How to Unleash Your Creativity
Let me share something with you that is ironic.
One of the common questions that people ask me is how do I come up with all my ideas for my blogs and trainings. It seems like I have an endless supply of stories that I just pull out of a hat. These stories make my blogs and trainings entertaining and more effective.
Let me set one thing straight.
I was NOT born creative and NEVER considered myself creative.
Over the years, I’ve just learned to do certain things and put myself into situations that help to make me creative.
But back to the irony…
The irony is that, even though I am “creative,” I was stuck this week on what to share with you in my weekly blog.
I felt uncreative, like I’d run out of ideas!
Have you ever felt that way?
Then the next thing you know, the days fly by, and it’s time to write my weekly blog again!
As I thought about the creative process, I realized that I’ve been so busy the last few weeks preparing for Implementation Vacation and Convention that I strayed away from my proven routine that helps me generate all the great ideas.
Yesterday, I went back to this routine and bingo! Immediately the ideas flowed.
Whether you are looking to produce content, come up with ways to find better prospects, or get into a new market, this technique will help you.
It’s a proven recipe, and I’ve decided to share these five simple steps to creativity with you.
Step 1 to Creativity: Write Down Your Goal and Give It a Deadline
Before you set out to do anything, your mind needs direction and a target.
You must write down what you want to accomplish and set a deadline.
So whether you need an idea to target Indonesian immigrants so that you can tap into that market, or come up with a weekly video blog, write down the goal and give it a due date.
If I hadn’t written down that I had to write this blog by a certain date, this NEVER would have been written.
There are two reasons why you must write goals down:
1) We program the task into our subconscious mind.
Once our subconscious has a target, it will go on autopilot and seek out the solution during our everyday life.
Your conscious mind may be thinking about other things, but your subconscious will work in the background and find the answer.
It’s like getting into a car and driving home. You give a target to your subconscious, your home, and then you can think about things, listen to music, or talk on the phone, but your subconscious will magically get you home.
2) We operate at maximum efficiency under deadlines.
Think back to your school days.
When did you do the most effective studying?
a) When you studied for no reason and just studied for fun?
b) When you studied four weeks before a midterm?
c) When you studied the night before an exam?
I bet you hardly ever did a), studying the textbook just for fun, and you most likely tried b) but couldn’t get the stuff to sink in.
If you are like most people, you did your most effective studying a few days before the exam.
The reason is because our minds need deadlines. Without deadlines, our subconscious gets lazy and just doesn’t work well.
Step 2 to Creativity: Invest in Self-Development Outside Your Industry
Investing in Self-Development (e.g., reading, listening to audios, attending seminars) is a common habit among all successful leaders, and that’s why it’s one of the 5 Core Daily Production Activities that every MLM distributor must do.
But don’t just study what’s in your industry.
Make sure you invest in self-development outside your industry.
So if you are in MLM, don’t only read books on MLM. Read books on sports, on other businesses and, yes, even read fiction.
Why?
Often the best ideas are borrowed from another industry.
A good example is the fast food drive-thru. This revolutionary concept that transformed the fast food industry was not an original idea.
It was borrowed from banks, and one day, someone had the brilliant notion to borrow the idea and apply it to fast food restaurants.
So instead of the drive-thru teller, now you have drive-thru restaurants!
Many of my best ideas for preparing effective trainings come from learning how top coaches in sports lead their teams.
Step 3 to Creativity: Go Away from Your Work Environment
Have you ever sat at your work desk for hours and can’t think of anything?
But the second you do something “fun” or away from your work environment, you come up with the solution?
If you want to generate a continuous flow of great ideas, you must get away from your normal work environment.
The simple reason is because we are often too close to the proverbial tree to see the entire forest.
A change in environment allows us to see things from another perspective.
One of the most effective ways for me to be creative is working out. Every time I exercise I enter my “Power Zone” and come up with great solutions. I can come up with more things in one hour of exercising than I can if I sit at my home office for eight hours.
My Power Zone is exercise. What is yours?
Step 4 to Creativity: Take Action Immediately
Once you think of an idea, take action on it immediately!
Your ideas come from your gut instinct, and you must act ASAP or else you lose the magic!
Whether it is calling someone, writing an ad, or doing a video training, once you have that idea, go do it ASAP!
There are two main reasons you must take action immediately:
1) If you don’t act on it ASAP, you will forget the idea.
Trust me on this.
Even if you remember most of it, you will not remember 100% of it, and thus, you have lost your genius.
It’s always the 5% that is forgotten that transforms a common idea into a brilliant one.
2) You will save time when you take action ASAP.
If you act on it ASAP, it may take you only 25% of the time it would take you if you were to do it later.
The reason for this is because you will have forgotten the idea or the steps, and it will require tremendous time for your brain to warm up and think of the ideas again. Worse, you may not even recall the great idea!
For example, I am writing this immediately after I came back from my morning bike ride. It’s taking me only 25 minutes to write this blog, but if I were to “save” it and do it later, it could take me two hours to do it.
I realize sometimes we don’t have the luxury to act immediately.
If that happens, do the next best thing.
Write an outline of your ideas.
If your idea is to create an advertising flyer, sit down for five minutes and write out the bullet points of the flyer and a rough sketch.
Similarly, if you have ideas for a blog, just write out the bullet points and an outline.
This should not take more than five minutes, but it will save you tremendous amounts of time later.
Step 5 to Creativity: Don’t Quit After the First Version
Once you have implemented your idea, you may sadly realize that it was not as good as you initially thought it would be.
Don’t worry.
That happens to everyone.
The key is to be persistent and don’t quit!
Just complete version 1.0 and then you can go back and tinker with it.
Version 2.0 will be better than your first version, and you will realize that you will make constant improvements. Each revision will get better and better.
The reasons many people fail to achieve their dreams is because they never give Version 2.0 a shot. They see that their first attempt didn’t work and just stop at it.
However, the ONLY reason you have the ability to see that your first version didn’t work is because you went out and did it!
So go take action ASAP, and once you get it done, look for ways to improve it.
Don’t get discouraged if your initial first product is not as good as you had hoped.
A perfect example is this blog. The first version that was in my mind was at least 25% different than what you are reading now.
The only reason I was able to provide this finished product to you is because I went out and did it, and then went back to fix it.
The same is true for your ideas.
If you have a certain idea to target the Indonesian market and your initial marketing campaign doesn’t work, don’t give up.
Look for ways to improve it. Normally, it takes at least eight or nine attempts before you hit gold.
Show Me Your Creativity and Great Ideas
Now that you know the Five Simple Steps to Creativity, what things do you want to achieve?
Apply these five steps and then be persistent in making changes until you get a winner.
Once you have that winning idea, please share it with me because I’d love to hear about it!
Now go and start being creative today!
Sincerely,
Simon Chan
P.S. In the last 10 years, I have read almost every book and listened to every audio on network marketing and then took what worked and did not work and created THE S.O.W. SPONSORING SYSTEM.
If you want a short cut to your success in network marketing and learn a simple and duplicatable approach to sponsoring, go check out THE S.O.W. SPONSORING SYSTEM. It is proven to work and is backed by 4 Different Money Back Guarantees.
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Dear Simon,
Thank you for all inspiring thoughts I really appreciate and its very helpful all the ideas you shared to our business. Yes, your right I’ll take ACTION now to achieve my DREAMS for my FAMILY.