The 9th most popular post from 2012.
It has been said that the difference between creativity and imagination is action. Action is more than talking about our creativity or idea. Action is putting our creativity into motion. We have to build solid habits that help us move our creative ideas from the imaginary to the activated. What are some of the ways we can do this?
- Create something everyday. / This keeps us prepared and in a creative space. It helps us avoid getting lazy.
- Share our ideas with people who will hold us accountable to them. / There is a pressure that comes when we are accountable for our great ideas. A lot of time, fear keeps us from sharing these ideas, but we have to share them in order to “get them out”. An idea that is in process has the potential to change lives. An idea in our head is equivalent to no idea at all.
- Don’t be afraid to fail. / Learning to conquer our fear helps us to engage our creativity. We have to understand that creativity and love have a lot in common. One never experiences love in its fullness until we take the chance to be hurt. The same goes with creativity. The hurt of failing is not dull, but the regret of not trying will haunt us forever.
- Prepare a plan./ Make a plan that is FULL. Define expectations. Delegate. Create action items in the plan and attach dates to those plans. Leave no stone unturned in the process. Define the goal and make sure every action is leading to that goal. Planning is the not-so secret power for creative people. Great creative professionals embrace planning. Also, planning and preparing allows us to finish on time – which actually provides us the flexibility to adjust. When we can adjust, we are able to be our MOST creative.
- Be concerned with execution. / Ideas are not worth a dollar without execution. No one is going to care about YOUR thing as much as YOU do…and if at some point they do, you need to move on. Artists have to understand and embrace the business of their art: be concerned enough to – at a minimum – build a team that can help them manage the execution and be willing to not ignore the importance of “GETTING THINGS DONE.”
- Stay focused on the goal. / The biggest temptation for an artist or creative person is to allow the next idea to steal our focus. Document the next idea, but stay on task and don’t lose focus of the potential we have to complete what we are working on today. Tomorrow can be for the next thing…today is about what is in front of us.
- Control what we can control. / Stop worrying and buying excuses. We have areas which we can control. Maximize those spaces. The areas for which we do not have control, we can not waste time or energy worrying about. We will navigate around those when the time is right. Today, control what you can control.
Have you ever had an experience you could share of when it worked well…or didn’t happen at all?
