Creative Thinking For Dummies

David Cox is a creative business consultant who, since the 1970s, has created, acquired and sold numerous successful businesses. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing as well as a Chartered Practitioner of NLP. David began his education in Fine Art, where he cultivated his interest in creativity. He also trained as a clinical psychologist before turning to marketing, when he founded the UKs first youth marketing consultancy.

Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What Youre Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organised 3 Part I: Laying the Foundations: Understanding Creativity 3 Part II: Preparing Yourself: Creating Your Creative Mindset 4 Part III: Getting Creative The Practical Stuff 4 Part IV: Applying Creativity to Your Life 4 Part V: The Part of Tens 4 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 5 Part I: Laying the Foundations: Understanding Creativity 7 Chapter 1: So What Is Creativity? 9 Seeing Creativity Everywhere 9 Spotting obvious signs of creativity 10 Noticing less obvious signs of creativity 11 Finding Curious Ways to Fulfil Your Curiosity 12 Reconciling paradoxes and juxtapositions 13 Combining the familiar and the strange 13 Entwining the tangible and the elusive 14 Experiencing the seductive and the scary 14 Adapting Strategies to Help You Survive in the Creative World 15 Emulating childs play 16 Recognising creativity as a necessity not a luxury 16 Appreciating creativity as your lifeblood 17 Getting into a Creative Frame of Mind 18 Converging and diverging 18 Storming ahead 19 Being physically passive but mentally active 20 Being physically active and mentally alert 20 Programming Yourself for Creativity with Neuro-linguistic Programming 21 Fighting through Uncreative Times 24 Being stuck 25 Getting unstuck 26 Chapter 2: Living in a World of Creativity 27 Searching for Spiritual Expression 28 Embodying spirituality and knowledge in architecture 28 Connecting body, mind and spirit 29 Meeting the Muses 29 Musing with Greeks and Romans 30 Meeting modern muses 31 Finding your own muse 31 Tuning In with Music and Creativity 32 Challenging the Status Quo with Creative Thinking 35 Playing a revolutionary role 35 Working within the system 36 Creating political art 37 Connecting Religion, Politics and Creativity 38 Pomp and propaganda 38 Nudge when politicians get ideas 39 Shedding Light on the Dark Side of Creativity 43 Limiting beliefs 43 Generating energy and ignoring burn-out 45 Melding creativity and personality 46 Chapter 3: Exploring the Creative Mindset 49 Being Creative All the Time 50 Realising that you cant not be creative 50 Exhibiting everyday creativity 51 Knowing creativity when you see it 51 Having the creative touch 52 Knowing the Moment versus Knowing the Outcome 53 A change is as good as a rest 53 And a rest is as good as a change 54 Exploring Different States of Consciousness 54 Memories, dreams and reflections 54 Daydreams, sleep and meditation 56 Being wide awake and curious 58 Altered states sex, drugs and rock n roll 59 Exploring the subconscious 60 Understanding Different People and Different Kinds of Creativity 62 Jungs theories and the foundations of modern personality assessment 62 Convergent and divergent thinking 66 Gender 66 Age 67 Creativity across cultures 67 Beyond the five senses 69 Part II: Preparing Yourself: Creating Your Creative Mindset 71 Chapter 4: Preparing to Be Creative 73 Understanding the Creative Process 74 Opening up to ideas and originality 74 Closing down to solve a problem 74 Changing your mind for a different perspective 75 Capturing Your First Ideas 75 Getting into the Right Space Mentally and Physically 76 Getting in the mood 76 Setting the scene 77 Flying Solo versus Working in Teams 83 Working alone 84 Working together 84 Having it both ways 86 Assessing Outcomes 87 Did it work? 89 What to do next 91 Chapter 5: Committing to Creativity 93 Creating Continuously Keeping the Tap Running 94 Being creative for a living 94 Stressing about creativity 95 Achieving the magic 10,000 hours 96 Preparing for good results 96 Living Like Leonardo Working with Creative Continuity 97 Being insatiably c