The fact cannot be denied that the success, in any industry goes hand-in-hand with innovation – the ability to offer prompt solutions, creating new products, and producing fresh ideas. All the popular innovators gained success, not on the basis of their hard work but because they had an innovative mind.
Yes, you can put those endless hours each week, but if you are not working those innovative muscles, you won’t be able to achieve the breakthroughs and success. All you need is to learn new things and unlearn the old things every day in order to feed your creative mind. Allow me to discuss top 7 habits helping you develop an innovative mind.
1. A constant lookout for patterns
It’s called ‘Apophenia’ and it can be defined as a quality to distinguish meaningful patterns from the random data or information. While it is considered as a universal tendency, it is commonly found in the innovative thinkers.
When you calculatedly look at the patterns within your industry, you are able to find and build relationships that others fail to do. It can also be defined as a Skill to anticipate future problems – and that is the opportunity for innovation. The best innovators are always on a lookout as for how an outlier can fit into the picture.
2. Surround yourself with creativity and inspiration
Keep looking for creative and innovative things while you are on your way to your office or even if you are enjoying an evening stroll in the park. A creative ad, funny people, a Facebook post or the beautiful nature, it can be anything that can make you think differently.
You can be inspired anytime and by anything, it’s just that you don’t have to keep those things as it is in your mind. It is advisable to jot it down as and when you feel it. If you are on a move, then your smartphone can come handy in doing that or if you are sitting somewhere then you can note it down on a piece of paper. It is imperative to fuel your imagination and feed your thoughts with creativity on a daily basis.
3. Take risk and make mistakes
I believe that the fear of failure leads to the creation of self-imposed constraints. Assume that during the process of learning, not all ideas will work out. Make sure you build prototypes more often, test them out on the people, gather the feedback, and on the basis of all these make the incremental changes.
Don’t ever think that the mistakes, you have committed, are your failure, instead, consider them experiments. You should not blame yourself for your failures, accept them, and take on the newfound knowledge and use it in finding out the best possible solution. Go on and fulfil your goals and be in a better position to produce better results, but also understand that you might hit the roadblocks along the way.
4. Understand the creative process
Make sure you know the four important stages of the creative process:
- Preparation
- Incubation
- Insight
- Implementation
Before you can actually enjoy the eureka moment, incubation is considered an important stage. Some of the popular innovators have used innovative methods to nurture this stage of creativity; going for long evening walks or doing yoga sessions.
Incubation can be defined as an unconscious process of combining all the details & information you have come across through your conscious work. The deliberate detachment ends up marinating the ideas and then the solutions coming out unexpectedly.
5. Have healthy arrogance
It may come across as arrogance, but popular innovators are highly assertive. Confident people are more likely to survive in stressful situations. When other people see risk, innovative people see the opportunity, when other people see the roadblocks and issues, they see the victory & triumph.
Implementation is considered as an important part of innovation. It is not all about who will come up with the idea, it’s all about who is bold enough to produce it. With healthy arrogance, you are empowered with the boldness to initiate action.
6. Stay inquisitive
Stay curious about people, ideas, and the concepts. Make sure you are always on a lookout for new information and ideas that can be used. Be an enthusiastic reader, keep on looking for new ideas, and expand your knowledge base to increase your range of tools for the future.
There are so many occasions to learn something in your day to day life such as – having a random meeting with a stranger, striking a conversation at some event, or observing an opportunity. Every person you will talk to have some kind of information, facts, and details that may be beneficial for you.
7. Do things differently
Make sure you remember that winners don’t do different things, it’s just that they do things differently. At some point in time, you must have come across a TV ad that you just can’t stop thinking about. Have you ever thought what is that special element in that TV ad that has left an everlasting impression your mind?
There might be similar ads you get to see on the television, but the only thing that scores is that they advertise differently than their competitors. There must be some typical animal or funny characters that they have used in their ad to make it more captivating. Or they telecast the ad at a particular time to imprint an image on your mind. You need to change your assumptions by ignoring the preconceived beliefs. Think about competitors and find something unique or do the same things differently.
If you enjoyed this post, feel free to share it with your friends and family. After all, sharing is caring!
Sophia Jones
Sophia tries to live her life like the sun – setting her sights high and vowing to always rise up again. Always game for an adventure, Sophia loves widening readers and her own expectations of our vast, beautiful world. As a journalist, Sophia writes to inform. As a creative writer, Sophia strives to inspire. Overall, she hopes to captivate. She currently writes for sites like Qwikfix and EMI Calculators etc.
