I’ve been writing a lot in recent blog posts about the importance of content creation and how you can use it to build your personal brand. I’ve asked you to put in quite a bit of research and time checking out the many platforms and strategies you can use to start creating that content and building your personal brand from the ground up. 

But I realized that the hardest part may actually be coming up with the ideas for the content itself. So, today I’m going to give you some tried and true methods to get you brainstorming and unlock your creativity! Because you will need these in the future, trust me. 

If You’re Short on Ideas, There are Solutions

Now I’m not a writing coach, so I can’t make your writing better, but what I can do is motivate you to develop methods to start creating content! Yes, even those of you who don’t see yourselves as creative types. As you may know, even established writers and content creators get writer’s block. Luckily, this is so common that solutions have tried and tested to remedy these creative traffic jams.

 

You Just Need to Start Brainstorming! 

 

Brainstorming has probably been around since the beginning of time, but we just called it something else. But brainstorming, as we know it, is a myriad of tactics many artists, writers and other creatives use as a way to organize their ideas and get those creative juices flowing! If you’ve ever worked a creative job or even in the corporate world, you probably have some experience with brainstorming. But for entrepreneurs, content creators, influencers, and writers outside the team environment, there are specific ways of brainstorming that can be more effective.

 

Some Simple Methods to Spark Creativity 

 

Creativity isn’t some magical compound with which only a lucky few are blessed. Creative people just think, and do, differently. And you can learn to think, and do, that way too! Did you know just learning new things can spark creativity? So can changing your physical surroundings!

There are several simple solutions that don’t require any special skills or inherent creative magic. 

 

Switch up your space

Change the position of your desk or add some new photos or a different piece of art to your visual space. Turn your desk to face a window. Heck, get really crazy and work from a cozy chair in your living room or even outside! Changing things up every once in awhile can stimulate your brain in new ways!  

 

Learn something new

Hit the library or go online and delve into a subject you know nothing about. This doesn’t have to be complicated information. Find out how bubble gum is made. Or learn about the migration patterns of a bird you noticed in your yard.

Adam Green, President of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity says, “cells that fire together, wire together.” This means that your brain really can learn to be creative if you exercise it like a muscle. 

 

Challenge Yourself 

Try out a new hobby. Take up knitting! Or bonsai! Or anything you might not normally gravitate towards. Put together a complex puzzle every month. Or memorize a list of curse words in a foreign language. No one says it can’t be fun. It really doesn’t matter what it is, as long as it’s new to you and a bit outside your wheelhouse. 

 

Don’t Let Those Passing Thoughts Just Pass By

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—write it down! When an idea comes to you, record it in some way. Keep a journal by your bed. Record your thoughts on your phone. Use a note taking app. Whatever you have to do. You can go back to these when you have the time and really flesh them out. 

 

Try These Methods of Well-known, Highly Creative, and Innovative People 

 

David Bowie 

David Bowie was known to use what’s called the Cut-Up Technique.

This is where you take paper with written material—either your own or someone else’s—and cut or tear it up into individual words or sections. Then you rearrange them, like a collage. A literal word salad, if you will. This is meant to make new connections that you may not have noticed before. 

This sounds pretty fun to me. And apparently it works! I mean, I’m just taking David Bowie’s word for it. His work is proof enough, don’t you think?

 

Stephen King

Remember the Adam Green quote above about creativity feeding itself? Well, Stephen King believes so too. He’s another prolific and talented creator that we can probably trust on his word. And here’s what he has to say about that:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” —Stephen King 

King is also a proponent of asking himself “What if?”. He likes to think of actual events or experiences and let his mind wander as to possible alternate outcomes when it comes to his story ideas. 

 

Oprah Winfrey 

Oprah is inspired by simply being around others creating. Being immersed in the creative process, even as a spectator, gets her mind churning with ideas. She also says that just trying any idea that comes to her and figuring out what works (and what doesn’t) fuels her creative fires. The reminder, once again, that creating inspires more creation. 

 

 

Now all that’s left to do is find a quiet, distraction free moment and give some of these methods a shot. I’m curious to find out what you may come up with, so let me know in the comments! 

P.S. Sometimes when I’m feeling stir crazy and less than creative, I setup a makeshift workstation out in the yard with the chickens. Here’s a picture of me hanging with Sunny, Cher, and Easy, my three little laying ladies.