Staring at a Blank Canvas

Ways to Increase Your Creativity When You Don’t Feel Creative

This morning I was standing in the shop, literally surrounded by all kinds of paint, brand new paint brushes, blank canvas of all sizes, and [almost] unlimited craft supplies.

What was I going to paint? The image in my mind was a blank canvas. I had no idea where to start.

I picked out a canvas (actually a long, smooth piece of plywood), poured out some dark blue paint, and grabbed a brush.

Think of the last time you stood in a similar place, with unlimited possibilities and no idea where to start. What did you do?

My job demands creativity, especially this year. We are putting on a Christmas event that’s strictly drive-through; participants will not leave their vehicles.

The idea is to provide a drive-through Christmas Village experience in place of a traditional holiday program that would encourage people to congregate in a small space for an extended amount of time.

During a “normal” year, I would be planning an event that would take place indoors. We would have the pellet stove burning, present a Christmas-oriented slideshow, and provide cookies and other holiday treats. This year, with more shutdowns looming as Coronavirus cases increase, our office opted for a different kind of experience. The only problem? We’ve never done this before.

My fear is that people will pay for the event, drive through the Christmas Village, and say, “That’s it?” The pressure is on to provide a memorable Christmas experience in a time that discourages traditional holiday activities.

When I find myself stuck in a non-creative mode, I have two choices. I can wait it out — sometimes good ideas take their time to find me. I can also choose to just get started and see what comes up. If I try to force creativity, the result is usually not my best work.

For example, I have a small soap making business and I decided to start making outdoor-themed soaps. I wanted to start making unique soaps that no one else in my area was making. If I had forced an idea, it probably would not have turned out the way I was imagining.

Instead, I started with a basic landscape soap design and went from there. Over time, I discovered other soap making techniques that allowed me to further explore the outdoors theme in an unexpected way, but the idea was not forced or rushed.

“Research shows that when people try to think more creatively, they almost always can — and those effects are both significant and repeatable.”

— Hayden Field, www.entrepreneur.com

Many of us do not have the option to sit and wait for great ideas to come our way. When that happens, it’s best to just get started on something, anything. The words, “It’s a good start,” come out of my mouth more often than I’d like to admit.

Rough drafts are meant to be revised. Sometimes a rough draft is worked into a finished piece that shines. Other times, a rough draft is just the tip of an iceberg that leads to a completely different idea. Some of my Medium posts turn out this way. I sit down to write out an idea that goes in a completely different direction than I intended. What I end up submitting is usually much better than the original idea I sat down to write.

The point is that the more we try to be creative, we exercise our creativity “muscle,” and it gets easier with time.

I use the following daily affirmations to remind myself of what I am capable of: “I am creative,” and “I am not afraid to speak up and share my creativity both at work and at home.” This creativity is not limited to my work life or my home life; it exists in both places.

Sometimes creativity hits me when I least expect it, when creativity is the last thing on my mind. I listen to a variety of podcasts instead of watching tv. Every once in a while, a podcast episode explores a topic in a new way, awakening my natural curiosity about the world.

I was never interested in TED Talks until I listened to an episode of the Wellness Mama Podcast. Katie, the host of Wellness Mama, homeschools her six children. She has them listen to three or four TED Talks a day. By listening to these fifteen-minute presentations by experts in various fields, these children are exposed to many different topics, possibilities, and problems to be solved.

Opening our minds to a variety of topics can increase our creativity. When we have a problem to solve, our minds naturally sift through what we know, trying to make connections between the problem and any possible solution to that problem. Learning as much as we can about a variety of topics can greatly increase our creativity, especially when it comes to solving a specific problem or issue.

There are just a few ways to increase our creativity, even when inspiration is nowhere to be found. Pick up a pen or a paintbrush, or even sit down at the computer and start typing. If you are able to wait for inspiration, be patient. If not, be willing to experiment and explore your creativity, even if you don’t quite know where your ideas are going.