Occasionally, you will hear people exclaim, “I am not very creative”, or “I wish I could be more creative”. Everyone was born with a strong capacity to be creative. What has happened to many individuals is that their creativity has been squashed or driven under. This began from the earliest age as the first thing that many of us learned was “NO!” School is the next step in stripping away our creativity as we learned to color in the lines and associate a specific color for items (such as a “red” rose). If you have never heard Harry Chapin’s song “Flowers”, it is very powerful and it shows how we can hurt the creativity in young people. The lyrics can be found at: http://www.harrychapin.com/music/flowers.shtml
The good news is we can reclaim our creativity. For those who have difficulty being creative, I have used the following technique with very good success. When a person says that they are not very creative, I simply agree with them. I then ask who they know that is extremely creative. The person will typically respond with the name of an associate or friend. I then ask them, what do you think that creative person would come up with as a new idea. Guess what happens? Most of the time the uncreative person comes up with a new idea that they believe their creative friend would suggest.
This technique also works for people that are afraid of public speaking. I ask them to think of someone who is a great speaker that they know. I then ask them to pretend that they are that other individual and have them speak as the other person would. Guess what? In more cases than not, the frightened person takes on a different persona and delivers a public presentation.
© 2009 – Jim Lindell