The energy of your creative process is what’s going to move you from the vision of what you want to the actionable ideas that will bring the results you seek.
So how can you expand your abilities to create? What processes can you use to trigger your best ideas?
In her book, “Your Creative Brain: Seven Steps to Maximize Imagination, Productivity and Innovation in Your Life” (2010), Harvard psychologist Shelley Carson outlines seven different “brainsets,” or mental frameworks, that facilitate original thinking along with tips on how to cultivate these states of mind.
Her “brainsets,” or as I think of them – mindsets, for boosting your creativity are:
1. Absorb – become more aware and see things in a new way.
2. Connect – expand your focus to generate more ideas without judgment.
3. Reason – manipulate differently the knowledge you possess already.
4. Envision – think “what if?”
5. Transform – allow yourself to examine and express your emotions.
6. Stream – become completely absorbed and allow ideas to flow effortlessly.
7. Evaluate – decide which ideas best meet the goal you set.
Here’s a slideshow from Scientific American magazine’s online publication that takes you through her techniques, along with some exercises that will help you start to think in these mind-expanding ways. Give them a try on your next plan, project or event and see what new ideas you can think up.
Tags: creativity, human energy, ideas, managing yourself, success
