Diary of a creative person: day 5

Working at Spontaneity

Marc forces himself to be spontaneous. Whilst walking and thinking about a project he will stop to sketch his ideas and inspirations. He limits his sketching to thirty seconds or so. This holds back the influence of his rational, critical thoughts and releases his initial intuitions and feelings (so enabling them to fill his mind, overflow onto the paper and expand into new insights and approaches).

We are all good at thinking logically about things. It is what we have been educated and trained to do. More specifically, we are all good at thinking critically: sorting out what is right or wrong or good or bad and making decisions for or against something.

In fact, this type of rational thinking is so ingrained within us it becomes our default way of dealing with the world: we judge before we reflect; we select before we explore; we decide before we discuss.

To enhance our creativity we need to change this default mind-set: we need to force our intuition and feelings to the front of our minds, putting them alongside (and occasionally just ahead of) our rational thoughts.

Develop the habit of looking for not only what is good or bad but also what is interesting: those things that for some unknown reason are intriguing and have caught your attention; perhaps try de Bono's PMI Thinking Technique. Keep a note pad beside your bed and with you at all times; immediately write down ideas and insights that occur to you (and resist the urge to judge them). When you need to be creative just start physically doing something.


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