Don’t you just hate it when someone says, “Be creative.” You can sit there with your eyes close and grunt. But nothing comes out. So you conclude you are just not the creative type. It is something you are just not good at.

Who are the most creative people on the planet? Children! I feel pretty safe in assuming everyone reading this was at one time a child. And everyone at one time was highly creative. What happened? You unlearned you creativity. The education system and business environment forced it out of you. When ever you colored outside the lines or did not use the expected approach even if you followed the instructionyou were punished. So your creative muscle grew weaker and weaker until you believed they were no longer there.

How do you  get your creativity back? Play! Play with thing you can create Play at things that have few if any rules. draw, compose music, sculpt, carve, write poetry

I did not say take lessons. Just do it. You should go right now to the dollar store and buy a play dough and build something.  Right now you are not trying to be good at drawing, composing or poetry you are trying redevelop your creativity.

Only by exercising your creative muscle will it become strong.

What new ideas do you have or the new year? A few people are afraid of new ideas. Good ideas bring change and they find changes frightening.

Many people are terrified of bad idea. They are afraid of looking stupid. They are afraid others will accuse them of wasting money or time.

The problem is this. In order to create a good idea you have to generate a lot of bad ideas. If you generate enough bad ideas you will eventually generate some good ideas.  Steve Jobs is looked to today as a futurist and innovator. Few remember the Next computer. That fell on its face. But the fact is we all fail a lot more than we succeed. But failure is the price of success.

Here is hoping you have a lot of bad ideas this year.