How To Enhance Creativity - A Critical Skill Needed But Always Overlooked
Hello and welcome,
In this post I want to give you some of my most important insights into how I over-came my creativity blackout so that I could innovate on auto-pilot. (I'd also encourage you to share your perspective if you have a technique to bring out your creative edge)
Creativity is such an important, yet often over-looked facet of every business. I can't tell you the number of people I meet who are so quick to discount their creative skill-set using words to the effect of, "I don't have a creative bone in my body!"
How do I know this? Because I used to think like all of those people.
In order to rid myself of such damaging thoughts, I looked for inspiration from the most creative people around me. As I became more aware of what my innovative friends were actually doing, my interest grew on the topic and I found myself pro-actively researching it.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I now know that it is not only possible, but actually fundamental to your development, to consciously learn, develop then utilise your creativity throughout all aspects of your life. Especially your business growth.
The way I see things, your financial future is not going to be based on doing what has already been done before. It's not going to be about replicating success. In the past when things moved very slowly, replicating success was easy. Today, with the fantastic 'invention' of the internet, things move too fast to be replicated easily and in its entirety. *See Frank Kern's Under-Achiever Method - Totally Out Of Date Now
Instead, your financial future will be based upon seeing what works and then making it more potent.
When you master the tools I use to reach and then sustain my creative edge, you will find that adapting current money making strategies into more profitable ventures has never been easier.
#1) Connect/Disconnect - This is the first and most critical step when trying to draw out your creativity. Instead of seeing things as being completely different or completely the same - test yourself to find the connection or disconnection between two things. For example, I could say that an aircraft wing and a fish are two completely different things. One is mechanical and has no life, the other is adaptable and full of life. But, I remember looking out of an aircraft window and purposely testing myself to find the connection. So, I soon realised that the way a fish moves through the water and the way an aircraft wing moves through the water are almost identical. In fact, in aerospace engineering, which is actually my first profession, engineers actually classify air as a liquid. Then, I can take it one step further and say that a fish is an highly evolved creature that has taken years to perfect. As has an aircraft wing, which has been designed and adapted constantly since the Wright brothers first flight. Finding how object connect or disconnect actually trains your brain to see the world differently. The reason this is important is because for you to bring two ideas together and make something more powerful, you must first be able to see how they could even work together.
#2) Zoom In/Zoom Out - The metaphor we can use here is looking at the forest or looking at the trees. The more I learnt about creativity the more I learnt about how people are wired and the evolutionary psychology behind us humans. Just like in tool number 1 where some people will find it easier to see the connect and others will find it easier to see the disconnection. The same applies here. Some people strive to know and understand the individual techniques or tactics while others are keen to view things from a much more 'zoomed-out' perspective. But the most creative people walking this earth are all able to see the short-sighted goal and long-sighted plan. When ever you hear an idea, your brain will often do one of two things. It will either want to know, in more detail, how to actually implement it and get down to the nitty-gritty OR it will want to know the long-term perspective and then make a decision based on that. In order to cultivate your creativity - I strongly suggest you try to do both. You should constantly seek to identify the short-term and long-term implications of everything. This is important as it may allow you to make a small change something in the short-term to double the power/money-making potential further down the line.
#3) Always Invert - Popularised by Warren Buffett and noted for being one of his keys to making billions. Inverting is really powerful. To explain how to do this I will use a real-world example. Say, you were wanting to buy a company and you were thinking about how much it might cost to buy. Well, if we were to invert the situation, we would simply put our mind in that of the owner and imagine what it would take from their point of view. So, in that situation, you would imagine you were the business owner and answer your questions from their point of view. How much would I need to be offered before I'd want to sell? What would tip me over the edge, besides more money?...If you do this, often you get an immediate "ah-ha" moment. You will force yourself to be more creative because you will realise things might not be as simple as first thought. When you invert the situation you always come out with a different realisation which will help you get what you want.
#4) Know What You Want! - As humans, the majority of the time we spend each and every day on auto-pilot. For a lot of people this is hard to accept but if you actually document what you do each day you will quickly notice how many repeated situations there are. Once you concede to this though, you can actually use it to your advantage. it allows you to wake up from your trance and actually think about what you want. The brain/mind is an incredible tool. Once we know what we want, our brain locks onto that target and will actually look for ways to get it. In other words, once we have decided the direction we want to go in, our brain will actually search for bits of information that will help us get there and it will filter all new information through that set goal and alert you if it discovers anything of importance. Earlier I said that you can actually put creativity and innovation on auto-pilot. Well, this is what I mean. If you know what you want, our brain goes on auto-pilot as it scrambles for ways to reach the desired out-come. It is critically important to know what you want from every situation.
#5) Analogising 101 - This is probably the most powerful tool. This revolves around the transferring of attributes between dimensions. How cool does that sound! haha. In other words, we look at what works in other areas of life/business and try to transfer that power to another part of our life/business. For example, in the supermarket we might find a bag of lettuce that has been cut-up into bite-sized chunks and washed so that it can be used immediately. Well, another clever marketer might look at this and cut-up his training into bite-sized chunks and 'wash it' so that it can be used immediately after consumption. Also, if you look at the price of a lettuce whole, compared to what you get in the bagged version, you will find that the price can double. So, in turn you might find that by making these slight changes to your information product or service, you can actually charge double. An exercise to practice so that you get good at seeing how things might work in a different area of life is to actually use your imagination to picture different things being used in different situations. For example, how many different purposes can you find for the letter O. If you go on the most basic level you might be able to imagine using it as a ring, or hula-hoop. But we can go one stage further and say we could use it as a picture frame or door in our house. Then we can go one stage further and say we could use it as a way to communicate with alien life forms. Now, I understand that the last stage is quite far out but this is about being creative. let your imagination run free.
Ok, so these are only some of my favourite and most powerful tools for developing your creativity but without a game plan it's unlikely you will see much benefit. So, the first step is to be open to your imagination.
We, as humans, have a natural fascination with almost everything as a child. But because our parents were sometimes busy, they didn't always have time to answer our inquisitive questions. As a result when we asked questions, sometimes our parents would get angry if they had other things on their mind. As a child you quickly associate asking questions with parents getting angry and so your natural curiosity is suppressed. To further develop this point, it is also true that at school, if we given a creative task and we produced something funny/out of the ordinary then other kids laughed at us. As a result, we quickly associate our creativity with humiliation and once again our creative curiosity is dampened.
So, the first step is to be open to your imagination and not let outside interpretation diminish our progression. The second step is to consciously use these tools. As a product creator, I know how few people actually follow through and 'make things happen' ironically, it's usually those who buy very few products that actually have a higher success percentage. Often those people are too busy implementing to actually buy stuff. Which poses it's own problems as well.
If you spend 15 minutes each day for the next 90 days actually using these tools. I promise you will see a dramatic change in your creativity.
Anyway folks, I really hope this helps and I would love to read your perspective of some of the techniques and tools you use to develop your creative edge.
Michael.
In this post I want to give you some of my most important insights into how I over-came my creativity blackout so that I could innovate on auto-pilot. (I'd also encourage you to share your perspective if you have a technique to bring out your creative edge)
Creativity is such an important, yet often over-looked facet of every business. I can't tell you the number of people I meet who are so quick to discount their creative skill-set using words to the effect of, "I don't have a creative bone in my body!"
How do I know this? Because I used to think like all of those people.
In order to rid myself of such damaging thoughts, I looked for inspiration from the most creative people around me. As I became more aware of what my innovative friends were actually doing, my interest grew on the topic and I found myself pro-actively researching it.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I now know that it is not only possible, but actually fundamental to your development, to consciously learn, develop then utilise your creativity throughout all aspects of your life. Especially your business growth.
The way I see things, your financial future is not going to be based on doing what has already been done before. It's not going to be about replicating success. In the past when things moved very slowly, replicating success was easy. Today, with the fantastic 'invention' of the internet, things move too fast to be replicated easily and in its entirety. *See Frank Kern's Under-Achiever Method - Totally Out Of Date Now
Instead, your financial future will be based upon seeing what works and then making it more potent.
When you master the tools I use to reach and then sustain my creative edge, you will find that adapting current money making strategies into more profitable ventures has never been easier.
So, Let's get started:
#1) Connect/Disconnect - This is the first and most critical step when trying to draw out your creativity. Instead of seeing things as being completely different or completely the same - test yourself to find the connection or disconnection between two things. For example, I could say that an aircraft wing and a fish are two completely different things. One is mechanical and has no life, the other is adaptable and full of life. But, I remember looking out of an aircraft window and purposely testing myself to find the connection. So, I soon realised that the way a fish moves through the water and the way an aircraft wing moves through the water are almost identical. In fact, in aerospace engineering, which is actually my first profession, engineers actually classify air as a liquid. Then, I can take it one step further and say that a fish is an highly evolved creature that has taken years to perfect. As has an aircraft wing, which has been designed and adapted constantly since the Wright brothers first flight. Finding how object connect or disconnect actually trains your brain to see the world differently. The reason this is important is because for you to bring two ideas together and make something more powerful, you must first be able to see how they could even work together.
#2) Zoom In/Zoom Out - The metaphor we can use here is looking at the forest or looking at the trees. The more I learnt about creativity the more I learnt about how people are wired and the evolutionary psychology behind us humans. Just like in tool number 1 where some people will find it easier to see the connect and others will find it easier to see the disconnection. The same applies here. Some people strive to know and understand the individual techniques or tactics while others are keen to view things from a much more 'zoomed-out' perspective. But the most creative people walking this earth are all able to see the short-sighted goal and long-sighted plan. When ever you hear an idea, your brain will often do one of two things. It will either want to know, in more detail, how to actually implement it and get down to the nitty-gritty OR it will want to know the long-term perspective and then make a decision based on that. In order to cultivate your creativity - I strongly suggest you try to do both. You should constantly seek to identify the short-term and long-term implications of everything. This is important as it may allow you to make a small change something in the short-term to double the power/money-making potential further down the line.
#3) Always Invert - Popularised by Warren Buffett and noted for being one of his keys to making billions. Inverting is really powerful. To explain how to do this I will use a real-world example. Say, you were wanting to buy a company and you were thinking about how much it might cost to buy. Well, if we were to invert the situation, we would simply put our mind in that of the owner and imagine what it would take from their point of view. So, in that situation, you would imagine you were the business owner and answer your questions from their point of view. How much would I need to be offered before I'd want to sell? What would tip me over the edge, besides more money?...If you do this, often you get an immediate "ah-ha" moment. You will force yourself to be more creative because you will realise things might not be as simple as first thought. When you invert the situation you always come out with a different realisation which will help you get what you want.
#4) Know What You Want! - As humans, the majority of the time we spend each and every day on auto-pilot. For a lot of people this is hard to accept but if you actually document what you do each day you will quickly notice how many repeated situations there are. Once you concede to this though, you can actually use it to your advantage. it allows you to wake up from your trance and actually think about what you want. The brain/mind is an incredible tool. Once we know what we want, our brain locks onto that target and will actually look for ways to get it. In other words, once we have decided the direction we want to go in, our brain will actually search for bits of information that will help us get there and it will filter all new information through that set goal and alert you if it discovers anything of importance. Earlier I said that you can actually put creativity and innovation on auto-pilot. Well, this is what I mean. If you know what you want, our brain goes on auto-pilot as it scrambles for ways to reach the desired out-come. It is critically important to know what you want from every situation.
#5) Analogising 101 - This is probably the most powerful tool. This revolves around the transferring of attributes between dimensions. How cool does that sound! haha. In other words, we look at what works in other areas of life/business and try to transfer that power to another part of our life/business. For example, in the supermarket we might find a bag of lettuce that has been cut-up into bite-sized chunks and washed so that it can be used immediately. Well, another clever marketer might look at this and cut-up his training into bite-sized chunks and 'wash it' so that it can be used immediately after consumption. Also, if you look at the price of a lettuce whole, compared to what you get in the bagged version, you will find that the price can double. So, in turn you might find that by making these slight changes to your information product or service, you can actually charge double. An exercise to practice so that you get good at seeing how things might work in a different area of life is to actually use your imagination to picture different things being used in different situations. For example, how many different purposes can you find for the letter O. If you go on the most basic level you might be able to imagine using it as a ring, or hula-hoop. But we can go one stage further and say we could use it as a picture frame or door in our house. Then we can go one stage further and say we could use it as a way to communicate with alien life forms. Now, I understand that the last stage is quite far out but this is about being creative. let your imagination run free.
How To Get The Most Out Of These Tools
Ok, so these are only some of my favourite and most powerful tools for developing your creativity but without a game plan it's unlikely you will see much benefit. So, the first step is to be open to your imagination.
We, as humans, have a natural fascination with almost everything as a child. But because our parents were sometimes busy, they didn't always have time to answer our inquisitive questions. As a result when we asked questions, sometimes our parents would get angry if they had other things on their mind. As a child you quickly associate asking questions with parents getting angry and so your natural curiosity is suppressed. To further develop this point, it is also true that at school, if we given a creative task and we produced something funny/out of the ordinary then other kids laughed at us. As a result, we quickly associate our creativity with humiliation and once again our creative curiosity is dampened.
So, the first step is to be open to your imagination and not let outside interpretation diminish our progression. The second step is to consciously use these tools. As a product creator, I know how few people actually follow through and 'make things happen' ironically, it's usually those who buy very few products that actually have a higher success percentage. Often those people are too busy implementing to actually buy stuff. Which poses it's own problems as well.
If you spend 15 minutes each day for the next 90 days actually using these tools. I promise you will see a dramatic change in your creativity.
Anyway folks, I really hope this helps and I would love to read your perspective of some of the techniques and tools you use to develop your creative edge.
Michael.