A Guide For Creative Thinking

You don’t need to spend thousands of hours to increase your creative-thinking abilities. By practicing a few simple exercises and applications, you can start your creative juices flowing, and you may even amaze yourself at the quality and quantity of good ideas that you come up with.


Let’s start off with the definition of creativity. Simply it is, “improvement.”


Thomas Edison, arguably the most successful creative genius in human history, once said that creativity is 99 percent perspiration(effort) and only 1 percent inspiration.


There are four generally accepted 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.


First, 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?


"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."


The second way to build your mental muscles is with intensely desired goals.
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.


The third generator of creative-thinking muscles is pressing problems.


So a key to success in creative thinking is clarity

 A second key is concentration. Put everything else aside, and concentrate

 A third key is an open mind.

Note: The average person has a tendency to leap to conclusions and determine that there is only one way to achieve a particular goal


Between you and any goal that you want to achieve or any problem that you want to solve, there is almost invariably a limiting step that determines the speed with which you move from where you are to your destination.


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.


All The Best


Ayman Amin

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THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE

Life is short. So live… love… learn… and pay it forward. I seek meaningful experience through mindfulness each day, to walk peacefully within myself, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of cats, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to enjoy art and beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world enriched through my contributions, and to know that others have lived easier because of me.

1. BE RESPONSIBLE. BE PROACTIVE. THE HABIT OF PERSONAL VISION.
I have the ability to choose my own response. I carry my own weather – whether it rains or shines makes no difference to me. See the world with new eyes by knowing that my honor is greater than my moods. BY GROUNDING my emotional life not on the moods or weaknesses of others, but upon my self-chosen values, my behavior is a product of my own conscious choices based on principles, rather than a product of my conditions, based on feelings. Focus time and energy on things I can control (circle of influence) in lieu of reacting to or worrying about conditions over which I have little or no control (circle of concern). In so doing, I become RESPONSE-ABLE. And by practicing this habit, who I am is not determined by what happens to me, but by how I choose to respond to it.

2. BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND. THE HABIT OF PERSONAL LEADERSHIP.
Without VISION, I diminish. All things are created twice: the mental or first creation, and the physical or second creation. The second creation follows from the first, just as a building follows from a blueprint. If I fail to develop my own SELF-AWARENESS and become responsible for first creations, I empower other people and circumstances to shape my life by default. So begin each day with the blueprint of my deepest values firmly in mind. Then as challenges come, make decisions BASED on those values. The busiest people are often the least effective; BUSYNESS is common to those trapped in Q1 & Q3 instead of Q2, where Habits 1,2, 3 are grounded. Lead a life centered on the principles of QUALITY, patience, authenticity, WONDER, mindfulness, self-knowledge, and comport myself as an archetype gentleman scholar.

3. PUT FIRST THINGS FIRST. THE HABIT OF PERSONAL MANAGEMENT.
The key is to schedule my priorities, not to prioritize my schedule. Therefore, do the important things first – because where you are headed is more important than how fast you are going. SAY NO TO THE UNIMPORTANT, no matter how urgent, and yes to the important. Also, don't confuse the vital for the important: money (or whatever) might be vital, but one need not make it their whole life. Remember that frustration is a function of our expectations, not our realizations. So trade crises for progress by focusing on things that are truly important. When I put first things first, I don't just do things differently – I do DIFFERENT THINGS.

4. THINK WIN-WIN. THE HABIT OF INTERPERSONAL LEADERSHIP.
[Relationships start here.] Win-Win is a belief in the Third Alternative springing from an abundance mentality. It's not your way or my way; it's a better way; a higher way. Character is the foundation of win-win which is comprised of integrity, ABUNDANCE mentality, and maturity. Win-Win is the attitude of seeking either mutual benefit or being able to say no deal. Life is best lived cooperatively, not competitively. Everyone I meet is my mirror, thus it is easier to be caring than hostile. My friends are all around me; I just haven't met them all yet. Difficult people can be my greatest teachers for what I need most at that moment.

5. SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN TO BE UNDERSTOOD. THE HABIT OF COMMUNICATION.
[Relationships succeed here.] To fully, deeply understand another is to listen with the eyes and the heart, which inspires openness and trust. Give others PSYCHOLOGICAL AIR by listening to understand their perspective, avoiding autobiographical responses, and by letting them finish their sentences. Empathic listening within the other's frame of reference opens me to be influenced. The paradox is that in order to have influence, I must first be influenced. HUMBLE myself by acknowledging that I can be unenthusiastic, impulsive, undisciplined, pessimistic, and an impatient listener. Then strive to transform those same weaknesses into strengths. Always be loyal to the absent – always. Like food, less talk is actually more.


6. SYNERGIZE. THE HABIT OF CREATIVE COOPERATION/TEAMWORK. POTENTIAL. [Relationships flourish here.] Synergy is the culmination of all the previous habits. Synergy uses differences to build unforeseen strengths. Left to our own experiences, we constantly suffer from insufficient data. Compromise, which seeks only an end, is 1+1=1½, whereas synergy, which seeks a new beginning, makes 1+1=3, 4, or more. Value differences (respect them!) to build on strengths and compensate for weaknesses. Different perspectives INFORM my knowledge and expand my experience. This is done by realizing that people see the world not as it is, but as they are [conditioned to see it]. Be sensitive to others' mental maps (paradigms) which have been constructed to this point in their life with their own experiences.

7. SHARPEN THE SAW. THE HABIT OF SELF-RENEWAL.
Spend one hour each day renewing and enhancing the greatest asset I have – myself – through the physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional dimensions of my nature. Success has two sides: production capability (PC), and production (P). Without the renewal of PC, P begins to diminish, and eventually perishes. RECOGNIZE my strengths daily, reaching for new ones. REMEMBER what is important in life is learning, health, purpose, conformity to my own uniqueness, temperance, and inner peace. Learning will always return meaning and energy to my effort, so I'm never alone with a great book.




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