How can you harness creative thinking to solve everyday problems?

Sé un aprendiz constante y mantén una mente positiva. Para resolver problemas cotidianos con la creatividad, debes mantener buena actitud, la curiosidad es un aliado para crear, investigar y resolver. Además, debemos abordar los problemas desde todos los puntos de vista, mirar las miles de posibilidades que podrían dar relacionarse, ser reflexivo y sobre todo, mantener una actitud positiva en todo lo que hacemos será la clave.

Harnessing creative thinking to solve everyday problems involves approaching situations with a fresh perspective and an open mind. Here are some practical steps to foster creative thinking: Reframe the Problem: Look at the problem from different angles. Ask "What if?" or "Why not?" to challenge assumptions. Break the problem down into smaller parts and tackle each part individually. Brainstorming: Generate as many ideas as possible without judging them initially. Use techniques like mind mapping to visually organize thoughts and ideas. Encourage collaboration and diversity of thought by involving others. Change Your Environment: Sometimes a change of scenery can stimulate new ideas. T

Curiosity starts with engagement and experimentation with everything available to you. One thing I've found helpful is analysing everything I consume (movies, books, animations, etc). This creates a broader understanding as to WHY artists/directors/creatives make certain decisions. Constant analysis allows you to create a toolset, usable in multiple areas, you essentially become a universal problem solver. Because creativity is just using your tools in a way no one else might expect. This is where experimentation occurs. Asking yourself what would happen if I use this idea, in this situation instead, will it create something interesting or fail? Test everything and don't be afraid to fail! Sometimes solutions come from happy accidents.

Harnessing creative thinking along with experience is a potent combination in any field of knowledge and personal life. Creative thinking breaks the boundaries of conventional wisdom, providing fresh perspectives for problem-solving. When coupled with experience, it ensures the delivery of precise, effective, and efficient solutions.

Always be curious. I always ask myself "why" to everything. In an argument, to my client when they make weird choices and even when I am in the middle of going through an idea that I think will work if I end up stuck and the idea seems impossible to do, I stop and I ask why to every step of my process. That's how I solved my own equations.

Return to the beginners mindset to reassess the problem. Even as a professional, becoming too stuck in the 'rules' of the discipline can be constricting to the creative flow. I've always appreciated the concept "learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist" Consider what's more important right now: what you know or what you don't know. I often find no matter my level of expertise, there's much more that I don't know than I do. Leaning into this mindset promotes alternative thinking, and can encourage tackling challenges from new perspectives.

I am an accountant who is also good in marketing. Reading a lot of news, stay up to date with market conditions and staying alert with your surroundings will make you realise one thing, following what others do will send your business to the irrelevant lane faster. Break the mold, be different, be bold, be brave to do something that most people are afraid to do, invent new ideas and follow those ideas. Sometimes your ideas stink but hey at least you try to make it work in the first place rather than just thinking about it. Never regret if you waste your time developing an idea that turns out to be bad because it will open up to another great idea. And that's how you break the mold.

For me, everything is in the subtext. Creatively reflecting on everyday challenges to identify or resolve problems often reveals the subtle, unspoken narratives behind what you're attempting to solve. Part of the beauty of this is the recognition that most things in life, in most contexts, are ambiguous and uncertain. Most problems aren't black and white, and in embracing these unspoken contexts, patterns, connections behind the scenes, you can open yourself to new creative possibilities. Connecting the unspoken and unseen for greater clarity is often the first step to deep understanding. Look for the small details.

Back to my embracing curiosity answer. Asking myself why when I am stuck in my own equations, when my "why" has no answer to it, I stop and do something else like taking a long break, walking at the street or park, meeting my fellow business friends or looking for a mentor online for a talk (it is easy now where there are platforms for you to connect with a business mentor). Sometimes working in a big team helps a lot but if you are a startup like me with a small team do what I do will help you to change your perspective and view points and it will help you to connect the dots. Sometimes the answer is in your surroundings.

Make fear your friend. I'm certainly not the first person to say this, and I won't be the last, but it is sound advice. A helpful exercise is to consider which challenges and problems related to your creative project might feel to big to overcome. The best solutions can often be hiding in the place you're afraid to explore, due to a fear of what you might find. Don't let fear drive your decisions. If you do, you'll likely experience a decline in your creative flow. Convenience is the killer of creativity. Don't rely on the easy options or shortcuts. Push yourself, confront your fears, learn new skills, and be prepared to fail. Only then will you find yourself in a position of creative elasticity.

When you train yourself to always break the mold, it will make you become flexible to adapt to changes. In business you need to know in advance and you need to learn to predict for you to pivot your way in doing things. I see a lot of businesses fail because they refuse to make themselves flexible and pivot to what's work. Ego is bad. Do not mistaken ego and determined.

Encouraging playfulness can unleash creative thinking to tackle everyday problems. Take the story of Google engineers who used LEGO bricks to design the first Google server enclosures. Faced with a lack of resources and a need for scalability, they played with LEGO, which sparked the idea to build custom, flexible, and affordable enclosures. This playful approach led to an innovative solution that was not only functional but also scalable and cost-effective. By embracing a playful mindset, they turned a fun activity into a groundbreaking technological advancement, demonstrating how playfulness can lead to extraordinary creativity.

Fun-Failure models. The best way that I have found to encourage playfulness in teams or project settings is to foster a sense of "it's fun to fail" This can take shape in the form of activities that are challenging yet winnable. These activities doesn't need to be complex - they could be as simple as a friendly competition to throw rubbish into a waste bin. The key is the low stakes: If you fail, you can try again and again until you succeed. Small exercises like this can have big impacts. They can help foster resilience, positivity, and a growth mindset. Individuals can become more innovative, adaptive, and ultimately, more playful in their creative expressions, potentially due to a lack of not fearing failure.

Problems and challenges will always occur. It's just life. But it is how you see it. What makes problems feels lighter is you don't let yourself drown in it and make yourself a negative person. Sometimes joking about your problem can change your perspective on how you see it, it motivates you in helping you to solve your problems. Some problems will take a long time to be solved so the choice is in your hand, do you want to be drowned in being a negative person or keeping yourself positive throughout the situation.

Thinking outside the box : It can transforms routine problem-solving by encouraging unconventional approaches. For instance, consider the 2010 Chilean mining accident. Trapped 2,300 feet underground, 33 miners faced certain death. Traditional rescue methods were inadequate. Engineers thought creatively and used a previously discarded plan: drilling a new borehole and lowering a custom-built capsule. This innovative solution, dubbed "Plan B," successfully rescued all miners after 69 days. This exemplifies how breaking free from conventional thinking can lead to extraordinary solutions, demonstrating the power of creative problem-solving.