Hello and welcome to The Traveling Introvert. Today, I want to talk about ways to improve your creative thinking. So for the longest while I've always said that I'm not creative and I realize now it's a slightly limiting belief that I have on myself, I don't see myself. See, even now I'm saying I don't see myself as being creative, and yet people will point out all the things that I have created. So here are some things that I have done that have helped me improve my creative thinking.

So you might find times when you find yourself lacking creativity and it can be for different reasons. Or it could be that you haven't been using your creative muscles regularly and you've forgotten how to tap into those things. And so there are many things that you can do to sort of improve and dig into doing that creative thinking.

Again, one of the best ways is to keep yourself inspired. And so I create a ritual every day that you can use and regularly and routinely several routines that inspire you, condition your brain to tap into your creativity easily. And some examples of a ritual might be reading in the morning or listening to music every day or meditating for five minutes, or just sitting and being and deep breathing throughout the day. So if you can see if you can create something every day, even if you only have five or 10 minutes to do so, it keeps your creativity muscle, so to speak, alive and inspired.

And you don't have to be creating a masterpiece. This is this is something that people sort of get caught up on. They think it has to be this wonderful thing, whatever it is that you create, it could be something as simple as a doodle or writing a short article, drawing a mind map in meetings, developing new product ideas, or reorganizing your files, taking photographs of the sunset or, you know, a plant that's growing in your house.

These are all ways of being creative. Everything is to take breaks often, and I can't recommend this enough, especially when you feel stuck with a problem and can't kind of figure out the solution. And I think I've spoken about this before. Taking breaks allows your mind to focus on something else while getting inspiration and like working in the background. It's also good to take a break from all the digital chatter that allows regularly has. So getting outside and unplugging at least once a week just for work.

You know, if you can do it at some point daily or even if it's 10 minutes, 20 minutes, an hour, whatever it is to help build your creative thinking muscle without digital binging and annoying you all the time. And whenever you do feel inspired, make a list of these ideas on a notebook or an app or something. Uses ideas as a launching pad for new ways of doing things or new products or new podcast episodes, whatever it is that inspires you.

The other thing that your creative mind loves and thirst for, which is probably being a little hard recently, is to have fun, have fun regularly, and finding different ways to do that, depending on the circumstances you're in, can be difficult. But laughing a good conversation, bouncing ideas off each other, bills and inspires your creativity while relaxing and having fun in different ways. It can be with other people. You can have a back and forth conversation on what's up with someone.

It doesn't have to be real time, but finding a way to instill and inspire fun and relaxation in your life will help you. The other thing you can do, and this is really interesting, is the three F's to ask questions, to inspire your thoughts on a concept. And it helps build your creative thinking by answering things like this. What would happen if I change X, Y and Z, like the software, the color, the whatever it might be?

But what would I change or improve about it if I wanted to use it in 10 years? This is really good for software like you might have software you like. How does it work now when it works for me in five years, 10 years, think about those things. What would I do if I had a one million dollar investment to improve it or at twenty dollar investment to improve it? These are really the what if questions these questions or ones like them can be powerful tools to help you think just a little bit differently repeatedly using these questions and these types of questions test in all type of situations, ideas will begin to flow and enable you to think more creativity.

The other thing is take advantage of the peak hours when you feel most productive and creative, when you need to find a solution. Some people are more creative during times of emotional stress or whatever that time is. Use it to let your creative juices flow, put on some music, surround yourself with inspiring things and be creative. Interact with creative and inspiring people on a regular basis just to get fresh ideas and outlooks and perspectives. These interactions and exchange of ideas will help you refocus on the creative ideas that work best for you and help you narrow down what you want to do.

And don't be afraid of taking risks to improve your creative thinking. When you avoid taking risks, you end up suppressing your ideas. Risks give you permission to think so to speak outside the box and embrace your creative ideas. So people are more creative than others, naturally, and that is fine. But anyone can be a creative thinker. Build your creativity in ways that help you to be inspired and create all the time. Thank you for listening. This is Janice@thecareerintrovert.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions, email me at janice@thecareerintrovert.com. Have a great rest of your week.