool to
ensure that you are at your very best every day.
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