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Published on <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/4-solid-ways-to-boost-your-creativity-679138b2dce1?source=rss----eb297ea1161a---4">| Prototyping: From UX to Front End &mdash; Medium</a> Chandan Mishra 
Simple strategies to feed your creative mojo
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/1024/1*PVJyMzyOXpJ-Hhl_ySNYaQ.png">
<h3>We were all born creative</h3>
Fascinated with everything we saw, curious and full of questions. We all were born creative. Have you ever noticed how small kids love making things? The word ‘constraints’ is not in their dictionary.
<blockquote>Limitations or lack of knowledge? what are those exactly?</blockquote>
They just pick a pen or a pencil or a paint brush or anything they can get their hands on and then it is just them and their creativity. And to top all of this, it is just so damn difficult to stop them. They leave the mark of their imagination on any surface they find, be it a wall or a piece of paper or school benches or cloths. We all have done that.
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/940/0*3ublQKAFa0Me0xif.">
And now a lot of us are almost opposite of who we used to be when we were little, a fearless creative machine!
In this article, we are going to talk about how we can take the first step towards becoming a fearless creative machine, once again. Just like we were when we were little.
But first, let us briefly discuss how and when things changed for us.
Slowly, as we started growing up, we kept losing our natural talent of being fearless and just doing things. Maybe under parental, societal or peer pressure, we got too bogged down by the expectations of our own and of others. Very slowly, we lost our creative mojo. Now, whatever we make, we feel it should be better than ‘what everyone else is making’, or ‘it should be different’, or ‘it should be original’. And often, when we are in the middle of making something new, we tend to abandon our efforts and move on in our pursuit of making something else. We keep moving on to something else and never really finish.
<h3>How can we keep our creative mojo alive?</h3>
<h3>#1 Start!</h3>
One simple mantra is,
<blockquote>Just start what you want.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Where you are.</blockquote>
<blockquote>With what you have.</blockquote>
I like talking to people about their dreams and aspirations. One thing which I have observed while talking to most of the people is that they all have “something” they want to start doing. Some people want to wake up early, some people want to go for a walk in the evenings, or leave social media, or stop their addiction to their phone, or start drinking more water, or start practicing their craft. But they do not. And it bothers them, but they let the voices in their head walk them out of their initial urge and they just do not start.
To become a better creative person, it is very important that we ‘start’. Just like when we were little and when we wanted to draw, we just drew! It did not matter what tool we had available at our disposal, we just started when we wanted to.
<blockquote>Do not let the voices in your head, stop you from starting something.</blockquote>
<img alt="" src="https://cdn-images-1.medium.com/max/443/1*bpKW4JPzTxbufR58zgUG9w.png">Motivation tends to be high when we want to start something new and decline as the time progresses
One simple tip is, if you want to start something, take the first step within 5 seconds of the thought of starting comes to your mind. This step could be anything, you could write your idea down on a piece of paper or talk to someone about your idea… no matter how small the step is, take a step forward.
<h3>#2 It is You vs You</h3>
A lot of us have made this mistake. We compare what we do with others, people who we think are far more better than us, beyond the healthy limits of comparison. On a very very regular basis. We need to understand that all of us are at different stages of our life or career. We have all taken different paths in the past which has led us here. The person you are comparing your craft with, may have spent years, if not decades, practicing his/her craft. That does not mean that you can not be as good as them, but you have to understand that you need not be! Yes. You need not be like someone else, you need to be creative in your own way. The goal should be to keep getting better than yourself, consistently.
We can observe and we can learn from what others are doing, but then, there is a line between a healthy comparison, and a comparison which will actually make you start berating yourself. And people in creative industry, like you and I, are far more likely to go through an intense self-criticism.
We also need to realize that comparing our craft with others is not really going to help our creative roots. We need to bring a fundamental change in our approach and we need to start comparing the craft we create today with the craft we had created yesterday. Yes, we need to understand that, it is not the world vs you anymore, it is who you were yesterday vs who you are today.
<blockquote>With a single goal of getting better at what you are doing today than what you were doing yesterday, you can progress much faster and feel confident.</blockquote>
Trust me, it is much much more difficult thing to do and a very intense battle. But once you start doing it, you will start feeling good just by seeing your progress and looking back at where you were last week and where you are right now. All of a sudden, you will realize that you are able to stay consistent. And consistency is the key. Consistency is what helps you cross the plateau in your life, in your career, in whatever you are doing.
<h3>#3 Maintain a Daily Habit</h3>
The power of habit is not a hidden secret and is one of the most talked-about topics in creativity and productivity. I recently read <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Habits-Highly-Effective-People/dp/1471131823/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1511422576&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=7+habits+of+highly+effective+people">7 Habits of Highly Effective People</a>, and the book talks about how habits shape our personality and life. It is easy to start a new habit, but very difficult to sustain one long enough to see it become an actual, long-lasting, life-changing decision.
All you have to do is identify what you want to do, and just do it everyday. I know it sounds easier said than done, but here is how you can do it:
<blockquote>Allocate a fixed time for it in your calendar. Make a promise to yourself that no-matter what, you are going to do it. Remember, the first step is to start and the second step is to do it consistently.</blockquote>
I wanted to develop a reading habit. But like a lot of people out there, I had a lot of excuses. I do not have time. I get tired after a long day of work and 3 hours of commute. I do not know what books to read, were among the million excuses I used to make. I was not really going anywhere with this and in spite of me knowing all the benefits of reading, I just could not start. But one fine day, I changed it.
I started reading 20 minutes a day which increased to 45 minutes a day and now I read for, close to, 1 hour everyday. In last 2 months, I have finished reading 6 books and I am about to finish the 7th book. What started with a 20 minutes a day challenge went on to become a habit which I had initially thought I may not enjoy much. I also reduced the time I used to spend using my phone and allocated that time to reading.
I have also started sketching for at-least 10 minutes a day. I always loved drawing, but somewhere down the line, the love had started fading away but now it has started gaining the importance in my life again.
Remember, often the magical improvement you see in somebody’s output is not brought by an over-night effort, but they are the result of small but consistent steps taken each and everyday, for years.
Josh Kaufman, the author of an international bestseller, ‘<a href="https://www.amazon.in/Personal-MBA-Master-Art-Business/dp/1591845572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1514119993&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=The+Personal+MBA%3A+Master+the+Art+of+Business">The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business</a>’, speaks about how deliberately practicing your craft everyday, for few minutes, can help you learn anything you want in this TED talk:
<iframe src="https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F5MgBikgcWnY%3Fstart%3D1%26feature%3Doembed%26start%3D1&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D5MgBikgcWnY&#038;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F5MgBikgcWnY%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube" width="854" height="480" frameborder="0"><a href="https://medium.com/media/57b84654410e68066ffcf76d1ca3f25e/href">https://medium.com/media/57b84654410e68066ffcf76d1ca3f25e/href</a></iframe>
<h3>#4 Finish What you Start</h3>
How many times have you heard your friends telling you about the hobby they have developed? <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/from-an-idea-to-a-product-launch-in-2-days-4973000c076c">A new side project</a>? A new course on one of a million online-tutorial websites?
Improvement is a continuous journey, no doubt about that. But let us just admit, a lot of us get bored and bail out when things start getting a little repetitive. It starts looking pointless. The benefit of starting with a goal in mind is that it will not only help you continue your journey, but it will also help you measure the distance you have traveled, the improvements you have made.
I have found a lot of people taking the first step towards achieving something, which is to start, as we briefly discussed above. Starting is the first step, a much harder thing comes after you start something, which is to finish what you start. Leaving things in the middle is of no value. I have seen people abandoning something they have been working on since weeks and months, just because they get bored or they lose the sense of importance of what they are doing and why they are doing it. Finishing is equally important. But what comes between the point when you start and the point when you finish? It is the long, boring and often lonely grind. The moment when you feel you should just quit, you should remind yourself about why you started it in the first place.
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
Start what you want to start with a little or no contemplation. Take the first step forward as soon as possible. Measure your progress by comparing your output today with what you had produced yesterday. Comparison, beyond its healthy limit, can be a demotivating factor. Maintain a daily habit and take small steps everyday. And whatever you have decided started, finish it!
Thanks for your time reading this article. Show some love by clapping 👏 and if you think this article can be useful for someone you know, please feel free to share on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or anywhere you want! 🙂
<a href="http://chandan.me">My Website</a> | <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/thechandan/">LinkedIn</a> | <a href="mailto:hi@chandan.me">hi@chandan.me</a>
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<a href="https://blog.prototypr.io/4-solid-ways-to-boost-your-creativity-679138b2dce1">4 Solid Ways to Boost your Creativity</a> was originally published in <a href="https://blog.prototypr.io">Prototypr</a> on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

4 Solid Ways to Boost your Creativity

4 Solid Ways to Boost your Creativity

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