There are some people in the world who are so stagnant, they would probably die of boredom if they weren’t given a way to be constantly challenged. Most people in this category would be happy just to have a little bit of stimulation in their diet over the course of their life. For them, getting stuck doing the same thing day after day is actually an escape from reality.
However, many of us don’t have that luxury — we need to innovate and forge new paths if we want to survive and thrive in our careers or personal lives. To do that successfully though, you need a certain level of creativity and imagination.
You also need to think about how you can apply creative energy to your job or business.
I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of people trying too hard to do too much at the beginning of their career or business, and those typically haven’t succeeded. They usually just end up feeling overwhelmed and discouraged, and also learning that there is only so much you can do in any field in any given day. What you need is a way to connect your enthusiasm for what you want to do with your ambition to do it, break down barriers between disciplines or areas of expertise, and make connections between the things that are most likely not connected yet.
No matter what type of problems you are facing as a business owner or entrepreneur, you can tap into the power of innovation.
If you want to change your life and make your business more successful, what I want to talk about here are some general guidelines and inspiration for utilizing creativity in the service of human need.
Innovation is key at every stage of your career or business. It’s important to understand that it’s not just about how big an idea is or how innovative an idea is — real innovation has been about taking a novel approach to improving human need by addressing a problem that people may not realize they have yet.
If you’re new to this kind of thinking and you want help figuring it out, you can start by reading “Seven Areas Where Creativity Will Make You More Money”.
If you need to think about how to apply creativity in a specific area that you are struggling with, then I suggest trying the following exercises.
1. Positivity Paradox
This is from the book “The Power of Creative Thinking”. It helps identify barriers to innovation in your current situation and offers some ideas for breaking them down:
Write down as many things about your current situation as possible that give you optimistic or negative thoughts.
Talk about the barriers which prevent you from making the changes that you want to make.
Make a list of all the things you can do to remove those barriers.
Think about what kind of job or profession would be a good fit for what you are thinking of doing.
Start doing these things, and as they happen, keep checking in on your progress and write down each small win as it happens. Then try again with something else that is holding you back. This way, it becomes easier to start breaking down larger obstacles and make progress towards your goals.
2. Four Thoughts and Four Questions
This is more of a mind exercise than anything else. You can do this with the help of a friend and you might even want to do it on video. This is from the book “The Power of Creative Thinking”.
Think about the kind of person you’d like to be and what kind of life you want to have in the future (your vision).
Post a Comment