When we think about creativity, there usually occurs a huge misconception: we see it as something a few people get blessed with at birth. Those that are born creative are only guided by the spirit of inspiration expressed through the different varieties of art. Genius dwells in creativity, and so does excellence. Ordinary people are rarely allowed to enter the realm of creativity. They have to stay grounded in business, focus on hard work and aim at reasonable and feasible goals.
Creativity, for those who are not blessed with talent, is a useless loss of time. It is very likely that, if you think of creativity in these terms, you’ll be convinced that you are not creative in the slightest. And you would be much mistaken! Studies about the functioning in the human brain show that all human beings are gifted with creativity, whether they use it to create proper art or not.
In fact finding the solution to a particularly thorny issue, telling the story of your last date to a friend, lying, cheating during exams, brainstorming with your colleagues at work or even just cooking a meal are all creative performances when you stop to think about it. Being creative has more to do with your sense of self and the way you observe reality than with abstract concepts of talent and inspiration.
One of our deepest beliefs at Wafer Messenger is that the gift of creativity should be encouraged and nourished in everyday life, even while sending messages to your closest friends.
Here you can find 6 useful tips to help you embrace creativity on a daily basis.
1. SET YOURSELF AT EASE
As commonplace as it may seem, nobody else is just like you. You are the result of your education, your experiences, your successes and failures. The patterns that shape your mind are unique, so is your creative capability.
Let your presumptions about what it means to be creative fall and focus on yourself instead. Which are the things that you care about the most? How would you change something in your daily routine if you could? In which situations are you at ease? Are you more of a morning or a night person? Try to think about your behaviors and habits, and find your own definition of creativity. Once you have found out what being creative means to you it will be easier to further develop creative habits that will expand your creative mind.
2. DEFINE YOUR CREATIVE HABITS
Being good at creativity is about making it a habit - it’s all a matter of exercise, practice and repetition. Just as you workout to be in shape, you should test your creative skills every day to improve them. Remember: our first advice was to set yourself at ease while creating so we don’t suggest you try to force creativity out of yourself. Like in weight training, no one is lifting more than 200 pounds at the gym on his/her first day. Nevertheless, you should allow yourself some stimulating challenges which will arouse your curiosity and activate those areas in your brain that are actually responsible for your creativity. The great thing about this kind of training is that you don’t really need exceptional tools or special occasions to practice. You can just perform any standard task you encounter in everyday life and give it a creative sprinkle. For example, while chatting with a friend on Wafer Messenger, you could try to sketch the concept of the message you were about to send in plain text. Or you could also play with multilayering. Or you could ‘Build Upon’ someone else’s picture/video/text/etc message.
3. DON’T WAIT TOO MUCH FOR INSPIRATION
Another widespread misconception about creativity is that it only works thanks to inspiration. Without it, your creative engine is like a car without a spark to initiate the combustion of fuel to move the car forward. While important this is not the whole story. While inspiration can push your creativity further, most of the times its absence becomes an excuse for you to not to attempt improving your creative skills.
That’s why we’ve decided to stick with small habitual activities - like sending a message to a friend in our examples. The activities you perform on a day-to-day basis are so much a part of you that you almost act automatically upon them. This is why incorporating creativity into your everyday mobile conversations can be so powerful. The creativity boost you get from constantly thinking in this manner in your everyday conversations will make your a more creative person. Don’t wait for a higher power to save you from a creative block because it is more difficult to be creative when it is not a part of your everyday life.
4. TAKE A BREAK
Ok, we know what you are thinking: we have just told you that you should never wait to improve your creativity, and now we urge you to put your creative mind at rest while you do some other non-related task. Nevertheless, as absurd as it may seem, those two sentences are not conflicting.
It’s indeed crucial that the time you spend creating is quality time. Our lives are lived in a rush and often it is required from us to speed things up. That doesn’t leave much space for deep, creative thought. You simply don’t have the time to sort out your ideas. Creativity works best when you are relaxed, comfortable and at ease. This is something different from hopelessly looking for inspiration.
5. BE CONFIDENT AND ALWAYS READY TO ACCEPT CHANGE
Once you have started creating, you should never ask yourself or others for an opinion on your work. Let your creative stream flow through you, don’t bother too much about the initial looks of it, don’t even ask yourself how it will look once you are finished. Be extremely confident about what you are doing.
After your initial thoughts are articulated through your selected media, take your time and have a good look at your work. Ask friends and colleagues to do the same. How can you make it better? Be open to all critiques, come to terms with the fact that you may want to change something. Share your creative experience with others, once your initial draft/concept is done. You will see that getting the point of view of others might boost your creativity and end result massively.
6. JUST START!
Now let’s try a little experiment after having read this blog post. Take off your shoes, take a deep breath, help yourself to a cup of tea or any other (warm) drink and sink in your favorite armchair. Now pick up your smartphone, open Wafer Messenger and start a conversation with a very close friend you haven’t talked to in a while. No worries if he or she is not on Wafer Messenger yet, you can still reach out to him/her. The content and looks of the message you create are entirely up to you. Let your inspiration and restored creativity guide you. Now tap on send… and see what happens!
Team Wafer