“The thing that I focus in on is being interested and realizing that anything that you approach has almost a fractal pattern. Anything. If it’s yarn for knitting, you realize that if you have any interest, there’s more information there than would last you a year, to get into and understand and play around with,… Read more »

One of the best ways to learn anything is to just try a bunch of things. Arguably that’s the best way to solve problems, overcome fears, and live life as well. When we face a block, have a desire but aren’t sure how to move on it, or when we’re frustrated or unsatisfied, the best… Read more »

What is the most powerful memory you have of feeling creative? Was it when you were recognized for being creative? A time when an idea or solution came as a surprise? Was it recent or long ago? When it comes to how we think and work, our memories shape much of what we perceive as… Read more »

Where does creativity exist within the brain? If you’re like most people, you probably grew up being taught that the right hemisphere of the brain is where creativity and subjects like art primarily reside. This is a common fallacy, one which is important to understand if we’re to better understand how we can be more… Read more »

“To live a creative life we must lose our fear of being wrong.” That’s one of my favorite quotes from author Joseph Chilton Pearce. And while Joseph’s wisdom doesn’t necessarily tell us exactly what it means to life a creatively fulfilled life, he does give us a hint at what it might entail. If we… Read more »

If you want to start being more creative, try thinking of it like learning a new language. Creativity is the mental capacity to generate novel and useful ideas. That is to say: to think creatively is to think in non-typical and often unfamiliar ways. It requires a shift in perspective, and a willingness to temporarily… Read more »

Any time I sit down to create something, I face an immediate sense of being overwhelmed. My mind immediately races across everything that needs to get done. I have to organize my tools, make sure everything is up to date and working, ensure that I didn’t break or otherwise ruin anything the last time I… Read more »

To a child, being a non-expert is an asset for growth. Being a naive child means learning how the world works (or doesn’t work) is as easy as trying something, making mistakes, and adapting. But as the child grows up, he or she comes to be an expert on how to live within the bounds… Read more »

Aha! It seems that faking perceived traits of creative behavior can increase the likelihood of creative output. Research, and the anecdotal stories it produces in popular culture, have taught us that when we fake certain physical states our mind tend to follow. According to repeated studies, faking an emotional state causes the sympathetic nervous system… Read more »

I spend all of my time thinking about how I’ll spend my time. It sounds silly to say, I know, but it’s true. It’s as though I’ve somehow developed a habit of tricking myself into believing that thinking about how to be more creative will somehow magically make it so. And I think this is… Read more »