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Creative Thinking:Major (R)Khalid Nasr



Einstein once said, “Every child is born a genius.” But
the reason why most people do not function at genius
levels is because they are not aware of how creative and
smart they really are.


Let’s start off with the definition of creativity.

The best definition of creativity is, simply,
“improvement.”
All you have to do
is develop the ability to improve your situation,
wherever you are and whatever you are doing. All great
fortunes were started with ideas for improving something
in some way. In fact, an improvement needs to be only 10
percent new or different to launch you on the way to
fame and riches.
The Creative Process: There are four parts of the creative
process: 1.There is preparation, where much of the work
is done. 2.There is cerebration or rumination, where you
turn the matter over to your subconscious mind. 3.There
is realization, where the idea or ideas come to you.
4.And finally, there is application, where you work out
the creative idea and turn it into something worthwhile.
Of the four, preparation seems to be the most important,
and it involves gathering the right data and asking the
right questions.
Suggestions: Your success in life will be determined largely by the
quantity of ideas that you generate. It seems that the
quality of ideas is secondary to the quantity and that
if you have enough ideas, one or more of them will turn
out as a good idea.
1.You can begin building your creative muscles with
focused questions. Some that you might think of are the
following: What are we trying to do? How are we trying
to do it? What are our assumptions? What if our
assumptions are wrong?
All improvements begin with questioning the current,
existing circumstances. If you are not making progress
for any reason, stop and think, and begin asking
yourself the hard questions that will stimulate your
mind to consider other possibilities.
Asking focused questions-hard questions that penetrate
to the core of the matter-is the real art of the
creative person. The next step is to have the courage to
deal with all the possible answers. Once you have come
up with a possible solution, ask yourself, “What else
could be the solution?” If your current method of
operation were completely wrong, what would be your
backup plan? What else would you or could you do? What
if your current procedure or plan turned out to be a
complete failure? Then what would you do? And what would
you do after that? All of those questions will force you
to think further and come up with better answers.

2.The second way to build your mental muscles is with
intensely desired goals. The more you want something and
the clearer you are about it, the more likely it is that
you will generate ideas that will help you to move
toward it. That is why the need for clearly written
goals and plans for their accomplishment is repeated
over and over. Any intense emotion, such as desire,
stimulates creativity and ideas to fulfill that desire.
And the more you write down your goals and plans, and
review them, the more likely it is that you will see all
kinds of possibilities for achieving those goals.

3.The third generator of creative-thinking muscles is
pressing problems. A good question to ask is “What are
the three biggest problems that I am facing in my life
today?” Write the answer to this question quickly, in
less than 30 seconds. When you write the answer to a
question in less than 30 seconds, your subconscious mind
will sort out all extraneous answers and give you the
three most important ones.

When you have your three most pressing problems, ask
yourself, “What is the worst possible thing that can
happen as a result of each of these problems?” Then ask
yourself, “What are all the things that I can do, right
now, to alleviate each problem?” If you have a problem
that is worrying you for any reason, think about what
you could do immediately to begin alleviating that
concern. This is a prime use of your creative powers.
Keys to success in creative thinking:
1.The first key to success in creative thinking is
clarity. Take the time to think through, discuss and ask
questions that help you to clarify exactly what you are
trying to accomplish and exactly what problems you are
facing at the present moment. Just as fuzzy thinking
leads to fuzzy answers, clear thinking leads to clear
answers.

2.A second key is concentration. Put everything else
aside, and concentrate single-mindedly on focusing all
your mental powers on solving one single problem,
overcoming one particular obstacle or achieving one
important goal. The ability to concentrate on a single
subject without diversion or distraction is a hallmark
of the superior thinker.

3.A third key is an open mind. The average person tends to
be rigid and fixed in his thinking about getting from
where he is to where he wants to go. The creative
thinker, however, tends to remain very flexible and open
to a variety of ways of approaching the problem. The
average person has a tendency to leap to conclusions and
determine that there is only one way to achieve a
particular goal. The superior thinker, on the other
hand, tends to be more patient and willing to consider a
variety of options before moving toward a conclusion.

There is one other creative concept that can be very
helpful when it is used in combination with what we have
already discussed, and it is called the “limiting step.”

The Limiting Step :
In relationships and misunderstandings between people,
there is almost invariably a sticking point or subject
area that needs to be resolved in order to bring about
harmony again. Your job is, first, to identify this
limiting step and then, second, to find a way to
alleviate the difficulty to the satisfaction of everyone
involved.

You are a genius, and you were born with the potential
for exceptional creativity. But creative abilities are
latent. They are like muscles that grow with use. You
can increase your creative powers by using them, over
and over, in every situation, deliberately and
specifically, until creativity and a creative response
to life is as natural to you as breathing in and out is.
There are very few things that you can do that can have
a more powerful positive impact on your entire life than
becoming excellent in creative thinking.