Why are you so creative?

There is an advertising magazine called Archive which every quarter asks a creative person “Why are you so creative?” The responses range from a simple visual, to a page crammed with copy or a single word (beautifully type set).

If they ever asked me I would put a picture of David Beckham.

When he is asked “What makes you such a good footballer?” his response is that when all his friends stopped playing and went home, he carried on kicking the ball against a wall.

That’s basically what I do – when other people think they’ve got the idea to solve a problem, I carry on kicking it up against the wall.

I hear so many people who say that they are not “creative”, of course we are all creative, it’s just we’ve been taught non-creative behaviour.

Adults can generally think of 3 – 6 alternatives for any situation.

A child thinks of 60.

How would a child hit an idea up against a wall? They would hit it high, hit it low, quick, slow, with a bounce, with a double bounce, on the eighth row down or the fifth brick on the left, behind their back, through their knees.

Creativity is basically collecting seemingly disparate elements and rearranging them to create something of interest, beauty or use.

That leads to a million paradoxes. The first is that creativity requires space, time and freedom (starting to work out why kids are so much better at it than us?)

Yet the best ideas are always the ones that have had some restrictions put on them, a few reality road blocks always seems to make the final product so much more powerful.

I’m sure it’s because ideas come in the space between thoughts.

Freedom is required to give your brain the space to stop thinking and start creating.

But if ideas come in the middle of the thinking, then the quality of the thoughts being punctuated must make the creations more relevant.

When you’re trying to solve a problem creatively, first make sure you understand the task at hand totally, define it, learn as much as you can about it ask as many questions as you can.

Write down everything you can about it, don’t censor your thoughts in any way (those dumb ideas will keep nagging away till they are deposited onto paper). If you think you’ve written everything you know, give it another ten minutes you’d be surprised what occurs to you.

Then forget all about it. Take a bath, read a book, drive your car or do the ironing. The most important thing is to wait for inspiration, hold it in the back of your thoughts, think about it idle moments, but don’t spend too long,  a deadline is useful, a ridiculous deadline is stressful and counter productive.

Write down all your ideas and notions, or scribble if you’re visual.

If you haven’t found an answer you must need either more information or inspiration.Why not try filling your creative brain with related stimuli to the problem? For instance, if you’re trying to think of a business idea that will sell to a teenage market, go see a Miley Cirus film, something to do with travel or people from different countries? Go to the airport and just sit there –  something will occur to you. Be creative with how you fill your thoughts.

And don’t be afraid to share you ideas with others, particularly people you respect and spark off, it’s amazing what a quantum leap your idea can take just from a simple observation of a friend.

I can’t stress enough the every idea down, because you’ve got to go through them with a fine toothcomb to see what is of value, what will work and what are all the ramifications of the solution. I’m sure when Leonardo Da Vinci looked at his sketch of a helicopter in the cold light of day, he decided it probably was a waste of time taking it further, but like all good creatives he kept the idea knowing it would come in useful one day.

So by now you should have found your idea, but ideas alone are not enough, now you have to act on them and make them real, to make them into the something interesting, beautiful or useful.

And if after all this you haven’t managed to find your idea , don’t give up, be imaginative  in finding someone who can solve the problem for you, after all we may all be creative, but we don’t all have the skill and training to throw a pot (except maybe at a wall).