When creativity is the bulk of a job, there can be periods when inspiration wanes. This situation will probably sound familiar to many. How can you free yourself up in these moments to reignite creativity and come up with new ideas? By following these 3 tips, you can bring a breath of fresh air into your world of ideas:
1. make regular changes of perspective
We humans are „creatures of habit“ and love our routines. We often fall into patterns because they help us to get a structure into our everyday life and to focus on the really challenging moments. We can use them to orient ourselves. but they also let us little freedom for new actions or thoughts. Because that is exactly the advantage of routines: we no longer have to think about it specifically, but „just do“.
They can be an enrichment in many ways, but especially in creative work they are rather a hindrance. In everyday (work) life, there is often hardly any time to break out of one's usual patterns, but it is precisely these moments that allow us to create things that we would otherwise not create.
That is why Change of perspective a brilliant opportunity! Even if it's hard, try consciously incorporating something different into your usual routines.
Example: Your way to work. Sources of inspiration are often everyday things that we sometimes notice more, sometimes less (consciously). If there is another way to your work, then take this one for once! Or take a much closer look at your way the next time you drive home – consciously walk through the world with your eyes open. Pay attention to one particular thing like the colors of the houses. You will discover some things that you have not noticed before – and can use this inspiration for your new creative work!
2. create creative works to create
Without trying something out, you'll never know what might become of an idea. Therefore you should Follow spontaneous creative impulses without fail and try to implement them. Especially if they are ideas that deviate from your previous techniques or the style you usually use. Even if at first you think to yourself that this kind of creativity is not yours – without experimentation you will find yourself unintentionally limit yourself in your creativity.
Example: Do you usually only work digitally? Take up paint and brush and see how your usual „work can be implemented with it. Especially the switch between analog and digital (or the mix of both) has inspired many a creative mind!
The biggest trap is to get bogged down in customer:internal orders in everyday life and not give your own creative ideas any room. Define yourself exact time slots in which you create exclusively for yourself. Deliberately use other approaches or color palettes. Think big and let your creativity run wild – create designs for their absolute dream customer:inside, for example. Who knows what other ideas this process will unleash in you!
3. use senses holistically
Throughout the day, an infinite number of impressions affect us. We often perceive them, but do not consciously process them. You can use these situations in particular as sources of creative inspiration in retrospect. Why not rely on other senses for once! With the eyes we see the „obvious“ things.
But have you ever paid attention, what smell you associate with certain situations? We rarely use our olfactory memory, but when a familiar smell rises to our nose, it evokes very specific memories in us. So you can go back to a place or time and draw ideas from this old „new“ memory!
A Practice: Recall a glimpse of yesterday. What exactly did you see? What did it smell like? Feel inside yourself what feeling and emotions this thought triggers in you. Does an image just pop into your head of how to represent them creatively? Then you should immediately stop reading this post and implement the idea – have fun!
