Nearly all great ideas follow a similar creative process and this articles explains how this process works.
Understanding this is important because creative thinking is one of the most useful skills you might possess.
This article originally appeared onJamesClear.com.
Anyone can learn to be creative by using these five steps.
Thats not to say being creative is easy.
Uncovering your creative geniusrequires courageandtons of practice.
However, this five-step approach should help demystify the creative process and illuminate the path to more innovative thinking.
To explain how this process works, let me tell you a short story.
Photography was a new and exciting medium at the time.
Readers wanted to see more pictures, but nobody could figure out how to print images quickly and cheaply.
This process of photoengraving, you’re free to imagine, was remarkably time consuming and expensive.
The man who invented a solution to this problem was named Frederic Eugene Ives.
A Flash of Insight
Ives got his start as a printers apprentice in Ithaca, New York.
Ives quickly translated his vision into reality and patented his printing approach in 1881.
He spent the remainder of the decade improving upon it.
By 1885, he had developed a simplified process that delivered even better results.
Alright, now lets discuss what lessons we can learn from Ives about the creative process.
In this guide, he made a simple, but profound statement about generating creative ideas.
According to Young, innovative ideas happen when you develop new combinations of old elements.
Most important, the ability to generate new combinations hinges upon your ability to see the relationships between concepts.
Young believed this process of creative connection always occurred in five steps.
Gather new material.At first, you learn.
First, Ives gathered new material.
These experiences gave him a lot of material to draw upon and make associations between photography and printing.
Second, Ives began to mentally work over everything he learned.
By 1878, Ives was spending nearly all of his time experimenting with new techniques.
He was constantly tinkering and experimenting with different ways of putting ideas together.
Third, Ives stepped away from the problem.
In this case, he went to sleep for a few hours before his flash of insight.
Letting creative challenges sit for longer periods of time can work as well.
Fourth, his idea returned to him.
Ives awoke with the solution to his problem laid out before him.
Once I give my brain permission to stop working for the day, the solution appears easily.)
Finally, Ives continued to revise his idea for years.
In fact, he improved so many aspects of the process he filed a second patent.
This is a critical point and is often overlooked.
Thus, we can say creative thinking is the task of recognizing relationships between concepts.
An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.
Being creative isnt about being the first (or only) person to think of an idea.
More often, creativity is about connecting ideas.
James Clear writes atJamesClear.com, where he shares self-improvement tips based on proven scientific research.
Top image byNick Shepherdvia Getty.
