Page 156 - Keys to College Success

get creative

ACTIVATE YOUR CREATIVE POWERS

Complete the following on paper or in digital format.

Think about your creativity over the past month.
1. First, describe three creative acts you performed – one in the process of studying course material, one in your
personal life, and one at work or in the classroom.
2. Now think of a problem or situation that is on your mind. Generate one new idea for how to deal with it.
3. Then think of another perspective: How would someone else you know react to the situation? Write down an
idea that ref ects a choice someone else might make.
4. Next, do something unfamiliar—listen to a new type of music, eat a style of food you’ve never tried, go some-
where on campus you’ve never been. Then train your mind back on the problem and write an idea that comes
to mind.
5. Finally, get some distance. Write down one more idea ONLY after you have been away from this page for 24 to
48 hours.
Keep these ideas in mind. You may want to use one soon!

been. Play music you’ve never heard. Check out an international or independent film or
documentary that is completely outside of your experience. Think about what sparks
your curiosity and take a course in it, read a book about it, check out a website. Explore
things you don’t think you’d like.

Go against established ideas. For example, the founders of Etsy.com went against
the idea that the American consumer prefers cheap, mass-produced items. In 2005,
they took the risk of creating an online company that allows artisans to offer one-of-
a-kind, handmade products to the consumer, and were rewarded with a thriving site
that has also created a community of artists and personally connects each artist to his
or her customers.

Think young. Young people can be considered “natural outsiders” because they
haven’t yet learned enough to decide that they know it all. In a recent study, college
students who imagined they were young children and then performed creativity tests
generated twice as many ideas as other students who were not asked to think of them-
selves as younger. 31

Take time and get distance. Too much closeness and familiarity can hamper your
ability to think about things in a fresh way. If you take time to “sit with” a problem or
put away a draft of a writing assignment for a day or two, you can relax and come up
with new ideas, essentially becoming an outsider to your own work.

Throughout your course you will explore real-life, day-to-day ways that creative
thinking makes a difference: solving financial issues, deciding how to handle communi-
cation problems, creative ways to manage your time, and much more. Later in this
chapter you will see the starring role that creativity plays in problem solving and deci-
sion making.

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