SW Maxim #3: Cultivate Creativity
July 17, 2019Albert Einstein said “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Cultivating creativity takes practice but brings great rewards. Creative output in any sphere resonates, engages, and taps something deep within us.
Before photography, film, television and the Internet, we soaked up art, music, literature, performance arts (dance, theater, etc.), travel, and the art of food. When we’ve needed inspiration we’ve turned to nature. This is all still true. We just have many more platforms to showcase our creativity.
Fast forward to 2019 and we use our creative juices for advertising, marketing, product development, the Internet and platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, YouTube, and more. Many of my clients creatively solve problems in their companies, or use their creative capital to design amazing projects.
Creativity is Key in Marketing
A simply typed letter to a prospect would be seen as so old-school as to be ridiculous. (Or would it?) These days we need to get people’s attention so we use graphics and moving images in our messaging. Our wording has to be clever, targeted and original. We aim to be bold, memorable, inventive, prolific, hip and imaginative with our content. Our pitches to get our clients published have to be all that.
For those of us who slave away in creative mines, we’re always digging for gold. We’re only as good as our last illustration, tag line, ad campaign, or social media post. Just as it’s foolhardy to pick up a 100-pound weight without training, we can be flexing our creative muscles in preparation for the day we need to lift our ingenuity to gargantuan heights.
Here are five ways I stay in creative shape:
- Ask What If? (and other questions)
- Brainstorm
- Pay Attention
- Make a Game of It
- Be Fearless
I have friends who can do this effortlessly. At least, it appears effortless. They generate good ideas at a rate of 60 per minute – yes, just about one every second! I’ll admit that I need to massage concepts and sentences a bit more than that. I can do regular-every-day-run-of-the-mill-boring well, but who wants boring?
Inspirations for Creativity
Like other creative types, I’m inspired by nature and everything around me. Plus, I am a tireless researcher. Fonts fascinate me (although I’m no graphic designer). Great art, photography, film, theater, and fooling in my garden feed my muse.
My playful business coach, Cindy Loughran, kept prodding me to find the fun and the joy, to make a game of our work together. It’s a good approach to cultivating creativity.
While I’m picking away at the coal to find the diamonds, I need to remind myself to breathe, enjoy, embrace and delight in the process. After all, we only get one ride around this beautiful blue marble in the universe.
Many of us doubt ourselves while attempting to be profound and prolific. Being fearless means trying anything. It might fail, but remember there are as many lessons in the misses as in the hits.
If you find inspiration in reading like I do, here are a few suggestions:
- It’s hard to be original…but sometimes looking at the same old thing in a new way does the trick. That’s the gist of The Art of Creative Thinking – 89 Ways to See Things Differently by Rod Judkins who interviewed several creative people to learn their process.
- There is a great deal of science and research going on to understand creativity better. One book you might enjoy is The Accidental Creative by Todd Henry.
- Gamifying everything seems to be a popular trend. There are apps (Habitica) to help or try this book: SuperBetter by Jane McGonical.
- Although this pertains more to fiction writers, the book What If? by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter is always on my bookshelf to remind me that writing prompts and writing exercises spur the creative mind.
Since words are my medium, I keep my ears and eyes open for great resources and ideas to help me improve my writing. Of course, I love Ann Handley’s book Everybody Writes: Your Go to Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content.
The best writers are eavesdroppers and keen observers of human nature. So are the best marketers and copywriters. Pay attention to everything. Suck it all up like a sponge. Let it ping around in your brain. And then when you need an idea, reach in and pluck it out. It will be a masterpiece. And, if not, keep at it!