There comes a time when to take oneself seriously becomes the detriment to all creativity and innovation. The drudgery of a day alongside the monotony of tedious repetition brings with it a grayness that inundates the brain with a fog and blinds the eyes to potential. 

How can one cultivate spaces within likened to the windshield wipers on our cars, some element that will go back and forth and back and forth wiping away the dullness so as to see again?

I am a huge advocate for childlikeness in the workplace. I haven’t witnessed anything else like when that type of courage and creativity abounds, releasing a sense of innovative presence so intoxicating that it enlivens spaces lifting them up to new heights of achievement.  

What am I talking about? Have you ever watched a child head down a mountain on skis? The child tends to exhibit fearlessness filled with utter abandon. They’re delighted with the feeling of the wind upon their face, the speed upon their body invigorating beyond their words and experience to truly understand the potency of what they are creating for those that witness their feats. 

Keeping that image in your mind’s eye, trust me as you read that these 5 suggestions are the very ways for you to encounter creativity and innovative thinking today: 

1. Hum, whistle, or sing a tune 
2. Smile, laugh, or let a touch of giddiness in
3. Play, skip, hop, jump 
4. Act, serve, volunteer
5. Breathe

Now I give you the secret of success behind those 5 things:

1. Vocalize: Find your authentic voice and make a loud or soft sound. Speak and say what you want to say.
2. Meditate: Yes! Add joy and levity into your life. Laughter yoga is actually a thing. Start laughing even by force and notice the energy that enters your body.
3. Take yourself a little less seriously: When we strain and stress, strive and push, we touch blockage after blockage and hurdle after hurdle. In those other moments when we distract or move, break up the tension and shake it off, creativity comes forward. There is a reason the ancients beckoned us to cease striving. Play is the creative force that brings success as we drop into our bodies and stop overthinking everything.
4. Think about someone else, do something for someone else, and make moments that are about someone else. In serving and acting on another’s behalf, you will grow into different spaces, see moments from another perspective, feel more human, and connect to others.
5. We are a culture of shallow breathers, breath holders and stuck breathing individuals. No wonder why we feel run down and stuck. I’m notorious for running my car down to the fumes only to feel the consequences when I’m stuck on the side of the road waiting for my son to bring me a container of gasoline. I know too many people who live their lives that way, wondering why they feel ragged, run down and stressed. It is amazing to watch the transformation that even a few longer breaths can bring. While I could teach you dozens of “official” ways to breathe that have fancy and important names, I would rather you simply take 5 longer breaths three to four times today. Pause and center yourself in the moment, leave your eyes open, and take the longer breath in through your nose allowing the exhale to leave through your mouth.

“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.” – Oprah Winfrey

It is time to break up the lethargy, stir up your being and step forward with a renewed sense of purpose, energy and capacity to achieve. Taking to heart the simple things that might seem obvious to some yet in our busyness are too often overlooked, will help us to nurture levity, creativity along with a workflow that catapults us through the afternoon hours into incredible moments of success.

How do you spark up creativity in your life? Share your advice with us below!