How to Be More Creative in Everything You Do
You’re a creator and you can cultivate creativity as an asset and tool to use wherever you go and whatever you do. You can even cultivate creativity toward transforming mundane tasks that you don’t love to do but need to.
We all have to do tasks we don’t enjoy. For the most artistic and creative, sometimes the things we avoid is the tasks that are business oriented. Conversely, many “left brain” folks avoid the artistic side.
We probably all know someone who has said, “I’m not very creative.” If so, please share this article with them! For anyone who thinks they’re not very creative, we beg to differ. For all humans are creative, and the degree of creativity it proportionate to the degree to which we nurture that.
It is human nature to be inquisitive, imaginative and creative. Creativity can be seen in every child. So if we’re all born with creativity, we can all exercise greater creativity to use at will in any circumstance.
The difference is in how much we continue to nurture that innate tendency as we grow. The thing about positive habits, is they compound. Improving in one area tends to naturally filter in to other areas of life.
Schooling often trains out creativity, albeit inadvertently, due to the nature of piling in facts through memorization and learning within academic requirements. However, we’re seeing this beginning to change through charter schools, homeschooling and alternative education.
Creators know how to make lemonade out of lemons… with flair!
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
Creativity is Consciousness Manifesting
The truth is that all humans are naturally, innately creative, just in different ways and expressions. And most importantly, we all have the ability to create a better life, at any moment of any day.
In the movie, The Man Who Knew Infinity, based on the incredible life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, his creative genius expressed in mathematics. Trained artists are introduced to the Golden Ratio concept to help in creative proportioning. This Fibonacci Sequence is used in science, math, physics, and even the stock market as well as in art and music.
Creativity is not restricted to brush and canvas… photographer and subject…writer and words. It is a tool for creation and manifestation in all areas of life. Creativity has the power to transform whatever it touches and wherever we apply it.
The more we immerse in learning and growth in different areas, the more we open our access to our natural creativity. Consider again the curious child, and how it is pre-school children learn and grow. The more we inculcate those qualities in each day, the more creative we become.
Steve Jobs famously conceived of the Apple Computer in all it’s cool features thanks to taking a course on calligraphy. Steve saw the benefit in merging technology and artistic elegance.
Don’t wait for creativity to happen to you. Don’t wait for the mood or muse. You cultivate creativity through regular use, learning and growth.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
20 Ideas for Cultivating Creativity
- Create daily – the more you create the more ideas will flow to you as you literally build new neural pathways in your brain.
- Set creative goals – the more you keep to a consistent creative schedule, the more you’re priming your brain to be ready to create and innovate.
- Create more than you consume – creating lights up the brain, consumption dulls it.
- Education – Learn new things each day. Learning opens up and connects us to the higher creative cognitive areas of the brain.
- Learn different kinds of things – cross pollination of ideas helps to cultivate creativity and keeps the idea pool flowing and fresh.
- Keep an ideas journal – write down every idea that comes to you, no matter how small, grand, or silly it may seem.
- Active Consumption – when you do engage in recreational viewing, reading, and exploration:
- engage in imaginings about the characters or plot
- consider how you might write, direct or design it differently
- consider what the creators goals were in this creation
- Get moving! Motion, movement, dancing, singing and other exercise stirs up the circulatory system and gets blood pumping to the brain.
- Music – for many, music is very effective for inspiring ideas and creativity.
- Consume creativity – tuning into the talent and artistry of others can inspire us to make more of our own.
- Visioning – daily visioning of your future self stimulates inspiration and aspiration, which in turn cultivate creativity.
- Books on creativity and transformation
- Courses – take a course on something you’d like to learn to do better. We recommend starting with free YouTube tutorials for tons of excellent information, but don’t just consume it. Choose a topic, watch a video and then put what you’ve learned into action right away. You can often get more than one idea from just one thing in a video, but to go on and consume more can lead to information overload and “decision fatigue“.
- Transformation – transmuting negatives to positives rewires your brain and floods your system with greater energy and joy.
- Gratitude – by elevating our emotional state we open our heart and connect heart and mind for the flow of greater creative energy.
- Daydream – all little children daydream. E.g.,
- Lay on your back outside (if you can, or look out the window if you can’t) and find shapes in the clouds.
- Gamify tasks – make a game out of things – gamifying, especially mundane tasks makes it more fun and stimulates creativity.
- Tune into elevating podcasts and audiobooks while doing mundane tasks such as laundry, cooking, cleaning, and also walking, driving and getting ready for the day or for bed. I like to tune into business-related audio/video in the mornings to help get fired up, and to spiritual or inspiring interviews and conversations at bedtime
- Write a Haiku or Tanka – Haikus and Tanka are short simple poems that can be somewhat addictive, especially if you like puzzles and word challenges.
- Creative prompts:
Cultivating creativity begins with an energetic and inquisitive approach to each day.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder – iCreateDaily.com®
Rally the Creative Forces for Problem Solving
Consider what thoughts, feelings and activities tend to foster your creativity, and what dampens it. Worry, fear and anxiety, for instance, constrict creativity; it’s the same thing with reactivity, anger and resentment.
But you can cultivate creativity and apply it to any situation or circumstance. It begins with turning negatives to positives and asking yourself questions throughout the day that foster self awareness.
Cultivate Creativity Through Inquiry
Questions to Ask Yourself Through the Day or Task
- How can I bring more creativity to what I’m doing right now?
- What would make this more enjoyable and meaningful?
- What is there in this to be grateful for?
- How can I make it more fun?
- How can I spice up this mundane task?
- Am I present or distracted?
- Am I thinking more about what I can consume or am I thinking about what I can create?
When You Don’t Love What You Do…
For me, one of the business tasks I don’t “love” doing is creating product ads, copy, systems (and selling in general). Yet, to build a successful brand and help others in building their brands, those are skills I need to develop more fully.
Whether I research and study online information and apply it through trial and error, take a course, hire an expert to “hack school” my advertising education, or a mixture of these, it’s all a part of my business and personal growth. These are just some of the necessary tasks that get me where I want to go. But it’s not just about the destination.
The more I learn the more I grow. The more I learn and grow, the more I enjoy the process, but none of that can happen if I resist the parts I don’t like rather than embrace the journey too. To consider how I can cultivate creativity even for the tasks I don’t love, stretches and expands my creative capacity.
When you can’t do what you love, you can always love what you do.
Creativity is a magic wand that transforms whatever it touches.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder – iCreateDaily.com®
Enjoy the Process
It really helps to decide to enjoy the process. When we’re in a good mood and things are going well, nothing ruffles us much. We can cultivate positivity by choosing that mindset.
After all, life isn’t about the destination but rather life is the journey. If I’m not enjoying something, I can put my creativity to work for me to reframe and enliven whatever experience I’m having.
This is summed up very well in one of our favorite quotes from Denzel Whitaker’s character in ‘The Great Debaters’ movie:
“We do what we have to, so we can do what we want to.”
~Denzel Whitaker’s character-James Farmer, Jr. The Great Debaters movie
Cultivate Creativity on Command
Whether it’s your job or business, or your personal life, there are always tasks you must do that fall into the least favorite things category. At some point you may be able to outsource some of those to freelancers or employees.
Meanwhile, to resist and hate it, only makes it more frustrating, so might as well embrace it. Embrace the suck, and you’ll get unstuck. Dine with it, dance with it and make it your friend. Here’s where you as a creator can shine.
You’re a creator. You can cultivate creativity at will by bringing your creative mind and inquisitive, adventurous self wherever you go, whatever you’re doing. It is the creator’s prerogative and privilege to marvel and make meaning.
~LeAura Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily.com®
Starve the Snarks Sharks
As much as I hear many of the cliched phrases of “Enjoy the process!” or “The journey IS the destination!” it took awhile for the real message to sink in. Have you experienced that too? You read those seemingly corny and generalized quotes, nodding in agreement while never really owning the power of the message. I’m so guilty of doing that.
Sometimes, I’m the one who needs those “corny quotes” the most.
I’m caught up in everything I haven’t done, and I listen to the devil on the left shoulder. My personal Snark Shark talking me down and laughing at my own dreams. You might have one of those in your head too. It’s the same voice that seductively talks you into every distraction you later feel guilty and shameful about.
Other times I’m so caught up in the end vision that I want right now, that I miss the opportunity for growth that’s right in front of me saying: “Hey! This way, kid! What you think you’re looking for is on the other side of those tasks you’ve been avoiding.”
The point of sharing this is to remind you and myself that creativity is a journey, not an arrival. It’s about creating more than the creation, for it is in the process of creating that we grow most.
Feed what you want.. starve what you don’t.
“Struggles are the training grounds of greatness.”
~Devani Alderson, cofounder-iCreateDaily®
Giggle Your Monsters Back to Hiding
The struggles are the training grounds of greatness. Our creative light allows us to find humor, lessons, and even gratitude within our natural life dips or momentary setbacks and roadblocks.
Through the struggle I learn, and in the learning, I grow.
I learn that figuring out the hard stuff brings a feeling of achievement that I wouldn’t have experienced without the struggle. Then there are times the vision gets clouded and The Monstrous Resistance Dragon, that Steven Pressfield talks about in The War of Art, rears its head in a flaming challenge.
Of course, this is the part in a Disney movie where some gorgeously glossy stallion gallops to the scene and the Knight in Shining Armor attacks the dragon… saving you from the peril. Ugh.
Chivalry is wonderful, but I prefer the Pixar films where Boo and her cute lil pigtailed self isn’t scared of Monsters in Monsters Inc. She sees right through their BS and owns the whole story. Like a boss!
Be Like Boo
Face your monsters and giggle at their silly attempt at derailing you. Scare the monster back into hiding before it can scare you.
“When you face your fears, they disappear!”
~multiple
Reframe Your Mindset
As you become aware of the various ways your resistance crops up, you can work on training your brain to think differently.
Reframing is also a form of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, (CBT), proven to literally rewire our brains by transforming habits of thought. Not only does mindset transformation work, it’s proven to be more effective than drugs and therapy sessions in some cases. Check out the research-based articles and books by psychologist, Dr. Robert Leahy.
It’s fairly simple to change your state momentarily. But we’re talking about lifelong habits and it’s not often that we can have one battle with Resistance and assume our Dragon will just sleep for the next century. Oh no… life will test us a lot.
These are superficial denial tactics. We’re not talking about pretending bad stuff doesn’t happen and hasn’t occurred to bring pain and suffering, frustration and anger. But we are talking about choosing not to focus on that, and instead focusing on the good and the gains rather than the gaps, through reframing negatives by finding the positives. Look for it and you will find it. There is always something for which to be grateful.
The Struggle
Don’t like doing the accounting for your business but can’t outsource it yet? Okay, but of course you like knowing how much you’ve earned from your work, or how you could increase your revenue by decreasing expenses. So learning enough to do what has to be done for now, is worth your time. So reframe it!
The Reframe
“Accounting is not my zone of genius, and I look forward to when I can outsource that. In the meantime, I like knowing how it works and how to grow my bottom line, and I know that I grow stronger through the struggle. I enjoy discovering the story the numbers tell.
That’s just one example of a reframe.
There are other reframing examples in this article.
“I tend to believe whatever you decide to look for you will find, whatever you beckon will eventually beckon you.”
~Amy Krouse Rosenthal, writer, author, 1965-2017
My Reframe
Just the other week, I was in a creative writing flow and the thought of running ads was annoying. I needed to analyze the results, numbers, charts, columns of data.
Does that sound like something an artist type is into?!? And have you noticed how your writer’s blocks disappear and the words fly out through your fingertips when you really should be doing something else?
Yet, this week, after listening to some podcasts of other successful advertisers, and creating new artful graphics and branded images… I gleaned new ideas and inspiration and was excited to dive back into ad creation!
Instead of perceiving the task with everything I don’t love doing, I decided to make it an artistic adventure. Instead of thinking things like “Ugh, I hate numbers and I suck at this.” I simply reframed it.
I Asked Myself Question Like:
- What types of images speak to me when I’m scrolling through Facebook?
- How can I make our ads feel fun and not like an interruption for our prospective audience?
- If I use our brand visuals instead of stock imagery, would the results be better?
- I created two versions to test to see what story the numbers would tell us
- if I were our potential community member, what would I want to see?
- How can I engage my creativity and make this task more like art?
- When I’m negative I’m less creative, so what’s one negative thought I can change now?
- When I’m not living up to my creative standards for myself, I’m less creative. To cultivate creativity, I need to also take initiative.
- What’s one poor habit I can change immediately that will make a difference in how I feel and think about myself?
- What’s one thing that’s keeping me from achieving my next goal, and how can I cultivate creativity to help me transform that?
I’ve observed that I enjoy my work and take more care in the artistry when I focus on connecting with more creators and sharing things they may love. That simple shift turns it from a chore into a creative endeavor… the time flies and the results are so much better.
That’s all it took to turn an annoying dreaded task into something more creative and fun. Instead, I actually got excited about tracking the results and discovering people who connect with our creations.
“What you’re looking for is on the other side of what you’re avoiding.”
~Devani Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®
The Power of Gratitude in the Struggle
This captivating video from Ryan Daniel Moran, founder of Freedom Fast Lane Conference and owner of Capitalism.com, is the perfect message to end on.
We watched it as a family the other night and I was captivated by the reinforcement of this idea of just how much power we have to change or circumstances and how we view them.
We can experience gratitude and joy from within our struggle instead of waiting until it’s over.
~Devani Alderson, iCreateDaily.com®
“There are two sides to everything. The problems we feel in the moment, and then the positives that we think about in the rearview mirror. We feel the problems and we long for the positives. We rarely if ever, pause to appreciate the positives while we’re still in the problem.”
~ Ryan Daniel Moran, Capitalism.com entrepreneur, investor, coach, author, b.10/3/1987
For more from the master of reframing to change your brain, your life and your health for the better, check out our favorite, transformation teacher, author, healer, Dr. Joe Dispenza.
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Hey! I’m Devani, a multi-passionate creator who enjoys honing the craft of writing (mostly;)), photography, cooking, podcasting, learning about business, and growing brands. I’m the former co-host of the iCreateDaily Podcast with LeAura Alderson (my mom), and co-founded the iCreateDaily brand. I hope through the content and products we produce, you will be inspired to start, sustain, and succeed in your goals.
My non-business and artistic hobbies include: enjoying a good movie, discovering obscure but epic music, obsessing over The Beatles, and developing fictional stories in my head. My Maltese dog, Caspian, provides an insane amount of creative inspiration by just being his adorable self. #HeWokeUpLikeThat. 😉
Want to submit your photos, videos and/or article content for publication? We love to consider your contribution for publication! creators@icreatedaily.com