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- Toolkit for Creativity
Overwhelmed by a never-ending flood of information, we’re left feeling overstimulated yet restless, overworked yet discontented, tuned in yet burned out.
Fight against being a passive consumer of information. Instead, act and create using the information that you consume.
How to Have Creative Ideas:
1. 💬 Curate Your Information Intake
What you consume impacts what you think about. With this in mind, be very selective with what enters your brain through your eyes and ears.
Your information intake becomes the ingredients that form your next thoughts and your great ideas.
For example, every article in the engineering way is a byproduct of my information intake. The ideas I have consumed and experiences I have had mold and shape my thinking, which then produces these articles.
How to Curate Your Information Flow:
Determine the things that interest you and consume media related to those things.
Follow creators who talk about your interests.
Read books about the thing(s) you want to learn more about.
Talk with other people who are also interested in the same thing.
Remove information flow that is not positive or helpful.
Don’t specialize so much that you avoid encountering differing opinions.
2. 📝 Write Down Your Interesting Thoughts
Take a physical journal or digital note system with you everywhere you go. When an interesting idea pops into your head, pull out this notebook or app and write it down to capture it.
Our brains are great for having ideas, but not quite as good at holding onto them. For me, my thoughts and ideas go into my apple notes app.
3. 💡 Don’t Discredit Your Ideas
Your ideas matter and are the result of many years of your unique experience of life. Often we assume that everyone thinks the same way we do and have similar thoughts, but this is not true.
Acting on your good ideas starts with believing that there is the chance that they are unique.
What great idea have you had that at the time you thought everyone knew about or was common?
Cool Photo of the Week:
Aspen, Colorado Shot by Nathan Anderson
Final Thoughts
In what ways have you shaped your capacity for creativity? Do you have any habits that have helped you be more creative? I’d love to hear about your experiences.
Enjoy this: Please tell a friend about it.
Rock on,
Camden
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