Simple Ways To Boost Your Creativity

When you want to give your creative intelligence a boost it is a mistake to just dive in and use advanced creativity techniques as your brain has not had to come up with creative ideas for a long time. It is better to do some of the simpler things first.

 

If you try to do too much when you are just starting out with developing your creativity then you are likely to find the going very tough and this can really test your staying power. Having got really excited about the prospect of being more creative, you do not want to give up in the early stages because you have approached things in the wrong way.

 

With this in mind, we will share with you some of the simplest things that you can do to get started on your journey to developing your creativity. There is nothing difficult about any of these things and you can implement them easily.

 

See your Creativity as a Muscle

 

The development of your creativity will happen a lot faster if you take consistent action on a regular basis. It is a good idea to see your creativity as a muscle that you need to exercise on a regular basis to make it fit and strong.

 

Research has shown that people who did not believe that they had any creativity were able to come up with some creative ideas when they tried to do this. The moral of this story is that the more you use your creativity the better that you will become at it.

 

You have connections in your brain between various cells and when you learn new things and generate new ideas it is likely that you will create new connections. By using your creativity, you will also strengthen the existing connections that you have.

 

Change up your Surroundings

 

If you always go to the same place for your creative sessions then this can hamper your chances of generating creative ideas. Sitting at the same office at work or in the same room at home means that you will be looking at the same things all of the time which is not good.

 

Make some small changes to your surroundings so that you see something different when you are being creative. Move your furniture around or just reorganize your office desk. Using a different room in your home is also a good idea to bring fresh inspiration.

 

Learn New Things

 

There are a lot of good reasons why you should focus on a subject and become an expert in it. We also recommend that you learn new things as well. When you have knowledge of additional subjects you are going to give your creative intelligence a boost.

 

It doesn’t matter what subjects you choose to learn about. Just believe that this will help to develop your creativity and get on with it. With the Internet, there is no excuse for not learning new things. Trust that this works because it does.

 

Give yourself New Challenges

 

If you keep doing the same things all of the time then you are not going to help your creativity. Find new challenges that you can participate in that will test your creative powers. A good example of this is a game where you need to solve puzzles to move forward. There are plenty of these available online.

Your Creative Mindset And Habits

If you want to develop your creativity then you need to start with a creative mindset. This is easier to do than you may think and, in this article, we will explain what you need to do. When you have a creative mindset, you will form new habits that will help you to boost your creative intelligence.

 

Our habits define who we are and what we do. If your current habits do not support creativity then you will find that being creative is very difficult for you. You are not going to become more creative overnight. There is no miracle solution for this.

 

Negativity is the Enemy of Creativity

 

Having a lot of negative thoughts swirling around in your head is going to totally stifle your creativity. You will not be able to focus on generating innovative ideas because your focus will be dominated by the negativity in your mind. You must learn to neutralize negative thoughts as they are the enemy of creativity.

 

Minimizing the amount of negativity in your life is your aim here. We all experience negative thoughts and whenever these occur in your head then you need to neutralize them with a positive thought. If you are finding it tough to solve a problem and a thought occurs like “you will never solve this” neutralize this with “I can solve any problem”.

 

With a bit of practice and effort you will find it increasingly easy to neutralize negative thoughts. No longer will they dominate your mind and block your creative thoughts. It will take a bit of time to get into the habit of doing this but it is essential that you do it and have a positive mindset rather than a negative one.

 

Be more Patient

 

Patience is a word that seems to be lost in today’s fast-paced world. Everybody is looking for instant answers and they are not prepared to wait for anything. You can blame a lot of this on the Internet and the ability to find most of the answers that you need in seconds.

 

The problem here is that you can never rush creativity. Even when you have developed your creative intelligence it can still take quite a while for the right creative idea to come along. You need to be patient enough to wait for this to happen.

 

If you do not have a lot of patience right now then you need to work on this. Forget about instant answers when it comes to creativity. It doesn’t matter that you can get factual answers to questions using Google in seconds. Creativity is very different.

 

Ambiguity is your Friend

 

Another mindset area that you need to develop is the embracing of ambiguity. Most people do not like ambiguity and prefer certainty. But the world is not like that. There are usually more ambiguous situations than certain ones.

 

Creative people like ambiguity because it provides them with the opportunity to come up with novel ideas. There are always going to be situations where you do not have all of the facts or are missing some important information. See this as an opportunity rather than a problem.

 

Set aside Time for Creativity

 

The more that you can practice your creativity the better you will get at it. In order to make this a reality, plan for creative time on a regular basis and make sure that you don’t miss any creative sessions. 

 

It’s Never Too Late To Be Creative

A lot of people believe that they have no creative talent whatsoever. They will tell you that you have either got it or you haven’t. In this article we will explain that this is not true at all. The truth is that it is never too late to develop your creativity.

 

You were Creative as a Child

 

Every human being is born with the skill to create. As a young child you had no inhibitions about expressing your creativity and you did this often. You made up things at will and you did those first drawings that your parents praised you for.

 

Kids tend to play a lot of games together and they find it easy to invent new games all of the time. It just comes easy to a young child to think of stories in their head and to invent whatever they want. A child will never be harshly judged for this.

 

Society Stifles Creativity

 

As a child gets older and starts to attend high school they are usually subjected to judgment from their peers and their teachers. Society expects them to think and act in a certain way and there is no place for creative ideas here.

 

It is indeed rare for a school, or even a college, to encourage a lot of creativity. If you have not chosen to study some form of art then you can leave your creative ideas behind. You can be lucky to land a job that encourages creativity but there are not too many of those to go around normally. Usually, you have had all of the creativity knocked out of you by this stage anyway.

 

You can Develop your Creative Skills

 

Always bear in mind that creativity is a skill that you have always had and always will. It doesn’t matter how much society has tried to stifle your creativity you can always return to it and develop it. You will need to change your perception on creativity and get back to basics but it is certainly possible to develop your creative skills.

 

At this point you may be struggling to come to terms with the fact that you did have creative talent and that it has been stifled over the years. Think back to when you were a child and remember some of the things that you did. What games did you play? Did you invent any stories or characters? How about those drawings you did as a kid?

 

If you are able to discuss this with your parents, brothers and sisters or childhood friends then do that. Your parents may have been partly responsible for stifling your creativity, but they will be delighted to tell you stories of the things that you did as a child. Brothers and sisters and childhood friends will also enjoy going down memory lane with you.

 

Believe in your Creative Talents

 

Do you ever find yourself looking at something creative and thinking to yourself “how did they do that?” or “I couldn’t do that”? If you are around creative people, do you wonder where they got their ideas from? 

 

The only thing stopping you doing the same thing is your belief. You are going to have a hard time developing your creativity if you do not believe that you can be creative. Creativity is in all of us so believe that you can bring it to the surface again.

 

The Benefits Of Developing Your Creativity

There are several benefits to boosting your creative intelligence and making a commitment to be more creative. In this article, we will cover some of the most important benefits to inspire you to take action. Developing your creativity will take time and effort and you need to be consistent to get the best results.

 

Set yourself Free with more Creativity

 

You are not subject to any rules when you use your creativity. One of the things that holds people back the most when they want to give their creativity a boost is that they are quick to judge themselves. This can be particularly difficult to overcome especially when you are just starting out.

 

Society wants us to think in a certain way and is usually quick to judge and challenge new creative ideas. When you were a child, you just did one creative thing after another because you were free to do that. Becoming more creative will help you to get back this freedom.

 

You will increasingly Trust your Instincts

 

Everyone has instincts that tell them that something is right or wrong from time to time. As you grow older you tend to trust your instincts less because they have been criticized in the past by others or even yourself. 

 

Being told that your instincts are wrong over and over again will wear you down and the mainstream does this a lot. Suppressing your instincts is the end result and when you are more creative you will rebuild your trust with your instincts.

 

Combat Stress with Creativity

 

The modern world brings a lot of stress with it and when you are in a creative frame of mind you can significantly reduce your stress levels. When you are being creative this is a fun time for you and you are focused on generating innovative ideas. This is like meditating and it will calm you down and reduce your stress.

 

Enhance your Skills to solve problems

 

As you develop your creativity you will find that it becomes easier for you to solve the different problems that you face. Some people find solving difficult problems overwhelming and this causes them a lot of anxiety. 

 

By increasing your creativity skills, you will have rock solid belief in your ability to tackle any problem no matter how complex it may seem. You will have the inner resources available to call upon to assist in the generation of creative solutions to problems.

 

Self-Awareness improves with Creativity

 

A lot of people suffer from low self-esteem and low levels of confidence. They struggle with their self-awareness and becoming more creative can improve this considerably. When you are being creative it will give you a much more positive sense about who you are.

 

Generating creative ideas shows that you have a lot of respect for your intuition and your inner-self as a whole. You gradually lose any inhibitions to express the ideas that you have and this raises your self-esteem and makes you more confident.

 

You will find Positives from Failure

 

For most people, failing is something that they would rather forget. As a person with high creative intelligence, you accept that we all make mistakes and that there are usually always positives to be learned from any failures.

 

Make Preparations To Be More Creative

If you want to get the best results from your creative sessions then you need to prepare for them properly. Going into a creative session unprepared is likely to lead to poor results. This is something that a lot of people overlook.

 

You have probably heard the story about the writer who stared at a blank page for hours because they were suffering from a creative block. Even those people that are highly creative can experience a block. If you prepare in the right way you can minimize the chances of a creative block happening to you.

 

You need your Conscious Mind

 

In a creative session you will use both your conscious and subconscious minds. If your conscious mind is dominated with thoughts of repetitive tasks that you need to do such as washing the dishes, driving somewhere, taking out the trash and so on you are going to find it difficult to generate creative ideas.

 

The best solution here is to trust that your subconscious mind will take care of these repetitive tasks for you automatically. You have been driving a car for a while and you will do everything on auto-pilot thanks to your subconscious. What we are saying here is don’t let the minutiae of life dominate your conscious mind as this will stifle your creativity.

 

Provide your Brain with the Energy it needs

 

Your brain needs energy for creative thinking. It will probably work harder in a creative session than it will at other times. To help your brain out here you need to ensure that your body can provide it with all of the energy that it needs for a better creative session.

 

The way that you provide your brain with the optimum amount of energy is through regular exercise and eating the right things. You may think that exercise and diet have no bearing on your creative talents but they do.

 

Make a commitment to exercise regularly. This can be a gentle form of exercise to start with. If you have not exercised in a while then you don’t want to go crazy to begin with. Doing too much will result in a total energy drain and even pains in certain places and this will not help your creativity at all.

 

Eating healthily will ensure that your body receives the nutrients that it needs. Today, a lot of people don’t make the right choices because they do not have a lot of time to prepare something healthy. You need to overcome this problem so that you can feed your creative brain.

 

Prepare the right Questions

 

Questions are very powerful and are a great way to get your creative juices flowing. You can ask yourself questions that are related to the problem that you are trying to solve in order to spark your creativity. 

 

One of the classic questions that creative people ask is “why?” Another is “what if?” Prepare a list of questions to ask yourself before you start your creative sessions that you know will make you think deeply to find an answer. 

 

As you develop your creativity you should find that these questions come a lot more easily to you. You will know from experience what type of questions tend to result in you coming up with creative ideas. Use the power of questions to your advantage.

 

The Power Of Mindfulness Meditation And A Creative Journal

As you head in to each of your creative sessions you need to have done everything that you can to put yourself in the right state of mind for what is to come. If you do not do this then you will find that your session is a real struggle and you may not come up with any creative ideas at all.

 

In order to overcome this, there are two things that you can do prior to your creative sessions to provide you with the best chance of being rally creative and to come up with the results that you desire. These things are mindfulness meditation and the maintaining of a creative journal.

 

You Need a Clear Mind

 

If you go in to your creative session with your mind full of the clutter of the day then you are not going to get the best out of it. Things happen to us during the day which are best left behind when you are trying to be creative.

 

When you mind is full of other thoughts it is going to be tough to find the necessary brain power to generate creative ideas. You need to clear this mind clutter so that you can focus on coming up with innovative solutions. A great way to clear your mind is to be in the present and forget about the past and the future.

 

Learn and Practice Mindfulness Meditation

 

A lot of people are aware that mindfulness meditation is a great way to clear your mind and ground yourself in the present moment. But they do not practice it because they believe that it is too difficult to do.

 

Mindfulness meditation is a lot easier than you probably think. People all around the world are now using this for a few minutes each day to clear their heads and prepare themselves to be in a calmer and more relaxed state.

 

There are plenty of resources online that will explain what mindfulness meditation is, what it does and how you can learn it. You will find a lot of helpful videos on YouTube that will show you how to practice mindfulness meditation. Don’t make excuses, just learn how to do it and practice regularly.

 

Practice mindfulness meditation before every creative session. You only need to spend a few minutes doing this. It really is effective in clearing your mind and grounding you in the here and now. This is exactly where you want to be for your creative session.

 

The Creative Journal

 

If you are not using a journal right now for recording your thoughts, your goals and the actions that you need to take every day to achieve your goals then you need to start one right now. You do not need a fancy leather-bound journal – just use an ordinary note pad.

 

As you develop your creativity you are going to come up with a lot of creative thoughts. It is vital that you pay attention to these thoughts so you need to keep a record of them so that you can evaluate them properly.

 

When you record all of your creative thoughts in your journal you will be able to reflect on these to see how much progress you have made in the development of your creativity. This is great way to motivate yourself and keep going.

5 Strategies to Shine Bright on the Job

Shining bright at a job is often associated with being a “suck-up,” “brown nose,” or “teacher’s pet.” What shining bright at work is about, is being a nice person, working hard, and having the right attitude. Keeping reading for five useful tips that you can implement at work immediately to shine a little brighter and help others to as well.

 

1. Have a Positive Attitude

 

This doesn’t mean that you need be the annoyingly cheerful coworker at all hours of the day. Be kind. Don’t be a negative Nancy. Think before you speak. Being positive in less than stellar situations can take time, practice, and effort, but being the one with the right attitude can go a long way in making situations better and getting noticed for the right reasons.

 

2. Accept Feedback Gracefully

 

Sometimes even the most well-intentioned constructive criticism can sting. Even at those times, accept the feedback gracefully. Do not allow the negativity of others to cause you to act out. Instead, ask questions about the feedback so you can better understand how to do better next time, and this will also show that you are willing to learn and self-correct in the future. Look at every criticism as a chance to grow professionally.

 

3. Be a Professional

 

Being a professional can cover many areas. Consider your language (swearing), your attire, and your actions. Do your best to remain professional an all times. This doesn’t mean to altogether eschew your coworkers though. Be sure to be still friendly, joke around a little, and show that you are willing to contribute to the work culture as well.

 

4. Go the Extra Mile

 

Sometimes going a little bit above and beyond what was expected of you can garner big dividends. Always considering doing a little extra to show that you care about your work and the office. This will impress your supervisor and show your coworkers that you care about everyone in the office.

 

5. Volunteer for New Projects

 

Sometimes your plate is already too full, and you can’t consider taking on one more project. If your plate isn’t already too full, though, consider volunteering for a new project, be it a solo or team one. This will show that you are willing to try new things, take one for the team, and you never know, the new project might end up being a fantastic opportunity for you.

 

Shining bright in the office is not about outshining everyone else. It is about illuminating your own abilities and strengths while also casting everyone else in a positive light so that the team can grow together. Remember, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

6 Ways to Find Unique Ideas for Your Online Course

Ready to offer an online course? The first major challenge is to come up with a topic. It’s the most important decision you’ll make, so you really need something good. How do you come up with unique ideas for courses people will love to take? Here are 6 ideas for finding unique topics.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

What questions do people often ask you? What questions are people asking online? You can look at Q&A sites like Quora or social media and other online forums. 

 

Another idea is to check a similar company or site in your niche and see what questions are on their FAQ. If you can create a course that answers a question on everybody’s mind, you’ll have a great topic that people are interested in.

 

Identify Your Strengths

 

If you offer an online course in a topic where you’re truly an expert, it’s guaranteed to offer great value to your audience. Brainstorm a list of your greatest strengths. 

 

You can often say off the top of your head what you’re good at. You can also analyze your work history to see where you have the most experience. But the best way to find out is to reach out to people in your network and ask them. They know you well and can tell you objectively what you’re best at.

 

Channel Your Inner Nostradamus

 

Get clairvoyant and try to predict what’s coming in the future. It takes a few months to organize and promote an online course. If you can choose a topic that’s going to be trending in the coming months when you’re live, or in the months after that, you’ll really have a great topic on your hands.

 

The good news is that you don’t need to be psychic. You can find out about future trends through market research. Follow industry publications related to your niche. Use tools like Google Trends. Monitor the competition and see what they’re talking about. You can also hone your psychic abilities by knowing past trends and looking for patterns.

 

Look in Unexpected Places

 

Sometimes a great idea comes from somewhere else, not related at all to your business or niche. For example, you might turn on the TV and get a great idea from a news story. Something that comes along your Facebook feed might offer inspiration. Think back on a conversation you recently had with a friend.

 

Get into the mode of always looking for ideas and take notes on your phone whenever something strikes you.

 

Find Gaps in the Market

 

For a unique idea, look for gaps in the market. Look at courses being offered in your niche. You’ll see a few topics being covered by many businesses. Try to find a sub-topic within your niche that’s not being covered and you can make this the topic for your online course.

 

The great advantage here is that you’ll be the only one offering this topic. It may not be a big seller, but if there’s interest, you’ll dominate.

 

Check Analytics

 

People often won’t tell you honestly what they’re interested in even if you conduct surveys and ask them directly. But their actions don’t lie. This is why it’s good to look at analytics. Analytics show you your audience’s behavior.

 

Look at website and blog analytics. Run a newsletter and see which links your subscribers click or messages they open and engage with. Analyze reactions to your social media posts. Look for patterns and you’ll discover your audience’s real interests. 

 

Once you find one of the above ideas that works well for you, document it and refer to it whenever you need new ideas. Also, start an ideas list that you can carry around with you on your phone or in your pocket. Any time inspiration strikes, write it down. You never know when you might hit upon a profitable idea for your online course.

 

How to Spend Less Time Cooking

One of the biggest lies you see commonly in books and online is that you can cook a meal in ten minutes.

 

How often have you seen books with titles like ‘Ten Minute Meals’?

 

There are a few things you can cook in ten minutes but really these don’t get much more ambitious than beans on toast or ‘an egg’.

 

If you want to make an actual meal though, you’ll spend a lot more time in the kitchen.

 

The perfect example of this is when you see an instruction like ‘take your chopped onion’. Hang on a second! Where did this onion come from? Who chopped it? The onion fairies?

 

But even the books that don’t use these little tricks fail to acknowledge that you will spend more time clearing the surfaces, washing up afterward, finding the food in the cupboards and even shopping for those things. A ten-minute meal in reality takes 30 minutes if you’re lucky!

 

While I can’t promise to completely solve this issue though, there are some ways you can get around it and spend a little less time preparing meals. Here are some shortcuts that are free for you to use…

 

Cook in Bulk

 

One of the best things you can do to spend less time cooking is to cook in bulk. This way, you cook a large pot of food that will provide more food than you need. Then, instead of dishing it all up, you put some of it away in the freezer or in the fridge.

 

This then in turn allows you to get it out on evenings when you’re in a rush and heat it up ready for dinner!

 

Use a Slow Cooker

 

A slow cooker can save you a ton of time in the kitchen because it cooks your food when you’re on the way home. You prepare the food that morning or the night before then leave it in the cooker. It turns on at about 4pm and cooks slowly without risking a fire. When you get in at 6pm, the food will be ready to eat!

 

Get the Right Appliances

 

Many appliances can save you a lot of time and effort. One of the best examples is a food processor. But another good one is a waste disposal unit for your kitchen sink. This lets you throw anything down the sink without risking blocking it!

Stop Deferring Your Happiness – You Can Already Do the Things You Want to Do

One of the biggest wrong assumptions that the vast majority of people on this planet make is that they aren’t able to do the things they want to do. To clarify, the assumption that many of us make is that we don’t yet have the means to live our dreams and that the only way to do so is to work harder.

 

Thus we put off doing the things we want to do and we end up taking on more and more work until the point where eventually we are spending every waking moment either working or feeling stressed about work. 

 

I’m here to tell you that it’s time to stop putting off your happiness and to embrace it. Here’s how…

 

There’s Never a ‘Good Time’

 

One of the most common arguments people make for not travelling the world, starting their own business or building their own home is that it’s not a good time. Right now they have too many financial commitments, they don’t have enough money or they have too much else going on. You probably are all too familiar with this!

 

But now think back to all the other things you’ve achieved so far. Was it ever a good time? If you’re a parent, then was it a good time to have a baby? Was it a good time to get married? A good time to start a relationship? A good time to buy a house?

When we have to, we make things work. There’s never a good time so if you really want to enjoy living your life to the full you only have one option: do it anyway.

 

It’s Easier Than You Think

 

And actually, many of the dreams we have are much easier to fulfil than we might initially think. For example, if you want to travel then you don’t necessarily need to spend a fortune or take a year off work.

 

How about identifying places a little nearer that you can travel to and then using budget airlines to go there for long weekends? How about a year of visiting the capital cities you can reach on short haul? That would be a fantastic year and doesn’t need to upend your life!

 

Want a better home? You don’t need to spend millions – just empty out your property of things you don’t need or redux your kitchen. You’d be surprised what a different small tweaks can make!

 

Top Ways to Automate Your Lifestyle

Automation is a business term that basically means you set up a system to handle a part of your job for you. This in turn allows you to spend more time doing other important things and at the same time to exponentially increase your output and scale your production.

 

The obvious example is to use an automated assembly line to create a product rather than doing it by hand. This saves countless man-hours and means in theory that you can produce 10x or 100x the amount of product to sell and scale up your profits in accordance.

 

You can also do this in your personal life and in just the same way, it can hugely increase your free time.

 

Here are some ways you can do that:

 

Shop Online

 

Shopping online and setting up standing orders is a great way to save time that you would otherwise spend going to the shops. At the very least you should use this for your regular grocery shop and this way you can get a weekly shop delivered directly to your door every day without having to head out! This can save 2, 3 or 4 hours a week!

 

You can also set up standing orders for gifts. Want to make sure your partner gets sent flowers every year on your anniversary? That’s actually quite easy to arrange! Or how about using a ‘product as service’ such as one that will supply you with all the shaving products you need every week? There are plenty of these that can save you a lot of hunting and shopping.

 

Robotic Vacuum Cleaners

 

If you can’t afford a cleaner, then consider hiring a robotic vacuum cleaner. These will move around your home all on their own making sure to reach every small patch of floor to vacuum up crumbs, dust, dirt and anything else that gets on your carpet or wooden floor.

 

You can also get robotic lawn mowers that do the same job but outside!

 

Cooking

 

In the kitchen there are tons of things that can save you time. A food processor for instance can automate the peeling process for you if you get one that is good enough.

 

Or if you want an even more automated service, consider signing up to a company that delivers healthy meals to your door every day. These exist and can actually save you hours while improving your health and energy levels!

 

Why You Need to Rethink Your Job

Right now, your job takes up the vast majority of your free time. You probably spend 8 hours a day at work and at least 1 hour a day commuting. Sometimes you’ll clock out late (most times in fact) and then there’s the time you spend getting your lunch and clothes ready for work. In short, you don’t really spend 8 hours a day at work… you spend 10 hours at least. You spend 8 hours sleeping too, so that means you have 6 hours max to yourself. 

 

Oh dear.

 

And here’s the thing: your job is only likely to get more stressful. As most of us try to gain a better salary, we are forced to take on more responsibilities and this ends up meaning we work longer hours and feel more stressed and more burned out at the end of the day.

 

The problem is that many of us don’t realize we have a choice. We assume that the only way to feel like we’re accomplishing something is to work harder. We feel like the only way that we can make more money is again to work harder.

 

The Alternative

 

Here’s an alternative: how about you aim to make your 9-5 job as easy as possible and in the meantime, you get your fulfilment and extra income from a hobby. 

 

Would you like to be a painter? Then you can work any job during the day and spend your evenings painting. The painting is where you can try and ‘achieve’ something and get the satisfaction, not your data entry job. And if you can sell a couple of paintings then you’ll be able to supplement your income as well!

 

Instead of looking for the job with the best salary, look for the job with the most flexible time. Time is worth more than money in terms of freedom and this will ultimately lead to greater happiness. 

 

Now you have a new aim: instead of working hard to get more work, work hard to reduce your work. Ask your boss about flexi-time, or if you can work from home one day in order to gain back more hours. You might be surprised how flexible they can be and if they’re not? Consider looking elsewhere.

 

Remember, even if you’re taking a pay cut, you can always make that money back in other ways and you can always find fulfilment in the things you’re really passionate about!