Develop Your Creative Thinking In 5 Steps

People often think about creativity as a valuable asset artists, musicians, painters, writers, and so on should have. But creativity can take many shapes and it can be helpful and useful to each of us. Creativity is not restricted only to artists or those who express themselves by creating something. Creativity is something that every employee should think about. Developing your creative thinking can come with many benefits. It can help you adopt a different perspective on some events or problems. Creative thinking can help you find innovative solutions. It can help you twist the entire story to create something extraordinary. Even though there is no special formula to developing creating thinking, we suggest you follow these 5 steps to boost your creative process.

1. Collect all information you have

Employees usually want to develop their creative thinking to come up with more innovative solutions for different issues they might have at work. No matter the domain you are working in, some problems and issues are always appearing. Thinking and coming up with solutions is something every employee wants. But how do you do this without recycling what others have said? Well, the first step you need to take is to collect all the information you have on that topic. Coming up with a creative solution requires you to know very well the process or the problem at hand. The more details you know, the easier it will be to think about something on topic.

2. Dream often to boost your creative thinking

There is a common misconception in our society that says that if you are smart, you are creative. But creativity is not derived from intelligence. Everyone can be creative, no matter his IQ. dreaming often is a process of training your imagination.

When you dream constantly, you make up all kinds of scenarios in your head. You are attentive to what surrounds you, you observe things. Doing this regularly means that you work on being more creative. Creative thinking is about information, but about dreaming too. Especially in this era where you can find information so easily, people crowd themselves with facts and statistics. But often these numbers and snippets of information can cloud your creative thinking. Dream often and allow your mind to wander.

3. Brainstorm

Sometimes, you might feel that you have entered a creative slump. You have no idea going through your mind, you have no thought you could start with, you have nothing. This is natural and it happens when the level of stress is too high. Moreover, if you are experiencing exhaustion and burnout, creative thinking might not come so easily.

For these moments when you are actively looking for some ideas but none pop up in your mind, start brainstorming. Start with stating the most obvious solutions and then try to slowly expand the context. Ask yourself what-if questions and try to adopt a different perspective. Look at problems from different angles and note down any idea that comes to you. There is no right or wrong, good or bad. Everything you could think of is an idea and noting it down will boost your creative thinking. Of course, brainstorming is a common method of getting your creative thinking started and it is used in many companies.

4. Take Time to Practice Creative Thinking

Not being able to think creatively is often a problem many employees have. This is because they do not take the time to step back, disconnect, and practice creative thinking. Many people think that creativity is about fresh and innovative ideas popping up in your head anytime. But this is not entirely true. Indeed, you might have a creative burst in some moments and have all kinds of innovations in your mind. But thinking creatively is something that needs to be trained. So, take the time you need to think creatively about something. It can be something you love, a problem from work, something from your personal life. But spend those minutes finding creative solutions and fresh and innovative ideas.

5. Change Your Perspective on Failure

Often, the fear of failing is the one that prevents us from thinking creatively. When you do not trust the process or your capabilities, it is easy to feel that what you will say will be wrong. But in a creative process, there is no right or wrong. And failures can turn out to offer valuable lessons to those who go through them. We often fear failure because we see it as the worst thing that can happen. But mistakes are natural and doing them means learning from them. Because this fear can prevent you from achieving high creativity, change your perspective on failure. See it as something normal and natural that happens to anyone and an event that could improve and develop yourself more.

Conclusion

Thinking creatively is something many want to achieve. But some many myths and misconceptions circulating in the media and society. To develop your creative thinking, you could follow these 5 steps. Collect all the information you have on a topic. Dream often and train your imagination. Brainstorm and note all the ideas that go through your head. Take time to practice creative thinking and change your perspective on failure.

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