Professionals of all backgrounds need to unlock the doors of creativity at one time or another. Copywriters, marketers, executives, anyone who needs to find new solutions to intractable problems. Sometimes those solutions do not come. The brain feels blocked. How do you free your imagination?
Writers, for instance, are in the business of capturing emotions. Copywriters capture those emotions and invite their audiences to act on those emotions. Any time you want to create the impulse in your readers to do something–e.g., click-through, call, make a purchase–you need to put them into a peak emotional state. You need to make them feel. To do that, the writer must be able to capture and lead the readers’ imagination, and thus, their emotions.
Can you do that without feeling those emotions yourself? Most great writers will say, “No.” To lead someone there, you have to go there first.
Great results in marketing come more often from positive emotions than negative ones. Unlocking your own imagination and creativity is the key to helping your audience do it, and this applies whether your job is the writer, or the executive, or the manager. Finding solutions occurs when you free your imagination.
But how do you do that? You do it by putting yourself into a peak emotional state.
How do you get yourself into a positive emotional state–a feat often hampered by life’s onerous challenges–and do your best work?
- Rest. Get a good night’s sleep. Whose mind works well when it is fatigued?
- Exercise. A brisk walk, a bike ride, a bit of yoga. Exercise makes the body fully alert and produces the internal chemicals that create a positive mental state.
- Eat light. Don’t eat a big, heavy meal that will make you drowsy and lethargic.
- Unplug. Turn off your phone and email. Distractions–also known as procrastination tools–can interrupt your creative process and shatter your positive state.
- Celebrate the positive. Relationships, the knowledge that you’re good at what you do, with all the skills and experience you need, the certainty that you are the only person in the world who can knock this project out of the park. Negative thoughts will torpedo you.
- Visualize success. Imagine how great it will feel afterward to have completed your project and to know that you did it well.
- Affirm yourself. As you sit down to work, type or write this three times: “I, (name here), am going to (solve this problem, write an amazing sales letter, craft an amazing proposal, etc.).” Making this positive affirmation will help bring your goal into being.
The positive attitude generated by this simple process will spark your imagination. You might even find that if results do not come immediately, they will come at unexpected times, seemingly out of nowhere, such when you are driving, exercising, or making dinner. This is your subconscious creativity kicking into gear, so be ready for it when it happens.
So what are you waiting for? Plant gluteus maximus in chair, apply fingers to keyboard, take a deep breath, smile with head high, and get to it. Nobody can do it better than you.
What do you think of these tips? Do you have a favorite technique for unleashing your creativity? Please share them with us.
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