Imagination comes naturally when you’re a kid, but for the majority of adults, imagination is buried beneath life’s demands and challenges.
Questions often raised are, “Who has time anymore for imagination or creativity or play? Isn’t it irresponsible to take time for cultivating creativity?”
Here are 10 starter-strategies to help you get going:
- Turn off your iPad or computer, put your cell phone on mute.
- Go native – Take off your shoes, stick your toes in the grass or earth for 15 minutes.
- Stop trying to be creative.
- Choose a title for your art before you begin and work out what it looks like from there.
- Sketch or write all of your ideas – the good, the not-so-good.
- Suspend any judgement. Judgment, is like a big iron gate. When shut, it stops your ideas – when open, everybody sneaks in.
- Go for quantity. Flow your ideas even if they seem silly or unrelated. The more the better – more possibilities of success when you cull the pile.
- Take your ideas and add to it things you see or read – merge them. Turn ideas that have been done already into something new, something that is yours.
- Let boundaries and limits be a support for creating. Use form as a place to begin. Set a timer, a deadline, make a shape and build on it.
- Do it right now. Often when we have a creative idea, another task takes priority. Give your creativity a bump on your priority list and do it when inspiration strikes – if only a sketch, it’s something!
Nice list? It means nothing, unless you begin.Simply begin. Imagination, like an engine, can take awhile to get going – especially if it’s been stored for awhile. Be patient with yourself, but strong and encouraging.
This is the fuel for life for not drying up and withering away into the utter exhaustion of all things busy. Be grateful for every step that you do take and keep moving.
The trick is to have lots of ideas and throw away the bad ones. – Linus Pauling
