Some time ago, I came across a post about improving creativity called “9 simple ways to be more creative”. It has a nice graphic so I found it attractive.

I got a laugh looking at how many adults think they are living up to their creative potential = 25%. So… there are 23% of adults who think they are creative but actually aren’t. Now that’s funny!!

Even knowing what I do about creativity, I was astounded to learn that 98% of 5-year olds are creative while only 2% of adults are creative.

Let’s take a moment to ask “out of the nine creativity increasing strategies listed in the article, which ones are 5-year olds good at?” In other words, which of the 9 strategies would 5-year olds innately know how to do?

The two that jump out are:
7. Embrace all ideas
8. Relax.

That means that if we really want to have the creative minds of kindergartners, we need to be open to new ideas and chill out. That’s it.

Little kids have no clue about the other 7 suggestions of writing down ideas, flipping the problem, making constraints, going for a walk, seeking inspiration, persisting, or sleeping on an idea. They are naturally inspired, relaxed, and open to new things and ideas – so that’s how we need to be as adults. All the 7 other things in the list ^^ up there are BORING ADULT BULLSHIT.
Do they help? Yea probably but they are snoozeville and not child-like at all so don’t be fooled.

If you master being open and relaxed, the rest will come.

Image “Idea” by Serge Saint on Flickr and used under license CC BY 2.0