Thursday 29 January 2009

7 Secrets To Having All The Creative Ideas You'll Ever Need

Do you feel your creativity is hindered through a lack of good ideas to develop? Or maybe you have no problem coming up with ideas, it's knowing which ones to choose and how to then develop them that's the problem?

Here are 7 powerful secrets to having, and developing, all the creative ideas you'll ever need:

1. Believing you can have great ideas. It all begins with believing you're capable of having great ideas. Deeper than this, it comes down to believing you're creative. Many of us have doubts at a fundamental level that we're even creative at all, and with these shaky foundations, anything we try to build on top is liable to come crashing down.
A powerful way to boost your belief is to look back at some of the creative projects you've done in the past, some of your proudest moments. Once you start thinking, and writing down some of the things you've created you soon realise not only that you've created more than you realised, but that you've come up with some brilliant ideas along the way. All this will help remind you how creative you can be and bolster the underlying beliefs that you (yes YOU!) are a highly creative person.

2. Opening your senses. Our connection to the world around us comes through our five senses. Everything that gives us inspiration and happiness and ideas, comes initially through one of our senses of sight, smell, sound, taste or touch. It follows then, that if our senses are dulled and operating as if our heads are stuck in a deep sea divers helmet - full of water - that we're not going to experience all the possible inspiration around us.
One excellent technique here is to simply reconnect with each of your senses in turn. You can start right now. Stop for a moment and think about your sight for example. What can you see all around you? Now look again. What inspiration and detail is there around you that you normally overlook and dismiss? Do the same for each of your five senses, and absorb the amazing amount of potential stimulation around you.

3. Capturing ideas part one - the classic mistake. So now you're open to ideas and believe you can be creative, the next step is to start recording your ideas. The classic mistake most of us make is thinking we never have any ideas, when the reality is we just don't capture them. How many times have you had a great idea in the shower or while driving your car and thought you'd remember it and develop it later. Then later comes and goes and it's not until days later you have a sudden recollection of having that great idea. You know you had it, but can you remember any of the details!
Unfortunately, each experience you have like this confirms your belief that you never have any ideas. So each time it happens you close your senses and your beliefs down a little more, making it less likely for you to be open to ideas in the future. So what's the answer? Capture your ideas as soon as they come. Here's how...

4. Capturing ideas part two - full intensity. First, get yourself something to record your ideas with - a notebook, camera or voice recorder for example - and keep it with you wherever you go. This is obviously key to you being able to capture your ideas. The best way is then to record the idea as soon as it comes to you, as fully as you can.
Say you have an idea for a story about a girl with a magic cape who can disappear just by wearing the cape and blinking her eyes twice. Capture the most vibrant and important elements of the idea, don't try to write the whole story. You want to be able to return to this idea and it explode off the page, and you feel the same enthusiasm as that first moment it came to you. With practice you'll find this easier and easier.

5. More ideas = more ideas. This is one of the best kept secrets about having ideas, that you don't fully appreciate or believe until you start to have and capture them on a regular basis. By doing all of the above so far, you'll start to build a collection of great ideas to develop. What you'll then realise is more and more ideas come, in two main ways.
Firstly, by recording your ideas, it's almost as if these ideas send a subliminal message to the deep source of creativity within you, telling more and more to come forth, because you've been so welcoming to those who have ventured to the surface. Secondly, just by capturing ideas, you give them permission to evolve on their own, while you're off doing other things. When you return, you'll find that as soon as you rediscover certain ideas, others connected ones will naturally spring to mind that you didn't consider originally.

6. Choosing ideas to develop. Even with a notebook bulging with ideas, a lot of us stumble at the next point, how to actually develop those ideas into creative projects. The main mistake we make is to try to work through our ideas one by one, in the exact same order that we captured them. This simply doesn't work because some ideas are better, more exciting, more inspiring than others.
So instead, scan through a few ideas, until you find one that really excites you, that makes you feel you have to get creating right away. Take this idea and, well, get creating right away! Don't then continue to flick through your ideas, just in case you find another one that you're ever so slightly more inspired by. If you do, you'll end up spending the rest of your life stuck in this infinite loop of trying to choose the perfect idea, and never actually create anything!

7. Focus. Once you've chosen your one idea to work on, close your notebook, or put away your camera or voice recorder and give your idea the full focus and creativity it deserves. The aim here is to follow the natural creative flow, as well as eliminating as much distraction as possible.
Remember this powerful truth: You'll have more ideas in your lifetime than you'll ever be able to develop. So instead of getting anxious and overwhelmed and starting a dozen new projects at once, give your one chosen idea a commitment of time and creative energy to develop it the best you can. Wouldn't you rather look back at the end of year and see a handful of brilliant and fully realised creative projects, than a sea of barely started half ideas, none of which have really gone anywhere?

Any of these 7 secrets is of great value in its own right. Use them step by step in the combination above and you have an incredibly powerful technique for having and developing the best creative ideas you possibly can.

So, off you go and let those ideas start flowing...
Ready to be more creative? Then sign up to "Create Create!" - Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin's free twice monthly ezine - today, and get your free copy of the "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook. Just head over to http://www.coachcreative.com/createcreate3
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dan_Goodwin

Thanks for reading and all the best with your wealth creation for 2009! If you have any great ideas for creating extra income just add a comment here.

Louise aka Zowoco
http://www.zowocomarketing.com/
Write Your Way To Wealth in 2009!

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