Raising creativity in 7 easy steps

There are many different ways to come up with creative ideas. Common and yet useful ways include going to your local library to loan out books on creativity or signing up for a creativity workshop where the facilitator would get you to participate in certain activities to get your creative juices working.

Allow me to share with you my recent experience on how I brainstormed a creative idea and came up with an innovative website.

I was re-reading a creativity book by Roger Konopasek titled Roger Magnet’s Sales Adventures one day. I happened to flip on to the page telling a story how a cafe-owner broadcasted over the internet news about their intention to give away their cafe to the person who ccould submit the best entry explaining why he or she should “win” the cafe through the competition they were holding. $100 was charged for each entry submission. There was an overwhelming response from people around the world. In the end, someone did become the proud owner of the cafe and the former owners became even richer as a result of the competition.

As I was wondering whether anyone else had done something similar since then, my mind recalled  another story about this guy in his early 20’s from the UK who had raised more than a million dollars and created internet history. Alex Tew became headline news when he became known for his one-million pixel webpage which offered advertising space to companies for their logos and URLs to be displayed. The advertising space was sold in 10 by 10 pixel blocks that were $100 each.

I then asked myself how I could borrow the concept of offering a million-pixel space for a different purpose. Letting my imagination a free rein, I mused to myself what sort of images I could put up if I could post them online. Pictures maybe? How about photos? Photos of what? Since I do teaching, it led me to the idea of having parents worldwide share their children’s photos and the wishes for their children. That seemed like a neat idea and that’s how www.wisheschildren.com came about.

So here is the outline for raising creativity in 7 easy steps:

•      Read books and articles on creativity and creative ideas (from magazines, online newsletters, creativity online sites, etc.)
•      Let your memory run. By trigger of association.
•      Let your imagination run. Literally.
•      Collect ‘creative ideas’ stories that you have read. Create an ideas bank by having a journal.
•      In your journal, you can also include any creative idea that occurs to you.
•      Re-read your favourite creativity books and articles once a while.
•      Review the ideas in your ideas bank. Think about how you can develop some of your ideas further.

This is not a step-by-step guide on how to raise your creativity. Feel free to use any or all of the strategies above to give your mind a creative workout. Enjoy the journey of being a creative individual.