Developing different mindsets is an important part of becoming the best you can be. One of these mindsets is that of a creator (creative mindset). Creativity is necessary in order to solve problems and create new solutions. It takes time, effort, and patience to learn how to harness creativity in order to get the innovative ideas you need so desperately for your business or workplace.
Creativity is not something that can be taught. Creating comes from the place of true passion for something. It can be learned over time by practising different techniques and finding what works best for you. It also takes practice and training in order to master creative ideas.
We are all influenced, or inspired, by others but it is important to not try too hard to imitate others’ creativity or you may come across as awkward and feel uninspired yourself. It’s important to have confidence in your own ideas, even if people don’t agree with them at first.
What is a creative mindset?
A creative mindset is a personal belief that enables you to be creative and achieve your goal. This belief is based on your lifestyle and the experiences you have had. If you believe in yourself and the potential you have within, then it is far easier to be creative. This mindset has been proven to help with communication, problem solving, perseverance and more.
If you have a creative mindset, your creative thinking will be better than others. This means that you are more likely to succeed in business, or in anything you do. You will look at problems as opportunities rather than as setbacks. With a creative mindset, you can succeed.
“Since creativity is primarily an intrinsic drive, the greatest resource for creativity is a person’s own inner strength.” – Eckhart Tolle
This quote means this: your creativity comes from within yourself. Nobody can give this to you and it will never run out or be depleted.
10 Step Guide to Developing a Creative Mindset
You have an understanding of what a creative mindset is and you know you want to develop one. So let’s go through a begginers guide to developing your mindset to the path of creativity.
1. Make sure you are aware of the four word cues for creativity:
“Satisfy your curiosity” – meaning focus on experiencing new things and solving problems in your environment that come about with learning.
“Take risks” – meaning dare to put yourself out there, in order to see what happens. Be willing to lose in order to gain something new. You must be willing to fail in order to learn new skills and succeed.
“Generate many ideas” -you must be able to generate a large number of ideas and think outside of the box. Ideas will come from everywhere, so do not restrict yourself to one place or idea.
Finally, “Be different from others” – this means that you must be different from others to be creative. It comes naturally because if you were the same as everyone else, then you would not be creative. You can stand out without being awkward or hard to work with.
2. Decide on a creative goal.
“What is the purpose of my creative thought process?” – Decide what your goal is, or what you need to learn in order to achieve this goal.
This helps you focus on the task at hand and allows you to work towards your goals. Focus on outcomes rather than tasks or actions. This will help develop a greater understanding of your goals and how they can be achieved more easily.
3. Research.
“What things do I know about?” – research different scenarios and different ideas so that you have a clear idea of what you are aiming for. Use the “Do I know…?” technique. This means think of examples or situations that help you clarify your goal and what you want to achieve.
A great way of starting this research process is by asking questions and evaluating answers.
“What do I want to learn?” – learn what you can about the goal at hand, or the project. Make a list of questions you have about your goal so that you can research them and develop solutions for them.
“How can I learn it?” – find out more about your goal by asking different people for their opinions on the subject. Learn from others and gather their ideas and points of view so that you are able to develop a clear understanding of your goals or projects.
“How will I know if I have achieved my goal?” – This is the final step of research. You must be able to come up with an evaluation process. What signs and actions can you use to see whether you have achieved your goal?
This step can also include evaluations on how your goal is coming along or how much progress you are making towards it. You want to monitor how your goals are being met, and not only after they are reached.
4. Control the environment.
“What is my environment?” – You must be aware of your environment when thinking or coming up with ideas. It can be useful to work in different places because you are more likely to come up with new ideas. You do not always need to be working in a quiet area, sometimes a loud working environment can help you concentrate more.
Set the environment that is right for you. If your environment is not right, it can be challenging to come up with solutions or new ideas.
5. Reduce the pressure.
“How can I reduce pressure?” – Think of a situation where you are very pressured or stressed and then think of how you could reduce the stress on that situation in order to think more creatively.
Use this technique by thinking of a situation where you felt very pressured and then find a way to reduce the pressure in order to achieve your goal.
Here are some ways that you can help reduce the pressure in certain situations:
- You can use breathing exercises to help reduce the amount of pressure in a situation.
- You can step away for a while and think about the stress that you are feeling.
- You can write down your worries on paper or type them into a document so that you feel less worried about them.
6. Don’t ignore feelings, don’t ignore facts.
“What feelings am I ignoring?” – Many people feel that they should not think about their feelings because they are irrelevant to what they are trying to achieve. Feelings are important when thinking of a creative solution and can help you with your goals.
So it is important to acknowledge why you feel a certain way in a situation, even if it does not appear to be relevant.
“What facts am I ignoring?” – There are many facts about your goals and ideas that you may have not realized. These facts can help you with coming up with creative solutions to the problem or to your goal.
Use these facts from your goal to create different ways of achieving it, or new ways of reaching what you want to achieve. Facts are important because they can help you to think of new and different ways to come up with a creative solution.
7. Think about your assumptions.
“What assumptions am I making?” – Sometimes when we are thinking about a situation, we make certain assumptions about how things work in order for them to work out. We do this automatically without even realizing that we are making an assumption.
Assumptions are ”rules” that we have about how to do something, and if we break those rules our goal will not be achieved.
Breaking these rules can lead to creative solutions because it makes you think differently.
Once you have identified your assumptions, it is important to challenge them in order for you to come up with creative solutions.
8. Learn as much about yourself as possible.
“How do I become more aware of myself” – We all act in a very automatic way. We do things without thinking about them, we make judgments without thinking about them and we have beliefs about ourselves without even knowing that we have them.
Self-awareness is being aware of our behaviours, beliefs and opinions towards ourselves as well as our perception of the world around us.
9. Be committed to the creative process.
Creative people are passionate about what they do, because they enjoy the whole process of creativity, which is a combination of being challenged and trying to solve problems in unexpected ways.
It is important to be committed to the creative process in order for us to have more and more creative ideas.
If we stop, we will lose steam and motivation which are two essential elements for successful creativity.
An old boss of mine always used to say “persistence overcomes resistance”. Some of the wisest words I have ever heard. It means that people will often put up a fight, but if you are tenacious enough, they will eventually give in.
10. Show your work and be open to criticism and feedback
“What am I doing to show my work?” – Showing your work shows people that you are committed to the creative process. Also, it shows them that you are open to criticism and will listen to feedback.
If you do not do this, people will assume that you are not dedicated enough in order for them to take your ideas seriously. You must be open because this is how people can learn and develop their own creativity while working on developing your creativity as well.
“What am I doing to listen to feedback?” – You have ideas, and you want to see what others think about them. If you don’t listen to feedback, then you might not hear any errors in your idea. That is why you must be open and responsive when people have something negative to say because this will help you find out any errors in your idea.
Why is having a creative mindset important?
You understand the value of having a creative mindset and you want to develop it. So now we are going to look at some of the benefits that can be gained from developing and maintaining your creative mind.
“Creativity is the liberation of consciousness from the constraints it has imposed upon itself.” – Carl G. Jung
This quote means this: creativity has been used to describe a state of mind, a mode of being, or an activity. You could say that creativity is something that you do, not something that you are.
To get a creative mindset, you have to be in a state of mind where you are willing to come up with new ideas. This state of mind is very helpful because it can help you to develop your knowledge base.
It also helps clarify your thoughts, which means that you are able to think of solutions to problems much easier. It can also improve your relationships with others and help with your personal development.
“Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way. It involves seeing familiar things with fresh eyes and discovering new connections among those things.” – Edward de Bono
This quote means this: Creativity can help us to look at the world around us in a different way, and help us see solutions to problems in ways that we had not thought of before.
In today’s world, there are new technologies being introduced at an exponential rate, which is why it is very important to be able to come up with creative solutions to problems.
Why does having a creative mindset help you succeed?
Having a creative mindset helps you succeed in business because it helps you to develop better business solutions. It also helps you to make good decisions and make money if you are successful in achieving your goals.
Your mindset can help with important decisions that may have a large effect on others such as your career or what kind of business you want to run. You will be able to apply the right techniques that are beneficial for achieving your goals.
You will be able to enjoy and experience the benefits that creativity has to offer. For example, you may be able to develop an idea for a new product, service or idea. This can help you make money or improve your life in different ways and provide you with new opportunities.
Having a creative mindset can also help you prevent bad decisions. These decisions can cause problems for you and even lead to a downfall in your career or finances. A creative mindset allows you to look at problems from different perspectives or solve them in a different way, in order to prevent this.
Having a creative mindset gives you more opportunities and provides you with more resources for your goals and projects. You can also develop a greater understanding of the world around you. Creativity will also help you to be more innovative in different areas, which can provide new opportunities for your goals and from experience, it will make you happier than ever before.
What are the 5 techniques of exploring creative thinking?
1. The first technique is trying to look at your creative mindset from the outside.
You can be as objective as possible in order to solve the problem with creativity (e.g. note down which channels of your brain are used when doing any creative endeavours) and then you can look at what occurs when you try different approaches which use those same channels (e.g. which is more efficient, creative or successful).
2. The second technique is to try a creative exercise.
This exercise is just to enhance your creativity by triggering the use of different parts of the brain. To do this try drawing a picture that you have never drawn before, or have someone try doing the same without using one of their hands as they draw it, or in some other way disrupt what you already know how to do.
3. The third technique is thinking about a time when you felt really creative. T
hink about why you felt that way (e.g. what happened which triggered that) and then thinking about a time when you were not creative. This will allow you to compare the two different mindsets from each perspective.
4. The fourth technique is to find a friend to share your thoughts and feelings with (e.g. your creative thoughts).
Your brain has created many different connections within itself and by sharing your thoughts your brain will create more connections in order for you to understand what was said (e.g. via mirror neurons). This will help you explore different parts of your brain which are used when creating different thoughts.
5. The fifth technique is to reduce stress and try to relax.
This may be the most important technique as any stress or worries tend to narrow your focus of attention onto very specific problems and solutions, which can reduce creativity.
How is having a creative mind connected to a growth mindset?
Humans are built to innovate. Creativity is what connects a growth mindset and the creative process. Creativity cannot be taught. You can teach someone to think more creatively, but you can’t teach them to be creative. They have to develop creativity from within themselves, by using their own unique brain chemistry and individual thinking style.
Creativity is the result of conscious effort, endlessly repeated practice and many hours spent in solitude on your own thoughts.
Creativity is the result of conscious effort, endlessly repeated practice and many hours spent in solitude on your own thoughts. It’s what separates humans from other animals. Think about how often you come up with a new idea that you never would have thought of before.
Hence this forms part of the growth mindset as it is a creative product made by you. You forever have the ability to be creative, even when working in a field that has no element of creativity in it.
Creativity is a by-product of curiosity. It’s the exploration of things unknown to find the answers to questions you didn’t know you had. Creativity stems from that positive curiosity, which is one facet of a growth mindset; perpetual learning.
Creativity is just one of the many facets that a growth mindset can boost. Using the right tactics and tools, it can be used to boost all your other mindsets in school, at work, or in life. What’s more, creativity can boost a growth mindset.
Common habits of the creative mindset
Habits are an important part of creating new things and doing them consistently, over and over again, for many hours. Here are some creative habits:
- Have an intense focus for long stretches of time: You have to want to do something over and over again, for many hours, until it’s done.
- Take deep notes: You have to put down a lot of information while you’re thinking about the new thing you’re creating from scratch.
- Get lots of rest: You need to get enough sleep and relax, so your brain is working at maximum capacity.
- Have fun doing hard things: Don’t let the difficulty of a creative project make you stop creating. Having fun while you work is key to having consistent motivation for hard creative work.
- Get in the flow: You have to stay in the state of flow where you’re having fun and feeling productive while you do creative work without realising how much time has passed by.
- Keep your mind clean: You have to jettison old ideas that no longer make sense within the context of what you’re creating.
- Be prepared to hear new inspiration: You need to be ready to notice when something inspires you, even when you’re in the middle of doing something else. After all, inspiration occurs at unexpected times and places.
- Take short breaks: You need to take regular breaks, even if just for half an hour, to let your mind rest and reboot.
- Do something else: You have to deliberately do something other than your creative project and new thing you’re creating from scratch. This will keep your mind fresh and allow you to enjoy creativity while sticking to the principles that are important for a creative mindset.
- Take responsibility for your creative success: You need to take total responsibility for your own success in a creative project. This means that you have to put forward a lot of effort and be consistent throughout the entire creative process.
The wrap – Go forth and develop your creative mindset
If you’re serious about becoming a creative person who consistently creates and innovates, you have to adopt the above habits.
You have to create a habit of cultivating a creative mindset. Most of all, actually doing your creative work is the most important thing you can do for yourself. In other words, if you want to become more creative, then get out there and create and do something new!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this guide to developing your own creative mindset. If you know somebody who would benefit from reading about the above habits, please share this article with them. The gift of passing on knowledge is one of the greatest things you can do.