Tapping into Your Creative Genius
In his article “Ring-fence Your Most Creative Time“, Mark McGuinness discusses methods that famous writers like Tim Ferriss and Maya Angelou use to unleash their creative genius. Just like famous writers, you have the power to create. But there is a certain state of mind required to turn your ideas into something tangible. Your mind has to be open to venture into arenas that you’ve never experienced before.
Generally, your creative time will reflect your personality. At times, my mind races so fast during the night that I cannot sleep. When I look at my wife and say “I’m getting up”, she knows exactly what I mean. Instead of tossing and turning all night or taking sleeping pills, I head to my home office and start writing. In these times, I seem to get answers that I’ve pondered for months. When I pray for direction and life purpose, the answer seems to hit me while I’m in bed…at 2 am. The ability to think creatively is an opportunity that knocks so softly that it’s easy to overlook.
There are three things that may help you to tap into your creativity:
- Defining your most creative time of the day
- Figuring out how to shut out distractions during that time
- Writing your ideas down
Late nights and early mornings are the times when I receive fresh revelation, new ideas for blogging and direction for my business. My most creative time is between 10 pm and 6 am. One of two things usually happens during this time. Either I will stay up between those hours, get a two hour nap and start my day. Or I will go to sleep early (for me early is anytime before midnight) and get back up between my hours of peak productivity. This is not the time where I make sense of my ideas. Synthesis usually happens after 8 am. Between 10p and 6a, I get raw, untamed ideas that make sense of my life.
To be creative requires you to think outside of the box. That means it may take a change to get your creative juices flowing. You have to put yourself in a different state of mind. I am more creative in the morning right after I have gotten out of the bed, when no one is awake but me. I drink a cup of tea (staying away from chamomile because it’s too relaxing for early morning) and set an hour aside, from 6:30 to 7:30 for meditation. The more prepared I am to present myself to the public, the less creative my thoughts. If I were in a cubicle dressed in a suit and tie, I could not be as creative as when I first wake up. Why? When combined, a suit, tie and cubicle create a certain state of mind conducive to administrative, not creative work. There’s a reason that you will rarely catch a starving artist or tortured painter in a 3-piece suit with wing-tip shoes. Creativity calls for you to step outside of the cubicle – to break the box.
The goal for creative time is to minimize the amount of things that can distract you. Ideas may or may not flow with your kids asking you a million-and-one questions. It may be tough to meditate with your team members banging on your office door every 5 minutes. Before you start your creative time, be sure that you are free from distractions and at liberty to create.
Whether you’re a business writer, composer, entrepreneur or software program designer, it will help to figure out what time of day you are most creative. What conditions spark new ideas within you? Once you can figure this out, it will be easier to put your pen to the paper and create something great.
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