How Even Small Daily Creativity Exercises Can Improve Innovative Thinking
In my previous article, “Five Daily Micro Creativity Exercises,” I listed a number of approaches that you can use to stay attached to your creative self in small, manageable ways. The key is not to make creativity an insurmountable or monolithic goal but, rather, to make it accessible and fun. However, once you’ve started to develop a routine of daily creative work, it can be helpful to gain a deeper understanding as to why this matters and how, in the long run, these exercises can significantly improve your innovative thinking. To that end, I’ve put down a few of the many benefits that even small daily creativity exercises can help you accumulate.
Building Momentum
When it comes to innovation, the key is to find ways to remain in a state of constant ideation. This doesn’t happen automatically, however. Instead, by making sure that you spend five to ten minutes a day exploring your creative side, you will begin to build momentum. Think of innovation as a flywheel that, at first, requires significant - and conscious - effort to turn. But with daily practice - and not very much practice at that - you will arrive at a place where innovative thinking is the norm and not the exception.
Reducing Fear of Failure
What I’ve discovered in my years of working with organizations to help them build cultures of innovation is that fear of failure - on any level - is a significant stumbling block. Whether it’s appearing foolish in front of peers or simply not coming up with viable ideas, organizations can kill innovation efforts before they’ve even had a chance to get started. To that end, quick, low-stakes creativity exercises can help you detach from stifling perfectionism and embrace your beginner’s mind.
Uncovering Unexpected Ideas
Over my decades of songwriting, I’ve found a somewhat startling fact. Often, right behind a seemingly ridiculous idea, lies a brilliant one. The key is to be willing to put bad or unformed ideas out there so that you can get to the good stuff. Given that even “bad” ideas can lead to strokes of genius, it’s your daily creative work that will give you the ability to get any and all ideas out of your head and onto the page. This way, you can get comfortable with the concept of creative chaos and trust that from that chaos will come unexpected - and often great - things.
Conclusion
By way of analogy, it can help to compare innovative thinking to buying lottery tickets. If you buy one ticket and put all of your hopes and dreams into that number coming up, you’re almost always going to lose. But what if you were to wake up each day and buy a lottery ticket? Then in the days, months and even years to follow, your chances of winning will go up significantly. It can help to remember that innovation is, at its core, a numbers game. The more ideas you generate, the greater the chance that you’ll come upon something of real and lasting value.
Bio
Cliff Goldmacher is a GRAMMY-recognized, #1 hit songwriter, music producer and author with recording studios in Nashville, TN and Middle River, MD. Through his studios, Cliff provides songwriters outside of Nashville with virtual, live access to Nashville’s best session musicians and studio vocalists for their songwriting demos. Find out more. You can also download Cliff’s FREE tip sheet “A Dozen Quick Fixes To Instantly Improve Your Songs.”
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