Many people are told early in their lives that they are not creative—that they can’t sing, dance, or express themselves artistically—and that they never will. Once we are told this, we repeat it until we believe it. But it’s not true: everyone can be creative. Improv for enhancing creativity can help open creativity back up to you.
At AndAlso, we believe creativity is for everyone. It’s not magic. Like running, cooking, or any other skill, you build creativity day by day through creative thinking training and imaginative exercises. No one is born with it. Creativity is just building and combining ideas and then seeing what works. Creativity is something that is useful to everybody, whether in innovation workshops or daily tasks. It’s not a mystery. You can use it in situations from buying a birthday present to starting a new project, from hosting a party to managing a team.
Creativity is a human instinct. Not creating can leave you feeling constricted and unsatisfied. We play to experiment and learn. We get bored and try new things; we build. Our brains want to be exercised as much as our muscles do. So come to one of our artistic improv classes and get that creativity muscle working.
Here are five improv tips for being more creative in all areas of your life:
- Get on with it. With anything creative, it is easy to procrastinate, talk, and theorize. But that doesn’t get you anywhere. Improv for creative thinking teaches you to get on with it.
- Start with many ideas. Don’t put all your eggs in one creative basket. Have five ideas. Have ten, even. They don’t have to be good or original. Just start by thinking of many things.
- Build piece by piece. Ideas rarely arrive fully formed. So start where you are and build piece by piece. You don’t need to know where you are going.
- Discard what isn’t working. It is easy for our egos to be tied up with what we have created, but if something isn’t working, take a deep breath and start again. It’s better than wasting time.
- Enjoy what you are doing. It is easy to think that creation has to be hard work and difficult, but it doesn’t. Some creation is easy, funny, and delightful, and harnessing that joy is very powerful. Create with a smile on your face.
Embrace creativity and innovation improv, and let the power of improv for enhancing creativity guide you in all aspects of life.
