As a creative, does your head start spinning in excitement at the idea of a new project? For a few days (or weeks even!) you’re thinking up ideas and fleshing out the details of your next project. These moments are exhilarating and bring great satisfaction to life. Sometimes, you might be daydreaming forever, and being able to see your results in person is truly rewarding.
Then there are those times where the creative juices stop flowing… it’s like you’re stuck. The ideas don’t come, the inspiration stops… Days, weeks, or even months go by before you touch or start a project.
Or, perhaps, you’ve never been the creative type but would like to become one. The following ideas will inspire and help you become a more creative person. It’ll also help the creative mind get unstuck!
Be full of wander
Let your heart be inspired by the beauty of the world around you. When you intentionally seek inspiration, you will find it. “Wanderlust” has been described as the desire to wander, or travel. Get outside your comfort zone and explore the beautiful scenes of nature.
I’ve personally found tons of inspiration from the world around me. When I was 13 years old, my parents made us do a lot of labor in building our house, so on the drive to my grandma’s house, after a long day of work, I’d be super tired. I’d stare out the car window at the various scenery of Hawaii and make up stories about the places. I explored them in my head and put my characters (from my books) in those scenes. It was my way of wandering.
Your way of wandering might be similar—or it might be different. The awesome thing is that YOU get to decide how to be full of wander.
Appreciate the little things
A huge part of creativity is learning to appreciate the little things. Being full of gratitude for an act of kindness, the comfort of a home, the technology available to us, etc will foster creativity. Sometimes, our most creative moments come from the times we lack resources. Having an attitude of gratitude means being grateful for the things and time you do have. I remember not having much growing up—especially during high school. I would feel the stress rise when m teachers assigned us a creative project and I thought of all the materials I didn’t have to do it…
But then I always turned it around and used what I had in the house. Honestly, my projects never looked as beautiful or perfect as my classmates’ who bought things from the store, but I was always so proud of myself for being resourceful and using what I had. I just appreciated that my mind could even get creative even if my projects weren’t ideal.
Developing these skills helped me later on: Blending colors to make the right color for a painting, using the skills and words I knew for writing a book, etc…
Gratitude helps us be more resourceful, creative, and inspired. I am a firm believer that when you show forth your effort to be creative and use what you have, God will help you. The very fact that you started shows your effort. “God helps those who help themselves.”
Be more childlike
Do you know what the difference is between a childish and a childlike person? I read a book, “Further Up & Further In: Understanding Narnia” by Joseph Pearce that explained it perfectly:
“The childlike grow up gracefully; the childish grow old disgracefully. The childlike mature; the childish merely wither. The childlike are happy to grow old; they desire the settled tranquility of the sagacious fruits of experience. The childish wish to stay young; they desire eternal youth and are tempted to life about their age. In this sense, children are not childish but childlike. They want to grow up, and the sooner the better. A five-year-old is never five years old, she’s always five and a quarter, or five and a half, or nearly six!”
The goal is to be more childlike. We want to keep growing and maturing, but we never want to lose our sense of wonder. We want to learn and gain experience, but we never want to lose grace for ourselves or others.
Developing the strength of being childlike fosters creativity. It helps us to keep growing and gaining experience, but stay humble and teachable at the same time.
Observe more (people watch)
Have you ever read a book or watched a movie that seemed so true to real life that you thought to yourself, “Wow they GET it!” That’s because the writers and directors DO get it! Creative people are naturally curious and learn many things from observing others.
If you’ve never sat and people-watched in busy places such as a mall, street, or airport, you should try it! You’ll be surprised by the things you learn just from observation. You’ll see the beauty of humanity with the random acts of kindness, the gentle gestures. You’ll also see the ugliness of humanity with the impatience and anger. This has sparked tons of creativity for me.
I’ve also learned a lot from observing the people in my family. I’ve analyzed their actions (not in a creepy way) and asked myself, “Why did they do that?” I watched my parents and extended family carefully to see their true motives and how culture, tradition, upbringing, and life experiences affected their character and decisions. All of this helped me mold characters for my books.
Artists analyze the way things move so they can better draw, sketch, or paint things. Quilters find patterns and textures in nature or buildings to help them design quilt tops. Song writers listen carefully to the words people use and find ways to use those very words in their songs…
So whatever your creative path (a writer, composer, artist, dancer, etc) observe more to get inspiration and be more creative.
Get out in nature
Another way to be more creative is to get outside. Like wandering, when you get out in nature, you have a chance to connect with something greater than yourself. When I lived in Hawaii, I’d get a lot of inspiration from the ocean, the sound of the rain, the sound of the wind blowing through the ohia trees. My siblings and I would sometimes lie a blanket on the road in front of the house and stargaze, identifying and making up different constellations. I just loved being outside and visiting different parts of the Big island, like Volcano National Park. Whenever I went there, I felt a quiet and peace not available anywhere else. I felt connected with God.
God is the ultimate creator—after all, he created you and me. So connecting with him will help you be a better creative. Click To TweetNature also reflects our moods, teaching valuable lessons. You might observe the behavior of a certain animal or plant and realize it teaches an important life lesson. I remember observing the sea turtles every morning. I’d watch them swim slowly, gracefully, then bob up to greet me. They had such gentle spirits and I felt that. I also felt that they had years of experience—sometimes beyond their actual ages. These experiences inspired me in many ways—intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
Brain Dump
Sometimes we just need to get all the headspace stuff onto a piece of paper. I’ve found that when I lack creativity, just writing helps—whether I’m writing in a journal or scribbling on a notepad—the very act of doing what I love inspires me. Sometimes we get stuck because just haven’t done something we love for the fun of it. We need to take that pressure off.
Whether you’re a composer, musician, dancer, quilter, architect, etc just do a brain dump for fun—don’t pressure yourself. Let the ideas just flow, even if they seem silly. Get it all out, take a break, then return and see if anything you did from your brain dump inspires you.
Use a Planner
If you have an idea for a creative project but don’t know how to get started or how to go about planning it, download my FREE Creative’s Planner. It is packed with useful sheets to help you stay organized and complete your creative projects. Check it out below!
The Planner for Creatives
We need YOU
I love being creative. It has helped me enjoy and appreciate the beauty of life in so many ways. And please know that YOUR creativity is needed… whether you want to invent the next big thing, start a new hobby, or complete a creative project, we need your unique skills and strengths. So please use this list to help spark some ideas. You got this! In the comments below, I’d love to know what are some things you do to get creative.
Love,
Lei
