How to Build Your Creativity #yourturnchallenge day 4

Yesterday I wrote about the soul of creativity, which is seeking solutions to problems and/or seeking to make things better. I wrote about how creativity involves risk. Taking a chance at failing on your way to success. If this is the case (and it is), the first step to building creativity is to:

1. Fight the resistance: The resistance is that fearful little voice, that misused imagination that shows you a world of untrue worst case scenarios designed to take you off task. You need to fight this and create anyway. I know this is a common and repeated thought, but I share it again because this is what stops most creatives in their tracks. Okay we’re determined to defeat the resistance and forge ahead, but how do we actually build our creativity?

2. Acknowledge your creativity: I know this one seems pretty basic too, but you would be amazed at how many people feel they do not have the capacity to be creative. So let me just tell you, you are creative. You do creative things every day, just to stay alive. You need to acknowledge that you are creative or you will cave to the resistance and give in.

3. Create: Now we get to the best way to build your creativity. You need to create. I know, well duh. but it’s true. The best way to build your creativity is to start creating things. Anything, just start creating! Look for new ways to do things. Look for better ways to do things. Look for ways to express yourself, your feelings, your complex thoughts. Look for ways to be understood. Look for ways to make things better. But don’t just look, start creating.

4. Create first, edit later: Too many of us start to edit as soon as we start creating. There’s a reason for this, we want to make sure we don’t fail. Resistance to failure is the problem so resist it. You can edit later. You can make it work later. For now just create.

5. Do something new: I’m a big fan of working in your giftedness, but trying new things can really build your creativity. Putting yourself in a place where you don’t know what you’re doing forces you to get creative. I remember being in a blues club a long time ago. There was an old man on stage playing some of the most amazing blues licks I have ever heard. From far away you could see he was different. His guitar was facing in the opposite direction of everyone else… a lefty. No big deal until you looked closer. He was not playing a left-handed guitar. He was playing a right-handed guitar upside down. The strings in the opposite order of the way every other player plays. It was clear he wasn’t classically trained, it was also clear he was amazing. He found a way, created a way to play.

6. Waiting for you muse if for amateurs: I hear so many artists talk about waiting for inspiration. Don’t bother. Most of that is resistance. Creatives create. If you don’t have an idea make something up.

7. Do something weird: Sometimes the best way to jumpstart your creativity is to create something no one would create. Use different materials. Create something odd. Find a common object and do something extraordinary with it.

8. Don’t look at what you don’t have: So many people are limited by what they don’t have. Creative people look at what is before them and get to work with what they have, realizing that they can either come up with a creative way to get what they need, team up with someone else of create a way to work around their need.

9. Always have at least two projects going. There will come a time in the life of every creative where they hit a creative wall. They get to the place where they are stuck. At these times, it’s best to have a second project, to work on. Usually the change in project is enough to bust loose the creative block.

10. Finish what you start. Perfect (at least related to our projects) does not exist. You can’t tweak forever. Real artists (creatives) ship.