Creativity Myths - My Creativity Is Not Unlimited, It Could Run Out Any Day Now

One of the keys to being more creative is BELIEVING you can be more creative.

If you have the belief and the mindset that your creativity is limited, and that someday – maybe today even – it’s going to run out and you’ll never create anything worthwhile or interesting again, what kind of effect will that have on how you create?

Here are some likely ways this will have an negative impact on your creativity:

- You’ll feel you have to make your creativity last, you’ll have the rationing mentality. This means you’ll only allow yourself to create in small bursts, or only work on small projects, just in case you “run out of fuel” half way through.

- You’ll prevent yourself from accepting new ideas. Subconsciously mostly. You won’t allow these ideas to form and develop in your mind, cutting them off before they have a chance to become something you want to invest time and creative energy in.

- You’ll “save up” your creativity for a special occasion, because you’re not sure how much you have left. Then you dismiss each possible new creative project as being not special enough or not the one. This simply adds more and more unrealistic pressure to that time when (if!) you finally do choose something to work on.

- You’ll avoid creating the projects that hold the deepest challenge and reward for you. You’d rather sail from bank to bank on a small shallow lake you’re familiar with than risk setting sail on vast unknown oceans.

- You’ll avoid trying new forms of creativity. What’s the point of wasting energy and creativity on something it may take years to master? Those precious limited creative resources should be used on safer creative projects you know you can finish.

These are some of the main effects this mental attitude of “my creativity is limited, one day it’s going to run out” has on your creative life. And there are other variations on these.

You can see that none of them are exactly supportive of a thriving creative life!

So what can you do to change this around?

The first step is to work on that negative and limiting belief.

The easiest way to do this is to begin gathering ideas and show to yourself that in fact – like each of us – your creativity is as deep a well as you want it to be.

Keep a creative ideas journal with you wherever you go, and jot down ideas that come to as soon as they appear. Don’t judge and dismiss your ideas right away, write them down, give them a chance.

Use an ideas journal for a few weeks, then look back through it and realise how many ideas you have. By this time too, you’ll start to see that the more ideas you have, the more ideas you have! The “unlimited ideas” mindset simply feeds on itself and grows.

This is the easiest way to demonstrate to yourself your creativity is not limited and about to run out at any moment, but in fact as deep and rich as you want it to be.

Working on this belief is one of many ways to be more creative.

I invite you to take the next positive step to increase your creativity today by downloading your free copy of the powerful and practical "Explode Your Creativity!" Action Workbook at http://www.CoachCreative.com