Its not the mountain in the front that bogs you down, its the pebble in your shoe that does. Be creative. Think about every problem you face, from all possible aspects and angles. Stonewalling does no good to anyone. Treat obstacles as detours and not dead ends.The text that proceeds contains aspects that have been beaten to death earlier but I have still tried to get back to the basics and put things in perspective.Rule 1.Creativity, like success is not a destination. It is a journey. You need to touch upon your creative side everyday, in every aspect of your day to day activity. A sub rule within this rule is that you already are and possibly have been creative at various stages in your life. Think about all such instances , analyze and estimate the extent to which your boundaries have constricted you. Absence of success should prompt you to ask yourself 'What could I have done better?' and the presence of it should prompt you to ask 'How could I have done this better?'.
Rule 2
Do the don't, Can the Can't. Your mind is ductile, malleable and can be easily swayed. Swaying it using the right winds of thought is your responsibility. Give a direction to neutrality using your positivity.
Rule 3
RCA. They call it Root Cause Analysis. Well, RCA is the key to being creative. Creativity is not about ignoring four perfectly justified ways of solving a problem by hopping onto a fifth. Sometimes it might imply changing the water tap, but almost always it is about scouting for the actual location of the hole in the tap and repairing it even when you are not armed with M-Seal.
Rule 4
Respect Information. Waterboard yourself with information. It is not without reason that almost all major internet companies are coming up with ways to make life easier for you in this age of Information Overload. IO is a boon and categorization, segregation and classification tools coming up in the market are enablers that empower you to use this boon for your benefit. Creativity is a phenomenon that thrives on the base of multiple alternatives and with more information, more often than not, you create more alternatives for future processing.
Rule 5
Question yourself; Be flexible. Always have your END GOAL in perspective. If you are spending 8 hours a day on something that is not adding to your end goal, then you need to either a) Check whether it can be tailormade to align in any manner with your goal 0r b) Scrap the task completely and do whatever it takes to do something that has the 'accrual' effect. Creativity is all about flexibility. Incorporate it in yourself.
Rule 6
Changes and Distractions are not bad. Embrace change and treat it as an opportunity. There is an opportunity in every little change that happens in your life. Most distractions add value to your being. Even distractions warrant your attention and with a slightly improved attention span, you will see that most distractions give you information which ( as mentioned in Rule 4) is a critical aspect towards being creative.
Rule 7
Stress check. Creative thinking and stress usually do not co-exist. If you find that you are experiencing stress, it is a direct indication that you are not thinking creatively. If you are thinking creatively, more often than not, you will not experience stress.
Suggestions, interjections are welcome!
