On the Job by Anita Bruzzese How to Develop More Confidence in Your Creativity

On the Job by Anita Bruzzese How to Develop More Confidence in Your Creativity Think back to when you were in kindergarten and youll probably agree you were a creative kid. Whether it was building a Batmobile from toilet paper rolls or performing a one-act play you wrote with your dog, you displayed creativity freely and abundantly. But fast-forward to your professional life now, and you may no longer believe you are creative. For whatever reason, creativity didnt stick with you. Thats a crock, Tom Kelley says. Kelley, along with his brother, David, are creativity experts. Their firm, IDEO, designed the first mouse for Apple along with the first laptop, and the company has won numerous innovation awards. Tom Kelley says you dont lose creativity, but you canbecome less confidentabout it. Instead of fostering and developing it, you focus on other abilities. Before long, you see yourself as someone who simply isnt the creative type and you let others propose innovative ideas. People do have a fear of being judged, he says. After some 100 interviews for their book, Creative Confidence: Unleashing the Creative Potential Within Us All, Kelley says he and his brother firmly believecreativity resides in all of us. He says if we want to remain competitive in business and excel in our careers, we need to rediscover it because being creative helps you become more confident and more resilient, he says. You learn perseverance. Once we dotap into that creativity, then its time to learn to put those ideas into action, because having the courage to do so is at least as important as the idea itself, he says. But how do we tap into that creativity within us? Here are some ideas they offer in cultivating a creative spark: Choose creativity.Stop squashing that little kid inside of you. Make a commitment to decide you want to revive your innovative voice. Think like a traveler. Stop being oblivious to your (read more here)