Getting creative

Do you consider yourself to be creative? Do you take any steps to inspire or nurture your creativity?

I must admit I haven’t thought about creativity for a while, but was recently inspired to think about it by Michelle Grice’s post about musical inspiration.

I believe creativity is important to help us solve issues and stay interested, and it doesn’t have to be creative in any specific way. Many people say “I can’t draw/paint/sew/sculpt so I’m not creative” but I disagree with that as a narrow view of creativity.

The people who thought of liquid paper, sticky notepads and tea bags were all creative – and for all we know they couldn’t draw, sew or sing either!

Developing creativity is fun, and it can help you see things in a different way, find solutions to challenges and grab new opportunities. I think doing anything out of the ordinary and basically avoiding being in a rut will develop creativity, but here are some more specific ideas to get you (and me!) started:

• move to some energetic music – don’t call it dancing if that will limit you, just move!
• grab a pencil and draw your favourite holiday – interpret that in any way you like!
• do some mind teasers – pictures hidden in a see of dots, conundrums, riddles, and so on
• think of a different ending for the last movie you saw or book you read
• spend  5 minutes looking at some artwork online – look at the colours, think about your responses, follow your instincts
• think of how to make your Christmas break up suit a theme – maybe Knights & Damsels, The Jungle, Fairies & Elves or Hollywood inspires you with decorations, costumes, menus and more. It never has to be done, just imagine it
• let your mind follow some music without focussing on any lyrics
• imagine you just won $5million – what would you spend it on? where would you go? how would you resign/leave your clients?

What other ideas do you have for getting creative?

And for today’s brain teaser… if four men take two hours to dig a hole, how long will it take eight men to dig half a hole?