Creative thinking is necessary to solve difficult problems. Whether you are writing a creative article, starting a business or trying to overcome a tricky situation, it all comes down to seeing things differently and changing your perspective sometimes than you currently do.
“Creativity does have a reputation for being magical. One myth is that it’s associated with the particular personality or genius of a person. Creative thinking is a skill that involves qualities such as the propensity to take risks and to turn a problem on its head to get a new perspective. That can be learned.” – Teresa Amabile (teacher at the Harvard Business School)
Ever felt like you can’t solve a simple problem or that you aren’t creative anymore? We all have faced that situation at least once in our lifetime. But, that is not the end of the road. You just have to unlock your inner abilities and skills. Working in a creative industry is great, but it can be stressful to stay inspired and enthusiastic all the time.
Luckily, our experts have enlisted some common creative blocks below and some common methods to overcome them.
Blocked mentally
We all have been in a situation where we are so locked into a familiar situation that we fail to check out the other possible options. This is how a person gets trapped by his or her own thinking. The person starts to approach the problem from a limited point of view. So, how to avoid this situation? The easy way is to change your mind. Ask yourself, ”What if you could have solved the problem by adopting a different strategy?” Start questioning your assumptions and adopting varied perspectives. Go and listen to something new, read new stories, or visit a place which you have never been to before. You need to speak to people who have an alternative point of view regarding a subject and rely on those people who love to disagree with you.
Lack of proactivity
Passivity is another obstacle that hinders creative thinking. Lack of new ideas and stimulation of new information works against your creativity. Just like a muscle which does not go through enough exercises, our creativity loses energy and vitality. This results in automatic and passive thinking when you should be actually thinking creatively and proactively. Routine is one of the reasons for passive thinking. You will find a lot of people watching the same TV shows, playing the same variety of amazing live casino games or socialising with the same people regularly. These routine jobs do not challenge our minds which makes them complacent and sull. They tend to react negatively to new ideas and discourages when new plans are suggested. Whatever be the reason, if you want your creative ideas to flourish, stop entertaining routine activities. Don’t feel threatened by new suggestions or changes. Get out of your comfort zone.
Communication barrier
Working in a team can be a tedious task. It is a well-known fact that creative blocks happen not only between individuals but also between ears. Tensions between team members are inevitable and some ‘difficult’ people in your team can make your working life a living hell. These people not only hamper your daily creative skills but also make it difficult to take advantage if the right opportunities come by. This is one place where creativity blends with communication skills. The solution is to influence and understand the right type of people, no matter how much difficult the task would be. This will demand intricate use of your networking, marketing and influencing skills. Every creative has suffered a bad review or setback. You need to accept that you can’t please everyone in your life. Just grow a thicker skin of criticism and rejection.
Scared of failure
The fear of losing or failure is a disturbing creativity block. Don’t confuse this with the experience of failure. This is very different from the possibility of failure. The creativity block that we are discussing today is the former one. Every person with a creative mentality has failed a countless number of times but that has never stopped them or have induced permanent damage. What paralyses their action or hinders their creativity is the anticipation of failure. Choose to avoid that.
No direction in life
This is very common across numerous creative artists. When creative people lack clear objectives or goals and fail to write them down in detail, they lose track of their creativity. Your creative ideas will spring to action only if you are crystal clear about what you want and how you are going to achieve it. Your creative skills will improve and will help you to sparkle creative insights if you have a proper direction for yourself.
Fail to recognise one of the listed creative blocks? Maybe it is holding you back. It happens to all of us. For creative professionals like us, our tendency to function within the limitations of our professions like web designers, illustrators and writers are going to hamper our creative growth at one point of time or another. Luckily, you can take note of the listed examples of creative blocks and try your best to resolve the issues. Remember that before resolving any issues, you need to identify it first, That depends from person to person. So, which creative block are you facing in your life right now? Don’t forget to experiment – it can open up a lot of possibilities.
