Is your brain in a funk? Are you struggling to come up with creative and innovative ideas? Well, ME TOO! I work with some pretty creative people and I often get jealous that I can’t think of ideas as quickly as they can. I’ve come to terms with the fact that we all process creative ideas differently, but I’ve also found a few new ways to give myself inspiration. TED Talks have always been a great source of political and social commentary for me, but I never thought to use them for my own creative development. Whenever I am faced with a task that involves some creative problem solving I will throw on a TED Talk to help me get over my current brain fart. Below are three of my favorite TED Talks I use to boost creativity and innovation:
Quote: “The key to creativity is doubt.”
In this TED Talk, Alan Iny discusses how doubting your day-to-day processes can often lead to more creativity in the workplace and how challenging the way things are currently done allows you to break outside your creative barriers and come up with new, innovative ideas. While watching this TED Talk, I couldn’t help but think about all the opportunities I have missed because I wasn’t doubting what I do daily. As a marketer I know that the industry is always evolving around me, but that evolution comes from people stepping outside of their day-to-day processes and finding new solutions to better service their clients.
Quote: “I had to find a way to make sure that my creativity survived its own success. And I did, in the end, find that inspiration, but I found it in the most unlikely and unexpected place. I found it in lessons that I had learned earlier in life about how creativity can survive its own failure.”
While watching this TED Talk, I couldn’t help but think about all the ideas I have had in my professional career that I chose not to pursue because I was afraid of failing. Sure, some of my ideas are outlandish and crazy (like a dating app for pescatarians called “Sole Mates”), but some of them could’ve been winners too. In this quick five-minute video, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about how she overcame the fear of failure by doing the thing she loved most regardless of what the outcome may be.
Quote: “People who doodle when they’re exposed to verbal information retain more of that information than their non-doodling counterparts.”
Ok, I have to admit something … I have always been a doodler. My mother is a doodler too, so it’s practically built into my genetic makeup. Whether I’m on a phone call or in a meeting I am sure to be drawing some sort of flower with vines that traipse across the page. Although I am not a good doodler, I find that it helps me concentrate more and often gives me time to think things through thoroughly. In fact, I doodled while listening to this TED Talk. For this video, Sunni Brown discusses the scientific reasoning behind doodling and why it can allow us to become better creative problem solvers.
Feeling inspired?
Inspiration comes in many forms. While TED Talks might not be the greatest tool for you, there are many other options out there you can try to give your creativity a boost.
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