

Picasso was approached in a train by a man: ”Hello, excuse me, sir, are you Picasso?“ and the conversation started from there.

At one point the man tells Picasso: “I don’t like your paintings.”

Picasso: ”How so?”

The man: ”You are not presenting the reality; your art is not real”

Picasso very intrigued: ”What do you mean?! Everything I paint is real.”

The man: ”Yes, but it doesn’t look real; people with one eye in their forehead, the eyes on top of each other… that isn’t reality!”

Picasso:”I still don’t know what you mean.”

“Look,” says the man pulling out his wallet, ”Look, this is my wife!” pointing to a small photo in the wallet. ”You see, this is the reality! She looks exactly like this.”

Picasso: “Your wife?! She is so tiny!”

The man: ”Is not my wife, my wife, it’s a picture of my wife.”

Picasso: ”If this picture is not your wife how do you know it is your wife?... so... your wife is not real?”

I grew up with the idea that you can’t learn how to be creative more than you can teach an old dog new tricks. Later in life, I’ve discovered that both these statements are false. Yes, you can learn creativity and yes, you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Can you picture with your mind’s eyes a solitary tree at the edge of a forest?

Even if you have never seen that, I guess you can, and that is creativity. Whatever you imagine without being in front of you, needs your creativity.

For many years of my life, I believed that I’m not a creative person. I knew that to be true because I’ve heard it for so long and so many times from my teachers, parents, and many others. Therefore, I didn’t even bother to improve what I though it is not there.

Did you know that each of us has a different way of translating the reality? We are all like Picasso.

I translate almost everything in feelings and emotions. Other people are doing it in pictures or sounds. Because traditionally we believed that imagination is, for the most part, pictures, someone like me will seem to have low or no creativity.

“How can you create something that you can’t imagine?” I’m often asked.

My creativity is manifesting in feelings, emotions and sensations and it goes something like this: “I have many imaginary friends. Oh! They are real; I just imagine them being my friends.”

Express your creativity the way you are translating the world: in images, sounds or feelings. There is no one single good way, all of them are good, and all of them are needed.

Now, let’s see how to improve your creativity no matter how you translate the world:

1. Be courageous

Adventuring outside of the box takes a bit of courage. Stay focused on your great idea regardless of what others might think about it.

2. Start with the outcome

What do you want to achieve?

Starting from your outcome, opposite to starting from the obvious pathways to get there will force the creativity out of you.

Why? Because having the question at the beginning of the equation and not at the end gives you the opportunity to come up with fantastic ideas, creative ways to get to your outcome.

The equation could look something like this: ?+?+?+? = your brilliant idea instead of: obvious path + another obvious path+ another obvious path = average result.

Even if you are a procedure oriented person, inverting the equation that way will put your creativity to good use. Plus, after a few trials of getting to your great idea that way, you will have a procedure for how to be creative.

Remember that when you want to accomplish something out of ordinary, there isn’t one right answer, there are multiple right answers.

3. Lie to yourself

Telling a lie needs a lot of creativity. You need to imagine many different things, many different questions, and many different answers.

Self-fulfilling prophecy is a lie that you are telling to yourself, and then your unconscious mind does its best to take you there.

It works with a negative lie. Right? Therefore, there are no reasons why it shouldn't work with a positive one as well.

When you are lying to yourself about the doability of your outrageous great idea, again, you are forcing the creativity out of you. You don’t want to be in the history books as a big liar, but as a big achiever so you will come up with interesting ways to fulfill your prophecy.

Lying to yourself in this context is a commitment to succeed, a personal vow to never stop until you get things done.

4. Create necessity

Necessity is the mother of learning; learning new creative ways of dealing with people, situations and problem-solving. It doesn’t leave room for excuses, procrastination or laziness. It promotes fast thinking and decision taking.

Unsplash via Pixabay

5. Repurpose

The most used excuse to abandon a project or pursue bringing to life an excellent idea is the lack or limited resources.

One thing that life has taught me is that when there is a problem, there must be a solution too. And most times the solution is right in front of your eyes. All you need to do is to repurpose or redefine what you already have.

6. Curiosity

Curiosity is, sometimes associated with interfering with other people’s business. However, even if it's starting with an innocent gossip, your business needs you to get curious about other people’s business. Is it not?

Use your curiosity with purpose. Use it to gather information, to improve your knowledge and raise the level of your enthusiasm about what you want to accomplish.

7. Bring color to your environment

A dull environment will promote dull ideas.

Google, for example, excels in this department. Their employees have never seen a cubicle or an uninspiring desk. Their offices are full of color, games, and relaxing furniture.

Give your mind the possibility to wander around, explore, get inspired, curious and enthusiastic.

Remember that an inspiring environment will promote genial ideas.

8. Experiment and connect the failures

When you are creative, there is no place for the critic in you to surface. Let it sleep and wake it up only after you’ve done dreaming.

Experiment your new ideas with the nonchalance of a child breaking down to pieces his father’s computer just to satisfy his curiosity about what’s inside.

Yes, some experiments have surprising results and not always positive. However, experimenting enriches your database. You know what is working and what not.

Failure is only a response, a precious data for the future; and believe me, you have never failed as long as you have options left.

9. Collaboration

Most of us don’t like to work with a team. The reasons are plenty; yet, refusing to collaborate with others is limiting you to your ideas only. Working alone is an easy way to get stuck, going in never ending circles.

More and more business people and entrepreneurs are gathering in small groups and dream together. They understand the value of sharing ideas, opinions and new perspectives. Join them and start dreaming.