Reaping what you sow: How to nurture a creative mindset

Welcome to the first blog of the year.

This year The Creative Thinking Club has a full agenda of how it’s going to fulfill its mission of empowering everyone with the tools they need to think more creatively.

Now, a lot of people think creative thinking is something you're born with, and it can certainly be something people are naturally better at than others - but it can be learned. And, in fact, with the right set of tools, any one can think creatively.

With this in mind, let’s get underway with reaping what you sow: how to nurture a creative mindset.

01. Play often.

The theory:

“What the heck do you mean by play?”, you’re probably thinking. Well, let me tell you. Playing is literally getting into the child-like state of mind we often close down in adulthood. Why do children play so freely? Because they have no known boundaries and no embarrassment.

The science:

In science, this is the connection between three parts of the brain; the default mode (daydreaming and free-flowing thought), the salience network (which maintains concentration), and the Central Executive network (contextualises your thoughts and judges them to be good or not).

The networks function together to produce what we think of as creative thought. To get into a child-state, we need to let go of the central executive network and try to let go of filtering out rational or judgement of our thoughts.

In practice: 

You can enter this mindset by not sharing your thoughts (at first) to save yourself from judgement, but also remember not to judge yourself. Just have fun with it. 

An exercise to spark this child-like playfulness is to do something a child would do. My favourite (which I practise fairly often) is to go to a shop, preferably B&Q because of the huge selection of products and create wild stories for them. They don’t have to be true and it’s probably better if they’re not. 

For example; you find a collection of wheels. Wheels of all sizes. What are they for? Who are they for? As quickly as you can, think of stories for the wheels, the more elaborate, the better.

Example

Large wheels: 

For a wheelbarrow. Ralph’s helping his elderly parents organise their garden and he’s found an old wheelbarrow that his Dad loves. He tried to insist that he buys his parents a new one (the one they found has a little rust on it), but being from the “make do” era, his parents have sent him out to get a new wheel.

Medium wheels: 

For bicycle stabilisers. Rosie’s just been given her dream bike for her birthday. It’s white with a shimmery rainbow affect in the paint and of course, those classic tassels hang proudly from the handlebars. She can’t wait to zoom around with her Toy Story helmet on. But she can’t. Her last bike had two stabilisers, this one has none. After lots of attempts, her parents think she’s not quite ready for her new bike. So a quick dash to get a new stabiliser is what’s needed to get Rosie on her way again. 

Small wheels:

For a small hamster, he’s just been adopted. Timmy is an old hamster with no back legs but plenty of life in him. His owner (and bestfriend) Toby has had a genius thought. To makeshift the wheels into Timmy’s new back legs. With no limits to his thinking Toby has persuaded his parents to get some wheels so he can try to get his best friend on the move once more.

Conclusion

The knack to this game is to think quickly and don’t change direction on whatever your first thought is. Just keep running with it to build that narrative. Notice how all of these stories are around relationships? That’s because people remember better when there’s an emotional connection to a story. Getting lost in a story will help with your creative thinking too. Building up narratives like these will help you think on your feet to advertise, brand or create campaigns for your/your clients services/products. You’re not buying the wheel, you’re buying the solution to the bigger problem; a broken wheel barrow to help your parents etc.

02. Consume more than you create

The theory:

Lots of people will feel they aren’t creative because they don’t have the creative backlog to draw from. When I first started working in web design, I found it so challenging because I didn’t know what worked and what didn’t. My manager always had the right asset for the job - but rarely something hugely innovative. That’s because he had over ten years experience of designing websites and could draw from previous websites he’d seen or designed to get the perfect fit for the job.

While experience can take years to build up, you can fast track your experience by consuming more.

The science:

Did you know that your visions of the future are vastly based on your experiences in the past? 

A study showed that a man who had suffered severe memory-loss also couldn’t imagine the future. Recent neuroimaging work has demonstrated that the hippocampus (the part of the brain that stores memories) is engaged when imagining the future, in some cases more than when remembering the past.

This is why it’s so crucial to build a rich experience of your subject area (and life in general) to draw from when you need to create something new.

In practice: 

Read as much as you can. Personally, I only read books about creative thinking, design, leadership and inspiration self-help. That’s because they’re the area’s I want to know more about. Firstly, know what you want to master. Reading is better than scrolling on your phone before bed.

Watch documentaries. Netflix has lots of great content at the moment around creativity and design. Some include “Mind” by the Mind app, “How your brain works” and “Art & Design”, all of which include great theories and fascinating stories. Watching documentaries is better than bingeing a new series (or worse yet - a series you’ve seen before).

Listen to podcasts. Similar to reading and watching documentaries, people have great stories to tell and listening to them can often convey a lot more emotion and connection than reading. Listening to podcasts is better than listening to your favourite song on repeat while you're at the gym or walking. 

Take notes. No matter how you consume your inspiration/experience/content. It’s brilliant taking in all this new information, but you need a way of tracking what you’ve learned so you can pull up specific sections when they’re needed. Sometimes it’s just a general idea, sometimes it’s a specific detail, whatever strikes a light-bulb moment for you, capture it however you can. Keeping evidence of what you’ve learned is better than trying to remember everything.

Conclusion

By consuming lots of content around the subjects you love, you build up a fountain of inspiration ready for you to draw from at any time. Going back to the introduction of this section, the only way I started to really gain traction in web design was by looking at websites everyday. I constantly and consciously looked at the design, function and SEO, all to help make my own sites better when I was designing. 

Learn from other people in books, documentaries and podcasts and you’ll gain a richer experience than if you wait for your own. 

03. Find your state of flow

The theory:

You may find advice like “be divergent” abstract. Me too. How does one simply be divergent? Well, being divergent simply means being different and do to that you need to get on a path that will lead you somewhere new. This is often done by “finding your flow”.

You may need to experiment with this and it may take some time to master, but I promise you’ll get there.

The science:

“Flow” is a mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity. They are directing all of their attention toward the task, and they do not experience many thoughts about themselves or their performance. This is caused by the the locus coeruleus that is responsible for most of the norepinephrine release in the brain. When norepinephrine is released it triggers your body's “fight-or-flight” response, which can create heightened attention and focus to the task in hand.

In practice: 

I have two states of flow (that I’m aware of and in control of), these are: collaborating with other people (bouncing ideas around and getting heated) and listening to music with background noise (a coffee shop setting is perfect for this). I know these are my states of flow because I can get lost in them for hours without noticing the time and am at my most productive.

You can find your state of flow by:

1. Balancing something challenging with something you enjoy doing. When you’re passionate about what your doing, you’re bound to get lost in doing it.

2. Create clear goals for what needs to be achieved, this will give you an aim to keep your mind on.

3. Reduce distractions. You need to focus on only one thing. But for me personally, radio silence is a distraction in itself, which is why I listen to music and enjoy having a bustling atmosphere around me (coffee shop or other people).

Conclusion:

Finding your state of flow will enable you to tune into extreme focus and increase your productivity. On the other hand to this, it’s important to recognise when you’re not able to get into a state of flow and walk away (or do something else) before trying again. Everyone has times when they’re not in the right frame of mind to concentrate, so it’s best not to force it.

04. Live life like stretch armostrong

The theory:

I don’t know if you remember this little guy. He was one of my favourite toys as a child. a rubbery man who could bend a flex into any shape.

What a strange concept for a toy. But a great lesson for life.

One of the great things about being creative is your ability to adapt. Try not to attach yourself to anything too firm, it’ll stop you from being flexible.

The science:

Having a flexible mindset has been proven to increase your mood and make you better at facing challenges. Whether you work in design or marketing, you’ll get plenty of curveballs thrown at you. Being flexible and able to adapt will not only help you think more creatively but also keep your cool while doing it.

In practice: 

Let other people take the lead. Or better yet, giveaway a project before you’ve finished it. Collaboration is one of the best ways to let go of control and see what others can bring to the table.

Remember that nothing personal. Take feedback with a smile and think of the BEST outcome with the new suggestion. It’s not about being in control, it’s about doing what’s right.

Conclusion:

My favourite example of being flexible is from studying fine art. We were never allowed to erase everything. It was all a “go with the flow’ mentality which meant every mistake had to be worked into something new. It stopped pupils from having a “right” or “wrong” mindset to art and let go of boundaries.

Bonus tip:

Get the tools you need to think more creatively, hey I know someone for that…