When we talk about good skills to have as a professional, creativity isn’t necessarily the first soft skill that comes to mind. Teamwork, communication, collaboration, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, problem solving, leadership: these all seem broadly applicable to just about every industry. Can one say the same for creativity? Yes. Creativity goes beyond the making of art; it’s the engine that affords us the mental horsepower to solve problems, understand how other people feel, and give us the confidence and mental flexibility needed to take big risks on untested ideas and projects. Life is always throwing us curveballs; creativity helps make us better at catching them.
Like all soft skills, creativity can be something you improve with practice. Don’t limit yourself by saying you have no talent or artistic inclinations; EVERYONE can be creative in some form.
“People often think creativity is something you're born with, but it's really a habit,” said Julia Cober, Rio Salado College Faculty Chair for Communications. "Every conversation, presentation, or problem is an opportunity to ask, "Is there another way to approach this?' That willingness to explore different possibilities is what strengthens both creativity and communication."
Brainstorm
How do you come up with ideas? Do you find that you think creatively in conversation with other people? Do ideas come to you when you take long walks? Does working with your hands produce insights and moments of inspiration? We all ideate in different ways. Some of us have to talk it out; some of us play out ideas in our minds; and for some of us we brainstorm with our bodies, through physical labor and repetitive motions, freeing our minds to percolate on ideas while the rest of our body stays busy.
"One of the easiest ways to build creativity is to become more curious,” Cober added. “Ask questions, seek out perspectives that differ from your own, and challenge yourself to explain ideas in new ways. Curiosity fuels creativity, and creativity helps us become more thoughtful, adaptable communicators."
Discover how you get inspired and then you’re ready to take on the next big question: WHEN are you most creative?
Get in the Zone
Is there a particular time of the day where you’re most mentally alert? Do you find yourself having more eureka moments at night than during the daylight? When do you feel most creative? Many of us tend to have a specific time of the day where we’re more ON, more engaged, more cognitively nimble than usual. It’s in these moments where we’re the most mentally energized that we tend to also be at our most creative. If you want to be more creative, find out what times of day you find yourself in that zone of inspiration. Make an effort to utilize that time when you can to practice creative pursuits.
Do the Work
Being creative can be fun but doing creative work IS work. If you want to be more creative, you have to put some effort into it. The key is to practice your creativity even when you don’t feel inspired. If you want to improve your writing or visual art skills, for example, make a plan to set aside some time every day to practice that skill. Don’t worry if you don’t have an idea at the moment: just put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and work. You may end up producing a bunch of unusable nonsense but that’s fine because you’re exercising your brain. A big part of being creative is making peace with the fact that you won’t always produce great ideas or craft beautiful pieces; sometimes you will come up with garbage. You will have bad ideas and write or make awful things. Failure is a large part of creativity. Think of it like cooking: not every dish you make is going to taste just right the first time you make it. If you let yourself be put off on improving your cooking because of one bad dish, you’ll never get better. That’s why regular practice, regardless of results, is so important.
Don’t Be Afraid to Be Bored
Boredom is something we all strive to avoid as much as possible. With the advent of smartphones and screens, boredom is now a choice most of the time. We can always do something to occupy our time. The downside to this is that boredom is quite useful for cultivating creativity. When we’re bored, we daydream, we search out things to do, we doodle, we come up with strange ideas. Part of being bored is having nothing to focus on or achieve, which frees our minds to wander.
Try this as an exercise: the next time you find yourself waiting for something that will take at least five to ten minutes of your time, put your phone away. Don’t watch TV or use any kind of devices. Sit or walk and daydream. Let your mind wander and see what kind of ideas come to you in this idle, exploratory state.
Keep a Notebook
It helps to think of your creativity as a garden. You have to tend to it, water it with inspiring things, and cultivate ideas as though they were seeds. One of your best tools to maintain that garden is a notebook, a journal where you can write down ideas and images that come into your head. Consider the journal like a piggybank for ideas, a place where you can dump concepts you find intriguing and let them appreciate with interest over time. The notebook can also be a storehouse for interesting facts you’ve discovered, lists of things you want to research or explore more, recipes you want to cook, books you want to read, and so on.
Writing down your random ideas is good because we often forget about things, even things we’re particularly passionate about can become blanks in our memories over time. Sometimes you may see or think of something that intrigues you but you don’t know what to do with it; the notebook is where you can plant that seed, letting it sit idle until you can figure out how to grow it.
"Some of my best ideas don't arrive all at once—they develop over time,” Cober said. “Keeping a running list of observations, questions, or interesting conversations gives your brain something to connect later, and those unexpected connections are often where creativity begins."
Article by Austin Brietta
Read About Wellness
Check out more of our Wellness and Student Success stories: