8 HABITS OF PEOPLE WHO ALWAYS HAVE GREAT IDEAS
AHA MOMENTS AREN'T MAGIC, THEY COME TO
PEOPLE WHO HAVE CULTIVATED DAILY HABITS OF APPROACHING LIFE DIFFERENTLY.
Eureka moments are
rare. The backstory behind great ideas is often more complex and winding than
having an apple fall on your head. But the best part is that creative ideas
aren’t reserved for a special group of people; they can come to anyone if you
change your mind-set.
"The fact is,
almost all of the research in this field shows that anyone with normal
intelligence is capable of doing some degree of creative work," Teresa
Amabile, professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and
author of The Progress
Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work, told Fast Company in 2004.
"Creativity depends on a number of things: experience, including knowledge
and technical skills; talent; an ability to think in new ways; and the capacity
to push through uncreative dry spells."
Whether they’re coming
up with an innovative new product to launch, finding a solution to a universal
problem, or picking a cool new place to grab lunch, people who consistently
have great ideas have formed habits that help them think. Here are eight simple
things those "creative geniuses" do that you can do, too:
Instead of staying
focused within their industries, people who have great ideas look elsewhere,
says Sooshin Choi, provost at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
"Many
professionals go after information in their industry, but once you get that
information, it’s too late—everyone has it," he says. "Even if you
get that information faster than others, what kind of real difference can you
make?"
Instead, Choi suggests
looking outside your field. "Car designers might look at furniture
designers for inspiration," he says. "There are endless examples of
different areas where you can find inspiration."
In his book Hare Brain, Tortoise
Mind, author Guy Claxton
says intelligence increases when you think less: "There’s an expanding
idea of what it means to be intelligent," he told the London Business Forum in 2014. "The narrow idea is all
built around cleverness, which is the ability to argue, marshal facts, and
interpret a spreadsheet. That it’s all done through reason; it’s all done
consciously."
GIVE YOUR MIND TIME TO WORK IN THE
MARGINS—WHEN YOU’RE THINKING OF SOMETHING ELSE.
Research, however, has
found that thoughts are going on in the margins of the mind in areas Claxton
calls hazy, poetic, or uncontrolled. Calling this the "tortoise
mind," Claxton says great ideas bubble up when you slow down decisions:
"Whenever there’s a decision that needs to be made, the first thing you
ask yourself is, ‘When does this decision need to be made?’" he says.
"And you don’t make it until then."
Deciding prematurely stunts
your ability to find great ideas. Give your mind time to work in the
margins—when you’re thinking of something else. This allows time to collect
more information, listen to hunches, and experience bursts of creativity.
People who have great
ideas are motivated to work on something because it is interesting, involving,
exciting, satisfying, or personally challenging, says Amabile.
Research has found
that people are most creative when they’re intrinsically motivated, rather than
pushed by evaluation, surveillance, competition with peers, dictates from
superiors, or the promise of rewards.
"You should do
what you love, and you should love what you do," she writes. "The first is a matter of finding work
that matches well with your expertise, your creative thinking skills, and your
strongest intrinsic motivations. The second is a matter of finding a work environment
that will allow you to retain that intrinsic motivational focus, while
supporting your exploration of new ideas."
Instead of improving
on an existing item, people with great ideas pretend the product doesn’t exist
and they design it from scratch, says Choi.
"If you improve
something, then you only make it better," he says. "If you want to
make something different, you have to behave as if there is no such
thing."
Don’t ask yourself,
‘How could I design a smartphone?’ says Choi. Ask yourself, ‘What is
communication?’ "If you start there, you may be able to discover new
possibilities," he says.
"Often the
difference between a successful man and a failure is not one’s better abilities
or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his idea, to take a calculated
risk, and to act," said Maxwell Maltz, author of the 1960 self-help classic Psycho-Cybernetics.
Corporate cultures
that allow employees to challenge the status quo or disagree will foster
innovation, says Amabile. Training employees to be comfortable disagreeing with
others and receptive to disagreement will create an atmosphere of innovation,
she writes.
As you progress in
your field, it can be easy to stick with what works, says Choi. "The
trouble is that when you get older, you have many routines that come from
memory of past successes," he says. "The past may not work in the
future."
Instead of becoming
set in your ways, Choi says people who have great ideas have formed the habit
of trying something different.
"If you always
order the same thing at your favorite restaurant, you are an old person,"
he says. "Try something new—maybe something you didn’t like when you were
younger. Or do something you aren’t familiar with. You’ll feel young and you’ll
experience new things and ideas."
Great ideas are often
the result of connecting two seemingly unrelated items. People who consistently
have great ideas have become good at finding connections. In 1996—long before
he thought of the iPhone or iPod—the late Steve Jobs told Wired magazine:
Creativity
is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something,
they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw
something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were
able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the
reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences, or they
have thought more about their experiences than other people.
Elizabeth Gilbert,
author of Big Magic: Creative
Living Beyond Fear,
says ideas are out there waiting to find the right person who can bring them to
life.
"Ideas are these
disembodied life forms, they don’t have a form, but they have a will. All they
want is to be made manifest," she told Robin Young on NPR’s Here
and Now. "If you can manage to open up your consciousness to an idea
of living in a world of abundance, then you can believe that, constantly, ideas
are trying to find human collaborators."
BY STEPHANIE
VOZZA
http://www.fastcompany.com/3051713/hit-the-ground-running/8-habits-of-people-who-always-have-great-ideas?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fast-company-daily-newsletter&position=3&partner=newsletter&campaign
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