Business Corner

Many people do not think that they are creative. This is because the creative spark has been smothered underneath the day to day stress of earning a living and not taking any time to explore and develop our passions. You can easily learn creativity to better express yourself. There is creativity in some form within everyone, whether it is a deeply buried urge to use colors or an embedded set of emotions that are stirred by musical notes. Creativity doesn’t just mean painting or creating some kind of art, creativity is letting your mind and your soul free to wander, to express how you feel in any kind of medium.

There are numerous benefits to getting in touch with your creativity. First and foremost learning to be creative and freeing your mind to do so enables you to better explore your feelings and express those feelings more clearly verbally. Creative activity also relieves stress and can help clear your mind of daily stressors making you more relaxed and able to sleep or concentrate better afterwards. Learning creativity means getting in touch with the “you” that may be hidden from the rest of the world.

You may not have any training with artistic expression such as painting, but when you hold a brush to a clean piece of paper you may find that your mind knows what it wants to express and the colors you choose, the strokes you make are all straight from your heart. Don’t ever think that finding your creativity means that you have to take classes or training; unless that is what you want to do. You can always allow yourself a private relaxation and stress relieving creative activity that isn’t for anyone else to see or even know about. Your urge to create comes from deep within, and if you don’t let it out to play once in a while it can affect all sorts of areas in your everyday life. That creative juice is there, but it’s up to you to open the cap and let it out.  Read more... (418 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

This is a technique for thinking up very good, creative ideas, you have most certainly used it yourself before but due to its simplicity and understated process you probably weren’t aware you were.

An awareness of this process will help you to recreate the same conditions and access those Eureka moments whenever you need to. It will also help demystify the design process used by many top advertising agencies, copywriters, engineers, comedians and scientists. In fact Einstein professed to getting his best ideas while he was shaving (as a part of this process)… but don’t worry if you are a lady because any form of distraction for your conscious mind will work; all is revealed below.

Simply follow these steps…

Step 1. Identify what it is that you need to achieve. Be absolute and as concrete as you can about this so that you are not leaving too many different directions for your mind to look in. Sometimes identifying what it is you need to achieve is what you need a big idea about, this is fine, just bring this knowledge to step two and take the whole project one level at a time.

Step 2. Research. This is the bit most of us tend to skimp on because the prospect of it really does seem mundane and often difficult to initiate. But it is imperative to your success. Like most unappealing tasks, it is also easier than you anticipate and can even be fun once you get started so make yourself a big mug of tea and jump head first into it.  Read more... (572 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Whether you’re an aspiring novelist or a working copywriter, creativity plays a role in your work.

Fiction writers and poetry writers need creativity for obvious reasons. They need to come up with creative story ideas and find memorable images that will ring true for readers and have an emotional impact.

The same can be true for copywriters and web writers. When you’re writing to sell, your words have to rise above the noise. To do that they have to be grabbing or moving, they have to be authentic, and they have to be memorable… otherwise readers will click away to another web page or drop your ad in the recycling bin.

Fortunately, creativity is something you can learn. Use any on of these three techniques to discover how to boost creativity in your own marketing writing.

Keep a Journal: People are bombarded with images every day. And experiences. And sensations. Breath-taking moments. Epiphanies. These are all potential sources of creativity in your writing. But, only if you keep track of them. If you don’t, some of your best potential inspiration will be lost.

The best way to keep track of these moments so that you can turn them into creativity boosters later is to keep a journal. Keeping a journal does not have to be a lengthy time commitment. Set aside 15 to 20 minutes – even 10 minutes is better than nothing – and during that time write down the most inspiring moments you’ve had in the last 24 hours. These moments could be anything from a description of the sky peaking through clouds to a metaphor that struck you while watching a child play to the way the breeze feels when it ruffles your hair.  Read more... (544 words, estimated 2:11 mins reading time)

How many of us have had the dreaded creativity block? Most of us, and I think it is rare that no artist, be it designer or writer has never experienced a creativity block before. Whether you are creating a website or writing original content, there is always a time when you just stare at the screen and cannot think what to do next.

Here are some tips for those who are faced with this problem and want their creativity back. It really is quite simple once you have thought about it, as there are plenty of steps you can take to get your creativity back on route, for sometimes simply browsing different galleries and reading articles just is not enough to get your creative mood back.

You cannot define the process of getting your creativity back as there is no predefined tactic, and there are no fixed rules. The first step you can try is shutting your computer down and going far away from it. Go for a walk, run or bike ride. You can even go out for a meal or a picnic, go window shopping, whatever, the important issue is to get away from it all.

Once you have taken your break go back to your office or working area at home and browse through all the magazines, brochures and pamphlets you have. After you are satisfied that you have gone through all the new items you had, go and switch your computer on again and open your current project. You should find that a new spark is there and that you feel fresh to work again.  Read more... (521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

I recently ran a creative thinking workshop for some business students. At the end of the session one of the students asked me if I could spot a creative thinker. To my mind the question is moot as everyone whether or not they realise it thinks creatively at some point. As I pondered the question however I began to realise there were some characteristics that seemed to be present in just about every person I would categorise as highly creative.

Flexibility – its important to be flexible and to consider the possibility that problems and challenges may have more than one answer or solution. A creative thinker needs the flexibility to realise when something isn’t working and its time to change the approach. Many of the creative thinkers I have met enjoyed the fact that there was more than one possibility, more than one answer. They revelled in the variety and often disliked it when they felt they were being forced into a corner.

Intense curiosity – Creative thinkers tend to ask a lot of questions. They have a deep curiosity about the world around them that is accompanied by an almost childlike excitement. This can be cultivated simply taking a proper look at the world around you and realising how fantastic and bizarre it really is. Many people never really take the time to do this.

Positive attitude – it is extremely hard to think creatively when you are feeling negative. Possibly this is linked to the intense curiosity (its also hard to be curious about things when you feel negative). People who are creative generally have a positive outlook and mindset on life. The common image of a creative who is emotionally unstable and subject to manic depression is stereotypical – they do exist but they tend to have bouts of hyper creativity followed by a depression during which there is very little creativity at all. The type of person I’m about in this article is a lot more emotionally balanced than this.  Read more... (532 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

Creativity is the skill that transforms an average worker into the one every employer wants to have on his team. It is the process that brings something from nothing, and what business doesn’t need that?

Employing creativity at work can make the difference between keeping and losing your job, being chosen or passed over for a promotion, and whether you enjoy or hate your hours on the clock.

Creativity is the freedom to love life, excel in your work and sustain meaningful relationships that stand the test of time.

In a recent conversation with Professor Guillaume Wolf, author of reDESIGN: reCREATE, he shared the three key rules or principles for living a creative life.

1. All you have is your process.

The key is to build creative thinking into your everyday life by continually asking questions like, “What do I do next?” “Is there a way I could do this better?” “What am I doing that doesn’t need this much energy?” “How can I combine steps to create a better product or less time-consuming process?”

When you were a child, you automatically thought creatively. Life and society has desensitized you to your creative self. As you understand the value of added creativity, you will be surprised how many “great ideas” you start having, seemingly out of nowhere.

2. Commit to creative improvement.

Creative thinking is an ongoing process that requires commitment. Most of us rarely think of it at all, and if we do have a great idea, we rule it out as too weird, too hard or too scary to pursue. Creative geniuses choose to pursue their ideas — at least long enough to mentally play with them and do a bit of research. Like the Nike staff motto, “Be a sponge,” and their company slogan, “Just do it,” culture-changers are committed to maximizing good ideas.  Read more... (478 words, estimated 1:55 mins reading time)