Tap the Creative Inside You
Imagination is the source of creativity. It's a place where unlimited possibilities reside. It's where pure energy lives.
People are innately imaginative and creative. However, most people are simply not conscious of their imaginative and creative selves.
Creativity is the cognitive process of developing a novel idea or concept.
Teresa M. Amabile, a creativity expert, argues that creativity is not a quality of a person. Rather, it is a quality of ideas, behaviors or products.
According to her, creativity has 3 basic ingredients:
1. Domain-Relevant Skills - These are skills associated with expertise in a relevant field (e.g., artistic ability, technical ability, talent, etc.).
2. Creativity-Relevant Skills - These skills include a cognitive style or method of thinking oriented towards exploring new directions, approaches that can be used to generate new ideas, and a work style conducive to developing creative ideas.
3. Task Motivation - Recent evidence suggests that a genuine interest in a task for its own sake, rather than for achieving external rewards such as money, enhances creativity.
So how can you develop your creativity? Here are 2 ways:
1. Provocative Operation, coined by Edward de Bono - This involves disrupting your thought patterns. It works with the premise that the more you are used to something, the less stimulating it is for your thinking.
Application: Insert "interruptions" into your day. This can be writing in a different room or area, reading magazines you wouldn't normally read, tuning in to a different radio or television station, cooking and eating something different.
2. Forced Analogy - This method forces you to compare a concept, idea or problem with something else that it has little or nothing in common with. The results are new insights.
Application: Compare an emotion (e.g., elation, excitement, anxiety) with a tangible object (e.g., pen, chair, door). How is anxiety like a door?
When you need to tap the creative inside you, use these 2 techniques. Tap into your imagination and you enable yourself to create new things, come up with ideas you have never thought of before. Tap into your imagination and you awaken your creativity.
About The Author
Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ
Shery is the creator of WriteSparks! - a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks! Lite for free - http://writesparks.com
MORE RESOURCES:
Chalk Walk encourages creativity, celebrates art Tampa Tribune BRANDON - Creative kids of all ages gathered around Clayton Lake March 14 to stake out a space on the sidewalk and color their world. ... |
Muralist exudes creative compassion Tampa Tribune For a select few, though, his creativity comes free. A graduate of St. Petersburg's Northeast High School, 39-year-old Hulfish has found a niche, ... |
 Bangor Daily News | Presque Isle arts center reopens with mission to foster creativity Bangor Daily News “We didn't have easels and paint sets and fun places to go and do creative things,” she said Saturday. “Unless it was during art class at school. ... |
 Malaysia Star | Ruben Navarrette Jr.: Divisive issue of immigration calls for creativity Sacramento Bee By summoning creativity and courage, lawmakers can repair a system that is out of order. And America will be better for it. Ruben Navarrette Jr. writes for ... Today's Immigration Reform Rally begins a New Era for America |
 DailyFill.com | Paloma Faith struggled with reading China Daily But my mum was so encouraging of my creativity. I used to present her with random pages of letters in a line - well executed and with rainbow borders, ... Paloma Faith Quick to Distance Herself from Amy Winehouse |
 Baltimore Sun | Peabody players strike a note of volunteerism Baltimore Sun The class, Community Engagement and Creativity: 21st Century Skills for Professional Musicians, was created by alumnus Dan Trahey, who also coordinates the ... |
 Wilkes Barre Times-Leader | St. Jude School students get creative with household items Wilkes Barre Times-Leader Second-grade students at St. Jude School, Mountain Top have been working on a reading unit about being creative. They decided to put their creativity to the ... |
Holland Area Arts Council judges, shows off high schoolers' creativity MLive.com HOLLAND — Lee Huizenga took up photography as a hobby several years ago because he was interested in its ... |
Carl Welser: Step up to the table to fight hunger Livingston Daily But the creative spirit is fundamental to everything STEM stands for. Creativity is far more than a mindless diversion. We dare not chase art to the back of ... |
Problem solving as a tool of creativity TODAYonline I'VE left problem solving to the last of the seven vital elements of creativity. It is more a consequence than a cause of creativity. ... |
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