Three steps (and growing) to reboot your creativity

Let's face it, for all of us the well runs dry from time to time. No matter what your field nobody wants to continue looking at things the same way. New ideas drive the world. Original ideas change it.

We all want to challenge ourselves not to walk through life like a child at Disney World, simply accepting the facades. I've written down some ideas that help me to stay unique even when I'm creatively constipated.

I've generalized them so that they could work in most vocations:

1. Go back to your roots.
Nature played a heavy part in who we are but there was also a time when we were at our creative peak. I was a jazz musician, professionally for a very short time, I loved to write and photograph almost anything. For me these caused me to look at things in a unique way, each or their own reason.
Go back to the time you felt most creative. Think about things you enjoyed do them again. If your a programmer go back and write a simple and fun game you've done 100 times. Go back and find that first love. There's a reason you are doing what you are. Try to find that reason.

2. Go old school.
I'm not the "good ole days" type of guy. I'm too young for that. But we have allowed our minds to get lazy, especially in the way we entertain our minds. Listening to someone read a story on the radio takes me creativity than watching TV. Reading a book takes more still. Stop letting the world feed you. Create your own thoughts.
There's a reason the stereotypically smart people listen to classical music. It's complex, the chords change, there is dissonance. Listen to music made in the 1950's or earlier. After that period music began to follow established, simple rhythms and structures.
Take well composed photos, write, talk, sing, pick up an instrument. Your mind is a muscle. If you want that power there when you need it you have to train for it. Mentally if you want to be a power lifter you have to mentally train like one.

3. Get simple.
Go back to the basic concept that are fundamental to your field. For me its just got basic composition and layout. Too often we look at something so much that we begin to accept compromise on the basics. Go back and remember the things you did that landed you the job or the first time you did something that made a friend say, "You should be a..."

4. Pray.
You want to be creative? God is the creator. He invented creation. He is the root of all creativity. Realizing that you have never had an original idea is the beginning to finding your unique voice.

If you've got something that works for you that can be generalized to any field drop me a comment. I'll update the post with more.

Bottom line is find your own unique voice. Don't walk through life accepting the structures put there by people less intelligent than you. Question everything. Create something.