What is the first thing that comes to your mind when someone says “Creative”? Let me start by telling you, what used to be my idea of it few years back. I used to think (and I know many who still think like that), only people who are good at artistic activities like painting, sketching, playing a guitar or piano, dancing, singing etc. are creative. Well there is no denying that the people I mentioned are creative but the fact is, being creative is not restricted to any boundaries or being good at any particular artistic activity.

It may be a bit difficult for some of you to believe me, but I think that you will agree with me if I tell you that the source we trust the most today also believes the same. Any guesses, who I am talking about? No brownie points for guessing, I am talking about Google. When you Google, “What does being creative mean? “, you will get, “Being creative is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. It is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions.”

So now when you think about it, you will find that many people around us are creative thinkers in their own little way. Our mothers who experiment with different kind of food in the kitchen are creative, kids coming up with the ideas new games (which are a bit weird sometimes) are creative, trust me sometimes even daydreaming is creative. I believe most of us are creative thinkers but sometimes we are not aware of it. We all have that side of a creative thinker in us but without even realizing, we have brushed it somewhere under the carpet. But don’t worry; you can still get in touch with your creative side again by just practicing some things in your life differently. Two simple things that can really help are:

1. Ditch your monotonous routine:

When I say, ditch your routine, I don’t mean for you to become unorganized. What I want to convey is when we follow the same routine everyday and get used to it, our brain gets rusted. We can avoid this by adding new activities in our routine from time to time, like go for cycling, play a new game, take a different route when going for work, try having interesting conversations with strangers sometime. This will get your brain worked up and you will surely feel a change in yourself. This will help you discover a new side of yourself.

2. Start reading:

I personally believe that reading is the solution to most of the problems in our life. It helps you meet your creative side as well. When we read, we get to know and understand the point of views of different characters and it opens our mind to welcome and accept the different possibilities. In a way, you get to meet so many new people and it is brainstorming. It nurtures your imagination and helps you grow as a strong creative thinker.

Now let’s talk about how we can use our creativity to generate new ideas.

When we look at famous entrepreneurs or CEOs of renowned companies, it often blows our mind thinking, "How are they doing what they are doing? How did they come with the idea of doing this?” And most of the times their ideas are so basic that it leaves us wondering, “I always knew this, I could have come up with this idea too.”

For example, Zomato’s idea of making food available to people at their doorstep, Facebook’s idea of connecting people all over the world, Google’s idea of answering the questions people have and there are many more.

We all knew about these problems but didn’t bother to think of the solutions to these problems and people who found the solutions are an inspiration to many of us today. To generate new ideas, instead of focusing on the problem alone, one should think as a problem solver.

We all want to be successful and do something around the lines of examples I mentioned above but what we fail to see is, most of the successful ideas and their execution is a result of many trials and errors we don’t get to know about. For channelizing our creative thinking in the right direction for generating new ideas, we can follow some of tips mentioned below:

1. Stop looking, start seeing- Great ideas come to those who are not just looking but are actually seeing and observing everything around them. Start observing tiny details of things happening around you. Start observing people, number of stairs you are climbing, setting of the restaurant you are having dinner at and everything. This exercise will be really helpful if you practice it. You will start looking at things differently and it will help you generate new and different ideas.

2. Take inspiration but do not copy- When one thing works really good for one person, many of us try to get the same results for ourselves by copying them. Remember same size of shoe doesn’t fit everyone. I know this sounds cliché, but this is the truth. Get inspired by people but do not copy them mindlessly.

3. Find your own rhythm- Work on yourself and try discovering what is working best for you. As I mentioned above, do not copy. Find your own process and work on your ideas. It may take a while but after a series of trial and error, you will find perfect shoe for yourself.

In the end remember one thing , creative thinking and idea generation is not only a gift but it is a process in which you have to be consistent and honest with the efforts you are putting in.

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”- Vincent van Gogh

Hope this article gave you a fresh perspective on creative thinking and idea generation. Stay tuned for more.