Originality for Success 101: Discover the Knowledge on How to Become Truly Innovative
Most people would probably say to you that there’s nothing original to be conceived by creative individuals anymore. They would most likely say that everything we experience today isn’t exactly fresh and something being purported as “new” is simply an amalgamation of various existing concepts.
But when you really think about it, originality is simply a matter of how people perceive the world around them because something that might be viewed as redundant for some people may be viewed as completely innovative for others. Subjectivity, however, is not the be-all and end-all for what constitutes as an original concept, as people are constantly trying to find ways to break out of their comfort zones and explore things that they feel would push them to their creative limits.
The process of creation can sometimes be marked with periods of difficulty, especially if you’re trying to do some work that requires consistently fresh output. Coming up with original ideas might be challenging, but certainly not impossible to achieve. Anyone can pretty much conceive of an idea that no one else has come up with before; it’s just a matter of tapping into one’s imagination and creativity in order to produce thoughts that can transform into feasible results which could propel you further up the career ladder.
In fact, some of the world’s most foremost thinkers, innovators, creators, and captains of industry all achieved their successes because they were able to harness their creative energies on a frequent basis. Following the best practices of these prosperous individuals is ideal when you’re aiming to become a bonafide person with original thoughts in your line of work. Look to the helpful pieces of advice listed below to start your journey to true originality.
Generate a wealth of ideas
If you’re able to study all of the greatest creative minds in history—from musicians and mathematicians to painters and philosophers—then you’ll realize that the were able to produce an insane amount of ideas in order to produce the exceptional body of work that they did within their entire lifetime. What separates them from their peers is that they simply had the determination and persistence to produce concepts and ideas at a rate that might be considered intimidating to others.
Although this might seem like an impossible hurdle to conquer, you shouldn’t be afraid to push your boundaries since nothing will be gained if you don’t make any efforts to get out of your comfort zone. You must have the courage to unlock the full potential of your mental capacities so that you’ll generate plenty of ideas which can be used in a wide variety of practical applications.
The reason for doing this leap of creative faith is that originality stems from the creation of a wealth of ideas as opposed to just coming up with one or a few paltry suggestions. If you just come up with a few half-baked concepts, then chances are that those notions you came up with are usually the most obvious or something that others have already thought up in the first place before you did. You must be savvy enough to remove the most obvious things so that you’ll arrive to new and unexpected places which is the goal of achieving originality.
Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to miss this crucial lesson. They fall in love with their first idea, or they end up questioning whether they have the ability to come up with more ideas. So one of the things creative individuals need to be doing more often is encouraging others to generate lots and lots of ideas, knowing that you’re going to spew out a lot of garbage in order to attain greatness at the end of the road.
Judge your concepts objectively
A common mistake that most people make when they come up with ideas is the sense of overconfidence and belief that what they’ve produced is beyond criticism. It’s never a good idea to fall into this kind of thinking because ideas are never foolproof, and so you must be able to judge your concepts with an objective point of view and be judicious when you’re trying to come up with a list of pros and cons of your proposals.
However, if you’re unsure that you cannot judge your own ideas in an objective manner, then it’s best to present your ideas to other individuals who’ll be able to give their opinions on whether you have something that has the potential to succeed or something that needs a little bit more improvement before it can be sent out into the world. Talking with other like-minded individuals about your ideas helps to strengthen your creative process.
In order to make your thoughts be more original, you have to ask yourself whether your ideas can appeal to an audience rather than asking yourself if what you’ve conceived is similar to what’s been done in the past. Judging ideas can be hard, but it’s certainly not the end of the world if some of them fail to pass the rigorous judging process. What you need to do to become better at judging ideas is to teach yourself to think in a more creative or out-of-the-box perspective.
Through this method, it will become less challenging for you to judge ideas because you’re looking at them from every single aspect possible compared to just viewing it from a narrow angle. Allowing yourself to be immersed in this particular mindset of generating new alternatives and thinking creatively increases your awareness and your ability to be more open-minded with undiscovered ideas. You’re much more likely to succeed with what you want to do if this is the route you’ll be taking.
Age is not a determining factor
Most people are under the assumption that original ideas are largely thought up by young creatives, when in reality, this isn’t necessarily the case. Many working professionals have been told by their superiors over and over again that they need to come up with all their innovative and creative ideas early in their careers because—at some point later on—they’re either going to run out of original thoughts or they’re most likely going to get too stuck in conventional wisdom, which could be detrimental to their continuously evolving progress.
However, there have been cases throughout history and even in modern times that great ideas aren’t exclusively in the domain of young minds considering that many innovations and creations were the products of creative individuals with age and experience gained to their names. Simply put, it doesn’t really matter how old you are because the best original ideas are the result of being exposed to life experiences.
You could think about experience as having both assets and liabilities. On the one hand, there’s a high probability that you will get more entrenched. When you know a specific subject matter better and better, you’re more likely to internalize the assumptions that everyone else shares. It’s harder to look at a problem through fresh eyes.
On the other hand, one of the things you can bring if you have more experience is some degree of breadth. As you learn more about about a certain branch of knowledge, or if you can gain experience in other fields of interest—and the older you are, the more of those knowledge bases you can learn—you can start importing and exporting ideas from one place to another, which gives you a great advantage because all original ideas come out of a culmination of depth and breadth.
So don’t worry too much if you’re still young and you haven’t yet thought about an idea that could change your life for the better. You’ll have plenty of time to reach a point in your life when you’re old and experienced enough to refine your thoughts and generate the best ideas after exhibiting a great degree of patience.
