Boost Your Career With Creativity – No Art Skills Needed!
Posted on June 25, 2013 by Mhairi Gordon-Preston, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
When you saw the word “creativity”, I’m willing to bet you thought “But I can’t draw!” So the great news is, there’s no art skill required here.
Why would you want to use creativity in areas that aren’t to do with art?
Our society’s usual starting point for generating new ideas or solving problems is often analysis, linear thinking, rationality, logic, list-making, formal processes, and so on. And each of those has their place.
However they have one thing in common: it’s mainly the left-hand side of the brain drives them. So there’s an easy way to come-up with new ideas, and solutions that you’ve not had before: fire-up the right-hand side of your brain, the origin of your creativity.
Two ways to use creativity in your life
1. Next time you start to write a list, stop!
a. Forget the black pen and notepad, get coloured pens (or pencils, markers, etc).
b. Find paper that’s A4 or bigger.
c. Turn the paper onto its long side.
d. Write your main question (or problem / goal / desired outcome) in the middle, in capitals.
e. Circle your words.
f. Using each of your different colours in turn, draw six-seven branches off the circle.
g. On each branch write one-three words about a part of your question/problem/goal/etc.
h. Add a little stick figure or diagram that summarizes those words
i. Insert smaller branches on the end of each of your main branches.
j. And pursue your train of thought on each.
k. Add as many images as possible – diagrams, stick figures, cut-outs from magazines, clip art, etc.
l. Continue as long as it feels good.
m. By using colour, images, feelings, and in-flowing thinking, you’re activating additional parts of your brain which increases the number of ideas.
2. When you’re next racking your brain, stop!
a. Instead, change your environment.
b. The absolute ideal is to go to a beach, woodland, hilltop, wildlife preserve, or your favorite spot in nature.
c. If that’s not practical, take a walk to your local park, stroll around your back yard noticing the flowers, or visualize/remember your favourite place in nature (include the sights, sounds, smells, the feel of the ground under your feet or the breeze on your face, how much you enjoyed it, and who was with you).
d. If you can’t manage any of those, at least move from where you are now and go outside: go around the block… or even just into another room and back a couple of times!
e. Being in nature activates lots of senses, from the visual to memory. And being in motion triggers more brain areas than being still. So by feeding your brain this interesting input, you’re easing the flow of new ideas and creative solutions, and the formation of interesting and novel combinations.
Finally, I invite you to put this knowledge into action:
1. What’s one thing you want to improve in your career?
2. How about using one or both of the above methods right now?
3. Otherwise, get your calendar and add the day and time you’re going to do so.
4. Take a reward for doing it.
Well done! I’m proud of you for using creativity to upgrade your work-life.
