How To Boost Your Creativity: The Attitude

Welcome to the latest post in my series looking at how to boost your creativity. In the first part I covered the basic rules for being creative, while in the second part I looked at inspirational locations you can visit to get those creative juices flowing. However, as someone recently pointed out, all these tips helped to encourage existing creative thought, but they didn’t help you to think creatively in the first place. With that in mind, in this post I want to address that issue and cover what attitudes you need to adopt if you want to find that necessary spark.

• Be a big thinker
  Don’t be somebody who constrains themselves to small, minute details. Be brave enough and open enough to come up with big and bold ideas rather than worrying about perceived realities, budgets, expectations, etc. Worry about bringing down the scale and sensibility of your ideas later on in the development process.
• Be inquisitive
  Everything you see or hear can potentially trigger a aha! moment – even the most mundane things – so don’t rule them out. In other words, be inquisitive and curious. If you open yourself up to everything, you may be surprised what triggers that next creative spark.
• Be optimisitic
  All it takes to trigger a flurry of creative ideas is that one thought. Before you know it, you can end up with a spider’s web of potential ideas. Whenever you have a creative thought don’t just jot it down and move on, let your mind run wild and see what other thoughts can come out of it. Basically, be optimistic rather than skeptical.
• Be patient
  It’s difficult to think creatively when you are under pressure, rushing around or just generally impatient as you don’t have the time to look for inspiration, explore your ideas, etc. When you have the seeds of a good idea you need to  be prepared to give them time to develop, and that requires patience.
• Be proactive
  This is the ultimate advice for all creative thinking and it runs through every piece of advice I have given throughout this series. You can have all the personality quirks necessary to come up with great ideas, but if you’re not proactively helping yourself to be creative, it’s all for nothing. Don’t cramp yourself into a small box room when you are working, don’t use a tiny notepad for doodling your ideas down, don’t forget your camera when you’re on holiday, don’t ignore other people’s suggestions…

This post is one of a four part series on boosting your creativity. Part 1 looks at the basics, part 2 details inspirational locations you can visit for a creative boost, part 3 covers what attitude and personality will serve you best, and the final part looks at things you should avoid if you want to take your creativity to the next level.