The Creative Thinking Process
Creativity is important because it is a ladder to innovation. Creativity is the process and innovation is the result.
“Creativity is allowing your natural mind to tap into your supernatural consciousness of thought, to mix both these elements into a perfectly brewed substance called innovation.”
Richmond Engel Bennah
The creative thinking process for me is very brief and is as follows:
- Idea Generation – idea generation involves deep thinking. An idea is not a thought. A thought is the result of continuous deep thinking. When we think of something for a very long time, it becomes a thought. When you put your thoughts into action, you give birth to them. An idea is a series of options concerning a matter; a way to accomplish or create a new thing, or refine an existing behaviour, business, concept or process. The less time we allow our minds to wander, the less room for creativity we put ourselves in. Eventually, there’ll be no room for creativity and we’ll droll off into everlasting brainlessness.
- Eureka Moments – I am sure Thomas Edison shouted “Eureka” when his first light bulb finally turned on. He had failed many times, but he never gave up. Do you give up when you hit a challenge in that new business idea you want to begin? A lot of times, we tend to give up and forget that our brains must go through the idea generation process to produce the “eureka” moment. You cannot experience eureka moments if you haven’t wandered and toiled in idea generation. Remember idea generation involves deep thinking. This means that when you meet a challenge, think deeper to get around, over or through that challenge. If creative thinking were easy, everybody would be a genius the first time they tried something. But no! You must stretch the unlimited boundary of your mind in the limited boundaries of your brain (think about this because the mind is not the brain and the brain is not the mind). Your imagination is connected to the fullest fulfilment of your talents and it is only deep thinking that’ll lead you to those amazing eureka moments that will help your baby (business, job, relationship etc) stand up, walk, run and fly.
“Controlling your direction is better than being controlled by it”
Jack Welch
- Skills Acquisition – when you realize that you are not fully equipped with the skills you need to fully execute your lifelong dream, relax. Just find out what skills you need and develop yourself by learning those skills. You can do anything you set your mind on to accomplish. Learn the skills you need. If you can’t successfully learn all of them but can pay for them, then hire the right people (hire professionals).
- Experimentation (The timeline for Mastery) – experiment by putting to work those skills you’ve learnt. Apply them to that new job, business idea, relationship etc and see how you fare. Monitor your progress and get feedback on your progress. You can ask a friend to help you assess your progress before and after you learn these skills. Practise makes perfect. According to the 10,000 hour rule, that’s how long it takes consistently to be a master of any craft.
“Creativity is an individual process. When it grows, it must be shared. Make mistakes with your creativity until you come up with that masterpiece. We are all creative. The boundaries of our creativity are limitless. We must be inspired by someone/something to fuel our creativity.”
Richmond Engel Bennah
