Five Strategies to Become a More Creative Thinker: When you want to be or do more than average

How many of us believe that creativity is the exclusive domain of artists, politicians, planners, and other people who need to be able to create solutions, sometimes fairly quickly? On the other hand, Rod Judkins (https://time.com/4251292/creative-thinking/) suggests that creativity is for everyone, regardless of position or responsibility. Pursuant to this suggestion, he offers five ways in which each of us can improve our creative thinking capabilities.

1. Develop creative courage:

Mr. Judkins proposes that many people lack the courage to take a creative approach in their workplace. “Almost all creative people feel inadequate in some way, but it is how they deal with that feeling of inadequacy that is important.” People who suffer from various disadvantages are sometimes tempted to use these negatives as excuses to throttle back on their creative potential. Suggestion 1, then, is to recognize any disadvantage you think you may have, and then reframe it in such a way as to turn it into an advantage. Renowned artists have transformed injuries suffered in accidents into new ways of working. Ernest Hemingway, for example, was dyslexic but used this “negative” to develop a new style of writing. There are many more examples, and Mr. Judkins suggests that you should never fall victim to the sense that you are a…victim. Use it as a positive!

2. Be a Lifelong Learner:

Change is a constant in the universe, and sometimes it can work to our advantage. Change gives us the chance to reinvent ourselves as needed and in ways that are favorable to our purposes. Those who refuse to see the changes unfolding around them will lose the opportunity to refine their creative skills. In short, we must constantly keep pace with change and modernize our capacities in a way that serves our interests. It is easy to become satisfied with the current state of affairs, but this can leave us behind if we do not constantly test the environment and adjust accordingly.

3. Achieve a Work/Life Balance:

Simply put, people who enjoy the skills of creativity are known to simply choose a particular lifestyle, and then craft a plan to achieve the objectives of this lifestyle. Hunter S. Thompson said, “As I see it, a (person) must choose a path that will let (their) abilities function at maximum efficiency.” The opportunities offered to you now may not be ideal for your long-term purposes, but the important thing is to be on the path of success, with incremental successes serving as stepping-stones along the way. Having a long-term view can produce great dividends.

4. Listen to Feedback:

“Creative people are able to listen to criticism, assess it and then act on it.” Sometimes we get too close to our work, and therefore lack the objectivity appropriate to evaluate it. Put your pride aside and use the skills of discernment of people you trust. The more recent your work, the less objectivity you will bring to bear in assessing your product because your thinking is still affected by the processes involved in creating it. For instance, how many of us have written a paper or report, then had the luxury of putting this work aside in order to come back to it later for further review? When we come back to our paper two weeks later and re-review it, we ask ourselves “Who wrote this nonsense?” In sum, take advantage of the people and assets available to you in order to get a reliable reality check on our work.

5. Don’t Be Afraid to Steal Ideas:

Creative people oftentimes take ideas that have come before, and then remake them in their image. The author Peter Benchley took the plot of the book Moby Dick and transformed it into the blockbuster movie Jaws, simply by trading the white whale for a white shark, and modernizing the story. Creative people aren’t ashamed to be inspired by something they respect, and then transform it into something that matches their vision. Let’s face it, unless we are talking about cutting edge science, there are few ideas that have not been explored before. Most “new” work contains at least elements that have already been discussed, but perhaps reframed to match new realities. In short, Mr. Judkins suggests that “creative thinkers are not magicians who conjure ideas from nowhere.” There are almost always components that came before.

As noted earlier many people have doubts regarding their talents and skills, and may even question their own sense of passion in pursuing their goals. Passion can come from a renewed sense of interest, and the zeal to feed this passion with capability can come as a natural results of Mr. Judkins’s suggestions, above. And, these suggestions can serve as “practical techniques” that can be used to serve us in our daily lives. The construct of creativity applies to any scenario, project, or objective.