Wily Walnut's Blog

What stops you from being creative? And how can you start being creative right now?

Here are some valuable pointers that I discovered in an 1997 article by top NLP trainer and author Joseph O'Connor:


How to STOP being creative:

1. Be remorselessly practical.
2. Be logical.
3. Follow the rules.
4. Be serious.
5. Don't be curious.
6. Avoid ambiguity -- jump to conclusions as fast as possible.
7. Believe that mistakes are wrong and will be punished.
8. Believe you are not creative. (It helps to have a narrow definition of creativity.)
9. Believe there is only one right answer and you know it.

How to START being creative:

1. Never mind if it is practical (for now).
2. Logic can't be proved logically so it can't be much use whichever way you look at it.
3. What rules?
4. Have fun!
5. Be curious.
6. Bathe in ambiguity and enjoy it.
7. Mistakes are feedback to get back on track again.
8. Believe you are creative!
9. There are plenty of right answers to go around.

~~~~~~~~ :-) ~~~~~~~~ ;-) ~~~~~~~~~ :-))

Labels: creative, creative thinking, creativity

What is creativity? What does it mean to be 'creative'?

Some people have a very particular view on what constitutes real creativity. They only see creativity in the invention of fictional worlds or marvellous works of art. And turn their noses up at 'simpler' acts of creativity such as finding a new use for a clothes peg (think of those little greetings card holders).

I take a very simple view of creativity.

I look at it as the verb: to create.

I could create a baby (magic wand at the ready!).

I could create a new way of better serving my website affiliates.

I could create a more effective way of educating my customers to the value of my products.

My creativity might be expressed by simply writing a short article like this one.

Does creativity have to be about being feted as the world's greatest sculptor or the author of a ground-breaking novel?

No.

Those are wonderful pinnacle expressions of creativity. And if it is your inclination to follow a dream of that scale -- go for it!

However, for ordinary every-day-use let's just think of creativity as this...

...Doing something, making something, creating something ... that would not otherwise be there unless you had actually decided to do it, make it, create it and then acted on that decision.

Creativity is for everyone. Everyone has genius. And that genius can be expressed in all kinds of ways: from the passe to the pragmatic to the profound.

(Anyone who says otherwise is an elitist knob-head! ...IMHO!)

Labels: creative, creativity