The blank page waits for you. Empty, inviting — intimidating. Every ounce of creativity from last night’s shower oozes away from you, back under the pillow to be recycled into your dreams, never meeting the pen to blossom into fruition. Frustration comes shortly after. You think, “I’m a creative person! I have so many good ideas! Why are none of them coming to mind now, when I need them?”
Prolonged silence in the conference rooms, empty pages in the night before the creative essay is due, a blank canvas, an empty mixing bowl, all waiting for the spark of creativity to ignite a masterpiece.
Your heart longs for the talent of the caricature artist on the boardwalk, your head reels at the deliberate motions of the street chalk artist, and your mouth hung open the first time you saw a Van Gogh in real life.
While talent abounds in your head, it is infuriatingly difficult to express your creativity in your everyday life. Don’t worry, it’s not your fault.
More importantly, there are a number of easy ways you can change your lifestyle little by little to capture, and maximize your creative efficiency.
The most definable characteristic of creative ideas is that they are different. Combining ingenuity into unique ideas isn’t rocket science. Different ideas require different thinking processes.
If you limit yourself to only one method of doing things, you will not come to new conclusions.
The flip side of this is that if you want new conclusions, you must break your habits. You must alter your method of creation. The more drastically you change your routine, the more drastically you will see a difference in results.
Implementing this could look like;
Changing your location; get out of your chair, get out of your office, move outside or to a coffeeshop you haven’t yet encountered.
Change your medium; if you normally type your ideas, physically write them. If you are used to presenting in power point format, use a poster board. If you methodically list ideas during a brainstorm, try sticking post-it notes to all walls of the room.
A fresh environment and a fresh mentality will create a fresh batch of new ideas. Just like a gardener must care for their plants, so we must also care for our minds.
But wait! There’s More!
Sometimes genius strikes at inopportune times, but leaves you high and dry in the silence following a call for a new idea. Even the most renowned creators know the horror of what is commonly referred to as “writer’s block”. Yet after all these years of art and writing and innovation, no one knows the cure!
Close, but no cigar. The common solution to creator’s block is a defeating one.
Create. Every single day.
Even if it’s garbage. Even if it’s going to be thrown away and forgotten a week later. Even if you have absolutely nothing to be inspired by, create the garbage. Document the garbage.
And it’s going to drag, and you’re going to hate it every minute that it’s happening.
The fact of the matter is, “Once-In-A-Million” ideas are born from a million ideas, nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine of which were rejected. You can’t always expect to produce your best work, if you don’t also continue to make less than your best work.
It’s something all creators have to come to peace with, lest they lose their love and ambition to create.
You may be inclined to think that you “don’t have the time to create every day”. You’re wrong. The time you could be spending creating is already at your fingertips, you just have to choose to use it to your benefit.
Your shower time. While this isn’t exactly a place for fine art or your next manuscript, it is time where you are often alone in your own head, being lulled by the soothing rush of hot water on your back. How often do you have moments of brilliance or realization that just can’t be paralleled in other mundane moments in life?
While cooking. You know those last few minutes before the cheese can be stirred into your macaroni? Agonizing bliss while you contemplate the professional science of how-chewy-can-you-stand your-noodles-today? Instead of waiting for water to boil, lose yourself in your thoughts until you revive to the ringing of your timer.
Your commute to work. Face it. You aren’t listening to the news, and getting angry at that Hummer for forgetting to use their turn signal isn’t helping anyone.
The middle of the night. That crazy dream you had? It could totally become your new company logo if you just had the time to design it.
Keep a sketchbook or journal within reach as often as you can. Stick one in your pocket, or in your purse, or leave one in every room in the house.
USE THEM. Constantly. IMMEDIATELY.
Because I promise you wont remember the dream in the morning. I promise that revelation won’t seem so fantastic three hours after you realize your hair still has shampoo in it. Your excitement for a new idea dies with time, unless you document it as completely as possible right away.
If the way her hair is blowing in the car window entices you, sketch it out. If your least favorite manager made you furious, write it down. Use everything around you to fuel your creativity. Capture the idea, save it for later, when you have nothing new to think about.
Last but not least, get up and get your blood flowing.
Your brain is a muscle, and needs oxygen from blood to fire on all cylinders. Jog around the block, and then come back to your thesis statement. Write on a whiteboard, instead of typing on your tablet. In addition to increasing blood flow to your brain, this will also help you recall the physical movements of writing that are associated with your idea. Remembering the motion of writing in relation to your excitement on the idea itself will bring back more related details when you return to an idea to revise. Science, it’s kinda cool.
