FIND YOUR BEST CREATIVE THINKING TECHNIQUE. AND USE IT!

The fastest way to get results in creative thinking is to find, by trial and error, just what creative climate is best for you.

Some people do their best thinking and problem solving by working alone. Some think best in the morning, some at night, some in the shower, some while shaving, some in church, others while walking to work, and others in the subway! Still others think best in their office with the phone shut off and their feet on the desk!

Some creators find they are stimulated to better thinking if they attack the problem with a pencil and paper in their hands, even if they are not artists. They just doodle or scratch, write or draw until the spark hits them. Others simply wrap their legs around a typewriter table and just start banging away.

I have also found, through the years, that many idea people find their most effective catalyst to be other people! Many a great idea is developed in either a brainstorm session or an informal bull session, or just talking about the problem with an associate. It can be an ad director, a copy writer, a salesperson, a client, your spouse or your secretary!

The important thing is not how you get your ideas but how often you get them.

If one of these techniques doesn't work, try another. Try them all! Try new ones, too, until you find the one which stimulates you most. Then use it! Sometimes you'll find a combination of methods the most productive. First try solo thinking. Then if the idea or plan is incomplete ... or doesn't jell . . . talk it out with some one else. Talk it out with one person or a group-but only if they are compatible and if they have been oriented not to stifle fresh -points of view! Always set up your discussion in two definite stages. The first half of the meeting must be devoted entirely to the creative development of the ideas; the second half should be used for the evaluation of the ideas.

Regardless of how you do your creative thinking or when, learn to schedule it.

Don't be discouraged if your first attempts at creative thinking don't bring the dramatic and exciting results you want. Creative people are not born; they are made.

And the best of them are self-made!

In creative thinking and creative problem solving, as in golf or tennis, practice makes perfect.

Here are some suggestions that may help you over the first rough spots. Until you have learned to develop new ideas of your own, bear in mind that creativity need not always mean invention. It doesn't even always mean coming up with a completely new and original idea. Why not start by coming up with a new application of an old idea? Why not change an existing idea by improving it? And why not combine two existing ideas, and thus create a completely new one?

Many people, starting in your shoes, have launched their careers ... or based their claim to fame ... on a new application of an old idea borrowed from a completely unrelated field, and then cleverly applied it to their own business.