Be More Creative - 7 Ways You're Choking Your Creativity - And What To Do Instead

By Dan Goodwin

Often, it doesn't matter how much you're doing to try to be more creative, if you're constantly sabotaging and choking our creativity on a number of different fronts. Here are 7 of the most common ways you may be choking YOUR creativity, and what you can do instead:

1. You don't create regularly.

When you create erratically, you never give yourself the chance to get into the flow and the habit of creating. By creating for a minimum amount at the same time everyday, you give your creativity permission to be creative and send the clear message that creating is something that is a priority and of great importance to you. Your creativity responds and flows like never before.

2. You don't capture your ideas.

When it feels like you never have any good ideas, what's actually happening is you never record your ideas and forget them as quickly as they came. Use an Ideas Journal - simply a small pocket notebook to jot your ideas down when they appear - and soon you'll have more ideas than you can capture!

3. You don't acknowledge you creative strengths.

We're each unique in our creative strengths, so rather than focusing on what you feel you lack, recognise and celebrate your creative strengths. What would a good friend of yours say if they were asked what your biggest creative strengths were? Write them all down and make the most of them.

4. You let your inner critic have the last word.

We all have negative voices in our heads telling us we're not good enough, or we have no talent. You have the choice whether to be dictated to by these kind of thoughts or whether to tune them out as background noise and carry on creating the best you can create anyway.

5. You intimidate yourself with too many materials.

A classic cause of getting stuck creatively is to simply give yourself too many options then get completely overwhelmed. Set a few simple boundaries in the form, size, style, theme and so on of what you're going to create. When your creativity has a few edges to push against, it can really be at its resourceful best.

6. You've lost touch with why you create.

When creating has been a struggle for some time, and you only have negative associations with creating, it's easy to get demoralised. Spend time getting back to why you create, and remembering what it is that creating gives you that nothing else can.

7. You forget you always have a choice.

In every part of creating, you have a choice, though it's easy to forget. You can choose to make time each day to create, you can choose to acknowledge creativity as the important element in your life it is, and you can choose to give yourself permission to be as creative as you can possible be. Choose creativity!

Which of these resonate most for you? What steps can you take today to loosen that stranglehold and let your creativity breathe freely again?

Take the next step to increase your creativity today by getting your copy of Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin's powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook. It's FREE when you sign up to the FREE twice monthly ezine "Create Create!" at www.CoachCreative.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Goodwin

Comments On Creativity

By Terry Weber

What does age have to do with creativity? You may think you are too old to do anything creative with your life. If so, read the following facts:

GIUSEPPE VERDI wrote Falstaff when he was eighty – his best opera.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN invented the bifocal lens when he was seventy-eight.
FRANK LOYD WRIGHT completed the Guggenheim Museum one of his masterpieces, when he was ninety-one years of age
MICHELANGELO was painting and striking frescoes in the Pauline chapel of the Vatican at eighty-nine.

SO, the ability to change things around us and thus contribute to the culture may actually increase in the later years.

MADELINE L’ENGEL (a writer) said her personal credo is well summarized by these few lines, which reflect the stubbornness that has stood her in such good stead so far:

“Human beings are the only creatures who are allowed to fail. If an ant fails, it’s dead. But we’re allowed to learn from our mistakes and from our failures. And that’s how I learn, by falling flat on my face and picking myself up and starting all over again. If I’m not free to fail, I will never start another book, I’ll never start a new thing.”

The ability to discover what one can do well, and enjoy doing it, is the hallmark of all creative people. After you make that discovery you will never work again. Pray and ask God to help you discover your truest interest.

To be human means to be creative. Living creatively links us with God in whose creative image we are made.

HOW YOU CAN BE CREATIVE:Find out what you like and what you hate about life.Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate.Develop what you lack.Find ways to express what moves you.Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible. Most important in life are: Love and Work.

Did you know that even a brain specialist could not tell Einstein’s brain from yours or mine? In terms of capacity for processing information, all brains are extremely alike.
attention or time left over to learn about anything else or to approach the world creatively. Will creative goals dominate your thinking today so you can contribute something worthwhile to those around you?

http://www.OriginalsByWeber.com

Terry Weber is a retired advertising/direct mail sales letter copywriter and inventor of several useful items. Terry and his wife Doris are Habitat For Humanity, RV Care-A- Vanners who, for the past eight years have volunteered to help build more than 39 houses all over the USA. They travel to and from the 2- week long builds in their RV. The money they make on their Crafty-Ones website helps them pay their expenses to and from those volunteer Habitat builds.
P.S. Due to the high cost of gasoline we can no longer afford to drive the RV to Habitat builds. The RV is parked until gasoline prices come down. (4/28/06)

Paths to Bring About Creativity

By Robin Skeen

If you are trying to regain your creativity, there are some simple methods you can use. If you don't have a lot of free time, you can still do this. It only takes a little time while in a positive state of mind in order to magnify your creativity. This will bring a sense of joy to every part of your life. Lots of people go through their lives without ever thinking about creativity. The every day things get in the way. Even if you do find the time, where's the energy going to come from to accomplish this? It's always best to go with what works for you personally. There certainly is no wrong way to do this. The following ideas are just some of the methods known to work for others and are completely adjustable to you. Tapping into your creativity can be done just by getting focused. That's a good place to start.

First, have you ever really looked at the people and things around you? People and things are just background noise to most of us as we go through our day to day life. We get so focused on what we are doing and where we are going and how things affect us that another perspective just gets lost. Can you try to see from a different angle? Try for a while every day, just a few minutes at a time to actually look at what is around you. Did the lady at the checkout give you a brilliant smile? How about in the late evening as the sun is setting, have you noticed how the tops of clouds are actually pink? Can you smell your beautiful garden that you worked so hard on? How about the busy little ants at the corner of the walkway? Get in close and invite yourself into their scurrying for just a moment. You will be amazed at how much more you can see than you ever thought.

Secondly, let's talk about that rut we all tend to fall into. It's always a good idea to try new things. When we do the same thing day after day, we stop noticing what's in the world. Have you ever pulled into your parking space at work and wondered how you got there? You are definitely on cruise control at that point and I'm not talking about the car. Things become such a habit that we forget that there are other ways to live and look at life. Make a pact with yourself that you will try something new once at week at the very least. Go to a different shopping mall, take the scenic route to work, eat at that quaint little restaurant you keep meaning to visit. In order to shake up your awareness, you have to create a new way of doing things.

The third way to bring your creativity to the forefront is to see inspiration and creativity in as many things as possible. I was completely fascinated as a child with how people came up with inventions and with stuff we all use every day. I have this nifty little gadget that I use to seal a 2 liter cola bottle. It keeps the cola fresh and carbonated. Now how neat is that? Who would have thought up something like that little handy tool? Do you have something in your home that you think could be made easier to use? Can you improve on the function? You don't have to rush out and apply for patents or start an inventors club. This is just another way of creative thinking.

Keep an open mind and look for those ideas that are a positive influence on your creativity. Try to squeeze in more reading time, more time to learn new things, and stay open to all the possibilities that may come your way.

Robin Skeen
www.robinskeen.com

Robin lives in the lovely state of Ohio, USA. She is a freelance writer and her website contains her reflections on inspired personal growth - transforming body, mind and spirit so you can live your best life NOW! To find out more, visit today. Free reports and eBooks are added on a regular basis.