July 2010
11 posts
What to do when your creativity wears thin.
Have you ever been working on something creative for a certain amount of time and eventually found yourself feeling mentally drained?
Maybe you’ve tried painting or drawing or writing or designing for a few hours, only to find yourself completely exhausted and unable to press forward due to lack of creativity.
Do you know what it means when the ideas simply won’t come?
Some...
Ze Frank on making ideas happen.
The 99% ‒ a tremendously inspirational group of people and website/blog ‒ have an interview with the creative genius Ze Frank where Ze discusses how he makes ideas happen.
Ze Frank is well‒known across the internet for his creative shenanigans, like a video that teaches you how to dance properly or “The Show”, where Ze filmed himself discussing interesting things daily for a year.
Getting a...
If you can't think of creativity as an...
Hellen Keller, a great American author (and, interestingly, the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree) said it best when she said that “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”
Hugh MacLeod, one hell of an illustrator and inspirational creative thinker, took what Hellen Keller said a step further in a recent blog post by stating simply: “I reckon that if you...
Why look for ideas where you usually don't?
If creative thinkers of the past have taught us anything, it’s that a huge part of thinking creatively is being able to connect ideas.
If you want to really think creatively, you need to have the ability to connect a lot of seemingly unrelated ideas together on a whim.
Look at some of the greatest inventions ever made ‒ from automobile to airplanes, refrigerators to the computer ‒ and...
14 psychological ways to boost creativity
Psyblog has a great list of 7 research‒based techniques for increasing creativity, the article is definitley worth looking at if you’re searching for creative inspiration.
A few of the techniques listed in the article include: using bad moods to fuel creative thinking, combining opposites, and fast forwarding through time.
If that’s not enough psychology‒based motivation for...
Creativity on the decline in America.
There’s a problem with creativity in America. It’s disappearing.
In what Newsweek is calling The Creativity Crisis, studies are reporting that creativity in America is declining.
Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman report:
Like intelligence tests, Torrance’s test – a 90‒minute series of discrete tasks, administered by a psychologist – has been taken by millions worldwide in 50...
You have to face your fears if you really want to...
Facing your fears.
Embracing the idea that you may lose.
Not being intimidated by mistakes.
If you want to be creative, you have to be unafraid. Unafraid of losing. Unafraid of getting hurt. Unafraid of being wrong or looking like a fool. When the Wright brothers took their first leap off of a small cliff to prove that they knew how to really fly, do you think they were afraid? Of course...
Einstein's advice.
“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.” ‒ Albert Einstein.
One of the most powerful and easy creative...
There is a simple and easy way to discover creative inspiration almost every day.
It’s a technique that creative thinkers have used for hundreds of thousands of years, and it works so well that doing it has changed nations, fueled entire revolutions, and will continue to inspire and motivate the world forever.
What is this big method of discovering inspiration?
Simply asking:...
Creativity, art, and a piano.
While the internet can be a fast‒moving mess of copycats and half‒hearted works of art, there occasionally comes along an individual who takes pride in not only their work, but also in their creativity.
PianoImpro is the type of creative artist that really stands out online. As a creative musician, PianoImpro takes works of art ‒ submitted by readers, or not ‒ and creates an improvisational...
Creativity and your wandering mind.
How often have you found yourself staring out the window of a classroom, office, or bedroom, thinking of something apart from the moment, work, or relationships?
Daydreaming ‒ moments when your mind seems to wander and imagine things almost on its own ‒ hasn’t received the best rap over the past couple of decades. That needs to change.
Many years ago daydreaming was viewed as a type...