HOW TO TURN YOUR INSPIRATION ON
Amid the pressures of being timepoor and anxious, and juggling career, family, friends and “you” time, where is the headspace for reflection, contemplation and moments to dream – all ingredients for creative thinking? Anxiety is a mainstream condition and the number-one killer of creativity. Our mind is so absorbed with what we have to do, and so much of it, we simply can’t get inspired. Awaken your creativity with these tricks.
RE-PROGRAM Force your mind to be open when pondering a problem. Once you come up with a solution, switch to the “closed mode” to implement it because once you’ve made a decision, you’re efficient only if you go through with it decisively and are not distracted by doubts about its correctness.
BE CURIOUS It’s fabulous to be curious because when you are, you question and contemplate, interrogate and seek out answers. Think for a moment: what are you curious about? Is it big-picture questions like how we are here, or is it obvious things like how the hell did Donald Trump become so popular?
DREAM I often say to students and emerging designers that your dreams are your personal visions, so it’s important to connect with your aspirations. If you don’t dream, how will they come true? Put it out there and allow your imagination to flourish. Don’t be concerned about being judged, critiqued or embarrassed.
PLAY Do you remember as a child those times when you had no fear? You could lose yourself in the moment, transported into a fantasy world. You could swing so high that you felt you could fly. How can we recapture that space to lose ourselves? There are no mistakes. Embrace the childlike capacity to re-imagine play, not to have an outcome or a solution, but rather to immerse and explore.
EXPERIMENT Learn to experiment as that’s when the journey becomes more important than the destination. Nothing is the wrong way – mistakes are creative journeys, so be willing to take a risk. Illogical can be the right path.
LOVE Find the time to love your own mind. What drives your creative process and inspires you to leap out of bed in the morning? What is it that you describe to your friends that you love doing? Our capacity to be creative, visionary and imaginative can be realised into innovative outcomes when we then understand how to contextualise, focus and apply.