Creative thinking and the art of living and working.

By Kevin A. Williams, MA, MS, ATR, LMFT

"I'm just not good at creative thinking."

"I haven't got a creative bone in my body."

Have you ever said this about yourself? If so, you're not alone.

People often think that just because they're not Hemmingway or Vivaldi, they aren't creative.

Whenever I hear people make comments like this I cringe. Negative comments often turn out to be self-fulfilling prophecies.

Let me take this opportunity to state emphatically that I believe everyone was born with the ability to be creative.

Think about it. Wasn’t there at least one time in your life when you did something you’d consider creative? Perhaps it was a story you made up to tell your kids at bedtime. Or a particularly brilliant presentation you made at work. Or coming up with a new way to get your kid to eat broccoli. The point is you stretched yourself, and in doing so, became bigger than what you thought you could be.

And that is what creativity is all about. It brings out our best selves so we can live our best lives.

Nurture your creative side.

Creative thinking enhances your quality of life by helping you explore and visualize the possibilities in your work and personal life.

Creative thinking adds value to everything in your life. It helps you develop the skills you need to find out-of-the-box solutions to problems. Abstract, analytical problem solving…it all begins with a creative thought.

Creative thinking is attractive. It’s one of the reasons we are so fascinated with brilliant, creative people like Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs. We are continuously amazed at the newest I-thingy or Microsoft product. People are drawn to creative minds.

Creative thinking makes you more receptive to learning. As you expand your abilities, you find yourself seeking more ways to be creative. Reading and researching increase as you learn more about what interests you.

Creative thinking grows. It builds on itself and increases exponentially your ability to create and visualize new ideas.

Characteristics of creative thinkers.

Now let’s talk about some of the characteristics of creative thinkers and how you might be able to apply these to yourself. By the term “creative thinkers,” I mean people who have learned to stimulate their imaginations to all possibilities in order to solve problems and explore options. In other words, they use their creative brains not just to create works of art, literature and music, but also to invent, explore, problem solve.

Creative thinkers are curious. For example, Ben Franklin made way for electricity by discovering that lightning was an electrical current in nature through his famous “kite and key” experiment in 1752. Because Ben Franklin—one of the greatest creative thinkers of all time—was curious about the world around him, we now have the means by which to blow dry our hair, read well into the night, and watch television.

Creative thinkers are willing to risk failure. Creative thinkers learn from their mistakes, not live them. Take a look at Thomas Edison. It is said that before he invented the light bulb, he went through 1,000 iterations. But instead of letting failure wear him down, Edison used each iteration as a stepping-stone to final success. In fact, he is quoted as saying “I have not failed; I’ve just found 1,000 ways a light bulb will not work!”

Creative people embrace the odd. Creative people and their ideas often go against the grain of society. Great men of science like Galileo and DaVinci often went against the thoughts and ideas of their time, often at great cost to their reputations and sometimes their lives. The point here is, keep an open mind, and it will often give rise to a more creative one.

Creative thinkers embrace uncertainty. Creative thinkers are always looking for the missing piece to complete the puzzle. If there is a problem, they want to find a way to solve it.

Creative people connect the unconnected. Albert Einstein once said, “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” What he is saying is simply that creativity is often a collaborative effort, utilizing the thoughts of others. Take, for instance, the “brainstorming session” where a group of people gather together and throw out ideas around a specific problem or topic. Each idea feeds the next idea, connecting thoughts and ideas to each other, until a resolution occurs.

Increase your own creative brainpower.

Lose the negatives. In the coaching profession, we emphasize removing the negatives from your life, or, as we call them, the “energy drainers.” To develop your creative thinking abilities, you must get rid of the energy drainers that sap your creative and thoughts that can keep you from reaching you goals. See if any of these statements sound familiar:

“You must play by the rules.”

“Don’t rock the boat.”

“Stay within the lines.”

“You have to be more serious.”

“There’s not enough time to work on other ideas.”

“No one’s ever tried it that way before.”

“We can’t afford to make mistakes.”

If you are saying any of these to yourself, or someone else is saying them to you, shake it off and replace the thoughts with more positive ones. For instance: Yes, you must play by the rules most of the time, but there is a time and a place to break them…and the creative thought process is the perfect time.

And yes, you absolutely should rock the boat every chance you get. No, you don’t have to stay within the lines. Etc., etc. See these statements for what they are…energy and creativity drainers…and get rid of them.

Create a creative space. Create a space where you can grow and nurture your thoughts and ideas. Home, car, office. In my office, I surround myself with my favorite things…pictures of my family, of course, but I also have small replicas of Indian motorcycles, some die-cast cars, and a model of an X-15 experimental rocket jet. Among the diplomas on my walls, I’ve hung cartoon cells of Bugs Bunny and Wylie Coyote. It’s a pretty cool juxtaposition: Diplomas and Bugs Bunny. It keeps me from taking myself too seriously. More importantly, it’s an environment where I can feel safe, comfortable and creative. Work on your own creative space…and start first with favorite things.

Spend time with creative people. I’m lucky. All I have to do is spend time with my 13-year-old daughter who is one of the most creative people I know (especially when it comes to telling me why she didn’t do her chores). But you may have to do more than walk in your front door. So my advice to you is to get out and meet new people. Join a book club. Start a painting class or pottery class. Go down to the local coffee shop and hang out. Creative people are all around you, including yourself.

Put creative thought into action. Keep a journal or notebook around to jot down creative ideas or thoughts as you get them. Our creative thoughts are often like the brass ring on the merry go round—either we reach out and grab them, or they pass us by.

Play! In my wife’s writing studio are her favorite toys from childhood. Chatty Cathy, a Mr. Ed Talking Hand Puppet, Barbie, her favorite stuffed bear. She keeps them close at hand to remind herself it’s okay to play. It took awhile, but she finally figured out the value of play. Play is like a spigot to the creativity well. If you turn the spigot on, creativity will flow out. I encourage each of you to play every chance you get. Forgot how? Just watch your kids or someone else’s kids on the playground. For them, play is a learning process of trial and error and exploration. They can make up the greatest games! And, they change the rules to suit themselves. We can learn a lot from our kids, can’t we?

By learning to be more creative in our thought processes, we can absolutely learn how to enrich our lives. Who knows where it might lead?

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