As 2021 looms ahead of us, many are wondering how to turn it into the year that 2020 wasn’t. Additionally, there’s the fact that there’s no better motivation to finally make changes to your habits and lifestyle than the start of a brand new year. Some of us may want to, once again, take up exercising, or get into the habit of drinking more water. Perhaps you want to wake up earlier and maximise your mornings – we have an article that could help you there! If learning to be more creative is one of your goals for the new year, you’re in luck too, because we’ve found a couple of simple tips and tricks that can help you on your journey in 2021.
When it comes to creativity, some people are naturally gifted. It may seem like they were just blessed with minds that can create the spectacular from nothing with a mere moment’s notice. These people, it’s easy to believe, were just born that way. They lucked out. God generously gifted them with a little extra creativity spice than the rest of us.
Thinking this way, naturally, leads one to believe that those who lack god-given creativity are doomed to live mundane, uncreative lives forever. Not so, though. As it turns out, unlike the product of creative thought – that which is imaginative, new and exciting – the creative process is often repetitive, dull, and outright boring. Better still, it can be learned, practised and improved.
According to Mark Manson, author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F**k, “although we think of creativity as creating something that is unique, most of it isn’t. In fact, most of what we experience as being ‘new’ is simply taking old stuff and remixing it in fresh or unexpected ways”.
“Researchers call this ‘divergent thinking’ and it’s one of the best predictors of measurable creativity as well as one of the best skills to learn if you want to be more creative.”
The problem for many of us is that we fixate on being able to create something entirely new, when we should be thinking about ways to change existing ideas in order to make them feel fresh again. Manson emphasises, however, that novelty alone isn’t going to cut it. Creative ideas also need to have value. It’s not always easy to find the perfect balance of novelty and value, and that’s where the repetition and the hard work become important parts of the creative process.
It takes trial and error, feedback, correction, and practice if your goal truly is creative outcomes. Here are some things to think about on your journey to be more creative:
Keep living your life
You don’t need to become a recluse, living alone in the woods, in order to gain inspiration. Simply changing your perspective about some every day things, or even merely noticing some of those things, can be the inspiration you need to create something wonderful.
Quitting your day job and running off to a retreat in India may sound like an exciting and romantic way to chase your creativity, but keeping a stable job that puts food on the table may just be the best way to continue to support your creative process as you develop and improve it.
That doesn’t mean you can’t add new routines and activities into your day in order to look at things differently. Try walking a different route to work and see what you find. Or engage with somebody new in the office or on the street. Keep your phone or a notebook nearby as you go about your daily life, and write down small ideas or thoughts that you can come back to later.
Don’t fear boredom
In the age of smartphones and Instagram, many of us fear a second of boredom. As soon as we’re left with nothing to do, instead of turning inward and using that time to think, we open an app and start scrolling. It distracts us from being left alone with the awareness of our own existence.
If boredom is the mother of all invention, distraction is its kidnapper, holding creative ideas hostage. It may feel like you’re not being productive when you’re staring at a blank piece of paper, or an empty laptop screen. It may even cause some anxiety. Your hands may be itching to grab your phone so you no longer have to face that anxiety. But perhaps the anxiety is what you need to kickstart your creative process and really get the ball rolling.
It can help to use this anxiety to your benefit. Give yourself deadlines. Or at least blocks of time in which you don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Hide your phone, and tell yourself you’ll work on your creative task for an hour, even if that “work” only involves staring at the white rectangle in front of you. You never know what you’ll come up with if you’re just given the time, free of distractions.
Steal from your heroes
Not actual theft. But ideas. Have a look at what leaders in your field are doing, and critique them. What do they do that you could implement, and how could you do things differently. Adding your own unique twist to a strategy that the people you admire are using is a great way to be more successful at any venture.
Better yet, get in touch with the people you look up to, and create connections. Learn from everyone, and build bonds that you can continue to learn from. Surround yourself with people that inspire and motivate you. In his book, artist Anthony Burrill writes that “building your creative network starts with your contemporaries, your fellow practitioners of the future. These people will form the core of your creative community, from which a rich ecosystem of creativity will develop.”
Manson quotes Picasso, who said that “Good artists borrow, great artists steal”. What he meant by this, is that reinvention of ideas is the only true way to continue to innovate. By networking and analysing the work of others you admire, you’re allowing the creative ecosystem to flourish.
Keep in mind, though, that conformity, like distraction, is an enemy of creativity, and aiming to be exactly like the others in your field, is not going to help you either.
Explore New Outlets
You may be trying to write a novel, develop and app, start a business, but doing the same things every day – while definitely an important part of the process – might also leave you stuck at a plateau.
While on your quest to be more creative, try to incorporate some new experiences from time to time that might trigger new idea. Not an artist? Try drawing something for a change and see what pops up from that. If you’re not a big reader, you could try to pick up a book on a topic you don’t know much about – perhaps read a biography about somebody you don’t really know about. Something as simple as doodling on a piece of paper could wake up the part of your brain you need to find inspiration.
Every new experience is a new opportunity to learn and discover things that may help you on your mission.
Do the work
Finally, instead of waiting around for an idea to show up like a bolt from the blue, sit down and start working on it.
Manson writes that there’s a direct correlation between how much someone created, and how original that work turned out. “When you look at the creative geniuses throughout history to find commonalities,” he writes “the most glaringly obvious one is that they simply worked their asses off more than most people, and longer than most people”.
We remember the great and original ideas the biggest names in art, music, and tech had, but in between those were countless ideas, and countless hours of work, that go unremembered – which helped turn people like Darwin, Picasso, and Steve Jobs into household names.
Hours of staring at your laptop, clueless and bored, sounds like hell, but if you truly want to be more creative and make a routine of it, eventually you’ll find yourself feeling less clueless, and probably less bored. Create schedules and to-do lists, and hold yourself accountable. Do the work until it becomes second nature. Even if it feels disappointing and disheartening in the beginning, you can rest assured with all that practice it will surely become less so as you get better at your creative process.
2020 Held many of us back from our dreams, but others found that it already forced us to be more creative as we adapted to the new normal. Let 2021 be the year you become even more creative, and really grow to serve your purpose.
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