February 2012
3 posts
What ever happened to imagination?
When did creativity become such serious business?
It seems like just yesterday we were drawing outside of the lines of our favorite coloring books, or smashing the square peg into the triangle hole, or using our imaginations to be warriors or princesses.
Then we grow up and our imaginations are put away. Our entire mentality around creativity goes from “having fun” to “do the work” almost...
How to cook up creativity.
What does it take to be creative? Here’s a quick and easy recipe you can use and share, no matter what level of skill you have in the kitchen of creative thinking.
The fallacy of creative success.
What does success look like for a creative individual?
For many of us, we believe that creative success is the act of creating something and seeing it do well. From spreading content online, to publishing a book, selling a painting, getting that big raise after solving the company’s problem, all of these can be measures of success for someone who is creative.
But that’s not...
January 2012
11 posts
What you imagine, you can make.
Consider the fact that this statement is truer today than any other time in history before. If you’re reading this, you have access to an infinity of options for making anything you imagine a reality.
No matter what step of the creative process you’re in – believing you’re not creative, not knowing how to start, unable to get unstuck, not having the abilities to do the work...
Why be creative? A free ebook from several...
Why should you be creative? Why should anyone, for that matter, concern themselves with creative thinking?
In the free ebook, Why Creativity?, several of today’s brilliant creatives provide insights into these questions. World renown illustrator and writer Frank Chimero offers a brief explanation, while the remarkable author Julien Smith describes the answer vividly and in a way that is...
To make creativity sustainable, don't wait.
Mere ideas aren’t worth anything.
When professional creatives are paid it’s because they either have worthwhile knowledge and experience that they can actively educate others about, or because they create work that sells.
In both cases, the only way to make creativity sustainable is to do something with your ideas. Creation is the key to creativity, after all. Consider this:...
Creativity is a gamble. But what's not?
“Look high, look low, and we see that gamblers actually form the majority of the world’s inhabitants.” – James Runciman.
One way to get better at gambling is to start with low bets, experiment with different games, and practice repeatedly.
You and I are gambling every day, which is why it’s important to have some idea of how to get better at it.
Whenever we start a project or...
What to do after you start.
Getting started is easy if you are motivated enough.
You take the first few steps, you put the pencil to the paper and move it around a bit, or you open the text editor on your computer and make the clackity noise, or whatever else it takes to simply do something.
But what then?
If you’re like everyone else then you start to encounter strange feelings, of fear and doubt and...
How to maintain a creative, healthy perspective.
“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.” – John Lubbock
Often creative ideas stem from seeing something that you couldn’t see before.
The missing piece you were overlooking, or the element you hadn’t considered adding, or the solution you didn’t know existed until it hit you randomly. Regularly, new experiences can fuel these types of creative insights.
At the...
The future belongs to the curious.
This video beautifully explains why curiosity matters, for all of us. Watch it.
Creating the life you want for yourself.
You can’t always do the work that makes you happy.
Ar least, for most of us, life doesn’t work like that. You have obligations to keep, bills to pay, relationships to maintain, and expectations to fulfill.
Someone who wants to live soley as an artist, for example, but who also has a family to look after, might not be able to be just an artist.
But that’s an excuse.
...
Here's what creativity looks like.
I had this realization when I first woke up this morning. The image here is what creativity looks like. (If you can’t see the image click here.)
In the center is a problem, or issue, or topic, whatever you want to imagine there. It can be something you need to do at work, or your relationship with a best friend, or a goal you want to reach this year.
The outer points are the possible...
No excuses.
What is standing in your way from creating something right now?
That’s not a trick question, take a minute to consider it if you have to. Try to nail down one or two things that are preventing you from creating something, digitally, physical, or otherwise. If you can’t move forward what can you do?
The typical thing to do when there’s something in your way, is to give up...
Why the best ideas have something missing. (You...
“Thirty spokes share the wheel’s hub, It is the centre hole that makes it useful. Shape clay into a vessel, It is the space within that makes it useful. Cut doors and windows for a room, It is the holes which make it useful. Therefore profit comes from what is there, Usefulness from what is not there.”
Ideas which are almost seductive, that are symmetrical, ideas that have the right pieces...
December 2011
9 posts
This was on Creative Something in 2011.
January 1st is a defining moment. On that date, four years ago, I started a small website dedicated to creativity. Today, after almost half a decade, Creative Something now stands as the leading blog for creative ideas and inspiration.
Thanks greatly in part to you.
When you read these articles and feel some sense of inspiration or motivation, then I’ve done my job. When you share...
Finding creative purpose in monotony.
Occasionally you have to do things you don’t want to do.
It’s a lesson that we all learn as we grow up, embrace responsibility, and undoubtedly become a part of society at large. Sometimes those things we don’t want to do can be dangerous to our creativity. Meetings stifle momentum, paid work can restrict exploration, and going to a regular day job can often dull your...
When it comes to ideas, teams win.
Creative types are often jacks or janes of all trades.
When it comes to starting a new project – whether it’s a book or an artwork or a business venture – the creative individual wants to do it all on their own. You want to not only write the book, you’d prefer to edit it and design the cover yourself as well. Instead of getting feedback on your artwork while you’re making...
What exploding creativity means for you.
Love it or hate it, 2011 was the year of the “creative” class.
There have been different classes of workers for as long as there has been time, and lately it seems that the creative class has taken the lead over all other classes of workers and producers. Anywhere you look there’s now someone who works as a creative, or incorporates creativity into their work. You’re likely one of...
The rules of a creator's life.
Click to view a tad‒bit larger. And share with your friends, co‒workers, and creative icons.
What makes you different.
Doing nothing is easy. It always has been.
Sitting down to turn on the TV, procrastinating at work, taking a longer break than you really need, spending a day trying to find the “perfect” pen, handing a task off to somebody else, putting off opening that book until tomorrow, anybody can do those things.
Taking action, that’s hard. But it’s the acts you take – putting the pen to...
Want a creative boost? Stop creating.
You know the feeling you get when you’re so involved in something that you simply can’t stop?
It’s not that you really can’t stop, more like you don’t want to (because you’re so deep in the middle of something that might work, or something exciting, or something that is looking perfect). From one creative to another I’m going to tell you a secret...
Be an explorer today.
Creativity flourishes when you experiment and explore the unknown.
When you try anything new, you’re exploring new ideas – even when you don’t consciously feel as though you are – and that leads to new insights in your life. Any time you attempt something new and experiment, your brain stores the experience away for future reference.
The more you know, the more creative you can...
Do you need to spend money to be creative?
There is an apparent desire for more or better products in those who create.
An artist longs for a larger or better designed canvas. A writer seeks out a more fluid pen or a more personable writing application. Both students and entrepreneurs look diligently for the perfect cafe to sit down and get started in. The creative evangelist searches repeatedly for the next big book of inspiration.
...
November 2011
9 posts
One fact that will change your life.
Say what you will about Steve Jobs, but the man had a lot of good ideas. Jobs knew that every one of us has the capacity to change the world with our creativity.
Consider this one fact about life Steve gave in an interview years and years ago. This one, simple fact, that can change your life forever. Watch the short, 45 second video here:
“Everything around you that you call life was made up...
The secret of great creative people.
“Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.”
– Leo Burnett.
If you want to be creative you must be curious about the world around you. You must question everything and seek to improve what you can with your own ideas and talents.
To be creative is to think of new and wondrous things. To be successful in your creative endeavors you...
Creative exercise: take a risk today.
When an entrepreneur starts a new business endeavor, they are taking a risk, are they not?
When an artist first puts their brush or pen against the canvas, they too are taking a risk. When a writer sends her book off to a publisher and when a poet stands in front of an audience to read their latest work, they’re facing risks as well.
In-fact: if you want to be creative, you’re...
Think outside your mental box.
It’s easy to think outside of a physical box. A physical box could be your cubicle at work, or the room where you draw, or the classroom where you sit regularly.
What’s more challenging (but certainly more rewarding) is thinking outside of the box inside your head. The mental box where you have set expectations and beliefs. Get outside of that box, open your mind to new...
You don't have to be an artist to be creative.
When you think of someone who is “creative”, what do you usually imagine them doing?
Are they drawing or painting? Do you imagine they use a lot of artistic materials? Believing that a “creative” is merely an artist is a fallacy. Creatives aren’t just artists. They’re not only writers or poets either. To be creative you don’t have to be a sculptor or craftsman...
How you feel affects what you create.
How you feel affects what you do and create every day.
An artist who grows tired while drawing will undoubtedly start to make mistakes in their work.
If you’ve ever tried drawing while tired – or when you’re really not that into it – then you know the impact it has on what it is you’re creating. The lines you draw won’t be even, or there will be disconnects where...
Forget inspiration, leap on your ideas today!
The typical first stage of creativity requires consumption.
It’s where you spend an hour or a day or a week or even a year simply absorbing the work that already exists around you and seeking out inspiration.
If you want to write a book the first phase of creatively pursuing that goal is to absorb pieces of works that you already enjoy reading, to get a sense for what’s out...
When should you abandon an idea?
Does the idea excite you?
Would the idea improve your life or the life of someone else?
Are there people who would help you if you get stuck?
Can you learn something by acting on the idea?
If you abandon the idea now will you regret it later on?
If you told someone about the idea would they get excited over it?
Do you feel like the idea is evolving the more time you spend on it?
...
Why you should act on your ideas, right now.
You have a lot to do most days, right?
There’s cleaning and cooking to be done, socializing with friends and family, catching up on bills or old projects, and potentially a full-time job or educational study that takes up most of your time.
If you want to use your creative ideas it’s going to be difficult to find the time to do so. Which is why many ideas simply die out over time....
October 2011
9 posts
Why not play telephone with your ideas?
Have you ever played the “telephone” game before?
The premise of the game is that one person comes up with a word or a sentence and whispers it into the ear of another person. Then the person who received the whisper turns around and whispers whatever they heard into the next persons ear, and so on until the end of the line.
Eventually the last person says, out loud, what they heard. More...
What's between?
There is something to be said for the negative space around us.
Have you ever noticed the way birds circle in giant swarms around seemingly random areas, for example? When the swarms begin circling in the sky, do you only see the birds, or do you see the pockets of hot air that they tend to migrate around and the subtle way the space between each bird is maintained?
In nearly everything...
How to prompt creativity in people around you.
When you work with other people – students, co‒workers, mentors, and so on – you may encounter this comment more than once: “Because that’s how we’ve always done it.”
It’s comforting to do what’s always been done, to do the same type of work the exact same way time and time again.
Maybe the same methods that have been done before will work, again, but as a creative...
Do.
Everyone has ideas.
It’s what the successful artist does with her ideas that makes her a true creative success.
Consider the small business owner down the street too: what made his business a reality was not simply the idea of starting a business, but rather the actions he made to turn the idea into something real. Same with the independent writer who just signed a $600,000 contract,...
Have you noticed your creativity lately?
Whether you think you are someone who is naturally creative or not, there’s something you should begin to recognize starting today.
It happens to all of us, more often than you might think.
When you’re driving through traffic and you almost instinctively find the quickest route to your destination, that’s one example. Or when you’re trying to solve a problem at work...
Nothing ever comes from nothing.
“Out of thin air.”
Have you ever heard someone say that? “Out of thin air”?
Typically people state that something has come out of thin air as they seemingly appear to pull an idea out from nothing, as if from thin air.
You, too, may have felt at some point or another in your life that an idea simply struck you, as if the solution to a problem or a great idea for a project came from...
What's not holding you back?
Money can be a problem for big ideas. So can time and focus.
It’s easy to find reasons for not turning an idea into reality. Anyone can procrastinate and come up with excuses for not trying something creative. That’s what sets the big innovators – like Steve Jobs was – from the everyday worker.
However, and this is something I strongly believe in, it’s also easy to find...
Today, try at least one "what if?"
What if you tried something different with your day today?
You might fail, that is certainly a possibility. You might succeed though too, that’s also a very possible outcome.
If you tried sitting down to write that long-overdue book, even though you don’t consider yourself much of a writer, what would happen?
If you picked up that fancy camera of yours and took a few photos...
The medium matters.
Consider this: if you had to draw a picture of an elephant, right now, would you rather do so using a large marker and poster-sized sheet of paper, or with a lathe and piece of drift wood?
Of course there are a lot of different tools you can use for completing a job. You don’t have to use a pencil and sheet of paper to sketch out ideas, and you don’t have to use an iPad for...
September 2011
7 posts
How to find ideas in organized messes.
Do you know that a major part of creativity is existing things (ideas, experiences, objects, and so on)? In order to create new things (ideas, experiences, objects, etc.) your brain relies almost entirely on existing things already stored inside of it.
Your brain works to collect and sort through everything you encounter every day. From sounds and objects to people and experiences,...
Everything is easier once you start.
My father is a surgeon. And while I imagine performing surgery on a human being is a bit more difficult than performing surgery on an automobile, my father is a professional at doing both.
His ability to take apart any section of nearly any car, find what was causing it problems, fix the problem, then restore the car to it’s formerly running state never ceased to amaze me.
So when I...
The crucial time balance of creativity.
They don’t talk about this in schools or often enough in creative work places.
If you have an idea then time becomes both your ally and your enemy.
When a new idea strikes time is your enemy in that your ability to make your idea reality is very dependent on time. Wait too long to do anything with your idea (to draw it out, to brainstorm with a friend or co-worker, to create something...
Where have ideas been hiding from you lately?
There are things hidden from you, right now.
More than the small dust bunnies cluttering around your desk or the floor. More than the particles floating through the warm air on the rays of sunlight shooting through the windows and cracks in the doorways.
If you aren’t finding the inspiration you need to run amok, to create, to think creatively, to do things a little differently, to...
What to do if you don't have time to be creative.
We know that time is a limited resource. That’s universal for us all.
Every day we’re given 24 hours and every day those hours pass by and are gone for good. So what we dedicate our time and attention to really matters, of course.
But did you know that creativity doesn’t need to be a time activity? You can, and should be, incorporating creativity into nearly everything you...
Write every day to explore your ideas.
Arguably one of the craftiest forms of art is writing.
Writing requires you to transfer any idea or thought into a word before it can be written down on paper. With drawing you can draw an idea out exactly as you imagine it, vocalizing it a bit tricky but can be just as straightforward. Writing, on the other side of things, requires you to first transform an idea into a different type of...
Why your brain is utterly creative just before...
You’re just about to drift off to sleep after a long day, and your brain will not shut down.
Rather than going comfortably to sleep land, your brain starts to run around and you find yourself coming up with ideas or solving problems. Why is that?
As you go throughout your day your brain is bombarded with incoming information non-stop. Everything around you is subtly processed through...
August 2011
8 posts
The universe and your view of it.
Henry David Thoreau understood more than many before us the complexity and vastness of the world that we live in.
It’s critical in creative thinking and using ideas to know that what surrounds you, what you perceive in front of you, isn’t even a fraction of the whole universe, let alone the world. This is important because your values, experiences, the things you surround yourself...
Thinking and drawing the incomprehensible.
“We don’t think in words. The temptation to equate thinking with language is because words are more palpable than thoughts. After all – I’m thinking – if I couldn’t talk to myself how would I know what I was thinking? Thinking is hard work; few engage in it.” – Alan Fletcher.
What exactly is that thought floating around in your mind right now? It’s likely not a word (though it could...