Creativity is a skill you can cultivate every day. Here’s how.
The first step is to understand how creativity comes about.
The most creative minds are curious. They enjoy exploration and connecting ideas across disciplines. By expanding your knowledge and learning new skills, you can provide your brain with more "dots" to connect and the more dots the brain has available, the more creative it can be.
The world's most creative people are interested in many things. Thomas Edison, possibly the world’s most prolific inventor, also read voraciously. Einstein played the violin. Benjamin Franklin was both a writer an inventor. And Michael Crichton (author of Jurassic Park and many other novels) was a medical doctor and fiction writer.
Here’s how to cultivate your creativity by starting with these two things:
Expand your knowledge: Every two months, dive into a completely new subject, whether it’s philosophy, history, or a branch of science. Broadening your knowledge introduces fresh perspectives and fuels new ideas.
Learn a new skill: Learn to play an instrument, cook a particular type of cuisine, how to quilt or repair motorcycles. Skills like these stimulate different parts of the brain. When I run creativity workshops, I find that people who have generative hobbies (where they make something) are better at the creative process.
Creativity isn’t a fixed talent, it’s a skill you can nurture every day.