Unleashing Your Creative Genius - Amazon S3s3.amazonaws.com/.../UnleashingYourCreativeGenius.pdf · 2012-06-06 · the logic of dreams, myths and art. It helps put your ideas together

©Success-Monthly.com

Unleashing Your Creative Genius


Copyright © 2012 Success Vantage Pte Ltd

All rights reserved

Published by Greg & Alvin

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in

any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopied, recorded, scanned, or

otherwise, except as permitted under Canadian copyright law, without the prior written

permission of the author.

Notes to the Reader:

While the author and publisher of this book have made reasonable efforts to ensure the

accuracy and timeliness of the information contained herein, the author and publisher

assume no liability with respect to losses or damages caused, or alleged to be caused, by any

reliance on any information contained herein and disclaim any and all warranties, expressed

or implied, as to the accuracy or reliability of said information. The publisher and the author

make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the

contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties. The advice and strategies

contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. It is the complete responsibility of

the reader to ensure they are adhering to all local, regional and national laws.

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to

the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that neither the author nor the

publisher is engaged in rendering professional services. If legal, accounting, medical,

psychological, or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent

professional should be sought.

The words contained in this text which are believed to be trademarked, service marked, or

to otherwise hold proprietary rights have been designated as such by the use of initial

capitalization. Inclusion, exclusion, or definition of a word or term is not intended to affect,

or to express judgment upon the validity of legal status of any proprietary right which may

be claimed for a specific word or term.

The fact that an organization or website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or

potential source of further information does not mean that the author or publisher endorses

the information the organization or website may provide or the recommendations it may

make. Further, readers should be aware that the websites listed in this work may have

changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read.

Individual results may vary.


As the respect for all forms of art and their respective artists grew, being creative

grew to have as much status as being intelligent. People started to assume that like

intelligence, creativity was something you were born with, an innate talent that

wasn’t trained.

But neuroscientists and researchers have been steadily debunking this myth. The

typical idea most people have on creativity is that there is a separation between the

right brain and the left brain – a popular concept that has been perpetuated for

decades. However, modern neuroscience has shown that this is untrue. Utilizing the

creative aspects of the brain will access numerous connections through the brain.

The latest research that each time a creative idea hits the brain, there is a spike in the

activity of the gamma brain waves that seems to tie cells together in several different

areas of the brain, which forms a new network.

This interest in creativity and how the brain formulates a creative idea is spreading

through the corporate world. Neuroscience has shown that exercising the creative

aspects of the brain is good for relieving stress and enhancing your mood, which in

turn enhances your general performance, even in analytical situations. This is because

the brain is so focused on creating something new and innovative that it doesn’t

have time and resources to devote to stress. (Neuroscientists define creativity as

something novel and also useful).

Creativity has been a controversial topic in human society since humans first decided to separate the arts from the sciences…


Due to this marked increase in performance and productivity, several companies

have been trying to promote creativity amongst their employees. Numerous Fortune

500 companies have hired creativity consultants to work with their staff and business

schools across America have begun offering creativity classes, something usually

viewed as an inter-disciplinary study at best.

But the most important fact neuroscientists have

discovered is that creativity isn’t a talent. It is

actually a broad-based approach to thinking and

something that can always be trained and

perfected…

Fresh insights and new ideas don’t just appear out of thin air. Being creative requires

as much brainpower and hard work as any other field of intellectual study. To this

end, Harvard University psychologist Shelley Carson has developed a step-by-step

approach to forming, perfecting and actualizing a creative idea, a methodical process

employed by scientists and mathematicians.

Using this approach will allow you to craft a novel idea from scratch and it covers the

whole process of creativity, from inception to completion.


Step 1: Absorb

The first step is to receive and absorb information around your environment and

examine what’s occurring in your relevant areas of interest without giving any

manner of judgment.

For example, the greatest novelists

are avid readers and the most

innovative musicians are fans of

many different genres of music.

Similarly, computer software

company IBM once hired computer

hackers to speak to company

executives about new software and

security innovations.

Absorbing information allows you to get fresh perspectives, which in turn allows you

to examine all sides of a problem, especially the sides that you would never have

seen before. You can train yourself to be more open to new ideas by paying attention

to what’s happening in the moment – this practice is called mindfulness.


Step 2: Envision

The second step requires you to utilize your imagination and its ability to create rich

mental imagery. This visualization of new and fantastic things is something kids are

great at and is what inspired Albert Einstein to come up with his theory of relativity.

Einstein imagined light beams as two trains speeding past stationary observers on a

train platform and it gave him enough to be able to conceptualize one of the most

important theories in physics.

You can develop and strengthen your imagination by giving

your visualization skills a workout for five minutes a day.

This visualization exercise often works best after an intense

physical activity, or just after lunch hour, when your brain is

ready to rest and when daydreams typically occur.

Visualization allows you to look at your problem or novel

idea in a space where physical limitations do not exist. This

lets you overcome certain boundaries that might otherwise

hamper your creative process and also discover unique

solutions via a new perspective.


Step 3: Connect

The third step is probably one of the hardest steps to accomplish. Many artists will

claim that it is the hardest to be creative when you’re trying too hard to be creative.

Carson suggests that after researching all possibilities, it is most efficient to

encourage conceptual connections to occur by thinking about something else.

Distract yourself by reading, or taking a walk. It is vital that

you do not try to force an insight. This method of

defocusing has been shown to lower activity in the

prefrontal cortex – the area of the brain responsible for

making decisions and avoiding risks. At the same time, it

increases activity in the right temporal lobe, which

governs information recall and recognition. “This area of

the brain understands the language of the unconscious,

the logic of dreams, myths and art. It helps put your ideas

together in a novel organization,” says Daniel Goleman,

psychologist and author of Emotional Intelligence.

Defocusing is possibly the hardest step to accomplish, due

to the way the brain is wired. It is very hard to let go of an idea or a decision once the

brain has ‘made up its mind’ and even harder when you’re trying to do it consciously.

It is best to work your body to tire and distract the brain, or to focus on other tasks

that will take up the brain’s processing capabilities. Even though you are consciously

working or concentrating on another matter,

the brain will still be processing your idea in

the background.

This has the double advantage of making

more efficient use of your time, while letting

the brain do what it does best without

external factors causing interference.

Step 4: Reason

Now that you have a more solid concept of

your novel idea, it is time to reason it out and look at it in greater detail. You must


focus on and think, in realistic and practical terms, of what will work, instead of how

you’d like it to work. Your idea needs to take into account the resources and tools

you have at hand and you will also need to sketch out a basic timeline, to see if

accomplishing your idea would be a huge time sink.

At this point, it is best to take your more fanciful ideas and to flesh them out and

make them practical. Give them details, work through the steps in your head and

decide what can or cannot be accomplished in a timely and efficient manner. By

reasoning through your idea, you will silence your self-doubts from shooting your

ideas down and be more confident of actualizing your idea.

A common problem that occurs during this step is if doubts enter your head and

causes you to prematurely evaluate your idea (see Step 5, below). Skipping ahead

without rationalizing through the details of your idea is bad, as you would be unable

to form a good evaluation as you will not have all the necessary information.

Carson advises using verbal cues such as saying “Don’t go there,” or visualizing a Stop sign to end this premature evaluation and

focus on the process at hand…


Step 5: Evaluate

Once your idea has been detailed and fleshed

out, it is now time to judge your idea,

comparing its merits to other things that

might already exist in the same field. You will

need to be thoughtful and be critical and,

most importantly, impartial. This step is when

you will let your brain decide which idea or

solution to implement.

You can practice evaluation by listing down 10

favorite movies, songs, books, restaurants,

etc and arranging them in order of

preference. This trains your brain to reason

through merits and flaws of certain objects

quickly and establishes a working process of evaluation that makes it easier for you

to judge your own creations in comparison to the works of others.

It is important to be critical, but not judgmental

during this step. It very easy to cross that line

unwittingly and you must always attempt to weigh

your idea’s merits against its flaws before unfairly

condemning it. However, the reverse also holds

through and you must decide if your idea’s flaws are

too staggering to make its merits worthwhile.

A lot of people will return to step 4 to ‘fix’ any flaws

and look through their ideas again. The reasoning

and evaluation process typically take up the most

time during the creative process.


Step 6: Dive In

Once you’re done with all the above steps (it is important to not skip any and get

ahead of yourself), immerse yourself in arriving at your goal and making the idea

come to life. Ideally, you’ll enter a brain activity state called ‘flow’ (a term coined by

psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi of Claremont Graduate University), in which you

lose track of time and your sense of self as you completely engage in the challenge of

actualizing your idea.

You can train your brain to enter this state more

easily by giving yourself little challenges when

you do everyday tasks, such as your laundry or

your grocery shopping. It helps you pass the

time while performing these ‘mundane’

activities and it also helps to raise your

standards in accomplishing these chores, bit by

little bit.

Flow is admittedly hard to accomplish, as most

people are too self-aware or self-conscious to

give up their control over their surroundings and

let the brain take over. It is important to realize

that the creative process takes place entirely in the mind and to allow external

factors to cripple you is stifling to your creativity.

As creativity can be promoted and enhanced through practice and the proper

mindset, the incorrect approach can also be very detrimental. Most people trap

themselves inside a set pattern of thought and reaction, an environment which is not

conducive to creative thinking. It is this pattern of routine thought that brought

about the phrase ‘thinking outside the box’, a popular idiom meant to represent

creative thought and looking at a problem from a formerly unseen angle.


However, what they don’t realize is that there

is actually no ‘box’ at all. The only boundaries

to thought and creative thinking is the blind

obedience to the norm, without attempting

to understand why ‘normal things’ are

considered ‘normal’. While the typical

person’s attempt to stick to ‘being normal’ is

good for society as a whole, it is incredibly

stifling to his creative thought, as it create

mental barriers formed by habit and fear.

The 10 most common barriers to creative thinking are – Trying to find the right answer.

As a result of our years of

formal education, we

have placed an emphasis

on finding the correct

answer to a question or a

problem all the time.

While this approach is

useful and applicable to

most things we encounter

in our everyday life and it

helps us function in society, it actually prevents truly innovative and creative thinking.

There is often more than one ‘right’ answers to any issue but our education has

inculcated a habit of assuming and looking for only one answer.

A lot of the problems we face can have many different solutions, but typically most

of the solutions disappear without consideration. In order to overcome this mental

block, we need to look at the issue at hand and reframe it in a different way and

approach it from different angles and points of view. This multiple approach will

allow us to think of several different answers.


It is also helpful to actively seek out ambiguous questions and attempt to find several

different solutions in order to ‘reprogram’ our brain’s tendencies.

1. Logical Thinking Logical and critical thinking is an approach we are encouraged to have in most

situations in our lives. However, real life is very rarely logical and is in fact, completely

random at times. Critical thinking is perfectly feasible when examining a creative idea

and looking for its merits and flaws, but it is a hindrance to coming up with truly

novel ideas.

However, logic often travels in a straight path from Point A to Point B, and does not

typically allow for deviation from this path. The best way to prevent your critical

thinking from overcoming your creative process is to think metaphorically.

Metaphors are used in everyday communication and are generally accepted by

society as ‘truth’, albeit unconsciously. Using metaphors will help you realize that

‘truth’ is relative and, at times, symbolic. This frame of mind will free your brain from

the constraints of what is ‘truth’ and what is ‘fiction’ and allow you to come up with

alternative solutions.

Logic is a series of strictly

methodical steps to allow you

to reason your way through an

argument or a problem...


2. Following Rules A large part of creativity is being destructive, even if it is only imaginary destruction.

Creative people break the walls upon which the often arbitrary rules are written,

asking questions when other people merely take things for granted. It is obviously

difficult to purposefully break these rules, which have been ingrained into us since

our youth, but even the smallest rebellion is enough to allow your creative juices to

flow.

Following rules also brings a sense of security and comfort and most people would

rather not risk their security in order to engage in creativity. This is why famous

rebels like James Dean and Richard Branson are celebrated, but very few people

would actually follow in their footsteps.

In order for creativity to truly flourish, you must stop idolizing these rules breakers

and start breaking some rules of your own.

3. Being Practical Being practical is a lot like being logical. Practicality and pragmatism has been

emphasized in our culture, with is high cost of living, its focus on productivity and

efficiency as well as the need to contribute to the well-being of the society and its

economy. However, practical thinking can often stop an innovative idea before it is

even fully formed – truly innovative ideas always start of a bit far-fetched and

impossible.

You must avoid evaluating a concept or

the viability of an approach before

you’ve given it time to grow and evolve

into an actual idea. Ask ‘what if?’ as

often as you can and do not set any

restrictions or boundaries to your

imagination – let your mind wander

wherever it wants to. The mental

landscape is without boundary except

for that we place erect ourselves.


4. Play is Not Work One of the best ways to stimulate creativity is to let your mind wander and play.

However, modern society has formed the assumption that work must be separated

from play. For a creative thinker, though, work and play are one and the same. In the

modern age, creative people get hard workers to get things done for them and are

also the ones who get rewarded the most.

5. That’s Not My Job

These days, people are expected to

specialize and it is sometimes taken a

step too far, with people hyper-

specializing in one field to the exclusion

of all others. Advertising genius Carl Ally

claims that creative people want to be

‘know-it-alls’, people who are always

hungry for more information and want to

be able to do everything.

Think about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, both creative men who never divorced the concept of play from the work they had to

put in….


While there is absolutely nothing wrong with being specialized in your field, whatever

it may be, to simply be just a cog in a highly efficient machine is stifling to your

creativity. Instead, consider yourself to be an explorer, forging paths through the

frontiers of knowledge. The more you know, the easier it is for an idea to form and

for you to get new perspectives on old problems.

6. Being a ‘Serious’ Person There is nothing wrong with conformity. Conforming, sharing values and being

consistent with one another is what allows civilization to continue. Now that you are

aware that society functions simply through groupthink, you must also know that in

order for society to grow and evolve, someone must be able to overturn the norm

and to dispel the illusions.

Leaders from feudal times all across the world – from European kings to Chinese

emperors – have always made use of a court jester, or a fool. While the meaning of

the word was similar to what is it today – a person with below average intelligence

and a lack of common sense – fools challenge the common perception and social

conventions, letting him speak the truth without fear of repercussion.

Be the fool. While it can be embarrassing and most people would rather laugh at you

than listen to what you have to say, the truly wise will understand the merit of your

words. Creative thinking requires that you break free from convention and habit,

despite its risks.


7. Avoiding Ambiguity Humans like to deal in certainties and in black and white. We don’t deal very well with

shades of grey and attempt to force complex things into clearly marked categories,

even when we know the results will be disastrous. Creative thinkers are able to

ignore this desire for clarity and discover the different wants ambiguity can be useful.

Ambiguity provides room for flexibility and growth, both of which are necessary for

innovation. Do not run from it, but face it head on and see what advantages being

ambiguous can net you.

8. Being Wrong Is Bad

Learn from your mistakes. It is an axiom that has

been pounded into our heads since the very first

day we started school, but still we hate being

wrong. Famous inventors like Thomas Edison and

Alexander Graham Bell took hundreds of tries and

suffered through hundreds of failures before

finally perfecting their inventions. Their strength

was that they were not afraid of being wrong,

because they knew that every mistake was

another step forward and another opportunity to

learn.

In order to learn from our mistakes, we must first be willing to make those mistakes.

Most people stop at this barrier because they are afraid of being wrong and don’t try.

The fear of failure is a terrible detriment to everything you do. Try out your ideas, no

matter how crazy or wacky. There is nothing wrong with being wrong – in fact,

what’s the worst that can happen if you screw up? You will often find that what

you’ve managed to learn far outweigh the repercussions of your mistakes.


9. I’m Not Creative

This is possibly the hardest mental block to overcome.

Insisting that you are no creative is like insisting you are not

a human being. The human mind has the limitless potential

for creativity and whatever limits that exist are put in place

with our habits and assumptions. In short, if you insist that

you are not creative, it will become true.

Stop. You do not have to become creative, you already are

creative. The only thing you have left to do is to tear away

these illusions that hold you back and blind you from the

truth. Insist that you are creative and you can work on the

other barriers that exist in your mind.

Being able to think creatively isn’t the endgame. Creativity has many uses and

applications, both in your personal and professional life and will allow you to find

new solutions to old problems that have been plaguing you. Furthermore, exercising

your creativity reduces stress

and stimulates the pleasure and

reward centers in the brain,

giving you a good buzz from

simple thinking.

In the hyper-competitive job

market that exists today, you’ll

need every advantage to set

yourself apart from the

competition. Creative thinking is

huge benefit and distinct way to

differentiate yourself – not

everyone is prepared to go through the steps required to make creative thinking

effortless and natural and those who do will surely stand out from the crowd.

Creative thinking is a process that can be practiced and perfected. The only thing that

stops us are the own mental barriers that exist in our head, all of which are easily

overcome.

Documents

Unleashing Your Creative Genius - Amazon S3s3.amazonaws.com/.../UnleashingYourCreativeGenius.pdf · 2012-06-06 · the logic of dreams, myths and art. It helps put your ideas together