How to become very creative

We all want to be regarded as creative. Even the gateman of a luxury apartment in Ikoyi tries to add a personal touch to his monotonous task of closing and opening a gate.

image: thepinstripedsuit.com

But how can you become very creative?
Well, that is what I'm going to show you in today's post.

A lot of us believe being creative means being inquisitive, always asking questions and never being satisfied with whatever answer we get. If that is true, then lawyers are the most creative people on earth. But we know they are not; we often see them as the most rigid and annoying people on earth.

Some of us view being creative as always going the extra mile, getting every detail right. But it's not correct. That's simply being a perfectionist.

Most of us view being creative as having lots of ideas. Unfortunately, it's just the first step to being creative, and it's not even the major step. Everyone has got ideas, and lots of them, but not everyone can be referred to as being creative.

To be creative means to attempt new things always. It starts with having ideas of new things to try, but it's until you put life into those ideas, and daily, that you can be rightly called creative.

So how can you become truly very creative?

1. Become the guy/lady with ideas
My favorite part of the award winning cartoon, Antz, is where Colonel Cutter remarked that Z was an ant with ideas (on hearing from Princess Bala that Z has died).
Two of my favorite quotes are -- "An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted." and "You can't stop an idea whose time has come." Both are credited to Victor Hugo.
Once you become the guy with ideas; always looking beyond the obvious and seeing things in new ways, you've begun the amazing journey to becoming creative.

2. Turn the ideas into actions
This is the main part of being creative. We don't remember people for the fine ideas they never expressed. In reality, it's only actions that count, even though they are a product of your thoughts.
Being creative is more of action, turning those lovely ideas into actions.
You need to become less self-conscious. Never let only the fear of people's opinions stop you from doing anything. If you've got a great idea, the type you really want to try out, and after thinking hard about it, the only thing standing against your doing it is people's opinions; just do it.
That was how I turned my idea of learning to swim into reality; I ignored all the opinions I got and took my first two swimming classes in a big river. But I made sure I was surrounded by human fish, guys who have been swimming since birth. I had everything well thought out.

3. Make it a habit
Have a to-do list that is long term focused and stick with it. Force yourself to do something new, not everyday, but spread across several days. Something like writing a short novel. You wouldn't want to write a novel everyday, but you can make it a daily goal to write at least 100 words in that novel everyday. This forces you to work on more valuable ideas, ideas that are long term focused.
Maybe you've got a great business idea, or a valuable skill you'll like to build a business out of. You want to host your own TV reality show; you want to start a health and fitness club; you want to start a consulting biz; or you want to do a complete career change. You can make a daily goal of doing something new towards achieving it, even if it's as little as reading how someone else did it.
Make a habit of turning your ideas to actionable goals and slowly pursuing it. And soon you'll begin to enjoy everyday and see each day as a new day.

And those are the steps to becoming very creative.