How To Be Creative: 7 Sure Ways to Greater Creativity

If you’ve found creating about as easy as tap dancing knee deep in molasses lately, here are 7 ways to help you get your creativity flowing again:

1. Get support. When it feels like you’re creating in a complete void, and you don’t know if anyone in the world even knows you’re creating, never mind even cares, it can be very disheartening. So being in regular contact with others who create, and who experience the same struggles and can celebrate the same joys, is invaluable. You can find a group or community in your local area, or among the thousands online ready to cater to every passion.
2. Acknowledge your creative strengths. We’re each unique, and have our own set of creative talents and strengths. Often though, we do a great job of completely overlooking our own abilities and wishing we were just like someone else. Take the time to write out your own creative strengths. Include skills like “can play piano” and “great eye for colour” as well as personality traits like “determined” and “resourceful.”  You’ll be amazed how much you can write.
3. Use the power of “how.”  Creative people are also inquisitive and curious people. We like to ask questions. But asking closed and limiting questions can bring our creativity to a standstill. For example, “Can I be more creative?” will only prompt a yes/no answer. Use the power of “how” and ask instead “How can I be more creative?”  Instantly, you’ve not only made the presupposition that you CAN be more creative, you’ve also set your creativity to work in finding all sorts of ways to do that. Apply the “how” to other questions for similar results.
4. Be experimental. Say you’re a writer and you’ve mastered the art of the 9-line poem, and can produce endless beautiful works in this form. Great! But if you did that for the rest of your creative days, how creative would that really be? Keep your creativity fresh and evolving by experimenting in different forms and styles, both within your favoured medium, and in other media you’ve always wanted to experiment with but not yet tried.
5. Celebrate your achievements. Because we live with ourselves day in day out, it’s easy to take our progress and achievements for granted, then feel like we’re never getting anywhere. Stop to review each month or so just how much you’ve created. Ask yourself specific questions such as, “What have I been proud of creating this month?”, “What have I learnt about creating this month?” and “What creative challenges have I overcome?” to really hone in on the great progress you’re always making.
6. Keep yourself inspired. What really inspires your creativity? What gives you ideas and keeps you stimulated? If you do exactly the same things each day, go to the same places and see the same people, then new inspiration may run dry. Combat this by going to different places, trying new experiences, meeting a variety of people and experiencing a wide range or art, literature and music. Be open to ideas and they’ll come flooding in.
7. Create regularly. This is SO crucial to finding your creative flow and being as creative as you know you can be. Building up an underlying creative “fitness” level allows you to create freely whenever you wish, rather than have it feel like trying to start a rusty seized-up engine that has been buried in dust for years. Commit to a minimum of 15 minutes a day, every day, and within just a few weeks, watch the transformation in how easily you find it to create.

Pick any one of these tips and get started on the way to greater creativity today!