Creativity Tool-Killing the Demons

Often, being creative is more about breaking psychological barriers than about being a skillful inventor.

Many people fail to fulfill their full creative capacity because they are restrained by past experiences, fears and inhibitions.

Obviously, overcoming these obstacles is not easily done. However, following is a step-by-step process that might help you break new grounds. Some may find it easier to execute on their own, while others may prefer the support of a group. Here are the suggested steps, with some examples:

1. Write down your current situation in 5 sentences:
• Example 1 - personal situation: list 5 points that describe the central aspects of your position. This may be your professional position, your situation on a specific project, or even your life as a whole.
• Example 2 - organizational situation: list 5 points that describe the situation of a project, of the team or of the entire organization.
2. Uncover the demons that are holding you back:
• Example 1 - personal situation: list 3 things that are holding you back. Try to focus on things that are based on your own beliefs, fears, or past experiences, rather than on things related to external barriers. You might think of underlying assumptions that you acquired from your parents or your teachers, or of restrictions that you have taken on yourself following your professional education or on social norms.
• Example 2 - organizational situation: list 3 things that are holding you back. Try to focus on things that are based on your own methods of operation, structure, or historical rituals and habits, rather than on things related to external organizations or market effects. You might think of the formal lines of hierarchy and communication, the unspoken "do's and don'ts" of the group, and of the common reactions to unorthodox ideas and behavior.
3. "Kill" the demons to discover new possibilities:
• Example - personal & organizational situation: imagine what would happen if you could do away with one of the demons you listed earlier.
• Rewrite the 5 points from step 1 describing your situation imagining that demon is no longer holding you back.
• Now repeat the exercise "killing" another of the 3 demons. Do this until you feel you were able to break away from your major holdbacks and describe an unrestricted new reality.
4. Travel on - but beware of the demon's return:
• Once you've sketched the possibilities of overcoming your restrictions, you may draw ways to make these unlimited achievements real. When you do so, your "demons" will re-surface every once in a while - trying to fight you back into your previous restrictions. This is natural - after all, many of these restrictions serve to protect us personally and our society. Yet many other restrictions originate only from our fears and overcoming them poses no real threat to ourselves or to others. It is actually a great opportunity!

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Amir Elion is a management and innovation consultant and facilitator. His Practical Creativity website on www.best100ideas.com includes numerous creativity and innovation tools. The tools and ideas on this article as well as other creative ideas in many fields and creativity tools, may be found on the free monthly Creative Ideas Newsletter: www.best100ideas.com/newsletter.shtml

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