If you have a current project you want to get creative about – you might even have turned to this page for that reason – I hope you’ll find the next few Rules useful. However, what you really want is to become a true creative thinker who comes up with ideas big and small on a daily basis. Whether you’re launching a business or just getting experimental with a recipe, you want this stuff to be second nature.

Of course, that means you need to practise. It’s no good reading a Rule or two here, coming up with a genius idea, and then not using your creative brain cells again until the next big challenge comes along. That’s like teaching your dog to sit and then never asking it to sit until, years later, you need it to sit and wonder why it doesn’t remember what you’re talking about. Once your dog can sit on command, you ask it to sit once or twice a day, even if you don’t need it to. That way, when you suddenly really need it to sit, it’s effortless.

Well, your brain isn’t that different from your dog’s. If you want to be able to think in a particular way, you need to form and strengthen those neural pathways that enable your thoughts to travel where you want them to. That means you need to be thinking creatively every single day.

Trouble is, where do you fit that in to your normal routine? How creative can you be about getting showered and dressed and breakfasted? What scope is there for your imagination in commuting to work, or doing the laundry, or feeding the cat? You might be surprised actually …

What matters is not getting stuck in a mental rut. It’s those deep ruts that make it so hard for your brain to think in any way other than the norm. Once you train it to think differently over even the small things, it starts to climb out of other ruts too. So shake things up a little. Break your routines. Live a little. Find a new route to take to work, walk the dog in a different park, stand facing the other way in the shower, cook something you’ve never eaten before, go on holiday somewhere different. And, crucially – make it normal to not have a ‘normal’.

Some of these things are small, some less so. And they all add up to training your brain to assume nothing, to look at things differently, to expect the unexpected. Grab every opportunity to get stuck into other creative pursuits, too – write or paint or act or play music or dance. Volunteer to decorate the village hall for your sister’s wedding, or design the exhibition stand for your company, or come up with a theme for the Christmas party.

Come on, if you’re serious about becoming a true creative thinker, you need to start by thinking creatively of ways to practise. If you don’t see an opportunity, make one. Give your brain a chance to show you what it can do. That way, when those big creative projects come along, your brain will be primed and ready to excel.