How To Keep Your Creative Ideas Flowing Freely

Ideas are at the core of anything creative; they’re the initial point from where all creation comes. Without an idea, you have nothing to work with, no raw material to mould into a wonderful new creation, whatever your favorite creative forms are.

A creative artist without ideas is like a car without fuel – they’re both going nowhere fast!

So here’s a 5 step plan to help you keep those creative ideas flowing freely:

1. Use your senses. We each have 5 senses, so make use of them. Wherever you go, absorb and experience as much as you can through each of your senses. Experience the world around you as fully as you can. The more you do, the more material you’ll have for new ideas.
2. Adopt a curiosity habit. Be interested in how things work, and question the dynamics of everything around you. This doesn’t just mean taking apart your computer to watch its hard drive spin! Be curious and inquisitive about all you come across, why things work the way they do, and how they could be improved.
3. Increase your stimulation. If you always make exactly the same journey each day, see the same sights, meet the same people, eat the same food and so on, there’s very little to stimulate your creativity and your ideas. Experiment more by varying all of the above. Even small changes can bring a significant shift in how you experience the world, and new perspectives lead to new ideas.
4. Read a variety of material. We all have our favorite magazines, books or websites we read. Mix up your reading list, and add a few items you never would normally read -- for example, an article on bee keeping, a magazine on architecture, or a book about the Spanish Civil War. New and unusual material will encourage your creativity to expand and naturally stimulate new ideas and angles.
5. Capture your ideas. How many times does an idea come to you and you vow to remember it and work on it later? Then later comes and you’ve completely forgotten the idea! Each of the above tips will help you have more ideas, but if you never capture them, it’s all in vain.

   The simplest way of recording your ideas is by keeping a small pocket journal or notebook with you at all times, and jotting down ideas as soon as they hit you. You’ll very soon find that the more ideas you collect, the more ideas will appear to replace them.

Follow these 5 steps and you’ll encourage your ideas to flow more freely and easily than ever. Start your new idea revolution today!