CHAPTER   3

Training Your Mind to Think in a Creative Way

O NE OF MY earliest memories is from kindergarten. It’s fairly normal and might be seen as routine, but to me it was a defining moment of my young childhood education that I still remember vividly.

I was given a huge piece of butcher paper. I still remember the smell, the brown color, the texture, the feel, and the fact that it was bigger than my entire desk. Up to that point, I had never seen a piece of paper that big.

Soon the teacher gave every student in the class a paintbrush and a few different colors. She told us to fill the paper with a drawing of anything we wanted. It was my introduction to art, which is where most people are introduced to creativity. I remember a distinct feeling washing over me. It was a feeling of possibility, a feeling of freedom, and a feeling that nothing else mattered except the huge canvas in front of me, along with the excitement of all the possibilities I could come up with to fill it. That piece of paper was almost like a window into the imagination. I remember instantly thinking that anything could happen.

I viewed that piece of paper as a child, and I saw what could be, not what was. This moment had nothing to do with art per se. It had nothing to do with painting. It had to do with the fact that I was faced with a world of possibility.

I was not stuck on things that I now might see as an adult with an analytical mindset, such as obstacles, excuses, or lack of resources. I was not thinking about how I didn’t have the fanciest paintbrush or years of training or enough time or money. None of that mattered. I wasn’t thinking the way adults do. I was thinking like a child, and all that mattered to me were the endless possibilities of what I could do.

As children, we are encouraged to explore our creativity. Sometimes this happens in a traditional art sense of drawing or painting or whatever. But not always. Even more important than in traditional art, creativity is seen in just about everything a child does to solve problems. Whether it’s though toys or play or just imagination, children are more inclined to creativity and attempting to use creativity as a solution to problems in all that they do.¹ As children we were given blocks to play with, and we built up those blocks to be a fortresses or castles that lived in our imagination. We then took them apart and built bridges from one toy to another. We took anything we could find—kitchen utensils, pots, and pans—and made the most fantastic worlds possible. We took couch cushions and built secret passageways around the living room—a passageway though the universe. Our imagination was not restrained; instead, it flourished.

But as adults we find ourselves relying on the practical and analytical. What in hell happened to get us here? I bet that if I gave you a piece of butcher paper or some blocks, you wouldn’t know what to do with them. The thought of seeing a couch cushion as anything other than a couch cushion seems to us to be preposterous. Why would we do that? It’s just something to sit on. Yet when we were children, these things and others were opportunities to create—to see things as they can be, not as they are. We have forgotten what it is like to taste the freedom that comes with creative thought and take the weight of unrelenting reason off our backs. Again, this is not about drawing or painting or art. It’s about creativity and giving yourself the freedom to look at the world as it could be, not what your skeptical adult mind tells you it is.

I want this to be your first commitment to living The Creator Mindset. No matter how bad your flower might look. Because at the end of the day, it really doesn’t matter how it looks. It just matters that you try. And really, trying is just practice. It is a practice that builds muscle memory just like working out or learning a new language.

The Creator Mindset is a training regimen that relies on you exercising the connections in your brain to see a different way forward, a creative way forward. It’s not about the flower. It’s not about the art. It’s about the commitment and the will to begin to see the world creatively.

WE DON’T NEED TO learn how to be creative. We need to relearn how to be creative. One thing you can try right this minute is think about a persistent problem that’s eating away at you. It can be that your business is failing or struggling in one particular area. It could be the promotion you are after and are not getting. Think about that problem and make sure it’s clear in your mind.

Now we will work together to rewire the structure of your brain to think creatively, and I will help you awaken your long-lost creativity.

Remember, you are now relearning how to think creatively, so take your time. I am sure that no matter who you are or how far away from a Creator Mindset you are, you will begin to see associations with the word you wrote down that spark some type of thought. Don’t bury it the way you normally do! Think about what is popping into your mind right now as you read these words. Are you thinking of something unrelated? Something that has nothing to do with the problem? Great! You are starting to look at the issue creatively. Are you thinking of what you wrote down? Great! You are starting to look at things creatively. Let any and all thoughts wander into your brain and do not edit them because that is your childhood creativity trying to come back out. There is a creative solution for any issue, no matter what it is. You just have to listen.

Now I want you to try listening to the voice in your head that occasionally pops up with something new—something fresh. Listen to the voice that you have shut down for some reason or another. It’s the creative side of the brain that you have shut down for so long trying to help you solve problems creatively just as it did when you were a child. And as with children, it turns out that before any analytical skills are developed, the first skills are creative problem-solving skills.² These are the skills that develop before language, before fine motor skills. They develop earlier than anything else because they are a key facet of why humans survived while other animals perished. We will get into more details on human survival later, but for now know that we are all born with a creative voice, and listening to what that voice is telling you is priceless. This usually comes across as a crazy idea that you don’t share or execute because you worry about what might happen. Or it could be an idea that strikes you in bed at night just before you fall asleep and you see it as totally radical. It could be something you encounter while doing creativity exercises that strikes you as too crazy. You shove it down because it’s too wild. It’s not comfortable. Or worst of all, you worry about what people might think.

What is happening here is that the creativity we are all born with is trying to get through the thick concrete barrier of the analytical you have worked so hard all your life to build. Often, sadly, it cannot get through. You kill the idea before it has a chance to fly. You deem it too “out there,” too crazy. But just like Steve Jobs’s idea of going to his archrival to ask for a bailout, it just might work.

But this involves change, and I realize as I give talks all over the world that change is one of the most difficult constructs of the human condition to deal with. Everyone hates change. No matter where in the world I visit, it’s the same. We are built to accept patterns in our day, our lives, our work, and our relationships. Even biologically we are prone to patterns in all that we do. Anything that threatens the status quo is seen as a threat to our well-being.³

That is why my technique is so easy. It is not about memorization or some 13-step protocol that costs a lot of money or requires new equipment. The Creator Mindset method is focused on awakening your long-lost ability to think creatively to solve any problem. Because you already have it in you, you just need to relearn how to listen to it. Most of us have shut off that voice or ignored it by not listening to it. We need to listen to it. Just being conscious of that fact will enable us to listen to the creative part of the mind when it pops up. And it will pop up. It might be in five seconds or five weeks from now (heaven forbid), but it will pop up. Now is the time to make the choice to listen.

It all comes down to a choice between continuing with the same old results that limit us or embracing change and finally arriving at the optimal blend of human performance: the uniting of the creative and the analytical.

The Creator Mindset wills a world where everything is possible and nothing is impossible. It’s a world where possibility exists instead of limitations. Imagine putting that power to work on your business or career. The Creator Mindset unleashes potential, not limitations. We all have it deep within us. It’s a matter of learning how to reawaken it. One of the guideposts of living the life of The Creator Mindset is learning how to retrain our minds to think like a child again. You are doing that right now, just as we did in the flower-drawing exercise and the study of your handwriting. It turns out that even innovation itself can be learned because it is a subset of creativity with three simple steps: what I call the Trinity of Creativity.