3 Tips for Developing Your Creativity

Have you lost your creativity or maybe you are not sure if you ever had it.  I believe we are all created to be creative.  After all we were created in His image and He is the ultimate Creator.  If you’ve read my about page on my Etsy shop you know my personal reasons for redeveloping my own creativity.  Mainly as a way to relieve the stress of my day job and to keep myself busy when my little bird flew the nest (ironically that yet to happened).  What are your reasons wanting to redevelop your creativity?  Maybe you are just beginning to think about the value of being creative.  I hope my blog inspires you to jump in grow your creativity outside its current boundaries.

One way we stump our own creativity is to accept things as they are and go with the flow of “that’s how its always been”?  In my day job I work in the IT department serving our customers.  One thing I do is help them use the right solution to reach their goal – like the completion of a specific task.  Many times I’ve asked why are you doing this task and probably 80% of the time their response is “it’s what we’ve always done”, but they cannot really explain why it is necessary.  Even when they don’t see the reason for it, they resist making the change to eliminate it or update it.  I could do a whole series on why change is good and how to stop resisting it, but that is not really the topic for today.

Once we decide to accept that change is good, the way make positive changes is to think through the possibilities.  Developing your creative thinking will help discover the possibilities.  Those possibilities might be solutions for saving time, reorganizing a closet or any creative solution that repurposes something we love so we can continue to enjoy it.  Some times we need to turn things upside down (literally) and release our creative thinking to decide what direction we need to take.

If you keep all your lists, in your mind is too occupied to be creative.  So take all those to do lists, grocery lists, school lunch lists, church activity lists, work tasks, budget items, home maintenance lists, etc. and get them out of your brain.  This is the first step in David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity (GTD) concept.  I cannot tell you how much it has freed my mind.  Basically you put ALL those lists into one system and process them daily.  I use Evernote and there are more details about GTD in the post Productivity Hacks.  With a mind empty of all the promises you’ve made to yourself and to other’s it will be free to think creatively.

Creative thinking usually has a purpose, a desired end result – an answer to a question, a solution to a problem, a beautiful piece of art, or that next new creation you cannot wait to post on Instagram.  I find it’s best if I write down what I am trying to create, solve or answer, before I begin to focus my creative energy.  Once I start writing the purpose, my creativity really starts to flow.  I’m not sure if it is seeing it on paper or the actual act of writing that makes a difference.  Maybe it is both.  What I do know is that it works.

When people say “think outside the box” what does that really mean to you?  Look at things from all angles, inside out and upside down.  In the post, Finding Creative Solutions, I was trying to save a piece of furniture that I loved, but did not “fit” in our new home or so I thought.  After several months of moving it from room to room and some time in the garage, I finally put on my creativity cap.  I thought about taking it apart and using the pieces for different projects, painting it, hanging it and all sorts of things that were not its original purpose.  It finally ended up as a beautiful and dramatic headboard in our guest room.

You’ll see a lot of upside down creativity on Pinterest!  Have you seen the upside side tables turned into 4 poster dog beds and the outdated entertainment centers turned into little play kitchens or dress up centers for children.  I love it!  It is creativity at its best, in my humble opinion.  So the next time you are about to pitch that useless ash tray that you unpacked from grandma’s attic turn it upside down and see if it might make an awesome candle holder.

The Creativity Challenge

• Is a necklace really just a necklace, or is it an elegant tieback for your bedroom drapes?
• A teacup really just a teacup, or is it a pretty way to organize your make-up drawer?

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More creative cakes from Cake Stackers™ — Thank you Cake Stackers™ for providing the pictures for this post