5-Day Creativity Boost developed by Karen Daniels zencopy

1. 5-Day Creativity Boostdeveloped by Karen Daniels http://zencopy.com Check out http://zencopy.com: the only blog that focuses on boosting your creativity and personal growth while helping you learn how to make money from writing that matters.

2. Trapped! • You are trapped in a room with two doors. One leads to certain disaster and the other leads to freedom. You don't know which is which. There are two robots guarding the doors. They will let you choose one door, but upon doing so you must go through it. You can, however, ask one robot one question. The problem is that one robot always tells the truth, the other always lies, and you don't know which is which. What is the question you ask? This is an example of a Lateral Thinking Puzzle—a way of forcing you to think creatively. (answer at end)

3. What is Creativity? Creativity is hard to clearly define. Here are some example definitions: • The tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. (http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/creativity/define.htm) • The ability or power to create, to bring into existence, to invest with a new form, to produce through imaginative skill, to make or bring into existence something new. (Webster’s) • The emergence of a novel, relational product, growing out of the uniqueness of the individual. (Carl Rodgers, psychologist and writer) • The occurrence of a composition that is both new and valuable. (Henry Miller, writer) • The ability to use different modes of thought to generate new and dynamic ideas and solutions. (Carnevale, Gainer, Meltzer)

4. Creativity is a process • Creativity involves preparation and persistence. • To learn creativity most effectively you need to feel free to express yourself as your desire. • Learning about your own creative process, tools, and skills is a way to maximize personal talent.

5. How Society Squashes Creativity • Businesses want to avoid expenditures that do not give immediate payback • We emphasize external rewards, rather than internal • It’s uncomfortable to be different • Traditional roles and stereotypes limit creativity • Above all else, we must be practical • Cooperation or competition can stifle creativity • We desire to protect status quo • Obedience, duty, conformity • Fear • A need to belong • What will your parents think? • It’s not in the budget • It can’t be done • We’ve never done that before • Let’s wait and see • Walk, don’t run Resource: http://zencopy.com

6. Day 1How is Your Creativity Limited? • How does each of the following areas limit your creativity? • Habit • Rules • Perception • Emotions • Culture • Gender • Pick three areas and write 3 sentences on how it affects your creativity. Resource: http://zencopy.com

7. Day 2Applying Creativity Creative listing is a fun and easy way to expand creativity. List: • things you can hear right now • things that crumble in your hands • things that reflect • things that sparkle under the evening sky • things that live in shadows • things that harmonize • things you wish had that are blue • morning things • nonsense things that rhyme with juice • things that are awesome about you

8. Day 3Crayon Bliss • 1. Pick a crayon • 2. Think about what the color means to you. • 3. What does the color remind you of? Feel like? Smell like? What is it trying to be? • 4. Now, give that crayon color a new name- go on a limb. • Examples: lazy-squid black, royal purple burper • 5. Write the color name on your new private label crayon

9. Day 4Assumptions Stifle Creativity Making assumptions kills creativity so let’s turn some of your assumptions around so they become: • There is never a right answer • You don’t actually have to follow all the rules • Work and play can be the same thing • Being wrong is good • Failure is good • You can do it even if no one else believes in you • Limitations don’t really exist • Nothing is ever perfect so don’t expect your creative projects to be perfect Make a list of 10 assumptions you have about your Creativity. Now rewrite them from the opposite perspective.

10. Day 5Creative Sampling When it comes to creativity we often don’t know what we’re good at. Or what we love. The point of this activity is to explore your feelings about creatively expressing yourself. What mode of expression do you enjoy most? Writing stories? Creating pictures? Musical expression? Do you love using the computer? LEGO? Gardening? • Pick one or more of the following activities and explore your creativity. • a. Visual/Artistic • Form a story—written or in your head—about one page in length. Find pictures (any number, any sort) that remind you in some way of the words in your story. Cut out the pictures, and put them together so that your images together to visually tell your story. • b. Written/Artistic • Write some of your favorite words down and form them into a short story or idea of several paragraphs. Draw or paint images that in some way reflect what those words mean to you. Put your images together to tell the story you want to tell. • c. Written/Computer • Write a short story on the computer. Find clip art, photos, or other images that remind you in some way of the words in your story, or the story itself. Put your images together to tell the story, without using the words you typed into the computer. • d. Music/Words • Combine music and words in some way that means something to you. For instance, use a song someone else wrote and write new words to the tune. Or, use the words someone else wrote for a song, and create a new tune. Or, write a story then find music to go with it. Or, pick your favorite music then write a story that goes with the music.

11. Day 5 Continued When You’ve Completed Your Day 5 Project/s ask Yourself: • Which activity did you enjoy most? Expressing ideas with words or images? • Could you feel a difference in your enjoyment of each activity? • Was one method harder or easier? • What mode of expression felt the most comfortable? • Did you love all of them? None? • Did you gravitate toward painting or another art form, or were you more high tech– using the computer and searching for clip art? • Use the way you answer these questions to help you understand where some of your areas of creative strength and enjoyment lie. This gives you the opportunity to expand your creative thinking about yourself and to understand that without doubt, there is more there than you’ve previously considered.

12. Congratulations!You have completed your 5-Day Creativity Boost Consider the idea that thinking outside the box is not really necessary because boxes are, after all, only self imposed limitations that don’t really exist at all. 

13. Lateral Thinking Puzzle Answer Answer Lateral Thinking Puzzle— a way of forcing you to think creatively. • Ask one robot what the other robot would say, if it were asked which door was safe. Then go through the other door.

14. Do You Want to Make More Money and Make a Difference with Your Writing? Isn't it time you learned how to: • Get paid more for writing that really matters? • Attract more online readers and buyers? • Be more creative and experience personal growth? Subscribe to ZenCopy, the only blog that boosts your creativity and personal growth while teaching you to how to make more money for writing that really matters. If link above isn’t working to go: http://eepurl.com/lvm25

15. Need More Creativity Help? Check out http://zencopy.com the only blog that focuses on boosting your creativity and personal growth while helping you learn how to make money from writing that matters.

16. Creativity Booksby Karen Daniels

17. MINDFUL CREATIVITY Easy Tips and Meditations to Unleash Your Creativity and Purpose Effective tips, ideas, and meditations to move you past your excuses, put you in touch with your creative energy, and help you understand your life purpose. In print: https://www.createspace.com/3723368 On kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006LQEFZS Other digital formats: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/116751

18. Your Creativity: From Ordinary to Extraordinary Creativity Inspiration, Activities and Tips. Inspiration, tips, and amusing activities to blow out your fear, boost your creativity, and move you closer to the life you dream of. In print: https://www.createspace.com/3616570 On kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004Z80R4M Other digital formats: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/142384