30 ways to increase your creativity.

1.Travel to exotic lands. If you can’t go someplace exotic, treat your own home town as an “exotic” land and go places there that you usually never go. Maybe you’ll discover that home is a pretty exotic place.

2.Try a new type of exercise: Tai Chi, NIA, Yoga...the list goes on.

3.Start a journal. It could be a regular journal which is often like a diary, or it could be a focus journal. A focus journal focuses on a subject like creativity, or an organization like Toastmasters, or an activity like giving speeches, or a role like club officer. Use the journal to deepen your creativity on your focus.

4.Read! Read a lot. Read different stuff. Go to a magazine rack and pick up a magazine that you would never buy. Buy it. Read it. What did you learn?

5.Go to events that you would not normally attend. Our family went to a horse show. Not any show but a work horse show. There was a competition of show wagons and a horse pull. We spent the whole day there and loved it. There is a whole subculture we never knew existed. And, hey, we had a great time!

6.Relax.

7.Meditate.

8.Go for a walk.

9.10.11.12.Sing, draw, paint, act. (There, that’s four for one.)

13.Ask dumb questions.

14.When you are trying to come up with new ideas don’t just sit there, do something. Get some Play-Doh®, some crayons, some nerf balls, silly putty, canned string, catalogs, magazines, picture postcards, and so on. Use this stuff to stimulate your imagination.

15.Talk to yourself. Tape record your self talk. It opens up different channels in your brain than writing or just thinking. I write out portions of my speeches but, mostly, I just talk into my tape recorder. A lot of what I tape is drivel. Some of it is dynamite or sparks other dynamite ideas.

16.Read some children’s books. I’m partial to Dr. Seuss. Suit yourself.

17.Turn your problem around. If you are trying to attract new members ask, “How can we drive prospective members away?” Or “How can I make my speech as boring as possible?” Or “How can I make sure I accomplish nothing worthwhile this week?” You’ll run screaming in the direction of creativity.

18.Plan a vacation. You don’t have to take it, just plan it. Where will you go? Where will you stay? How will you get there? What will you do? How will you pay for it (or not)? If you can’t pay for it, how could you get to go anyway? What will you learn?

19.Watch something funny, then work on your problem.

20.Establish an Idea Preserve. Ideas are like rare and delicate plants or animals. You must find a save place for them if they are to survive. Write down your ideas. File them if you are so inclined. Even if you just put them in a box or an old coffee can, your creative ideas can be found, retrieved, and used.

21.Obtain and use a rhyming dictionary.

22.Find ways to recreate an innocent viewpoint. Try to remember when you didn’t know all the ways something can’t be done.

23.Learn to play a musical instrument.

24.Network with other people.

25.Take an Anthropology class.

26.Take a Photography class.

27.Take an Art class

39.Learn another language.

28.Spend time with children.

29.Go fly a kite! (Oh, oh, oh! Have you ever MADE A KITE? I mean from scratch, not a kit?)

30.Remember, nobody knows everything about anything. Even the best can (and will) be improved.