Strategies to inspire your creativity

We are all creative. But, we need inspiration and motivation to turn our creativity into action. Lately, I have been too focused on details, and as a result, I am starting to feel disconnected from my creative side. Here is a reminder, at least for me, of the many ways we can inspire our creativity. What works for you?

Just show up

As with anything in life,  showing up is the first step. You need to prioritize and schedule your creative time. This may not seem like an inspiration strategy, but what came first: the chicken or the egg?! With that said, you do want to tune into your natural creative rhythm to avoid swimming against the current. For me, trying to engage in anything before my morning coffee is a futile exercise (i.e., I am not a morning person). However, by mid-afternoon my creativity starts to flow and by early evening I feel intense focus. My challenge is to work my life around my creative rhythm; like weeding the garden, it’s never ending work…..

To discover your natural creative rhythm, you just need to pay attention. Pay attention to when you feel most creative, when ideas are flooding out and when you can tap into that energy with ease. Once you find that rhythm, figure ways to arrange your life around it, however you can. Your creativity and productivity will thank you.

And listen…

Curiosity, observation, reflection, and acceptance are part of the creative process. To inspire your creativity, you need to give it space and time to process itself. Write it, shape it, mold it, but let it germinate itself. My out-of-this-world ideas are not always that hot when I write them down. However, with time, they usually morph into something new, sparking new thoughts and taking new forms. So, listen without judgement, explore without constraints, share without attachment and use your intuition to shape and mold (more on this, see Meet your idea critics.)

Know your Achilles’ heel

Our strengths can also be our greatest weaknesses. In my case, my ability to focus on a specific area to the point of obsessiveness (such as the case of making time for writing) pushes my creativity to the back burner. Recognizing this, I have to consciously make time to show up, to reflect and to explore in order to fuel my creativity. This is a case where it is not the quantity of time, but the quality of time that really matters.

My variety of interests (including design, sustainability, creativity, innovation, technology, startups, digital photography, cooking, Zen Buddhism, travel, music and even some gardening) seeds my ideas from independent and unrelated sources. As I enjoy learning, I get curious about connections and inspired by possibilities. This is why ‘focus’ is my Achilles’ heel; when I focus on results, I loose touch with this exploration cycle that inspires my creativity.

I can’t comment on how to establish the perfect balance in ones life. I think that is very personal. Take work-life balance for example. For some, this means the complete and total separation of work from life. For me, I am most at ease when they freely flow and mix in and out of each other.

Creativity is a state of mind

Each one of us are different in what inspires our creativity and motivates our desire to produce. However, just like a faucet controlling water flow, our surroundings (light, color, sounds, …), our purpose, our boundaries, our own sense of urgency, … can positively or negatively influence the flow of our creative energy. When I want to inspire my creativity, you will find me in open surroundings, with lots of light and warm colors, usually listening to classical music or Last.fm‘s opera radio.

However, I have to develop that mind set, that urge to create, and enable the right environment to maximize my energy flow. It is not about proving if I am creative or not, as we are all creative. But, it is about taking what is locked up in my head, capturing it in a way that is sharable, even if it is just for my own consumption. This process alone, enriches life, adds beauty, clarity and at times simplicity.

Be authentic… Be true to yourself. And trust the process

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be.

– Abraham Maslow

Lets get this straight, only thing your creativity wants is for you to be authentic, be true to yourself. It has no judgement, no expectations. It has no preconceived notions of what is good or bad, right or wrong. All these judgements are in your head; you bring them with you to the table when you sit down to create. For you to be inspired, you need to remove these artificial blockages from the system and just trust the creative process. You can’t drive across the city if you are constantly hitting the brakes!

Avoid sensory overload

We live in a world where distractions and interruptions are everywhere . Email, instant messaging, SMS, Facebook, RSS, google, reality shows, YouTube… are all fueling our information addiction. “You got mail.” is the new hit, giving us an instantenous rush, even though we know there are 57 channels (and nothing on.) Worse, this constant context switching is hurting our creativity and productivity. So, for creativity and productivity sake, put on the stop information addiction patch for a set period of time. Set clear boundaries: no browsing, no email, no messaging, no google, … and focus on your creative side. And enjoy the Sounds of Silence.

Build your treasure map

Ok, you are stuck. Now what? How about building your treasure map. In this case, your treasure is your purpose, it is what you want to achieve. The landmarks could be your milestones, and paths reflect where you need to grow and develop. Mind maps are also great tools for capturing your thoughts and ideas creatively. But, if you don’t know where you are, how do you know where you are going? And if you don’t know where you are going, this is a good time to get realigned. In the process of developing your treasure map, you will be inspired.

Don’t be blinded by your habits

Recently we stepped into the GPS age. It is a great device to find locations for soccer fields, coffee shops, and anything else that we may want to know that is around us. However, it can also be limiting, as it results in journeys from point A to point B in the most efficient manner. And in addition to eliminating the discovery of a wonderful point C (by getting lost), GPSs could also cause temporary blindness… Why would I need a GPS to tell me my coffee store is less than half a block right in front of me?! Because we give the GPS our complete focus, disregarding the rest of the journey. And, that is a true story

Our habits can become routine, automatic, and compulsory. So, shake things up a bit. Take a different route, leave the iPod at home during your run, pick up a new book, ask for a job rotation, get to know a new person, … As I am hanging around the university, I am learning from the youngsters how to carry my iPod, how to ignore public service announcements, and how to follow my own rhythm. See what I would be missing if I didn’t shake things up a bit!? And, who knows what that might lead to one day…

Love the process

See yourself as a creative being and enjoy the process. With apologies to Stuart Smalley of Saturday Night Live: “I’m good enough, I’m creative enough, and doggone it, I’m inspired.”

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