Creativity isn’t right for every situation You don’t need to be creative to tie your shoelaces. If all you want is for your shoes to stay on your feet - just tie them. The same would be true of many business situations. Save your energy for the situations that demand it

How to be happy with your creativity Lower your expectations The value is in the process, not the end product So stop trying to create a work of beauty Tim Ferriss set a goal of writing 2 crappy pages per day It worked for him and it will for you The goal is relentless forward progress, not perfection Just keep moving And what you create will continue to get better

Cultivating the Creative Habit of Curiosity Creativity is like a muscle. It needs to be exercised and flexed and like a muscle, it needs to be trained. Nobody is born creative. It’s not ingrained into us as part of our genetic code. It’s a learned skill and just like any skill you may want to develop, the easiest way is to build a set of habits around it. If you want these habits to stick, you have to make them a part of your identity. You have to integrate them with who you are. Take an example of two people: The first says “I need to run to get into shape” The second says “I am a runner” When the alarm rings at 6am tomorrow which one do you think is more likely to get up and run? To make creativity a part of your identity you have to ingrain it with micro-practices. Something so easy that it becomes a natural habit. These habits are part of training, but also have a more important second outcome. Helping you to believe that you are a creative person. Not only someone who uses creativity techniques occasionally. One of the easiest ways is to build the habit of curiosity - the starting point of all creativity. So working on this can be incredibly catalytic. But it won’t come naturally unless you practice it. So it helps to be prompted. Set an alarm on your phone or your watch or anything that will remind you to be curious at that moment. Then don’t think, just notice. Use your senses to notice something that has always been there. Observe it as if you are taking it in for the first time. It might be a sight, a sound, a smell, a texture, a taste, or anything. Then get curious about it. Question everything that springs into your mind? The easiest way is to start with a “Why…?” question, and then let questions follow in any direction that curiosity takes you. "Why is the light switch shaped like that?" "Why is it metal if metal conducts electricity?" "Does all metal conduct electricity?" "How would you know if does?" and so on... Then follow up on one of your questions with a quick Google to satisfy your brain with a little fact. This is not the same as the 5 Why technique which aims to get to the root cause of a problem. This is exploratory and directionless. Although not pointless. Like a marathon runner might go for a training run, a creative (you) goes on a curiosity run. If you do this for a minute or two each day, before long the habit becomes ingrained. You’ll find curiosity unfolding in unexpected ways. And you’ll have begun your journey as a creative being.

Creativity is how you differentiate your work Work has evolved to be bland and sterile. Where is the fun in that? If we want our work to stand out we have to put our personality into it Make sure your work represents you

3 lies about creativity: 1. Only certain types of people are creative 2. Creativity applies to creative activities or creative industries 3. Creativity is free expression And 3 truths: 1. Everyone is creative 2. It applies everywhere 3. It requires deep skill

Are you running out of ideas? Almost nobody every feels like they don't have ideas. Mostly it's that they don't know how to take an idea to the next level. That is what creating is. What would it take to bring that idea into the world?