Stimulate Your Creative Genius

5 New Habits to Cultivate in 2012

By Jeannine McGlade & Andrew Pek

Imagine yourself drawing inspiration and fresh insights from the world around you everyday. Imagine you, your family, friends and work colleagues surrounded by creativity, ideas and endless possibilities. Imagine a year in which your intentions become a reality easily and effortlessly.

After a holiday sprint that often consists of buying and wrapping presents, writing and sending out holiday cards, attending holiday parties, eating more than we should, planning and celebrating holiday events and visiting with family, it might be hard to imagine our intentions becoming a reality and feeling stimulated to achieve all those resolutions.

With a new, fresh year ahead of us it’s time to infuse our resolutions with some specific habits that will stimulate that creative part of ourselves and in essence, help us to achieve our intentions and goals. Whether it’s weight loss, mastering a new skill, or just getting out of bed not feeling exhausted, the habits we’ll review will help you draw that inspiration and give you the creative spark to keep at it.

These habits are not only easy to implement, but fun. And, research shows that if you are having fun with a new skill or task, you will get it done more effectively. Here they are: cultivating, scouting, playing, venturing and harvesting.

These five habits make up what we call the creative genius. This creative genius is that part of each and every one of us who is stimulated — full of excitement, energy and ideas. It is the part of each one of us that is possibilities — oriented, has a can-do attitude and a way of being that communicates to the world around us that anything is possible. When we adopt this attitude, we consistently explore ourselves and our environment, bring creative energy into our work, our interactions with others and our lives in general. And at the beginning of a new year, there is no better time to renew your commitment to and infuse some creative spark into your new year’s goals.

So let’s take a closer look at what each of these success habits are, and how you can embed them into your 2012 goals, plans and activities.

Cultivating

Pause for a moment and think about the places and spaces you frequent — how do you feel when you are there? What does it do for your energy and creativity? How is the vibe? And are you in tune with it?

Cultivating the right environment is the first essential habit in order to lead a more stimulated life. That practice of cultivating is about developing and experiencing places and spaces that will help you develop a creative state of mind — an inspired way of being where all things are possible. So here are some practical things you can do immediately to jump start your creative genius:

• Clear out the clutter in your home, your car and your workspace. There is nothing like a well organized, fresh, clean environment that immediately sends signals to the brain you are ready to take control of your life. The aesthetics of clean, streamline places will help give you the “space” you need to think creatively about your goals.
• Grab some paper and colored markers and write down three of your favorite quotes. Post them where you can easily and often see them.
• Visit a new environment — a museum, café, library or park and se how it makes you feel. How can you bring that same sort of stimulus into your everyday life?

Scouting

To attract new sparks in your life — those moments where you get the seedling of an idea, feel excitement and passion for the possibilities, and propel your creative energy forward — we need to get out and about and make new discoveries. All too often we (and the rest of the world) operate on autopilot. We go through the motions of life and aren’t present in the moment as we go about our day.

Scouting forms the backbone of our creative anatomy. What is important about this practice is keeping your eyes wide open and immersing yourself in the experience at hand. Scouting is the time for total “ob-sorp-vation.” That is observing, being absorbed in and recording what it is that you see, hear, and read — not analyzing what those observations may mean. It is all about taking in different stimuli and seeing what sparks happen for you. Here are some quick ideas to start your scouting today:

• Get out and about — instead of working at your desk this morning, go to a local coffee shop and people-watch for a bit. See what sparks occur and how they might help you come up with new ideas.
• Journal. Record what you see, hear and read. Do this for several weeks and review your observations — any insights?
• Pick up a new magazine — one you normally don’t read. See what you can learn.

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