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Adventure & Optimism

How to be creative? This is a question a lot of people must have asked themselves. And if you want to boost your creativity level, you definitely need to continue reading this article, where some tips are presented.

First of all, be open to any creative venture. The world is full of chances, the only thing you have to do is to get rid of all the indolence and be eager to implement one of those. Nothing ventured, nothing gained! Don’t be too pernickety when a shot comes up, just use it!

That leads me to the next embrace: it is absolutely okay to be wrong, because trial and error is the most lucrative way to learn. Nobody knows where your mistake will lead you. After all, we wouldn’t have a clue about America if Columbus hadn’t made a blunder on his way to India.

Effective Communication

Furthermore, avoid being aloof and standoffish – your success depends a lot on those who surround you. Effective communication helps not only to enrich that package of knowledge you have under the belt, but also it has a positive impact on the emotional and consequently physical well-being.

All skeptical hermits can’t neglect the fact that the old-boy network, able to pull some strings for them, can be a major head start, therefore, building relationships and such qualities as being extroverted, accommodating are crucial. In order to thrive you need people who could praise your progress and provide some constructive criticism, i.e. there’s no place for mendacious sycophants around you.

Your Recollections Are Experience

It won’t be a mystery that sometimes we face some ‘tough’ reading, for instance, a pensive and somewhat wistful French writer Proust isn’t a day at the beach. For he wrote his magnum opus using lots of childhood reminiscences which were emerging consecutively. The writer scrupulously portrayed the settings, quixotic spirits and sanguinity splashes the protagonist had, cynical and truculent villains as well as gentle visionaries.

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
― Albert Einstein

The thing is that Proust was able to dredge up memories about an early age, because he used to create connections between the vividest detail and the corresponding event, thus, making it perpetuate in the mind. Creative process won’t be productive without activating your memory, because your recollections are experience. And experience can’t be superfluous.

Psychologists are proponents of the idea that you should try to opt for a domain you don’t have a penchant for. That will encourage you to search for novel approaches and mix divergent opinions. Creation is like an online brainteaser game “Alchemy”: a fanciful combination of the conventional opposites can result in something entirely eccentric and brand-new. Constantly ask questions, challenge each item of information, develop critical thinking skill and gradually you’ll become a connoisseur in numerous spheres.

Be a Fan of Your Work

The first chapter of Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, a true erudite and a contemporary luminary in the field of psychology, points out that the formula of success is 10000 hours of practice. Thus, be a zealot of your job/project, and stoically resist to all the temptations hindering the way to the top.

Nonetheless, a happy medium is vital: after a pedantic and tedious work, let your cognitive process slow down a bit, proceeding to incubation stage of a creative process. Subsequently, a spark of insight will be rekindled soon, because osmosis always takes some time.

Believe in yourself

Moreover, be wilful if it comes to protecting your ideas even against all odds. If the world doesn’t believe in you, there’s a powerful impetus to prove the contrary. For instance, Galileo Galilei, a true maverick, remained steadfast to his ideas and denied farcical dogmatism of the Catholic Church even looking squarely at death. His phrase “And yet it moves” stands in the same line as Archimedes’ “Eurika!”; both are reminders that a bit of mulishness in the process of creativity is crucial.

All in all, stay open-minded and declare to the whole Universe in the most audacious manner possible that you’re gifted, ready to uncover its enigmas, and your outcomes of a creative approach may change the world.

Published by Betsy Bell

Betsy Bell, born before WWII in New York City, spent her formative years in the Jim Crow town of Muskogee, Oklahoma. As a Girl Scout, she began her social justice activism working with a bi-racial team to integrate public schools after the 1954 Supreme Court decision mandating the end of school segregation. After completing her BA and MA at Bryn Mawr College, she began an academic career in Lawrence, Kansas where her husband taught. In Lawrence, she advocated for reproductive rights with Planned Parenthood. She lives in Seattle where she has held several career positions. Twice widowed, Betsy has published two short memoirs and several poems. For the past fourteen years, Betsy has worked with the Seattle area faith communities toward economic justice through the Jubilee USA Network. Betsy believes in the power of ordinary citizens to create a positive, inclusive and just society.