Developing creativity – Hugh MacLeod says Ignore Everybody

“I hope I’m becoming more eccentric. More room in the brain.” Tom Waits

In his post Ignore Everybody (on his gapingvoid blog), Hugh MacLeod provides a stimulating list of tips to help us “be more creative, in art, in business, whatever.”

Here are some of those tips :

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

Hugh MacLeod is author of the upcoming book Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity.

British neuropsychologist David Weeks would no doubt agree with Tom Waits and a number of MacLeod’s tips. In his book Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness, Weeks says, “One of the principal reasons eccentrics continually challenge the established order is because they want to experiment, to try out new ways of doing things. That quality is most conspicuous in artists and scientists.”

From the page Eccentricity.  [Photo: bullhorn waits by rashbre.]

personal growth development, self growth, creative inspiration, developing creativity, developing multiple talents