In this post I am focusing on personal creativity. The tips are here to help inspire your creative muse. My next post will have some creative tips for daily life. One can get creative in so many different ways so when considering creative things to try, I could come up with more then a hundred I think would be fun in a very short space of time. The real trick is just to GET STARTED. Do something, anything! Here are five ideas to get you on your way... They have been gleaned from other people's lists so by following the links you can check out many more tips and hopefully find some inspiration for your creative efforts!
Learn something every day
I live by this one. Good advice for living!"Creativity often involves adapting an idea to make it your own. Continually expose yourself to new ideas and the creative well will never run dry. Always have a book on your nightstand, if you can. Download audio books or check them out from the library to play while driving or exercising. Above all, learn something from every experience."
From the web site Here to Create's post entitled 9 tips to be more creative. The tag line from this blog is "We are here to create, not merely survive."
Dictionary Diving
This is a fun idea, I've tried it with the dictionary and other books. Works with pretty much any written page. "If you're stuck for an idea, open a dictionary, randomly select a word and then try to formulate ideas incorporating this word. You'd be surprised how well this works. The concept is based on a simple but little known truth: freedom inhibits creativity. There are nothing like restrictions to get you thinking."
From Jeffery Baumgartner's Ten Steps for Boosting Creativity.
Creative Sparks
Go to the website "Inspire Me Thursday" and click for a creative prompt... the questions are interesting and it is a lot of fun even if you aren't looking for creative direction. Lots of other creative ideas at the site. "Use these random prompts to jumpstart creative play in your art journal, to encourage creative writing, to overcome a creative block, to spark an idea…"
From the site: Inspire Me Thursday - Amuse your Inner Muse
Do something childlike once in a while.
"...and you don't have to have the children there as an "excuse" to do it. Sit and play on swings/draw/paint "silly" pictures — have fun. Children are incredibly creative and as adults we could learn a lot about how they view the world." I have the built in "excuse" for this one!
From 10 Ways to boost your creativity by Julie Plenty
Read Random Magazines
"Every once in a while, I pick up several magazines that I would never ordinarily read. It’s surprisingly interesting and useful. And I love the feeling of possibility that I get whenever I browse in one of those stores that carries 500 different magazines."
From Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project: Eight tips for sparking your creativity. (Side note: I HIGHLY recommend The Happiness Project web site, book, facebook page, twitter etc. for increasing your daily happiness quotient!)
I expand on this tip by gathering a bunch of these random magazines and I rip out pictures or words that inspire or interest me. Just the act of grabbing and ripping the paper seems to get my creative juices flowing. Sometimes I make collages or vision boards to support what ever project I am working on, other times I just file any pertinent scrap that inspires in a folder I keep just for that purpose.
Next post: Creative living
My 13 bliss virtues: joy, order, creativity, passion, whimsy, serenity, inquiry, community, romance, gratitude, moxie, humility, surprise
