15 PATHWAYS TO GREATER CREATIVITY

1) Question persistently. Ask ‘why,’ ‘what if,’ ‘why not,’ and other such questions ~ the more seemingly ridiculous, the better. (What if we all wore shorts to the office? What if we all received no salary for one month in every year? What if I were made CEO of my company for one week? Why not?)

2) Make up and play with metaphors and analogies. (A brain is something like a bank ~ you can take out as much as you put in, plus a bit extra, the interest accrued.)

3) Pay attention to small twinges; they may be stunning ideas. That’s how big ones are born.

4) Daydream periodically. Let your mind wander, and look out for imagery to arouse your consciousness.

5) Play ‘imagine if ’ (Imagine if I could travel round the world every five years … Imagine if I found a way to boost my memory by 100 percent … Imagine if…)

6) Indulge yourself! Try out diverse items on the creativity menu: cooking, drawing, painting, music, photography, writing, playing squash, chess, inventing products, throwing parties, jazz dancing, etc.

7) Notice when you do something creative and keep a CREATIVITY File. Record and celebrate your successes. Receive feedback from your failures and seek out ways in which to flip them into successes. Consciously strive to be creative every day.

8) Learn and play strategy games such as chess, draughts, go, backgammon, or bridge.

9) Learn a foreign language (and force your brain to think in new patterns).

10) Cultivate ambidexterity. Develop coordination. If you’re right-handed, try using your left hand to do things. If you’re left-handed, switch to your right for a while.

11) Enhance intuition. Guess at measurements rather than use a ruler, tape measure or jug. See how close you were. Work out supermarket totals in your head, then see if you’re correct at
the check-out.

12) Balance your cheque book without using a calculator.

13) Read all except the last chapter of a novel, then stop and write your own ending.

14) Stand on your head to get the blood really flowing to your brain.

15) Do jigsaws and crossword puzzle. JUGGLE, JUGGLE, JUGGLE!!!!

[Excerpted from 'The Braindancer Series' bookazine #BD0801, entitled 'Igniting Innovation'. All the images in this post are the intellectual property of Dilip Mukerjea.]