Many don’t get to meet their muse. Which is crazy, considering there are nearly 30 million jobs worldwide in the creative industry today. So, we can safely assume there are other powers at work here.
Being in the industry can feel quite pressuring, especially with new brains coming from left and right. However, bringing in good ideas is still rare. Now, if you came from marketing, these exercises do not resemble any of the ‘’go to answerthepublic.com and type your keyword’’. What I bring is much more old fashion and a simple-yet-effective tranquilizer kind of taboo.
Calling classic creative exercises taboo is a little stretch perhaps, but I do it for a good reason. In an age where having 5 different tools to research and confirm your ideas to increase your workflow is a standard, going back to the classics might help to satisfy your uncut diamond self.
Creative hell
We’ve all been there. No matter the industry, everyone is in a position to bring in new ideas has found some rocks in their shoe. With that in mind, just as in any other mentally demanding situation, the first thing is to find the culprit.
Let’s start with 4 reasons why you might not be in a good head-space:
- Fear of failing — or fear of not being to able to come up with an innovative idea can be just what’s stopping you. Allow yourself to fail.
- Imposter syndrome — this one is a bit more complex, but perfectionism and doubting your own abilities affect your belief of your ideas.
- Narrow experience — a lack of new experiences and other perspectives affects our barriers of creativity.
- No inspiration — some people have the luck to go outside, look at a tree and overflow with new ideas. But if nature is not your cup of tea, then you need to continue reading.
Inspiration purgatory
Anyone who is on LinkedIn or getting any type of creative newsletters can see there are always new methods of creative brainstorming, new ways how to crack that egg, and get the creative yolk out. But that might not be for everyone. Having tons of resources can be more confusing than not, and spending days on end is just not a good time spent.
I decided to make it easier for you and share three newsletters that helped me to get through my ‘’inspiration purgatory’’ and may help you to enjoy your coffee in the morning more too.
- Austin Kleon’s newsletter — loved his books about creative processes, and I can assure you that you will love his assemblage of ideas about writing and creativity.
- Chicken Shed Chronicles — an easy-to-read spin-off from DO Lectures that encourage and inspire you to ‘’do’’. Funny pun, right?
- The Idea Enthusiast — Greg Roth shares how to develop habits, improve your thinking, and test new ideas.
If newsletters are not your thing, and there is nothing wrong with being wrong, mind you, I also have a few thinking exercises that might get your creative juices going.
- Write down any 10 things that come on your mind without correcting them. Do this for a week and check what you’ve been up to on the last day.
- Try mind mapping by writing down a main keyword. Afterward, write any other words that you can associate with it. Do the same for the associated words. By the end you should have a map-looking diagram that will helped you to generate and visualize ideas.
- Generate ideas based on how you feel. Write down one thing for each category — what makes you sad, angry, happy, and frightened.
- Talk to people. New conversations can bring about new ideas and perspectives.
- Deep dive into your current topic. Researching will never get old. Finding new information in the sphere of your topic can inspire new thoughts.
And remember, Sturgeon’s Law says that 90% of ideas are shit.
So no need to beat yourself around the bush. Rinse and repeat.
Discovery heaven
When you find the idea that will shake mother Earth itself, you can continue to another step. That is, to consider the audience size for your new idea, viability, needed resources, and a plan to bring it to life.
Many people think they need to be born with the creative gene when all they need is a creative spirit (and a few exercises!).
Happy creating.
