NEED SOME CREATIVE FUEL?

.Need some creative fuel?
Imagine that...
Albert Einstein said 'Imagination is more important than Knowledge' - but what about in business? When we use our imagination we free our mind from its 'factory pre-settings' to think more creatively and develop different and potentially better ways of doing business.
After years of education where we're often rewarded for following the rules and memorising information rather than exploring it, we look back at young children and wonder where all that fun and creativity went. How can kids spend hours with fuzzy pipe cleaners, textas and coloured paper with sheer fascination?
Imagination is a natural ability in each of us, to which our emories, experience, interests, thoughts, knowledge and freedom contribute. So consider that imagination is always in you, sometimes it just needs encouragement.
Imagination is left and right brain
In business, imagination is used to create a company but we often divide the workplace into creative and practical thinkers. Practical thinkers concern themselves with concrete details and planning, while creative people are known as divergent thinkers, arty and emotive. Rather than dividing us up, what if every one of us possessed both these qualities but just chose a different way of looking at the world?
Take the classic pessimist/optimist battle - two outlooks on life we regularly all switch between depending on our mood and the moment. Hearing your alarm clock go off at 5am hardly compares to winning a million dollars, right? The pessimist looks at life and thinks 'why oh, why?' just as the practical thinker tries to figure everything out. Meanwhile, dreamers and optimists envision imaginative scenarios that haven't happened or might happen, and open-mindedly ask 'Why couldn't that be possible?'. George Bernard Shaw said, "You see things as they are and ask, 'Why?' I dream things as they never were and ask, 'Why not?'". So imagination is typically a right-brain function that needs to be supplemented with left-brain logic. And you've got both.
You can improve your creative thinking just by exercising it...
Ask Questions - What would you like to do that you've never done before? Where would be the best place in the world to live? What would be the best job? Ask questions that get you thinking outside the square you live in.
Just Do It - Don't sit on the sidelines, firsthand experiences provide new material for your brain to play with, out of which come new ideas. A Chinese proverb states, I hear: I forget - I see: I remember - I do: I understand.
Jet Set - There's no better way to broaden and refresh your outlook than travel. Travel takes you out of a rut and exposes you to new people, customs, ideas and ways of living. Every culture provides a unique way of looking at common situations and solving problems. If the budget bites, arm-chair travel with television programs and books on the world around us, or spend the day in an unexplored part of your city.
The Power of One - The more you apply your ability to think and use the talent around you, the better you'll become at creating new ideas. If you rely on 'experts' and consultants to solve your problems, your creative abilities can dry out.
Hang out with Creatives - Think more creatively by mixing with creative people. Talk to people who possess a different energy who will stimulate your thought processes.