In the late summer of 2007, Lin-Manuel Miranda was in search of something to read while on vacation in Mexico. He happened upon Ron Chernow’s historical biography, Alexander Hamilton, and little did he know, it would change the course of his career as a composer, lyricist, and actor. Miranda attributes his interest in history and politics to his father, political advisor Luis A. Miranda. As he read through the book, he started to envision the Founding Fathers as hip-hop artists. Miranda is a polymath, an expert in multiple domains, who believes in the power of connecting knowledge and ideas from different fields. Polymaths are creative thinkers who expand disciplines and shift our thinking about each discipline.
The ability to think creatively is not limited to those in the arts. Reed Hastings, CEO of Netflix, Jo Ann Jenkins, CEO of AARP, Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, and Dr. Katalin Kariko, messenger RNA biology pioneer, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, are just a few examples of individuals who harness the power of creative thinking.
Building creative habits is a practice that can lead to worthwhile ideas and innovation. Like building any good habit, such as a daily commitment to healthy food choices and exercise, building creative habits requires effort and persistence.
Here are some creative habits that are not only revitalizing but enjoyable:
1. Practice extreme curiosity: Being curious opens your mind to new knowledge and questions that can unlock idea-producing insights. Curiosity compels you to learn all you can about your discipline and to keep learning about it. To become an expert in something, you must keep learning and practicing. Curiosity also fuels one’s desire to learn about different subjects, which can help you recognize, perceive, and conceive ideas.
2. Be hyper-observant: Get into the practice of noticing things you see, hear, and feel. Observational humorists, like Alonzo Bodden, Michelle Buteau, and Negin Farsad, observe and point out unnoticed or prosaic daily occurrences, fostering new ways to look at old things. Being observant and paying attention to one’s environment can lead to groundbreaking discoveries.
3. Try seeing through a new lens: Our personal perspective is the lens through which we see the world shaped by our experiences, education, family, friends, and communities. Multiple-perspective thinking allows you to mentally walk in others’ shoes, look at a situation, idea, life lived, or an event from the viewpoints of people different from yourself. This shift in perspective adds a fuller dimension to your thinking, ensuring greater creative outcome.
4. Change up the channel of communication: Incorporate different ways of communicating and presenting your ideas, such as incorporating video or music, that resonates with new audiences. This way, you get to tackle unique problems and engage new people.
5. Ask, what if…? This question encourages you to speculate and imagine outside the box. Any probing question—“If only…” or “I wonder…”—works to seed ideas, foster a creative mindset, determine goals, and in turn, raise other questions.
In summary, building creative habits is an investment in one’s personal and professional growth. Like healthy habits, the rewards of building creative habits will start to become evident over time. Mirandas’ curiosity led to his reading of a historical biography, which inspired his creation of Hamilton, the smash-hit Broadway musical. Anyone can be creative by practicing and developing these habits; the possibilities are endless!