This world we live in is essensially very different from the world we live in just 10 years ago. The biggest difference is “Information”
People get information very easy these days, thus the world grows faster.
Nowadays there are a lot of things you see that are quite the same as the other. A lot of products, or stuffs that looks the same. Perhaps they smell the same way, and sometimes we use them in the same way.
It is because of the ease of information, people often get easy ways to immitate things that are succesful.
For instance, you see a succesful product, suddenly in less than 3 months you’ll find “me too” products. Products that are trying to taste the success of others that have started earlier.
So now, because of information, we found ourselves trapped around similar things. Things that looks the same. Things that you cant tell the difference.
What does that leaves us?
What do you do when everything you see has a generic version?
How do you as a person, or as a company, be able to stand out?
The answer, is a word that was already around for ages, but buzzed only recently
CREATIVE.
By being creative you have the ability to create something new. To finally stand out among the rest and be different.
But how can you be creative?
For most people, creativity is a gift you possess since childhood
They say, you were born with creativity.
They say you cant learn creativity.
They were all wrong.
Here’s a chance for you to understand, that you can do ANYTHING you want to.
That this world of information helps you to be free of the imprisonment you thought exist.
Those bars are now vanished when we say “Everybody can be creative”
First of all, understand that THERE’S NO NEW INNOVATIONS NOWADAYS
Understand that everything is a redesign of what already exist.
Everyhing you see today that they claim to be new, is actually a development of something that already exist.
They say Cellphones are a great inventions. But it is merely a simple telephone without cords and are able to be used mobile.
They say 3G is a great innovation but it is merely a development of tele conference. A development of a concept known for hundreds of years. Which is having a conversation from a far distance (tele conference). They say I Pod is a great invention but its only walkman with MP3.
So nothing is new these days. Everything new today is a new shaped existing things.
Thomas Alfa Edison one said, that to be an inventor one has to always look around for new stuffs. Because if those new stuffs are brought into a different discipline and is developed, it becomes something different and new.
So knowing all that, how do you get to be creative?
Scientist tells us that creative is not a split second phenomenon. Creativity is actually a whisper of our subconscious giving us clues or solutions or ideas to solve, using something that we had seen or read before.
Sometimes we see things everyday, watch things on TV everyday, read things everyday, and not always knowing what to do with all those information we get.
So what we do is we slip all those information inside our subconscious.
Our conscious simply forget that we had ever have all those “unimportant” information. Those information is under “sleping mode” untill the brain (consciously or unconsciously) needed a solution to something. The brain gives signals everywhere across the brain and some of which enters the subconscious awaken the information that we once seen or read or watched. That information gives signals back to the conscious brain, giving the much needed solution. Then the person with the solution would say “AHA! I have an idea!”
Now that we know the science of creativity, we understand what is needed to be creative.
First, It is to continously gather information from TV or newspaper or magazines or everyday life. See, read, hear, watch a lot of things. Because one day when needed, It’ll surface giving you creative signals.
The second way to be creative, is to be inspired.
You probably have heard something called Endorsement deal.
Endorsement deal is a contract between a company and a public figure (may that be an athlete, a musician, movie stars, etc) that seems to fit the image of the brand owned by the company.
The public figure is using their popularity to glow a certain brand image with hope to inspire others.
Now there is something else similar to the concept of Endorsement, yet on a higher level.
It is called “Muse”
“Muse” is a term used for someone that is always inspiring someone else.
In creative work business, consist of people such as architects, graphic, interior, product, fashion designers and programmers, sometimes pay someone just because he/she inspire them into having ideas used for their own work.
For instance, a fashion designer meets his “muse” once a month, having 2-3 hours of conversation and not necessarily has to do with work, and then after that comes back home or comes back to his ofice, full of new ideas. For the “muse” he/she gets payed via transfer to his/her Bank account. Every month.
Next month, they meet again, having long conversations again and everything starts all over again.
People like us, could use a help from our own Muse. Of course we wouldn’t have to pay them. Those Muse could be people from our everyday life.
I mean I have my Muses. My wife, my father, my father in law, some of my friends, they are all inspiring people. Everytime I meet them and have conversations for about 2 hours or so, I developed an idea inspired by them. They help me with new innovations at work.
Make no mistake, not every friend of ours are inspiring. Not everybody are Muses. Only some. Only special people. Inspiring people.
By now I hope you can have a pretty accurate idea of how to be creative.
Two ways:
See, watch, hear, read, and experience a lot. It’ll help you gain informations that are seemingly unimportant at that time but by the time your brain needs it, it will come to your aid subconsciously.
Find your Muse. Try to remember, you must have friends that constantly giving you new things to learn. New stuffs. Meet with those people on a regular basis.
Are you feeling creative already?