Creative thinking can be frustrating. We get stuck with a problem, and don’t know where to turn. This often happens because of mental blocks that clog our creative ideas. But these blocks are common—even for the best and brightest, so this shouldn’t stop you from doing what you have to do.
In today’s world, there is a lot of pressure on us to create, and it takes strong mental fortitude to look past the usual routes. In this article we break down some of the biggest mental blocks which have kept YOU from reaching your creative goals.
Focus On Finding The ‘’Correct’’ Answer
Real-life issues are ambiguous. There’s often more than one “correct” answer, and the second one you come up with might even turn out better. Try to reframe whatever the idea is in several different ways in order to prompt different answers and embrace answering inherently ambiguous questions in several different ways.
Using Logic
As humans, we’re trained from childhood to think logically and base decisions on facts. While this makes sense for most situations in our lives, when faced with an open book problem that requires creative thinking, logic becomes a mental block that prevents us from making new connections. Studies have shown that creative thinking is tied to divergent thinking, which by definition, doesn’t follow a logical line of thought.
Fear of Being Wrong
Lots of people try to hold themselves back in terms of being creative because they don’t want to be seen as silly. If you haven’t tried something before, there’s no way to know if it will fail or succeed. You can never find out until you test your idea.
Denying Your Creativity
As soon as you’re born, “creativity” becomes a part of who you are. It’s not something that can be learned or applied, it just is. And the same is true for everyone else. We’re all limitlessly creative, but only to the extent that we realize that we create our own limits with the way we think.
Trying To Follow All the Rules
A creative idea is one that destroys the status quo and replaces it with something new. You have your own reasons for doing the things that you do, which means you’re letting your values guide your thoughts and decisions.