Whether you’re trying to solve a tough problem, start a business, get attention for that business or write an interesting article, creative thinking is crucial. The process boils down to changing your perspective and seeing things differently than you currently do.
People like to call this “thinking outside of the box,” which is the wrong way to look at it. Just like Neo needed to understand that “there is no spoon” in the film The Matrix, you need to realize “there is no box” to step outside of.
You create your own imaginary boxes simply by living life and accepting certain things as “real” when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional. The difference is, enough people agree that certain man-made concepts are “real,” so you’re viewed as “normal.” This is good for society overall, but it’s that sort of unquestioning consensus that inhibits your natural creative abilities.
So, rather than looking for ways to inspire creativity, you should just realize the truth. You’re already capable of creative thinking at all times, but you have to strip away the imaginary mental blocks (or boxes) that you’ve picked up along the way to wherever you are today.
I like to keep this list of 10 common ways we suppress our natural creative abilities nearby when I get stuck. It helps me realize that the barriers to a good idea are truly all in my head.
1. Trying to Find the “Right” Answer
One of the worst aspects of formal education is the focus on the correct answer to a particular question or problem. While this approach helps us function in society, it hurts creative thinking because real-life issues are ambiguous. There’s often more than one “correct” answer, and the second one you come up with might be better than the first.
Many of the following mental blocks can be turned around to reveal ways to find more than one answer to any given problem. Try reframing the issue in several different ways in order to prompt different answers, and embrace answering inherently ambiguous questions in several different ways.
2. Logical Thinking
Not only is real life ambiguous, it’s often illogical to the point of madness. While critical thinking skills based on logic are one of our main strengths in evaluating the feasibility of a creative idea, it’s often the enemy of truly innovative thoughts in the first place.
One of the best ways to escape the constraints of your own logical mind is to think metaphorically. One of the reasons why metaphors work so well in communications is that we accept them as true without thinking about it. When you realize that “truth” is often symbolic, you’ll often find that you are actually free to come up with alternatives.
3. Following Rules
One way to view creative thinking is to look at it as a destructive force. You’re tearing away the often arbitrary rules that others have set for you, and asking either “why” or “why not” whenever confronted with the way “everyone” does things.
This is easier said than done, since people will often defend the rules they follow even in the face of evidence that the rule doesn’t work. People love to celebrate rebels like Richard Branson, but few seem brave enough to emulate him. Quit worshipping rule breakers and start breaking some rules.
4. Being Practical
Like logic, practicality is hugely important when it comes to execution, but often stifles innovative ideas before they can properly blossom. Don’t allow the editor into the same room with your inner artist.
Try not to evaluate the actual feasibility of an approach until you’ve allowed it to exist on its own for a bit. Spend time asking “what if” as often as possible, and simply allow your imagination to go where it wants. You might just find yourself discovering a crazy idea that’s so insanely practical that no one’s thought of it before.
5. Play is Not Work
Allowing your mind to be at play is perhaps the most effective way to stimulate creative thinking, and yet many people disassociate play from work. These days, the people who can come up with great ideas and solutions are the most economically rewarded, while worker bees are often employed for the benefit of the creative thinkers.
You’ve heard the expression “work hard and play hard.” All you have to realize is that they’re the same thing to a creative thinker.
6. That’s Not My Job
In an era of hyper-specialization, it’s those who happily explore completely unrelated areas of life and knowledge who best see that everything is related. This goes back to what ad man Carl Ally said about creative persons—they want to be know-it-alls.
Sure, you’ve got to know the specialized stuff in your field, but if you view yourself as an explorer rather than a highly-specialized cog in the machine, you’ll run circles around the technical master in the success department.
7. Being a “Serious” Person
Most of what keeps us civilized boils down to conformity, consistency, shared values, and yes, thinking about things the same way everyone else does. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, but if you can mentally accept that it’s actually nothing more than groupthink that helps a society function, you can then give yourself permission to turn everything that’s accepted upside down and shake out the illusions.
Leaders from Egyptian pharaohs to Chinese emperors and European royalty have consulted with fools, or court jesters, when faced with tough problems. The persona of the fool allowed the truth to be told, without the usual ramifications that might come with speaking blasphemy or challenging ingrained social conventions. Give yourself permission to be a fool and see things for what they really are.
8. Avoiding Ambiguity
We rationally realize that most every situation is ambiguous to some degree. And although dividing complex situations into black and white boxes can lead to disaster, we still do it. It’s an innate characteristic of human psychology to desire certainty, but it’s the creative thinker who rejects the false comfort of clarity when it’s not really appropriate.
Ambiguity is your friend if you’re looking to innovate. The fact that most people are uncomfortable exploring uncertainty gives you an advantage, as long as you can embrace ambiguity rather than run from it.
9. Being Wrong is Bad
We hate being wrong, and yet mistakes often teach us the most. Thomas Edison was wrong 1,800 times before getting the light bulb right. Edison’s greatest strength was that he was not afraid to be wrong.
The best thing we do is learn from our mistakes, but we have to free ourselves to make mistakes in the first place. Just try out your ideas and see what happens, take what you learn, and try something else. Ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen if I’m wrong? You’ll often find the benefits of being wrong greatly outweigh the ramifications.
10. I’m Not Creative
Denying your own creativity is like denying you’re a human being. We’re all limitlessly creative, but only to the extent that we realize that we create our own limits with the way we think. If you tell yourself you’re not creative, it becomes true. Stop that.
In that sense, awakening your own creativity is similar to the path reported by those who seek spiritual enlightenment. You’re already enlightened, just like you’re already creative, but you have to strip away all of your delusions before you can see it. Acknowledge that you’re inherently creative, and then start tearing down the other barriers you’ve allowed to be created in your mind.
Further Reading:
- Get more creativity tips over at Lateral Action.
- The list I refer to when blocked comes from Roger von Oech’s excellent A Whack on the Side of the Head
. Check it out for more help on defeating these common mental blocks to creativity.
About the Author: Brian Clark is the founding editor of Copyblogger, and co-founder of DIY Themes and Lateral Action. Get more from Brian on Twitter.
Bookmark and Promote!
Related Articles
Copyblogger runs on the Thesis Theme for WordPress
Thesis is the search engine optimized WordPress theme of choice for serious online publishers. If you’re a blogger who doesn’t understand a lot of PHP, Thesis will give you a ton of functionality without having to alter any code. For the advanced, Thesis has incredible customization possibilities via Thesis hooks.
With so many design options, you can use the template over and over and never have it look like the same site. The theme is robust and flexible enough not only to accommodate a site like Copyblogger, but also to enable the site to run far more efficiently than it ever has before.
{ 98 trackbacks }
{ 99 comments… read them below or add one }
This is really great stuff! Especially–> “there is no box” to step outside of. Great use of a Matrix movie reference…
Very smart list, Brian. I particularly agree with “I’m not creative.” It drives me crazy that people say that, because I’ve seen so many “uncreative” people become really good with practice.
Creativity takes the willingness to try and fail–a lot–before becoming good. Even the best creatives strike out more than they hit a home run. The key is that they don’t let it stop them.
The books you picked are all really good, even though I’d recommend de Bono’s Serious Creativity over Lateral Thinking. Serious Creativity is basically the updated version, and it’s a lot easier to find.
I also recommend Ideas are Free and Blue Ocean Strategy. Hope this helps!
Hi Brian
I really enjoyed this post. I don’t know - it felt more like you than some of the other things you turn out to get people going…
For me ~10 is key to it all. About a year ago I shifted my belief from “I’m not a creative person” to “I am a creative person”. It was the best personal development work I have ever done.
Everything else falls away when you blast away that old belief, and start to believe in your own creativity, to start to feel that power, that source flowing through you…
Joanna
It is. Thanks for noticing.
Every person has a secret creative genius inside. Being creative is all about shedding inhibitions and seeking the lovely inner-voice which is ubiquitous to all human beings (whether they can sing or not
)
The analogy holds true whether writing copy, painting pictures, sculpting marble, programming C#, crafting Cabernet, or making love. Sing at the top of your lungs! Be wrong! Make you point, be linear and non-linear at the same time, free yourself from the shackles of the self-imposed lead box.
Celebrating our indigenous creativity is the ultimate act of getting over ourselves and offers the best chance to leave something behind that survives; an idea, a thought, a poem, a child, a song…
A very famous musician pal once told me that his critical and creative successes came when he finally stopped trying to create music “like everyone else.” The secret, he whispered, is in creating art that can ONLY come from you. Then, right or wrong, you have found your voice.
Great post Brian…thanks.
This post is over-the-top good, and it addresses some serious problems I’ve been having. If you don’t mind, I’ll hang onto it.
I’ve just printed out your article after highlighting “there is no box” and now have the list hanging beside my monitor.
Fantastic stuff! Thanks for your great insight!
Tears in my eyes as I’m reading this. It’s something I really needed to hear right now, thank you so much.
Brian, any post with The Matrix in it gets my approval.
Li, if your list is hanging from a hanger you made out of twisted spoons, you’ve taken it to the next level and are on your way to becoming one of Brian’s star pupils.
Rock on
Shane
Great post!
I think the biggest “creative block” for most people is themselves! It’s a self-fullfilling prophecy. Usually, people are their own worst critics.
However, I also believe that mainstream “corporate culture” is also a huge creative block. Many companies believe there is only one way to do things, and anything else is not acceptable. I’ve seen this myself and the destructive power it has on individuals.
I think humans are inherently creative, it’s a matter of learning to not only unlock that creativity, but also the ability to apply it to every day situations is crucial.
WOW! Exquisite. Brilliant. You are a genius.
That’s right – there’s no spoon, there’s no box.
We saw the Matrix many times and still we keep on forgetting. What a shame.
We need to keep on reminding ourselves, we got to keep on applying this perception, lest we forget. We should sit down and contemplate it until we really really get it and it sticks and permeates our minds, our beings, and the way we live our lives.
My wife and I say “there is no spoon” to each other all the time. It’s become a shorthand code for what you’re describing.
I think this is all about patterns. Humans are pattern creators and pattern followers. Following a pattern repeatedly creates something else: ruts! Ruts are hard to get out of. And I think that’s why it seems so hard, sometimes, to remember that there is no spoon.
Nice post, point 7 was very true, thats a problem to many people, acting serious, serious people are not only uncreative, but they also undermine the creativity of not so serious people, they are total oposites of personality
Although we cant forget that being serious may mean that you are lonely, and lonelyness is an impossible state of mind to be creative.
Jmus ( http://ultraside.blogspot.com )
Point 5 is great. You’ve got to have fun @ work, by really enjoying the work. Beyond being creative, enjoying your work is one of the best ways to be happy.
Great ideas! I especially like the part about “being wrong”. People who are honest in their work and take responsibility for mistakes are always more successful long-term. Great insights!
Hi! I’m the author of “A Whack on the Side of the Head.” I appreciate your highlighting some of its ideas. Thanks. By the way, there will be a 25th anniversary edition of “Whack” next spring.
Your readers may also enjoy stopping by my Creative Think blog which can be found at:
http://blog.creativethink.com
Best wishes!
Hey Roger, thanks for stopping by… I’m an obvious fan!
I think everyone should buy Roger’s book… it goes into a lot of detail about working past these mental blocks, and has tons of examples and illustrations.
He also has some creativity “flash cards” that I haven’t tried yet, but they look stimulating.
This is a fantastic entry Brian. Your ten mental blocks are wonderful points to remember.
I regularly struggle with number 1 and 9 combined. The curse of perfectionism. I’ve found it doesn’t hurt my creativity, it just creates an avid shyness that prevents me showing my tragic ‘failures’ to others. On bad days ‘everything’ is a tragic failure. *chuckles*
Anyway, definitely food for thought and a great jumping off point for other articles. I’ll be linking up to this very soon I expect, as soon as I’ve broken out of the box enough to spin off on this concept with my own voice.
Off to check out each of those other resources. One advantage of having infinite ‘right’ answers is they are endless things to learn.
Great post, Brian.
I love the way that some of these are so closely tied to together. For instance the notion of black and white or right an wrong. Creativity is all about navigating the grays. When we see things in black or white, we limit our options and bring on the fear of failure if our final product isn’t black or white.
Realizing that there is not right or wrong, and that it is okay to make mistakes, is HUGE for promoting creativity.
And since my blog is directly related to the topic of creativity, I’ll share it here at the risk of shameless self promotion: Tapping Creativity.
This was a great look at creativity from outside the box that…um…doesn’t exist. Way to go, Brian.
Geoff
Inspiring post.
Once again you are able to take the basic principles of how I try to lead my life and arrange them in an elegant, eloquent, perfectly worded post. Cheers to you and thank you! Again!
It’s funny, I’ve driven many people nuts telling them “there is no box”. People seem to want a box, where everything can be neatly compartmentalized away.
Great post.
Great post. For so many years I was afraid of making mistakes. Now I am free!
this is good tips.. Being a serious . Being smart ..
I think this will keep my motivation high to produce good writing…
Thanks for the tips..
yes, the whole box metaphor is so overdone and useless.
Look at the guys from Buzzmarketing where they re-named that town Half.com and got all that free national press attention?
They threw the rulebook out the windows as far as trad marketing goes, and created a whole new window of options.
Nice!
Good post. I agree with a comment above that the business world does lean towards stifling creativity. Writers are expected to be creative within boundaries set by business owners; fly free, but do it our way. Umm… yeah, that makes sense.
Brian,
That post is probably worth 5000 times the cost of any success course, period.
“There is no box” classic. And, the reference to the spoon in “The Matrix”… good choice.
The only borders that exist are those that we create, period.
Joseph Ratliff
Author of The Profitable Business Edge 2
Great article! To avoid the mental block you actually need to do something else, like in these videos:
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/marketing_awards_shower
http://adsoftheworld.com/media/tv/marketing_awards_jogger
I wrote a list of 77 things you can do when you have a project at hand that can help you break the block:
http://creativebits.org/toolbox/77_ways_to_come_up_with_an_idea
Creative thinking it’s like an obstacle race. After 10, you have to keep running, running and running…
Great list. Right on mark.
When I was at school studying music composition a prof gave me a great trick for getting outside of a problem. He told me to imagine the most ridiculous, impractical, unreasonable solution I could and then fix it. By bringing the solution back to the problem you end up in a spot that linear thinking would never allow.
Well, judging by the fact that there is not a single negative comment posted here, I am doubtful that anyone will ever see this, but I have to bring you folks down a bit.
This article is mostly bunk and buzz-words and essentially misses most of the point of creativity. Speaking as a practicing Artist/Designer/Writer and someone who has over fourty years of success at being very creative indeed, I can say with assurance that these points are mostly garbage.
At the very least one should steer entirely clear of anyone who maintains that “everyone is creative” (by virtue of being human). While that is trivially accurate, not everyone is as creative as the next person and some are hardly creative at all.
In some areas, you confabulate entirely different things together under overly simplistic labels like “play” and “work” and then contrast and compare these essentially incomparable things. In others, you are just completely wrong. Logic and creativity are at odds? Sounds to me like you have no idea of any of the concepts you are papier-mache’ing together here.
This is more of a back-slapping, ego-boosting exercise than anything realistic to base your life on. Real creative people don’t need it, and nothing in it could possibly turn a dullard into anything like a real creative person IMO.
Jeremy, you’re terribly unenlightened, but don’t take it too hard… most people are.
You’re an egoist. You love to identify yourself as a creative, and exclude others as “uncreative”. It makes you feel good, because you’re your own favorite person.
Feel free to continue your line of thinking on your own site, if you have one. So creative, and nothing to show us?
Nice point, Jeremy. Nothing like, say, oh, I dunno… hard work and concerted effort could ever possibly change people. People just never self-actualize, do they? Born a dullard, and dullard you are till the day you die. Same thing goes for asshats.
John Gardner said he never gets writer’s block… that would be like a kid on the beach getting sandcastle block.
I love your site! I’ve been looking for methods to increase my creativity and identifying blocks is a help. One thing that works for me is the Random Word Technique where you force yourself to solve a problem using a random input such as a random word from the dictionary. I do have one criticism, however. I find it odd that you feel compelled to identify the blocks to creativity through a cliché top 10 list. See the irony?
No irony at all Richard. As a copywriter, I use what I know will work best for a particular bit of content, and leave the fretting over clichés to others.
Oh, plus there are 10 blocks mentioned in Roger von Oech’s book. Should I have left some of them out to satisfy those who worry about hipster appearances?
Creativity in business does not involve knowingly choosing something that doesn’t work as well.
Ahhh, I love it when bitter people stop in to spice up a comment thread.
Seriously though, I love the Matrix analogy and will have to check out those recommended books.
Hi Brian, I had to jump in again because Jeremy’s comment made me really mad. How arrogant to say that people either are or aren’t creative! (And then to call yourself one of the elite few.)
I wrote a response to his comment on my creativity blog and I’m taking his comment as a challenge to prove that people can learn creativity.
I’m a Lateral Thinking instructor who is just completing a Masters degree in Creativity, and I told my readers that I’d offer an hour of free creativity training to one of the commentators on my post.
If anyone is interested from your blog, they should come over and help me prove that Jeremy’s blanket statement is completely wrong.
I like the ideas presented here, I just have never really met that may people who claim to have a problem with creativity. They may have a short term mental block, or go through a period in their life where they are preoccupied/anxious/depresseed/etc. but I can’t say I’ve met anyone who didn’t have plenty of good ideas. What I have met are a TON of people who can’t turn a good idea into a finished product. Getting a finished product takes creativity too, but it also takes: 1. Hard Work 2. Seriousness 3. Being Practical 4. Following the Rules….You get the idea. Thomas Edison and Richard Branson were/are more creative than the average person, but hey can also do the things in my list above better than the average person too. It takes both.
Brian, that is a great post. I always hate the phrase “out of the box”. A great one I used to hear (in a former work life) when a department would be way behind schedule in starting a project or when Upper management tried to emphasize to their worker bees the importance of taking on more work “for free” or continuing insance processes for lack of better strategy was this, “We just don’t have the bandwith”. This meant, We don’t have time, We don’t care, Just shut up and continue on.
Anyway, your post is great….so many times the key to creativity is unlocked by one of my three children….they haven’t unlearned the talent or had it compromised yet.
Rebecca D. Levinson- Connect2Agent
Erik, I agree with you.
Someday, I’ll do a post on taking action. Personally, it was the biggest barrier I had to get over before I started doing the things I really wanted to.
And also, I did mention a few times in this article that critical evaluation and execution are important. You just can’t let them get in the way at the beginning of the creative process. “Creative thinking” is the beginning of creativity, not the totality.
I think my time as a coporate employee eliminated my creativity, but its coming back slowly. I believe everyone has a creative side. Its not an excuse to say I am not creative.
I’d like to throw in lack of practice. Creativity is an exercise - it’s not a “you have it or you don’t” kind of thing.
You have to be willing to work the creative juices a bit…
This echos a book I read called Like a Worm on a String. It’s all about regaining your creativity. Really good book!
http://www.wormonastring.com/index.asp
Great principles, however if you start talking about the non-existence of reality it will inevitably take its toll on your mental health because you will soon find you are in a minority of one, which I can tell you is an uncomfortable experience, especially if you have a moment of insight when you see exactly what others think of you, and find it is not a pretty sight …
Sshhh, I’m thinking.
First time here at copyblogger and I am already addicted to your content.
Great writing skills!
Congrats,
Francesco
Bryan, I really Dugg this post, it’s very del.icio.us:) Thanks for writing it; I will refer to it often. It is a great model for finding satisfaction from life as well because it is our mental limitations that create strife and monotony and leave us wanting more from life. Stepping outside of those for at least a little while is a great reminder that we are creating every moment of our lives whether we are aware if it or not.
I had never heard the cliche “think outside of the box” — until a CEO used it to describe my thinking style right before I spoke to his board.
When I got up to speak, I turned to him and asked, “I’m supposed to think outside of some box? What box? I didn’t know there was a box.”
And everyone laughed and applauded.
But I was serious. Had no idea what they were laughing at. Found out later.
Felt both dumb and smart at the same time.
Decided to market 10 foot poles not to touch things with.
Thank you for this post!
I really like the “there is no box” theme of this post. I may actually write that on a notepad near my computer.
I can relate to most of what you wrote. I enjoyed seeing it laid out this way. Very good things to keep in mind. My best days on the computer, whether with my podcast, writing my scripts, or blogging happen when I am relaxed and not trying too hard.
I guess on those days, there really is no box, eh?
ok, i have to work on myself…
i still see the box and i still try to get out of it…
thanks for a great article
to quote another little text from the matrix:
“This is really gonna bake my noodle…”
For me, one of the greatest barriers to creative thinking is constantly trying to apply previous solutions. This is in the belief (often mistaken) that because something worked before it will do again.
lovely…
and i should thank Jurgen wolff of ‘time to write’…. for directing me here.
you ‘created’ this article… he created a path for/in me.
what i mean is, more than changing our belief ‘i am not creative’… what is needed is to re-define creativity.
that itself has the power to bust the mythical belief. no need to fight with myself.
(if i believe i am not creative, and you ask me to change that belief, it tells me i am wrong. if i am wrong, where do i get the power to change myself?)
so… what IS creativity, and what is it NOT (restricted to)?
Hi Brian,
I work for a communications consultancy and we have created an international campaign targeted at Ad. executives. As part of this, we are producing a ‘mock newspaper’ to distribute to them. I found many of the ideas expressed in your article inspiring and was wondering if you would be happy for the piece to be included in the aforementioned newspaper.
Please let me know asap.
Many thanks
Joshua Ross
11. Fear of being right / Fear of Success
What if you are right, you have a good idea. Then what? In some places it is dangerous to outshine the boss.
Or being wrong is familiar. If you are right, then what?
Nice list. I liked the idea of not being serious and accept the fact that we all make mistakes and it is not wrong to make mistakes. The point of being absolutely fool so far as the norms and values of present society are concerned is also really appreciable. After all, we all are free spirit and who is to judge what we do is an act of foolishness or real creativity. If Einstein thought Newtonian Physics was ultimate, we would still be in an underdeveloped situation.
I can relate to all 10 of these mental blocks. they happen every day for me.
I must point out that what you intend in writing “logical mind” is, in fact, much more appropriately expressed as “empirical mind” or “infinitely rational mind.” Logic and Metaphor are often synonymous because we frequently posit a certain subset of restrictions i.e. “the box” (derived via metaphor, “hypothetical situations”, etc.) from which we originate our thought processes (logic) artificially. Thus you are apparently suggesting that in order to escape the perception of “the box”, we have to express the box “metaphorically.” That is unless you are speaking in this section of a ‘greater truth’ as being expressed only symbolically/metaphorically, in which case I must question the “there is no box” statement you made in the first place since truth as metaphor necessarily implies a “box.”
What I think you mean is something more akin to the following:
Infinite rationalization is “often the enemy of truly innovative thoughts.” Instead, intuition often provides a route to creative ideas where over-thinking hinders.
Can someone please explain to me what on earth Max is trying to say in his comment #99?? However correct he may be in his assertions… I think he is missing the whole point in this post*. Please see #1, 7, 8, and 9.
*By my posting my comment, I admit I am somewhat guilty of the same… or not? I am merely posting a comment because I found Max’s comment very fitting and ironic to this discussion =) Comments anyone?
Sir,Your writeup explicitly instructs every aspiring scribe/word player to do the “not done” and how!within a one to ten.Yes i can actually realise and sense that it takes a shameless,convinced and a bold(Pablo Picasso); to draw attention and get a “thats great one”.You have cleared all my blocks and gates of thought and imagination.many thanks
Very inspiring and well written summary of what it takes to strip away your delusions to your own personal path to enlightment. To strengthen the impact of the article, you might have given more personal examples of how these principals have inspired you.
Jeremy’s “negative” comment re “creativity” as a self-help concept is “thinking outside the box” — the “box” being your approach, Brian. Artists (like Jeremy) follow their own threads & dare to look sideways at popular trends. It’s disappointing that your responses got bitter & attacking, as if you can’t allow others to question your thinking. Your take on creativity is helpful to business people & copywriters. Consider that it falls short for makers of written or visual or musical art.
PS I’ve read a Whack inthe Side of the Head & had to sieve out bits & pieces that apply to art-making — being creative as a corporate employee was different from being creative as a mom or as a visual artist or as a writer of fiction or non-fiction. Jeremy is “also right.”
I didn’t respond to Jeremy the way I did because he has a different opinion, I responded that way because he’s a condescending ass.
Why do so-called “artists” think they have a right to be snide? Jeremy can say whatever he wants, as long as he wears big boy pants and can handle someone telling him what they think of him in turn.
Part 1.
This is an excellent article.
I work as an advertising account planner (the person in the advertising agency responsible for coming up with the ‘big idea’ for a campaign). Account planning is all about creative thinking.
Anyway, the points you make are exactly the sort of things we follow on a daily basis in order to come up with that ‘big idea’.
2. Part
I think all the points you make sum up accurately the shortfall in creative thinking.
One of my favourite techniques for creative thinking is disruptive thinking (disruptive thinking is just a kind of creative thinking flavour, or to put it another way, a kind of creative thinking attitude). Disruptive thinking is about questioning ‘good’ ideas to see if they really are good. And to explore ‘bad’ ideas to see if they contain the potential for sparking off great ideas. Disruptive thinking is about turning things on their head, shuffling them about, and seeing what comes out.
Eamon
http://www.spotlightideas.co.uk
I don’t agree to all but majority of the points are very well explained.Nice
WOW! This was really great! Stuff like this doesnt normally interest me. O.o Or what if it does?
Hi,
. Even writing anonymously is not giving confidence. But still most of the people need inspiration to start breaking their boundaries and then comes the creativity :).
I think that you are absolutelly right about the “there is no box” but no matter what people are thinking they are acting like they are in The Box. It is always easy to be there, as you feel more confortable and safe.
It is the same with the expression - you prefer to do only thinks you are sure of
Good Luck!
Alexander
Thanks for the great tips. I needed to hear the “allow you mind to be at play.”
Well i say being practical is the one which is more helpful.Otherwise theoretically much can be said without its practical implementation.
Well, you have certainly given me a lot to think about. I think I have spent so much time and effort getting outside of the box, that I have ignored why it is I wanted to be there! Pretty amazing concept…thanks for challenging some of my most basic understandings! Truly valuable!
This is a great post. It makes me see a lot of mistakes I’ve been making. Sometimes when trying to write creatively, I will be stuck on starting it a certain way and I have a hard time stepping back and shelving my original idea and starting from scratch.
Sometimes the blocks stem from subconscious beliefs that get in our way … the website I listed above is not mine, but is an awesome way to find and begin removing those blocks.
Some excellent information indeed. Thank you! If I do this right, I’ll be linking to this post at my site. Thank you for the background.
I’ve been accused of #7 too many times in my life….one of my cousin used to tell me all the time that I need to just “act a fool every once in a while”.
At the time this sounded like the dumbest advice ever given,but I understand how things like conformity and failing to unwind from time to time can be harmful to your personal evolutionary development.
I am greatly thankful ,
you could help indeed ,
may GOD bless you Brian Clark .
Thanks so much for these great tips. Hopefully I can live/blog up my creativity. Thanks again.
Absolutely brilliant list, bookmarked for inspirational reading later.
Thanks.
Point 9 is great. Most of us are afraid to commit mistakes and to be labeled WRONG. Now I realize that its ok to commit mistakes. Sometimes I get frustrated doing things repeatedly and finding out that something is wrong.
Can I use your article in my blogspot? I like to share this to other people. Thanks a lot.
All these points show and prove something I’ve been saying for a long time: As A Man Thinketh So Is He
If we take the opposite mindstate of these mental blocks then we will become it…just as taking on the blocked mindset made us “blocked” in the beginning. All mindstates were learned at some point in time…even the negative ones.
Brian, this is super! I couldn’t help but spread the word on my blog.
These rules go beyond writing and can be applied to career goals, relationships, and how you perceive the world.
Of course if everyone opened their eyes to this, then creative jobs would be even more competitive than they already are.
It’s a shame that even most of the people who read this will never be brave enough to follow through with these ideas without the right motivation.
Great advice. I’m bookmarking this page.
Cheers.
Hi everyone !
Simply some images of a spoon, and a lot of images of Keanu running at a pace of about 29 images per second. Plus, I didn’t listen to the recording of his true voice, I watched the dubbed version, in French.
Hi Brian! Your cool writing style and creative choice of ideas, are really inspiring me, and enticing me to comment ^^”
Yes, you are right, in “Matrix,” there is no spoon, and by the way, there is no Keanu Reeves neither
“There is no box.” Alright, but what if we questioned what the “box” referred to in the conversation? To illustrate my “angle” of view, let’s look at this “fool” alternative title:
“Do You Let This Decahedral Box Confine Your Creative Potential?” (in geometry, decahedral = polyhedral with 10 faces )
Not as charismatic as the original title, I know
But, in my opinion, in the widely used phrase “think outside of the box,” the “box” symbolizes simply obstacles that are blocking us towards attaining something that is located outside of a restricted parameter of possibilities, and in general, we are looking for solutions to problems.
I think that the image of a box is used to help us consider all the possibilities (outside) VS limited current situations (inside.)
For instance, how happy is a bird sealed in a cage? Can you consider the big number of kilometers that it wants to fly, compared to the extremely restricted space of the cage ? I really don’t know but, I wouldn’t want to be in its slippers : ) However, I’m sure of one thing; it was not the bird who created the cage, and it certainly didn’t want to find itself in that particular situation…
The “box” can have several meanings, according to specific contexts, and that’s why it is convenient to consider an important factor: relativity.
If we talk about “thinking,” then these obstacles (faces of a box) represent its limits; thus “think outside of the box” in this context, is equal to “think outside of your thinking limits,” and we could say also: “break out of your limited thinking.”
If we succeed in bringing our thinking beyond it’s former limits, (using some creativity stimuli borrowed from other people –like Brian and Roger-, inner or environmental elements or entities,) then we may be able to start enjoying higher level creative thinking.
Does one create the “box” himself or herself? Do we create our own obstacles and limits ourselves?
We may be the cause of some (ex. Wrong beliefs: I can’t do that, I am not…, I will never…,) but there are external blocking factors also (Environmental: nature? Cloudy and rainy days? Society? Bad people? Information ? Politics? Handicap?) it all depends on the context.
And even if I don’t think that we create mentally all the types of limiting factors ourselves, It can be true when we are able to recognize conceptual or physical blocks, then instead of walking around them, we end up using them as an excuse. Another “strange” cause maybe what is called the “law of attraction”: you keep thinking about problems that don’t exist in your reality, and you end up attracting them to you… but this doesn’t mean you don’t have to analyze your current position, approach, mindset, ideas, techniques, contacts, environment, influences, your personal methods, etc.
A second example is when someone struggles to step out of the “comfort zone” when he or she sets the goal of attaining financial freedom. Could we say “there is no comfort zone”? I think we could say that, but we need to address, we need to “articulate” this problem anyway, in order to process it and overcome its relatively limiting and prohibiting effects. Whether we call it “comfort zone,” “burying one’s head in the sand” (like an ostrich) or, I don’t know, maybe “current lifestyle survival instinct” it is only a tool, a mere social representation concept. The most important thing is to detect and capture all the detractors, in order to change them or eliminate them from your way towards your goal.
Thanks Brian for sharing your list, I’m sure I’ll get back to it, just to make sure I’ll not be forgetting some crucial elements while .
“Thanks Brian for sharing your list, I’m sure I’ll get back to it, just to make sure I’ll not be forgetting some crucial elements while .”
Umps! I didn’t notice the end of the sentence… the last changes in the original “text editing soft” I used were not saved.
What I wanted to say is: I’ll be sure to get back to this list of 10 elements while working creatively on one of my mini projects : )
Thanks again Brian, have a cool day everyone!
K’
[...]It’s a shame that even most of the people who read this will never be brave enough to follow through with these ideas without the right motivation[...]
I’m doing a study on how this article has affect your life pesonally and professionally. Anyone can share with me about ur view on this wonderful piece of writing..??
this site is a very helpful, in that it builds self confidence
Once again you are able to take the basic principles of how I try to lead my life and arrange them in an elegant, eloquent, perfectly worded post. Cheers to you and thank you! Again!
Great post, thanks!
Great info. Keep up the encouragement. Reading about a different side of the coin is sometimes all one needs to be able to think again. Thanks.
Outstanding article, the idea of understanding that there “is no box” is the center of all of other ideas, it redirect us to different world with no rules and no limitations.
Love the blog…putting your work on my feeds so I can keep up! Timely and well said synopsis, especially for the ever expanding and unconventional world around the web, social media and business attitutes in general. Thank you.
I found your blog tonight and signed up! Beautifully said!
I’ve learned that if you have writer’s block, the best thing to do is brainstorm with other writers. They can offer you suggestions that will help get you past your block and moving forward with your writing. Blurbtree.com is a great website where you can write something and post it on the web, then invite specific people to add comments or ideas to your writing. Working together, Blurbtree.com will prove to be a fun and helpful tool as you press forward with your writing!
For the writer’s block, it seems that all you have to do is to do something entertaining for a certain period of time (preferably something you do very rarely), untill you “de-block” your writing’s interruption.
It may take some minutes, or some hours to deblock. It depends.
So whenever you “think” you get this writer’s block, then do something complitely different from your habits, or from your hobbies. If, for example, you never paint, then paint (or draw, etc…) I hope this helps.
Yeah its really an awesome post and inspired me a lot.
I really liked this article that really, it highlights the value of creativity and the fact that the creative process can be non linear.
The facts are that your are your own worse enemey when it comes to doing anything. This is a great list of mental blocks to study and use. When you see this happeining to you, fight the blocks and act!!!
Moe Bedard