How To Achieve Your Creative Potential

All of us are more creative than we realize, and only a very small minority comes even close to using their full creative potential. You needn’t resign yourself to never being like this yourself though. There are key elements common to the lives of all highly creative people.

Here are 7 top tips to help you unleash more of your creative talents more often:

1. Create a little each day. The foundation to any kind of consistent creativity is to create each and every day. Make creativity a habit that you just do without thinking, like sleeping, eating and breathing. Pick a time of day that you feel suits you best, and create at this time for 15 minutes a day. Make this commitment and within a matter of weeks, you’ll have a powerful creativity habit you can use for life.
2. Capture your ideas. There’s little point in having a ready flow of creative ideas if you always forget them before you’ve had a chance to explore or develop them. The easiest way to capture your ideas is to carry a pocket notebook around with you and write down your ideas as soon as they come. Don’t dismiss or judge new ideas--jot them down and let them incubate a little. They could evolve into the best art you’ve ever created.
3. Be open to new stimulation. We each experience the world through our 5 senses. You might be terrified at the thought of losing one of your senses, but the truth is many of us walk around barely using them anyway, so little do we use our full range of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Start focusing on each of your senses in turn and appreciate the many sources of creative stimulation that are around you all the time.
4. Experiment freely and often. If you find you’re creating the same kind of art over and over again, you may start wondering if you’re an artist or a robot in a factory production line. Even if you have an established creative medium and style, spend time experimenting in other areas and with other materials. You may discover unseen talents, as well as stimulating plenty of new ideas and approaches to take back to your more regular creative forms.
5. Acknowledge and reward your progress. Because you live with yourself each day, it can be very difficult to gauge your progress, as well as acknowledge just how much you create. Take the time each month or 2 to look at what you’ve created recently, and how far your work has evolved since 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or 3 years ago. You’ll be amazed, especially if you create a little each day.
6. Create what you enjoy creating. Creating shouldn’t be a painful slog--it can be one of the most freeing and enjoyable experiences we can have in life. Don’t get hung up on being perfect or creating what you feel you “should” be creating. Create what you want to create, create what you enjoy creating, and give yourself the chance to really shine.
7. Get positive support. Many artists spend a great deal of their creative time alone. So it can sometimes feel like you’re creating in a void and you may start to wonder if anyone even knows you’re creating, let alone cares. Get positive support for your creative life by joining a creative group or community. The benefits are many, and you’ll soon wonder how you ever got by without one!

Follow these 7 tips to achieve YOUR creative potential, more deeply and more often. Which tip will you pick to start using today?