5 Creative Habits For Busy People

“No one is too busy to do what they actually prefer.” ― Alan Cohen

1) Rethink Creativity: How we think about something, sets the foundation for our relationship with it. I find it useful to think of creativity not as an innate talent but something you can develop. Knowing you have creative potential is the first step towards developing it. Conversely, believing my own hype can be equally debilitating. Humility is the key.

“Your ego can become an obstacle to your work. If you start believing in your greatness, it is the death of your creativity.” Marina Abramovic

2) Set An Intention: Ask for what you want. The unconscious is always working in the background no matter how blocked we think we are. When I am stuck on a particular story line instead of throwing my laptop out of the window, I ask myself, ‘How will my protagonist get himself out of this sticky mess?’ I then go do something else. It’s bizarre how every time a solution comes back to me. Maybe a few days later, but it always happens. The more I trust, the quicker it works. It would be easy to talk about the miracle of the universe here, but I won’t. For some reason, it just works.

“That’s the great secret of creativity. You treat ideas like cats: you make them follow you.” ― Ray Bradbury

3) Experiment: Be the wildest scientist you can imagine. Play with your aspirations and experiment with your ideas. You don’t need a master plan, just jump in and see what happens. The experiment itself is a creative act. You are growing your capacity to create over the longer term. Ask yourself questions: How would it look like if…? What would change if I removed…? Setting yourself a daily challenge can be useful. Find a quiet place to sit down and play with an idea for 5 minutes. I know you are busy, but 5 minutes? Stuck? Ask a colleague how they would approach your problem. Their ideas may give you new avenues to explore.

4) Be Curious: Don’t accept the status quo. Keep asking new questions. Numerous studies show the simple of power of curiosity can significantly influence our physical, psychological and emotional health. A interesting piece of research carried out by Sophie von Stumm et al. looked into the effects of curiosity on academic achievement and concluded: ‘Our results highlight that a “hungry mind” is a core determinant of individual differences in academic achievement.’(1)

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” ― Albert Einstein

5)Accept Mistakes: We fear failure. We give it far too much power. Getting it wrong is a process of learning to get it right. Give yourself room to make mistakes. The more you make the more you will learn. This is how we move forward.

“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” ― Ken Robinson