Don’t Worry About Creativity and Inspiration

Don’t Worry About Creativity and Inspiration

Sometimes we all feel uninspired to do creative things, but no worries! Here are 12 different ways, even when you’re off, to be more creative.

How To Be Creative If You’re Feeling Drained And Uninspired

1. Ask Yourself New Questions
   Occasionally, simply because we’re asking the wrong question or not asking any questions, we could hit a creative road block.
   
   When we conclude that we know how to solve the problem, we neglect the many other possibilities that might be the solution we are searching for. Start by asking questions instead of taking the expected common approach and let that guide you to your creative inspiration.
   
   Ask new questions to direct your creative inspiration. #creativity
   
   
   
2. Take A Stroll
   Walking has been found by Researchers to promote creativity. If walking is involved, creative thinking rises, on average, by 60%. Not only does it affect motivation when walking, it also continues after you come back to your desk.
   
   
3. Listen To A Podcast
   Podcasts are good for car rides, but also for replacing the music while you’re working. Check out a podcast that will bring new insight as you work instead of listening to music.
   
   My current favorite podcast is Jim Rohn Archive as Jim Rohn coaches on the Laws of Attraction and investing in yourself. Look to your professional heroes, and find a podcast or Ted Talk that they’ve spoken for.
   
4. Book A Trip
   Perhaps changing rooms or even changing buildings is just not enough for that matter. You may just need a trip to be around a new environment. Make a trip and enjoy your time together with some friends.
   
   According to a study by Adam Galinsky, “New sounds, smells, language, tastes, sensations and sights spark different brain synapses.” Even new experiences that are completely unrelated to creativity, can bring new ideas and perspectives.
   
   For example, Ernest Hemingway drew inspiration from his time in Spain and France for much of his writing.  In his travelogue, The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain, who sailed around the Mediterranean coast in 1869, wrote that travel is “fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”
   
5. Collaborate With a Group of Passionate People
   Most of us try to solve it on our own when we hit a situation. But the solution will only be found at times when you talk to someone else about it.
   
   The answer may be at the tip of your tongue or in the back of your mind, but the solution will be buried in our inner thoughts without speaking through the problem. Christian Jarrett’s article found some amazing facts about collaborating together that can boost your creativity seriously. “The mere presence of other people can boost your performance” finding someone nearby, discussing it, and working together to find a solution.
   
6. Find Creative Sites
   While Pinterest may be the largest inspiration site in the world, there are several other sites that can best suit your industry. It’s Pixabay, Dribble or Behance for entrepreneurs like me. This could be TechCrunch, Mashable, or Convince and Convert for you.
   
   Whatever you enjoy, when you hit your creative road block, find your key sites that you can bookmark and refer to for creative reminders.
   
7. Borrow Ideas
   Let me say it again, borrow ideas, not copy them. As French author François-René de Chateaubriand wrote, “The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.”
   
   You just need to start somewhere sometimes, look at what you know, and then see how you can make it better.
   
8. Create An Inspiration File (See what I did there ;))
   “Your job is to collect good ideas. The more good ideas you collect, the more you can choose from to be influenced by.” That’s what Austin Kleon said in his awesome book, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.
   
   And that’s true!
   
   Collect as many ideas as you can to use them later as a reference. This may take shape in a Pinterest board, Evernote folder, or physical clip and snippet collection. But it’s incredibly important to start collecting now, no matter how you do this. Begin now, and your collection will continuously grow.
   
   Food, Sleep, Exercise: Why You Seriously Need All 3 to Be Successful
   
9. Sleep On It
   Director Christopher Nolan has taken inspiration from his own lucid dreams for his 2010 psychological thriller Inception
   
   Whether you’re inspired by your dreams or just taking a break and clearing your mind, having a good night’s rest can be key to creativity. Believe it or not, we need a balanced life outside of work so that we are fully prepared mentally and physically when it comes to thinking.
   
10. Combine Opposites
    “Creativity is just connecting things,” Steve Jobs said. If it does not work to connect familiar ideas, try to connect opposite or unrelated ideas.
    
    This is often used for humor by comedians, and if it works for them, why shouldn’t you? Some of the most successful ad campaigns I’ve ever seen were made possible by connecting an unrelated emotion or story with the one they’re trying to communicate. Opposites can be intense, so try them out.
    
11. Maintain An Ideas Journal
    On your morning commute, take a notebook with you and start sketching. Fill it with quotations, doodles, a record of what you’ve done that day. Write down a story!
    
    Let this notebook be your place to play and chill on and off the job. Athletes, in their daily workouts, use this similar ‘warm up and cool down’ approach. Treat this notebook like your own exercise to increase your imagination. Warm up on the way to work with sketches, and cool down on the way home with doodles.
    
    Just let your mind wander and play. An idea journal will really show you how to be creative throughout your daily life.
    
12. Do Nothing
    In fact, psychological research suggests that doing nothing is essential for creativity and innovation, and a person’s seeming inactivity might actually cultivate new insights, inventions or melodies.
    
    You heard it right. Take some time to do nothing, absolutely nothing. Each job, however amazing it may be, needs a break. Relax, enjoy yourself, and later return to it. Time away may be just what you need to be fully restored and ready to come back.

Now You Have Learned How To Be Creative In The Absence Of Inspiration

There it is! 12 different ways on how to be creative when you’re feeling absolutely stuck.

Whether it’s sketching on your commute, going on a trip with friends, encouraging yourself to play, or doing absolutely nothing, try out various ways of finding inspiration and seeing what works best for you.

What works today might not work tomorrow, but keep the creative mind alive and open to new opportunities..

P.S. Don’t forget your 30-day creativity challenge!