7 easy ways to be more creative every day

Leaving certain things for later is definitely a habit for us human beings, and we always leave something that once seemed to be the most important thing in life, like finding a easy ways to be more creative every day. We always have something “more important” to do in place of the things we are passionate about.

There are kids, the job, college, the family, and also more mundane things like getting that series up to date, even if you already have all the episodes available to watch anytime, it always takes the place of something that you said yourself was important. And we usually leave out photography, and other kind of creative work aside, or at least daily exploration without compromise.

So. How will you proceed to  be more creative every day?

7 easy ways to be more creative every day

1 – At any time we can refine our ability to see the world around us

If you think taking pictures is just taking pictures you can stop reading here, serious.

Taking pictures is to capture all the experiences we go through every day and turn them into an expression of how we feel, see or want to see the world. It’s not just painting with light.

Photography is a way that we have to observe the world through moments in life. And pay more attention and this kind of moment is definitely living. When we wake up in the morning and see the light coming through every crack in the window and curtain, we don’t always pay attention to how beautiful it can be, we always run to advance the life full of more “important things”.

But if you stop to observe these little things that surround you, you will definitely have some insight the next time you shoot. The same can be said when you are coming home at night after a tiring day of work, and leave behind how beautiful the festival of lights produced by signs and traffic lights and their reflections.

Allowing yourself this kind of contemplation every now and then will not only help you see the world in a different way, but it will also make you feel completely different. All the new sensations that we experience daily help us a lot to be more creative. And using part of your time to capture new experiences will never be wasted time. 

Do not wait for the time to do something to fall from the sky on your lap, this will not happen. The tip here is to “invent” the time to do something you like, use your walks to the market to see the world differently, use what’s around you to release your imagination.

Just by practicing you start to open the doors of creativity. Otherwise you will always be stuck performing repetitive tasks, and you did not exercise creating anything.

2 – Reject perfectionism

I’ve talked a lot in other articles here on the blog about what I think about perfectionism, and it definitely is one of the biggest barriers for you to do something. You yourself have already stopped doing something because of perfectionism, everybody already.

This is not the best way for you to become more creative, as you are putting obstacles to your work yourself, and depriving yourself of constructive criticism that may appear halfway. Doing things only when everything looks good, or when you buy that new lens are not easy ways to be more creative every day

Always looking for the “perfect” moment will lead you to a big problem with procrastination, which in itself is already a huge problem. The more you procrastinate something the less you do it and the less you do it the less you learn, simple as that, you can’t be creative procrastinating. Don’t leave the photos that can be created today for tomorrow!

They say that haste is the enemy of perfection and I say that perfection is the enemy of evolution. After all, if you are “perfect” you will no more room to evolve!

3 – Lower your expectations 

One of the things that the world of digital photography brought to us was a distorted critical sense that was kind of distorted. Today, due to the ease of taking pictures, with a camera or a cell phone, it seems that we always have the opportunity to create a masterpiece, and in reality it is nothing like that.

“Twelve significant photographs in any one year is a good crop.

Ansel Adams

When Ansel used the phrase above to give an example, the photos were still made on film, so you couldn’t waste photos because they cost much more than they do today. There was not so much waste and not so many unnecessary photos, and digital took away all this planning for a photo, today it is click and post.

The problem with not understanding what a photograph really means is that people think they are great photographers just because they have certain equipment and are taking photos in a certain way, and do not accept any kind of criticism of their work.

The ease of the digital world brought along a lot of good people, but it also gave the opportunity to a lot of people who have no idea of what they are doing. If you are serious about what you are doing, or trying to do, use your eyes to create your art, but at the same time don’t set your expectations too high.

Especially when you are starting on anything the best thing we have to do is observe and learn, and try to be creative in the middle of everything just so your work will stand out.

Some people think that due to the size of the investment they have made, whether monetary or time, there is an obligation for results to appear over a certain period of time. And normally this time does not count with the period of learning and experimentation, it is as if or just by buying a car you can already drive, even if you do not have a driver’s license. 

And life is not like that, controlling your expectations is very important to not be frustrated with anything you are doing, photography is just one more. I see a lot of people complaining that their photos don’t get as many likes on Instagram, or that they’re not as sharp as the photos of somebody else, but these people never put the other side of the coin in vogue.

How much time did he or she spend learning the trade, how much time was spent just practicing observation and training the creative muscle?

It is easy to see the success of others, it is on display, it is difficult to see the path traveled to get there. So take yourself less seriously and be more understanding with your difficulties and failures they are going to make your walk richer.

4 – Use the power of silence

For many people it is indisputable that technology is improving our lives, for others it is ruining our days. And in a way we have to agree with both sides, it is much more comfortable not having to go to the bank today, point for technology. In contrast, it is very common to look the weather on your cell phone before getting up instead of opening the window and having the surprise of whether it is sunny or foggy, take the point out of the technology, because this situation can be magical.

In this case technology has ruined the way we relate to nature, because before getting up you can decide what to do or not to do, without having to use your creativity to perhaps having to think a little deeper on how you gonna do what you have to do.

Every time we raise our cell phones to get emails, about 15 times a day, we are creating a state of stress that prevents us from being creative, because now the brain is concerned with other things. This can be applied to the whole or our “digital being”, Instagram, Facebook and anything else online that takes your time out of the real world.

Learning to hear what the world around you is saying without having to compete with the sound of notifications makes you feel the world differently, so when I say that silence is powerful, believe me.

The feeling of freedom you will appear as soon as you let go of your “digital being”, and it will help you to be more creative. Create more space to enjoy the day, and decrease the space of certain “obligations” like checking Instagram 32 times in an hour, this way you will have more time to take pictures.

5 – Fear

This one prevents many people from being happy, in any sphere of life, it is a real villain when it comes to trying to be creative. There are more than one type of fear and it consumes people in different ways and for different reasons.

Imagine you are going to photograph on the streets of downtown São Paulo, what would be your fear? (I can talk like this about São Paulo, live there for more than a decade, and it is a struggle to feel safe in some planes of the city)

I bet the majority who know the city will say that fear is being robbed, and I agree it is a justifiable fear. But it’s also the big reason you don’t have any fuc**** good photos of the city.

Thinking about what the result may be, it is up to you to decide if you are going to face this fear or not. This is just a small example of how limiting fear can be. Being afraid of being asked by someone on the street just because you are taking pictures is also something that affects a lot of people, again there is the reason for not having cool street photos.

There are people who are afraid of heights, others of geckos, some are afraid of living, others are afraid of failing, the fear of not being so good, the fear of not being accepted, and there goes a lot of fears for you to go over.

These fears are just an indication that you want to do, but you are still not 100% confident in your swing, normal for any human being.

Here the thing:

1 – Face the fear and try to be as creative as possible with the situation that presents itself to you.

2 – Put the camera in the bag and lie in a fetal position waiting for the fear to pass. – Nothing sensitive on my part in this sentence, I know.

Facing your fear will always be a difficult path, but here is where you have the greatest ability to create solutions, be creative, and create something you are proud of. Facing fears make you grow in an exuberant way. And fear and pain is aways be an integral part of our lives, so we have nowhere to run unless we face it and deal with it. 

6 – Stop consuming and start doing

This can directly affect your productivity, be careful.

Stop just consuming and start creating now, it’s the best of the 7 easy ways to be more creative every day. The more time you spend creating the more you are being creative, no matter where or why you are creating, just create.

We spend a lot of time consuming content that is created by someone, usually someone we admire, and this can be a real shot in the foot. After all, if you want to create, you want to build, you want to be more creative and take your work to levels you never imagined, and this will not be done just by consuming.

The big difference between you and your idol is that he overcame fear, stopped consuming, and went on to create something. If you take the same path as him I guarantee that you will exercise your creativity much more, and will have much more results.

I’m not telling you to cancel all the subscriptions you have on YouTube, leave your idols or anything like that follow.

What I’m talking about is: – Decrease. Try to use more of your precious time to put into practice everything you’ve been learning.

Another type of consumption that you can reduce is the equipment that you think is necessary to be able to do something. This one is a trap because it is a loop between consumerism and perfectionism that results in procrastination. You don’t have to wait for that f / 1.4 lens to take great portraits, be creative and use what you have at your disposal now.

7 – Get started

Starting something is always the hardest part. When you hear the phrase: – Just start. You already remember the diet, the gym, the work. Like any human, we always need a little push to start doing something, whether this push is the #364challenge of life or someone helping you. You can give yourself such a push, just start!

Set aside time in your schedule to put into practice what you have been growing inside of you, be it a photo or cake recipe, it doesn’t matter. Setting aside this time to start something and using this time creatively will create a great bond between you and your art. Set aside time to enjoy things that inspire you, whatever it is, music, movies, walks, whatever.

Work with this in order to cultivate your creativity, use these moments as tools. You will see that there are just 7 easy ways to be more creative every day when you start creating, start doing something. The only time when you can decide something for sure is now, so start, don’t wait until tomorrow and don’t be afraid for yesterday. Ways to be creative will depend a lot on what you do and who you are, but all the points here will help you to be a better photographer.

If you have any other tips on how to be more creative use the comments.