How to Unlock Your Creativity and Have Better Ideas

In this episode, I explore what creativity really is, where great ideas come from, and why creativity is a skill that can be developed rather than a gift you’re born with. I share lessons from writing, business, music, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, along with practical ways to overcome creative blocks, generate better ideas, and build a more consistent creative practice in the age of AI.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

What's good guys? Hope you're doing well. So in this video we're going to talk about creativity. What is creativity? Where does it come from and how you can be more creative? So most of my life I've considered myself a creative person. Well, I say most of my life, I would identify it as a creative person. I've always gravitated towards the creative arts, whether it's drawing or painting at school, at college it became graphic design. Later it was playing guitar, writing songs, making music, making videos, and then business. I find it so satisfying taking a concept, an idea from my head, and then shaping it into something real, bringing it to the real world. That to me is the most satisfying thing. And for years I thought being a creative person was something you either had or you didn't have. I thought some people were just gifted and that the ideas just arrived effortlessly to them. And then sometimes I would sit and I would just try and do something creative, and I would just stare, and nothing would happen, nothing would come of it. But that's not really how creativity works. Like ideas emerge out of taking action, and the big the biggest obstacle to having more creative ideas usually isn't the lack of ideas. It's often how we judge the ideas that we do have which hold us back. Sometimes we dismiss certain ideas which which we have, we think that's stupid, someone else has done it, maybe no one will care, that's dumb. The moment we start judging everything that we that we think, then that puts the brakes on that creative, the creative flow and the creative juices flowing. You know, the ideas, they come and go. If you don't have a way of capturing them, they'll quickly vanish just as fast as they arrived. So my iPhone Notes app is filled with just random random ideas, random observations, and then my my videos on my iPhone are filled with random video recordings of me just talking in the car with ideas that make absolutely no sense when I watch them back six months later. Most of them will never become anything, I know this, but every now and then there is one idea that does stick, and those are the ideas which are actually worth pursuing. So I've been training jujitsu for six years, roughly, yeah, about six years now. And one of the biggest lessons I learned from jujitsu is forcing things rarely works, it's not the most effective way to do anything, to to win. And the harder you try and muscle your way out of something, a submission, or maybe it's an escape from a certain position, you become tired way, way faster. And the best people aren't the biggest, aren't the strongest, they don't fight with strength, they flow with, they use momentum, they use leverage to their advantage to win the fight. And creativity works really in much the same way. You cannot force an epic idea into existence. Sometimes it's writing, sometimes you have to go for a walk, sometimes having a conversation with a friend, and sometimes, if I'm being honest, is having a couple of beers. Having a couple of beers with your mates can help you get in the zone. I wouldn't recommend alcohol or any drugs for uh to enhance creativity, as I don't think you need them, but whatever it takes, you know. Writing is really how how I think now. So one of the reasons I started writing on Substack was because I needed somewhere to empty my mind, to dump my thoughts. Before this, I was using a written journal, a notepad. Um, my brain is constantly flooded with ideas, and I probably have undiagnosed ADHD. But writing, it helps me get clear, it helps me get everything out on paper, slow everything down, and it forces those random thoughts to become clear, and so I can actually process them. And once they're on the page, they become so much easier to determine whether they have value or not. Because creativity, right, is a muscle. Like most people think that the best writers, musicians, and artists have some kind of gift which makes them unique or special. Well, I don't think that is true. Sure, some have more natural talents than others, and I do believe that you should follow your your unfair advantage, they call it, in business and marketing. Whatever you're naturally gifted at, whatever you Naval Ravakant says you should do what feels like work to others but comes easy to you. That is where your zone of genius is, and the only way you know that is by trying different things. The best creatives are the people who keep showing up, really. They write when they don't feel like writing, they paint when nothing inspires them, they make another video after the last one got no views. Many sessions in the creative arts produce nothing at all, and it can feel like a waste of time, but every so often, when you hit gold, it makes it all worthwhile, and the great work often appears after dozens, maybe even hundreds of ordinary sessions that nobody sees. It's the work that's done behind closed doors which really produces the best outcomes, and being the more consistent you are with sitting down, writing, whatever creative art you are in, pursuit your you're doing, the more consistent you are, the better the results will be from that. So you must feed your brain new things all the time, novel ideas. Your brain loves familiarity, right? Like our brain wants to go to the least part, the path of least resistance, which is exactly where creativity goes to die. If every day looks the same, you just uh are uninspired. You you're not feeding your brain any new inputs to come up with new ideas and to connect dots. So whenever I feel mentally stuck, I go for a walk, I go to the gym, I move, I listen to music even sometimes, which I'd never normally choose. I'll go from metal to classical, from RB to pop, to hip-hop, to rap, and shocking your brain with different, stimulating your brain with new inputs, it really puts you in, it takes you out of your comfort zone and puts you in that zone of unfamiliarity where the best ideas are often found. I wonder around a secondhand bookshop, even you know, flick through some old records at a garage garage sale. Really, original ideas don't come from consuming more of what you're already doing, they often come from combining things which don't actually belong together. So trying different things, experiencing different ideas and different different ways of thinking, often this is what creates the best unique uh ideas, and this is where a lot of the best services, products, businesses have to often stemmed from this intersection of different interests. So your perspective really is the one thing now that AI can't copy. We're entering a world now where almost anyone can create anything with AI. You know, you can generate a book, you can generate a song in seconds. So, really, what separates you is your memories, your point of view, your humour, your experiences. No one has lived your life. That is your unfair advantage. Your job isn't to create something perfect, your job is to create something that only you have made. Something which other people can't replicate is your you as a person. So everything, and when you look around, everything around you was created by people from the TV, from this camera, air conditioning unit, the fan, books, songs, they all stem from an idea once upon a time. So, what's to stop you from generating the next idea, the next product, hit song, viral YouTube video, best-selling book? So don't wait until you feel inspired, just capture the messy ideas, write the first bad draft, publish something that is not perfect. Because real creativity isn't something you find, it's something that you build through action, and the more you create, the more creative you become. So that's it for today, guys. If you found this video inspiring or helpful, hit subscribe if you haven't already. Like the video, and I'll see you on the next one. Peace.