“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” – Albert Einstein

Are you a creative person? When you think of creativity, what comes to mind?

For most of us, we think of the ‘paintbrush in hand,’ kind of creativity – the artist who paints, sculpts, the author, the actor…We don’t think our spicy Italian stew that we created warrants any kind of uniqueness. The fact that we can finish hardwood floors, lay tile like the pros – it doesn’t strike us that that’s creative but it is.

And what about the person who feels ‘stressed, tapped out or faced with some sort of creative block?’ How can we re-ignite lost creativity? Simple. We act like we did before we reached the ripe old age of seven.

Research shows that we’re at our most creative when we’re five and then…

we go to school, conform to the teachers, rules and later – to society. You can reclaim your lost creativity by doing a few childish things and they are:

1.   Pretend: Act ‘as if’ your life is exactly how you want it to be. Act as though you already have your dream home, vacation, new job, new business, life partner, etc.

2.   Run away: We all need time away from the everyday to be alone  with our thoughts or to just ‘be.’ The best way to do this is to wait for a beautiful day and ‘escape’ into nature.

3.   Try something new: When we’re children, we’re not as afraid to try new things but when we’re adults, we shy away from ‘looking stupid, making mistakes…’ This hurts our creativity – we need to be always learning and growing.

4.   Build the ego: When we’re children, we like to pretend we’re superheros and have the power to be and do whatever we want – there’s not limits. We need to take time and do things that make us feel good about ourselves – exercise, cook,  travel – whatever makes us feel confident.

5.   Exercise creativity every day: Try a new way home from work, try a new recipe, try a new golf swing, find a new way to solve an old problem, pull out the paints and get silly, learn an instrument with your children – lose yourself and have fun.

Let me know what you do to re-ignite your creativity and remember – we’re all creative beings!