Creativity and Innovation

What is Creativity/Innovation?

Creativity is the nature of creating something new, either a new idea, concept or method. Innovation is using creativity to enhance performance of a process, person, team, or organization. As you can see creativity and innovation go hand in hand its hard to master innovation without first understanding creativity. Many people think being creative can only be applied in an artistic setting, but that’s not true. Creativity can be applied in any setting including thinking of new and different ideas. It’s not hard to be creative you just need the right tools to start thinking creatively.

• Ask Questions: Asking questions is a vital part of being creative, questions help you to unlock answers that lead to new understanding, insights, and perspectives. This can lead to new possibilities that you can use to your advantage.
• Play with Ideas: In creative thinking you must get out of the mindset that there is only one way to do things. There are a million different ways to solve each problem its just a matter of finding the right one. But before you can do that, you need to loosen up and have fun when trying to think of new ideas or new ways to solve your problem. Creativity is about stepping outside of the box.
• Test and Experiment: The more ideas that you come up with, the better your chances are of finding the right solution. This involves trial and error, coming up with an idea and testing it to see if it will work. Taking risks and trying new things is an important part of creativity. Always remember that sometimes failure is part of success.
• Keep an Open Mind: Always keep an open mind and listen to other people’s ideas. Even something that you think wont work, write it down anyway. The more ideas you have the better, as they say, “no idea is a bad idea”. Because even the ones that you thought where the worst may turn out to be the best.
• Think of New Ways to do Things: For example, many of us know that you use a hammer to pound nails into the wall. But what else could that hammer be used for? There are lots of different uses for every tool if you just start thinking creatively about it. Use this type of thinking in everything you do.
• Patience and Resilience: You are going to run into problems and failures in most situations. It is important to remember to be patient and keep pushing forward. If one thing doesn’t work, try something else and keep going until you figure it out. Never give up!

Creativity is not easy and requires a lot of deep thinking, that is probably why most people do not consider themselves creative. Just use these simple steps and I think you will surprise yourself. And you can also use your newly found creativity to strive for innovation.

• Stop Judging, Start Doing: Instead of spending your time judging others start doing things for yourself. Start innovating and coming up with new ideas, just because someone says that its not a good idea doesn’t mean you have to listen.
• Always Move Towards What is Frightening: Doing things that scare you help you to reach outside of your comfort zone. It also allows you to take risks, taking risks is a critical part of innovation and can lead to great success.
• Maximizing Sleep: Getting the proper amount of sleep each night allows your creativity and innovation to run at full speed.
• Seek New Things: Do not wait for new opportunities to come to you, go get them. Waiting around for things to come to you will not generate much in success. You must go out and get what you are after to be successful.

Trust Yourself: Have trust in yourself that you can get things done and accomplish your goals. You have what it takes you just must believe in yourself and you can solve any problem and reach any goal.