What I Learned From You About Creativity: Plus Some Ways to Increase Yours!

As part of my next book project I recently put together a survey about creativity and sent it out via social media. Here’s what I learned from all of you:

• Although most of you do not classify yourselves as a “creative professional” (even as a side hustle), the majority of you consider yourselves creative in some way.
• You all pretty much agreed that: creativity is something you’re born with, it’s also something you can learn and it’s undefinable/subjective.
• I was glad to see that nobody thought creativity is only needed by creative professionals!
• Roughly 80% of you agreed that “creativity is necessary in life.”
• And over 70% of you know how to become more creative.

For the 30% who might need some help with that last part, here are 3 of my most powerful personal strategies for increasing creativity – whether in general or for an actual creative project (like writing a book!). 

Sleep. By FAR my most important strategy for everything in my life requiring brain power – creativity, focus, productivity, functionality… so… everything! The experts are not joking when they recommend 6-8 hours per night. When I’m working on something big, it will inevitably be longer because my brain needs an even longer recharge. To me, this is basic neuroscience. The tentacles of sleep affect every single aspect of your physical and mental health, and on a grander scale, some might say, your human potential. I craft my entire day around sleep as my most important habit and I have the results, including a constant flow of creativity to prove it. 

Inversion. That’s right – hanging upside down! Many of you by now know that my side passion is the aerial arts (“circus” when I talk about it on social media) – specifically the lyra (“aerial hoop”). I also do aerial yoga once a week. There are more mind and body benefits of inversion than I could possibly list here – creativity included! For scientific insights about the brain benefits of inversion, I would highly recommend following my friend, Tracy Packiam Alloway, PhD an award-winning psychologist, professor, author, TEDx speaker AND talented aerial artist; “trapeze Tracy” at my circus studio (she’s the one that got me into circus!). 

Read fiction. Yes, my fellow business owners and entrepreneurs, I agree that expanding our minds with business and high performance enhancing reads is vital to our success. However – sparking your imagination and other parts of your creative mind left untouched by nonfiction books is vital to your creativity. At any given time I have a nonfiction AND fiction book in progress and I would recommend, for creativity sparking purposes, that you do too!

Care to chime in with your own insights about creativity? My creativity survey is still open so feel free to take it. Also, please make sure you’re a member of my Ink Authors group on Facebook, so you can get the creative inspiration, tools, and accountability to count yourself as a creative professional by becoming a published author!