Trying to be more creative? Give up!
Have you been trying to be more creative?
Reading a lot of books on how to come up with “big ideas”?
Checking out websites for tips on how to facilitate brainstorms?
Scribbling down your thoughts in a hip Moleskine notebook?
Are you constantly trying to corral co-workers into a conference room and bounce ideas off the wall?
I’ve got one thing to say that will help you in your creative efforts.
Give up!
You’re going to need to give-up if you ever hope to achieve a greater level of creativity. Oh, not “give-up” in the sense of abandoning all hope — give-up in the sense of letting go. Letting go of all the things that are holding you back from acting (being!) more creative.
Here is a just a short list of things you’ll need to give-up in order to be more creative. You can pretty much count on the fact this list isn’t nearly complete. I’ll probably come back and add to it from time to time. Why not add some of the things that you know that you need to give-up (or have successfully given-up) in order to be more creative? Just post to the comments below or tweet them out with a link to the post.
- Attachment
- Pre-Judgement
- Judgement
- Group-think
- Going with the flow
- Going along to get along
- Bullying
- Blame
- Being right
- Clinging to old beliefs
- Complaining
- Conformity
- Contentment
- Criticism
- The expectations of others
- Fear
- Invisibility
- Labels
- Politics
- The Past
- Resistance
- Specializing
- Working 9-5
- Punching a clock
- Preconceptions
- Memory (you must possess a short-term memory for failure!)
- Not taking notes
- Selfishness
- Safety
- Certainty
- Control
- Self-doubt
- Limitations
- Excuses
Trying to be more creative?
Each thing on this list that you manage to give-up will bring you that much closer to being, thinking, and living more creatively.
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