What can the rest of us learn from how artists create? For those of us interested in innovation, we can learn a lot of ideas from the artistic process. A recent Guardian article included several artists describing their own way of being creative. While there are some differences (a key one seems to be between those that go with the flow and those that rely on discipline), there are some unifying themes:
- Be inspired by the world around you. A very broad range of interests helps you make connections between disparate ideas.
- Take time to reflect on what you learned (see earlier post).
- Be a little off kilter. Don't worry about being strange, that's how you make something truly new.
- Force yourself to focus by creating an environment that doesn't have distractions or that promotes concentration. This aligns with the research on how much out environment influences our behavior (see earlier post).
