The Art of Creative Thinking

Try to develop an alternative way of thinking that can be applied to any challenge or project, no matter how far out of your comfort zone.

Creative thinking is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened through exercise.

Everyone is searching for originality. Ironically, it is right there within them, but most people are too busy being someone else. Creative people are prepared to be themselves. They make the most of their own experiences, whether good or bad. The advantage of being themselves is that they are original. There is no one like them. This makes whateve

Ninety-nine per cent of the difference between successful innovative people and those who fail is commitment to self-improvement.

Make the most of inexperience. A beginner has a fresh perspective. The amateurish and unprofessional are open to new ideas: they’ll try anything. They don’t know how things ‘should’ be done, and haven’t yet become entrenched in a particular method. Nothing is ‘wrong’ for them because they don’t know what is ‘right’.

Creative thinking is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened through exercise. I often set exercises that each last five or ten minutes, rather as an athlete might do a series of short workouts to get fit.

This book is intended to be an overview of many useful creative-thinking techniques, and an examination of the thought processes and methods creative people use and which can be used to help everyone.

Make the most of inexperience. A beginner has a fresh perspective. The amateurish and unprofessional are open to new ideas: they’ll try anything. They don’t know how things ‘should’ be done, and haven’t yet become entrenched in a particular method. Nothing is ‘wrong’ for them because they don’t know what is ‘right’.

Practice is important but it has to be good practice. Bad practice is thoughtlessly repeating something to perfect it. Good practice is putting time into imaginative improvement. When Matisse produced a series of paintings of the same female model, he didn’t achieve more and more accuracy: he achieved more and more inventiveness.