Hey! So in this video, I want to share with you, three ways that you can access
more of your creativity. Creativity, for me, is one of the most important skills
not just in business, but also in life. It allows us to access more of our
potential in the mind, but also ways that we can accomplish some of our goals
quicker, and plus sometimes in a more fun way. Now, the first way is to expose
yourself to more experiences. And what I mean more experience is not just the
usual experience is like, going on a holiday to somewhere you've been before,
re-watching a film, doing something in your city, but exposing yourself to newer
stimuli. So by that I mean, is going somewhere you've never been before,
listen to someone you've not heard before, exploring a topic or area of
interest, that perhaps you've not really spent much time doing in the past, but
you are curious about. You see it's when you expose yourself to different stimuli,
that you are able to observe, understand, and learn new things and the mind can
then join together in a so-called method of joining the dots. You see, if you've
got a MacBook Pro, one of the older versions, you will notice that it has a
magnetic cord that goes from the laptop to the power supply.
Now, when Steve Jobs first came out with this tool, he actually didn't invent it
himself. I read that he went on the trip to Japan,
big fan of design, and the country that loves design as well, and found that
Japanese electrical appliance companies were using magnetic cords in their
products to avoid children, adults tripping over the wire and tripping over
that device, and the whole thing falling on top of them. He saw that and he said,
"well, that's a great idea! Why don't we bring that into our laptops,
and used that as the cord between the power supply and laptop." And people said
wow that was an innovative idea! But you see that idea, that breakthrough
of a thought came by exposing himself to a new experience, by traveling, by
understanding how other companies, our businesses went about their products and
services. The second way that you can access more of your creativity is through the
power of questions. You see, asking a particular question can
help unlock aspects of your creativity to help come up with a solution, to a
problem you might be facing. So, if there is something you would like to buy for
example, most might say I can't afford that, I can't afford that house, I can't
afford that car, I can't afford to start that business, or I can't afford to start
that idea. Now, when we come from that mindset of asking that I can't statement,
it limits us, it's a limiting thought, and that is what Carol Dweck touches on in
her book, is a very fixed mindset to have. However, imagine if we shifted that
question to, how could I afford it, how could I afford the time and resources to
start this idea. Notice the difference. You see, when you ask yourself this
different question, now you begin tapping into your creativity. Now the mind starts
to search for the answers that can help it arrive at a solution that can help
you move forward. And that is the power of questions. Another example, if there's
been a time where something didn't work out quite the way you wanted it to, or
expected it to. Instead of deeming that a failure, or instead of considering that a
lost cause, how about asking and reflecting on the question of what is
the benefit of what happened, what is the lesson here for me. You see, with these
questions, it allows me not just to tap into your creativity, but it also allows
you to move forward in a very productive way, rather than just dwelling on the
present or the past, and wondering about why this happened to you.
So first is experiences, it's exposing yourself to different stimuli. Second,
it's the power of questions, and really harnessing the power questions, Now the
final one, is to become more of an explainer. So what do I mean by become more
of an explainer? That means when you hear something inspiring, you learn
something new, whether from reading a book, going to a conference, or watching a
video such as this one. It's to take a moment to not just consume it for
entertainment, but reflect on what you've learned, reflect on what were your key
takeaways? What one action can you apply from it? But most importantly, how would
you explain what you had learned to someone who's not watched it? Because
when you're able to explain it in your own words, to someone who hasn't seen it,
that's where the learning really starts to come into effect, but also it helps
you to be more creative, because it allows you to understand the concepts in
your way. Thinking of it like a buffet table, you might be exposed to lots of
different inputs of information, but the mind can only take so much information
by focusing what resonates with you the most, and then learning how you can apply
this in your life, by explaining it to people, that's where you can solidify
that sort of learning process. That also applies in business. You know, how can you
explain what you do, in a way that gets attention. If you and I met at a
networking event, and you don't know who I am or my background, and you said to me
which is probably one of the first questions most get asked in any
networking event, which is, "what do you do?" Now, if I say to you I'm an accountant,
and I give you a title, you will probably have some objectives about what
I do and some thoughts and judgments already coming to your head. Perhaps it's,
boring, suits and tie, numbers, working in an office.
Now, I'm not saying you're thinking that, but there's a high chance you are. And
that is because the human mind tends to categorize people when they just hear a
title, such as accountant. We make pre-judgments before we've heard anything
else, and that's not your fault, it's just human psychology. Now, imagine you ask me
the question what do you do, and let's say my job was a personal trainer. Now
this is something I've heard in a networking event, I thought it was
amazing, because it shows that the ability to explain something, in a very
creative way, can not only get attention, but it can arouse interest to hear more
from you and what you do, so instead of saying I'm a personal trainer,
what if someone said to you, "I run 12 week total body transformations for
executives who are amazing in the boardroom, but average naked." How
different would your response and thoughts be, if you heard that? So just to
summarize three ways, that you can access more of your creativity, is one, exposing
yourself to new and different experiences, second, leveraging the power
of questions, and reflecting on the question that can help you be more
productive and forward-looking in nature. And third, is becoming more of an
explainer, have fun, experiment, how can you explain something in a different way
so people can understand, how to explain it in a way that is entertaining, that
grabs people's attention, analogies can be helpful with that, and other
techniques as well. If you've gathered some interesting insights from this
video, let me know in the comments below. What did you learn? What were your key
takeaways? And make sure to subscribe for more video content. Thank you very much!