I come from the big city of Toronto, Ontario Canada. A city I watched grow from 2 million people to almost five million in 30 years. Toronto is a great place to live for a writer. There are so many things to see, hear, smell and touch.
I love to watch people. I used to sit for hours at various coffee shops throughout the city, absorbing all the speech and actions of those around me.
I would pick out a couple of people and develop an imaginary life for them. Picture their homes, their families, their jobs. It is a great exercise for those who need to create characters for their storylines.
I came across this article on ways to help you develop your creative mind. I thought this was a good read with useful tips.

The First 3 Secrets to Boosting Your Creativity
Copyright 2005 Inez Ng

I have professed to be the ultimate left-brained nerd. For
years I saw myself as the analytical automaton, sorely
lacking in creativity. And creativity is something that I
really valued. Think about it - being creative is defined
as “having or showing imagination and artistic or
intellectual inventiveness.” Who wouldn’t want that
quality?

As I am also a professed personal growth addict, I have
worked hard on boosting my own creativity. And I am happy
to report that I do consider myself much improved in that
area. If you can identify with me, don’t despair. It
really was not as hard as I thought. How did I do it?
Here are some of my secrets to help you get started.

1. Exercise your creative muscle regularly

There have been lots of studies on the human brain and
evidence shows that our brains works very much like a
muscle, which means that the more we use it, the stronger
it becomes. In order to boost your creative muscle, start
using it every opportunity you get, especially when it is
just for fun.

Here are some things you can do:
• Pick up some brain teaser puzzles and work on those
• Instead of reading from a book, choose a toy from your
children’s collection and make up a story about it at
bedtime
• Play games that engage the mind such as mah jong or chess
• Approach things differently – instead of writing down a
list of words, try using pictures or symbols

2. Identify your Creative Environments and Schedule Time
There

Do you know where you do your best thinking? For most of
us, it is not sitting at our desks. My best ideas come to
me in three places: the shower, on my long walks, and in
the car. There is something about the isolation and the
relaxed state I’m in while engaging in these activities
that allow my mind to come up with solutions to problems.
So your assignment is to figure out where your best
creative environments are and schedule yourself to spend
time there.

A word of caution though – once you have identified what
these environments are, don’t spoil it for yourself by
expecting that you will be doing creative thinking every
time you are there. Look for it as a special bonus, like a
prize you get when you open up the right bottle of Coke.
If I went for a walk specifically because I need some
creativity, it doesn’t come as easily. But if I just let
my mind wander to whatever it wants to think about, the
ideas start to come. Learn to relax into your creativity.

3. Adopt a “the more the merrier” attitude

One of the books that has helped me develop my creative
muscle is “A Whack on the Side of the Head” by Roger von
Oech. It is a fun little book and I highly recommend it.
In it, he talks about the “right answer” and the “second
right answer”, and the next right answer. His point is
that while we are in school, we are trained that there is
only ONE right answer to test questions. And we adopt that
same approach to everything else in life.

In order to boost our creativity, we have to remember that
there is often more than ONE right answer. So, don’t just
stop after you have one answer, keep going and see how many
other ones you can come up with. Make it a challenge. It
doesn’t matter how outrageous it is. The most significant
inventions seemed completely preposterous at the time they
were first considered. Don’t start judging when you are in
the brainstorming phase. That can come later.

When you start using these suggestions, I think you will
notice an improvement in your creative ability, as I have.
I must admit that now I really enjoy my creative
activities, like writing these articles, brainstorming with
clients, and just letting my imagination run wild. And if
you stay tuned, I will have a follow up article on this
subject as there is much more great information I want to
share with you.


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Are your business results suffering due to an ineffective
leadership team ? Find out what coaching with Inez Ng can
do for your leadership team at
http://www.Realizationsunltd.com You can receive helpful
articles like this each month by joining her list. Want to
know about saving time handling emails? Check out her ebook
at http://easymailstrategies.com

Are you at stay at home parent looking to make some extra cash? Check out this site for cool ideas. Bizymoms.com




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