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Creativity is a Skill You Can Learn

Creativity is described as, “the act of turning ideas from your imagination into reality.” Many people think that creativity only exists in the arts, but this is not true at all. There are many types of creativity that include both the cognitive and the emotional. Because of this, you can be creative in all aspects of your life. What’s more important is even if you don’t believe you’re very creative right now, you can learn it. Creativity is another skill that you can learn. 

Take a Course

One way to become more creative is to keep learning new things. This is especially true if you try to learn new things that activate different areas of your brain. For example, learning to code can increase your creativity just as much as taking a painting class. It’s just a different type of creativity.

Read a Book

Try to read a lot of books. In fact, take some time out of your day, every day, to read at least 15 minutes. Read books that are fantasy, read books that are fact, read different genres because different types of stories or facts tend to release different types of creativity in your mind. 

Practice Every Day

Anytime you want to improve any skill that you have, the best way to do that is practice. Whether it’s painting, writing, or coding doesn’t matter – the practice is how you’ll get better at doing whatever it is. 

Engage All Parts of Your Brain

Stimulating different areas of your brain is important for creativity. Some of us are more left brain than right brain and vice versa – that’s okay – you can be mathematical and still be an artist. Art is not the only avenue for true creativity.

Get Bored

Allowing your mind to wander requires some freedom from always having to be doing something. Going for a walk without earbuds, meditating without a mantra, and just letting your mind let loose is one of the best ways to come up with a new imaginative idea for any problem you’re trying to solve.

Try New Things Often

There is a saying that you may have heard before: “You don’t know what you don’t know.” When you try new things, often it teaches you more about the world and shows you the fact that you don’t know what you don’t know in a way that makes it clear. When you accept that there are unknowns in the world, it’s easier to let your imagination and creativity run wild. 

Play More

Today a lot of people focus on work and never take the time to play. It’s as if downtime is seen as wasted time. The truth is, finding ways to play and laugh more will unleash your creativity because it opens your mind so much.

Brainstorm Then Edit 

When you brainstorm solutions, you may be tempted to self-edit, as you document your thoughts. However, this can squelch your creativity because you’re multitasking. If you really want to be creative, stop editing while you brainstorm ideas. Brainstorming ideas and editing should be done in two different steps. This allows you to stay focused on one task at a time. Brainstorm first and let the ideas flow, uninterrupted, even when they seem silly or impossible.

We all have a creative side. It’s just a matter of inspiring that side and unleashing your creative thoughts. Let your imagination run wild as you jot down the basic concepts. Once you run out of ideas, you can go back and add details or edit the notes.