How to Have More Innovative Ideas
Time to unlock your original self.
“Nothing is created, nothing is destroyed. Everything transforms.”
The law of transformation is one of the most important rules in science. Antoine Lavoisier's author tells a fascinating fact: the universe is fully booked and fully locked. Nothing enters, nothing leaves; anything new is merely an act of transformation. As a result, if you want to be original, the only way is to mix things up.
Even if you think you are not creative, Lavoisier law tells a clear message: with the right transformations, you can make new things that marvel the world. Your products, services, strategies, arts, songs, books have the potential to be very original.
Mixing the right things in the right proportions, however essential, isn’t always easy. Where should you start?
Know Your Heroes
We all have heroes we look up to. You certainly have at least one person you admire in your field.
First, study the style of your hero. Read every book, publication, or product they made. Dig and understand the totality of their work.
Once you build a complete profile of your hero, find three people this person admire. Such people are often mentioned on many occasions in the works of your hero. Once you pinpoint these three creators, study each one of them. Let each one lead you to more creators. And so on.
Use this method to profile ten to twelve experts in your desired field. You’ll end up with a genealogy of heroes to get inspiration from.
“We don’t come out of the womb knowing who we are. In the beginning, we learn by pretending to be our heroes.”— Austin Kleon
Steal From Your Heroes
Salvador Dali famously said:
“Those who do not want to imitate anything, produce nothing.”
The more you copy someone, the deeper you understand how they think. You’ll have a glimpse into the mind behind the work, the way that someone sees the world.
Still, if imitation and copying are done the wrong way, you risk plagiarism. Always mix bits and pieces from many of your heroes. This way, you can make something that looks brand new and original.
Don’t just steal from one of your heroes. Steal from all of them. For every work you make, combine various styles and techniques that inspire you. You try to emulate your heroes, fall short, and end up making your own thing.
Limit Your Freedom
“Telling yourself you have all the time in the world, all the colours in the palette, anything you want — that just kills creativity.” — Jack White
Nothing is more paralysing than the idea of limitless possibilities. When you know you have many options, you’ll sit down pondering the endless choices and avoid taking immediate action.
In a famous experiment, Jerry Uelsmann split his film photography class into two groups.
- The first group is the quantity group—the greater the number of photos submitted by each student, the higher their grades.
- The second group is the quality group. To get the highest grade, these students were only required to submit one nearly perfect picture. They had all the freedom in the world to think of what makes the perfect picture.
After a few weeks of competition, Uelsmann graded the students in both the quantity and quality groups. The results astonished him: the quantity group made all the best photos.
Uelsmann concluded that the quantity group was busy taking photos, learning from their mistakes, and improving their work quality. The quality group, however, sat around pondering how to create the perfect picture. They delayed taking action, and in the end, produced average results.
When it comes to creative work, limitations mean freedom. Having some constraints in place is crucial to do your very best work. If you constrain yourself to take action and do imperfect work, you’ll get better and better over time at what you do. As a result, the quality of your work gets better over time.
Get Bored
We tend to fill every waking hour with activities. Yet, research clearly shows that boredom is an excellent opportunity for reflection and forming ideas.
Many great thinkers and creative legends had a habit of doing nothing. Einstein used to sit in stations and gaze at trains coming and going — letting his mind wander. Nietzsche attributed his most creative work to his long walks in nature. Even Bill Gates books time to wash dishes and relax his mind.
The mind needs to get out of focused states into a diffuse mode to connect the dots and build the bigger picture. You won’t have any opportunity to be creative if you stay busy all day.
Book time to do Nothing. Busyness makes you stupid. If you’re out of ideas, do something that doesn’t eat your focus. Wash the dishes, stare from a window, have a walk in nature. Let the mind wander.
Ruth Simmons sums it best:
“STOP! REFLECT! If you don’t do that you are a lesser human being for sure. Busyness does not make our lives meaningful. It is the interior life that makes the difference to us in the end.”
Let Go of Technology
While computers are perfect for editing your ideas, they are not very good at generating them. The reason is that digital tools, such as computers and tablets, bring out the perfectionist in you. You start editing ideas before having them.
Studies show that nerves aren’t a one-way street — your body can command your brain as much as your brain controls your body.
The science is clear: sitting in front of a computer all day kills your creativity.
To unleash your creative thinking, make a workspace that is devoid of digital tools. A small table with a notepad can do the trick. But adding coloured pencils, stickers, flashcards is even better.
Smash ideas against each other on paper, scribble side notes, draw figures and graphs, let your body parts other than your fingers move. Bring the mad artist in you. Unleash raw ideas without giving yourself any chance to fix or edit them.
Only then you can switch back to your tablets and computers to edit your creations. Hands first, then computers, then hands, then computers. And so on.
Take Away
There are no new ideas in the world, only transformations. To produce creative work, turn old resources into a unique mix of your own creation.
I’ll leave you with one last piece of advice: be your biggest fan. Make things you love to read, listen to, look at, buy, and share with the world. Start the business you want to run, draw the art you want to see, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you wish to use. Is there something you want badly but does not yet exist? Make it.
