With a simple internet search, you’ll quickly realize that there is a plethora of resources designed to equip you with the qualities you need to rise to the top and be the ultimate success.  While these can be very interesting and even helpful, there are many other practical attributes that often get dismissed in the process.  The development of leadership qualities often tends to take the forefront in the “how to succeed” literature in the blogosphere, and there is no doubt that these are attributes you cannot be without in order to make it and maintain your hard earned success. However, it might be time to take a closer look at the lesser noticed but nonetheless highly valuable skills sets that will assist in growing your business and helping you reach the goals you want.

Regular Reading- Informational and Otherwise

Reading. Boring? Maybe. But not if you’re doing it right.  Outside of your regular workload, do you read anything that expands your mental capacity? Are you learning anything new? Chances are that if you are not reading anything new, your ability to process information is diminishing, or at best stagnating.  The creativity it takes to succeed doesn’t just happen – it comes from being able to focus as well as gain vision.  Vision comes from constructing a picture in your mind based on word description; this can be fiction, non-fiction, and even directions.  It provides an exercise in fine-tuning your ability to focus on one particular task while improving memory.  Furthermore, one of the most underrated and overlooked values of becoming well-read in today’s society is a markedly improved vocabulary, along with communication smarts, and refined oratory prowess. Any successful individual will tell you that speaking well is key. Creativity is great.  Creativity you can communicate?  A priceless characteristic.

Secretarial Know-How

Don’t forego what you might regard as menial tasks and the dexterity it takes to do them, and concentrate solely on power in your drive to become successful.  If you can’t operate a multi-line phone system, run the all-in-one fax/printer/copier in the center of your office complex, alphabetize those files and touch type, you will not be as successful as you hope to be. Why? Because you can’t multi-task.  Secretarial know-how is defined as multi-tasking savvy. Organizing, scheduling, answering calls, performing the art of touch typing with finesse and running that all-in-one office machinery at the same time is something that keeps any office running smoothly. Secretarial dexterity ensures you won’t soon forget how to manage these humble but vital tasks. Keep doing some of your own secretarial work.  This skillset is the lifeblood of success, and it will keep you appreciating those who work under you.

Appropriate Optimism

Having a good attitude and outcome-driven outlook is important.  Also important is appropriate optimism.  Many people sacrifice honesty for optimism in the hopes that it will be the magic ingredient to changing a flat-lining operation. Becoming discouraged is not helpful either. What you need is a fine balance between the two extremes.  No one appreciates the sugary, hyperactive optimist when the reality of difficulty is facing them. This often reads as disingenuous (even deceitful) to your workplace contemporaries.  On the other side, the doomsday, freakout, all-is-lost approach kills any creativity and productivity you might have otherwise inspired.  Without losing sight of the situation – good, bad or indifferent – you will rouse others to their fullest potential by building your reputation as someone who can be counted on to be honest about the circumstances.  Sometimes the optimism comes from your ability to get creative (and here’s where you can rely on your well-read mind). Sometimes it’s communicated by your willingness to lend a hand in menial task accomplishment (where your secretarial know-how shines) that creates an atmosphere of caring, teamwork, possibility and optimism.

In closing, you don’t rise to the top by dusting off your prior experience, and not solely by the latest and greatest tips on success.  You rise to the top by polishing even further the attributes you may once have assumed were a waste of your time, the attributes you assumed you would get to never do again once you succeeded. Never forget where you came from, and you’ll never struggle to remember where you’re going.

Some would argue that bookstores are becoming a thing of the past given today’s digital age and the rise of e-reading. Many point to international book retailer Borders as an example. At one point, there were over 500 Borders superstores in the United States, with additional stores in Singapore, New Zealand and Australia. The company was eventually forced into bankruptcy, both due to poor business planning and foresight and also due to the increasing selection of online booksellers and the rise of digital media.

While Borders was undone, this doesn’t need to be the fate of all bookstores in the 21st century. As convenient as e-reading is today, it cannot replace human contact. Bookstores around the world are showing real innovation in how they’re working to keep the magic of the written word alive and make the corner bookstore a fun place to spend an afternoon, catch up with friends and even work on English skills in a comfortable setting.

How Bookstores are Embracing the Digital Age and Staying Relevant

Across the world there are great examples of bookstores large and small that manage to stay relevant and compete with the instant access, cheap prices and huge selection on the Internet.

One small, independent bookstore in the United States opened just a few years ago as dozens of nearby bookstores shut their doors. The store didn’t just scrape by, though, it managed to turn an ever-growing profit month after month with an innovative strategy. This bookstore owner installed his own printing press to compete with the Internet’s inventory, giving him the ability to print 5 million books, including Google Books, as well as offer custom publishing. Readers can enter his store, request a hard-to-find book or out-of-print book, and have it in hand in about four minutes.

The future of bookstores may even go further in this embrace of new technology, perhaps letting shoppers download a digital copy of a book over free Wi-Fi access in the store, or offering the option of a dual pack book with an in-store book purchase that includes the printed version as well as digital or audio versions.

Bookstores Offer the Human Experience

One thing that e-books cannot offer is the human experience and the ability to socialize and get out in the world while staying informed and catching up on the latest sci-fi or thriller release. Bookstores of the past were a place to relax with friends, have a drink and take in a newspaper or a book, and many bookstores today are trying to bring that back.

A bookstore chain in China’s Shanghai region is reintroducing people to the charm of bookstores by incorporating food, beverages and even a stationary outlet into the store itself. These customer-oriented bookstores attract readers and offer a new spin on book-selling by creating a comfortable, laid-back atmosphere where people can spend some time reading.

Re-embracing the Bookstore

If it’s been a while since you’ve even set foot inside a bookstore, it may be time for you to re-embrace the charm of a neighborhood bookstore to catch up on your reading. Along with catching up on the news and current events, reading English books can be a great way to gain more familiarity with words and spelling, and there is no better way to practice your reading than finding a great book that catches your attention and sparks your imagination!

These days it seems as if anyone can become a self-published blogger or online writer. It only takes a word editor and basic writing skills. Or does it?

Yes, there are bloggers who’ve been blogging for over two decades now. There are people who are leading experts in their field, and blogging about what they know comes naturally to them. But what about the rest of us, the small and medium businesses, the freelance professionals and the solopreneurs who wish to run and maintain a blog? Is it feasible to become a blogger if you’ve never really had a way with words?

Becoming a blogger is a process that assumes that you:

• Love and know your subject

• Have excellent writing skills

• Have a marketing plan and stick to it no matter what

People who are passionate about and experts at what they do will have no trouble finding topics to talk about on their blog. You’ll find that especially if you’re a leader in your niche market, you will see how quickly people will become dedicated blog readers.

However, when it comes to writing skills, you won’t keep those readers if your English isn’t in tip-top shape. Yes, typos and misspellings do happen and people will forgive them or ignore them occasionally, but if you fail to abide by simple 4th grade grammar rules, this will harm your blog and the reputation you’re trying to build around your brand.

If you want to start a blog, ensure you first brush up your writing skills — especially spelling and vocabulary. Even if at first you’re only using text messages or a Twitter feed, make sure you know the meaning of the words you’re using, and that you’re spelling them correctly. Proper English and good grammar will never go out of style. By ensuring you write professionally in every medium, you’ll create a stepping stone towards writing blogs that will (potentially) go viral.

Bloggers who are fanatically followed and read by their communities are the ones who have self-improvement and self-education as their top priorities. These are people who are able to contribute new ideas, introduce new perspectives, and find new ways to solve a problem or unveil an ignored factor people couldn’t see before.

That being said, ensure you are active in your market so that you know what you’re writing about. Learn about the latest developments, see what’s trending, and take note of what is falling in popularity. Learn new words and concepts introduced in your market and in the wider social discourse as well. This way, your writing will reflect this relevancy and radiate the self-confidence of a knowledgeable, expert blogger.

Finally, remember some basic rules for blogging:

• Write in a conversational tone. Use “you” a lot to make the blog post more shareable and personal.

• Storytelling is a great hook. Use this technique to intrigue readers into staying on the page.

• Write compelling content. Use numbers, cite studies, and share stats to drive a point home. These help build trust.

Cross-posted on the Vocabulary Improvement blog.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments

<div align=”center”><img class=”pinthis” src=”http://www.ultimatevocabulary.com/images/blog/writing_as_professional.jpg” alt=”” /></div>

<hr />

<p dir=”ltr”>These days it seems as if anyone can become a self-published blogger or online writer. It only takes a word editor and basic writing skills. Or does it?</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>Yes, there are bloggers who’ve been blogging for over two decades now. There are people who are leading experts in their field, and blogging about what they know comes naturally to them. But what about the rest of us, the small and medium businesses, the freelance professionals and the solopreneurs who wish to run and maintain a blog? Is it feasible to become a blogger if you’ve never really had a way with words?</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>Becoming a blogger is a process that assumes that you:</p>

<ul>
<li dir=”ltr”>
<p dir=”ltr”>Love and know your subject</p>
</li>
<li dir=”ltr”>
<p dir=”ltr”>Have excellent writing skills</p>
</li>
<li dir=”ltr”>
<p dir=”ltr”>Have a marketing plan and stick to it no matter what</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p dir=”ltr”>People who are passionate about and experts at what they do will have no trouble finding topics to talk about on their blog. You’ll find that especially if you’re a leader in your niche market, you will see how quickly people will become dedicated blog readers.</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>However, when it comes to writing skills, you won’t keep those readers if your English isn’t in tip-top shape. Yes, typos and misspellings do happen and people will forgive them or ignore them occasionally, but if you fail to abide by simple 4th grade grammar rules, this will harm your blog and the reputation you’re trying to build around your brand.</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>If you want to start a blog, ensure you first brush up your writing skills — especially spelling and vocabulary. Even if at first you’re only using text messages or a Twitter feed, make sure you know the meaning of the words you’re using, and that you’re spelling them correctly. Proper English and good grammar will never go out of style. By ensuring you write professionally in every medium, you’ll create a stepping stone towards writing blogs that will (potentially) go viral.</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>Bloggers who are fanatically followed and read by their communities are the ones who have self-improvement and self-education as their top priorities. These are people who are able to contribute new ideas, introduce new perspectives, and find new ways to solve a problem or unveil an ignored factor people couldn’t see before.</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>That being said, ensure you are active in your market so that you know what you’re writing about. Learn about the latest developments, see what’s trending, and take note of what is falling in popularity. Learn new words and concepts introduced in your market and in the wider social discourse as well. This way, your writing will reflect this relevancy and radiate the self-confidence of a knowledgeable, expert blogger.</p>
<p dir=”ltr”>Finally, remember some basic rules for blogging:</p>

<ul>
<li dir=”ltr”>
<p dir=”ltr”>Write in a conversational tone. Use “you” a lot to make the blog post more shareable and personal.</p>
</li>
<li dir=”ltr”>
<p dir=”ltr”>Storytelling is a great hook. Use this technique to intrigue readers into staying on the page.</p>
</li>
<li dir=”ltr”>
<p dir=”ltr”>Write compelling content. Use numbers, cite studies, and share stats to drive a point home. These help build trust.</p>
</li>
</ul>

<em>Cross-posted on the <a href=”http://www.ultimatevocabulary.com/2014/09/play-with-words-become-a-blogger-yourself” target=”_blank”>Vocabulary Improvement</a> blog.</em>

<hr />

<strong><em>Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments</em></strong>

Mind-mapping is visual thinking. It’s an information processing model that lets you represent information in a way that involves a part of your brain that helps you see connections. You can tell from recent technological and cultural trends that visualization and graphic imagery is gaining ground as an effective form of presenting information.

Think of Pinterest and infographics for instance; both are image-based models of information portrayal and their popularity keeps on increasing.

Mind-mapping skills help you process information quickly and easily and let you retrieve that information at any time. When combined, mind-mapping and speed reading can become your tools for achieving astonishing new records of information assimilation.

Why mind-mapping will help you process information faster:

Succinct

You can succinctly illustrate complex relationships (causation, correlation) by activating your mind-mapping skills. When reading you can visually represent, either mentally or on paper, incoming information in ways that are instantly understood.

In particular, if mind mapping is done in your head, you can save yourself great amounts of information processing time, boosting your reading speed even further.

Information-friendly

Another characteristic of mind-mapping is that it’s the ideal method when it comes to factual information processing and acquisition. Being efficient in mind-mapping means you are capable of easily identifying key connections, grasping complex concepts, and arriving at conclusions fast and correctly.

Think of mind-mapping as your tool for taking information and turning it into active knowledge. When speed reading you need an approach that takes information, processes it and yields back knowledge, all done at high speed. That’s what mind-mapping does, by helping you process and understand new information. With such an efficiency tool, you are more likely to read faster, thereby increasing your productivity and overall benefits.

Time-efficient

Mind-mapping helps increase your reading efficiency. It allows you to create visual images on the go; every new clue, sentence or paragraph is processed and added to the existing network of connections and relationships. In this manner, your knowledge continues to grow at an efficient speed and pace.

These three features of mind-mapping – being succinct, information-friendly and time-efficient – are what makes it a great skill to consider if you wish to read and assimilate new information faster.

While speed reading as an approach is a complete method in itself, by using this technique along with mind-mapping you can unlock more of speed reading’s power in the struggle to conquer information overload.

Advantages of Mind-mapping

One of the major advantages of mind mapping is that it’s a system that favors information retention and usage.

Mind-mapping is more than visually processing/representing information, it’s about finding ways to understand, store and use new information in an efficient, instant and productive manner.

Another advantage of mind-mapping is that it’s an integrated approach to information processing. It forces you to connect new to existing information, draw complex conclusions, see the bigger picture, revise previous and irrelevant opinions and overall, become a critical thinker who actively engages with information in order to transform it into knowledge.

In a nutshell, mind-mapping makes reading strategic and purposeful.

The relationship  between mind-mapping and speed reading is a mutually reinforcing one. The better you become in one, the better the other will become. This is a process that keeps evolving the more you practice, making you a better, faster reader with an outstanding amount of knowledge and wisdom at your fingertips.

Have you ever wondered how words can affect your perception of reality, let alone your emotions and self-image? Words don’t just express emotions or ideas — their function is not purely communicative — and words can in fact have an enduring and substantial influence on your self-esteem.

Limiting yourself to static, negative words and phrases harms your sense of self-worth. Confidence partly stems from how we perceive ourselves and partly from how we believe others perceive us. Therefore, by broadening your vocabulary, enriching it with affirmative phrases and words, you give yourself the vocabulary you need to describe yourself in the best possible light.

Urban lifestyles force us to use a limited vocabulary on our day to day activities. In fact, we try to communicate with the fewest possible words to save time and get things done faster.

What if we could do something more constructive instead?

What if we consciously chose meaningful and emotionally charged words to describe our feelings, intentions, and thoughts? Then we would get a more rewarding experience of ourselves and our reality, encouraging a more positive approach to life.

By improving your vocabulary you equip yourself with new concepts to describe and experience your identity. On the other hand, a limited vocabulary is limiting: it doesn’t let you fully explore the positive qualities and sensibilities that you have, it doesn’t let you acknowledge and articulate them and, by extension, appreciate your self-worth.

Therefore, consciously strive to enrich your vocabulary with affirmative, meaningful words that can uplift, motivate, and support you. Learn and express affirmative words that highlight your assets, your qualities, and your uniqueness.

Sensibilities

even-tempered, solicitous, fair-minded, optimistic, unostentatious

Qualities

zealous, sagacious, high-reaching, inspirational, joyful

Traits

organized, conscientious, autonomous, judicious, dedicated

Here are three more words that you can use to describe yourself:

Sagacious

It’s the synonym for shrewd and smart. You might consider yourself shrewd and intelligent, but these are words that have lost their momentum because they’re worn-out from daily use. Sagacious, on the other hand, has a different kind of power and vibe to it. It is a word that’s uncommon, and out of the ordinary, instantly giving you a more strong impression as to its capacity and reach.

Asserting that you are sagacious rather than clever, you visualize yourself in a much more flattering light. The same can be said for all of the other words in the lists above.

Offbeat

Using offbeat to describe your inclination to be peculiarly unique has an entirely different ring to it. By describing yourself as offbeat, instead of weird or strange, you assign an affirmative quality to your self-identity. This word helps emphasize your uniqueness and brings out your uncommon but fresh take on life.

Quixotic

Refers to people who are idealists, who are inclined to be romantic and at times excessively utopian. Asserting and endorsing your quixotic nature lets you take this quality and invest it in ways that can be practical and beneficial. Others might consider your starry-eyed stance unrealistic and immature, but if you embrace your quixoticism you take what’s considered a weakness and turn it into an asset.

By enriching your vocabulary with affirmative words like these you create a pool of dynamic and agreeable concepts you can use to improve your self-image and change the way you look at yourself and your life. Ultimate Vocabulary software can be your primary tool to taking this essential step.

Is typing competency gender-specific? Do men have an inborn tendency to become great typists, or is it the other way around?

According to the US census back in 1910, 8 in 10 typists in the country were women. Women were just starting to enter the labor market and typing jobs were considered the perfect job for a woman — diligently typing away what their male bosses would dictate.

Typewriter manufacturers like Remington used to design their  first typewriter models with women in mind. In fact, typewriters would be adorned with flowers and other feminine décor to make women more comfortable working on them – or so the theory went.

Fast forward to the 21st century and everyone is today using keyboards and typing in one way or another. Who’s better at it?

Anatomy

It’s a matter of anatomy, many argue. Women often have slender wrists and dainty fingers and so their hands are more easily capable of efficiently and error-free typing away on a keyboard, which often has small, close-set keys.

In contrast to the more “manly” and often larger and more cumbersome hands, women’s anatomy seems to make them better at typing and other activities that require manual dexterity, like crocheting for instance.

However we shouldn’t forget that unless a man is in manual work that stresses and thickens knuckles and joints, men’s hands can be equally long and nimble, thus perfectly capable for touch-typing accurately and quickly.

Motor skills

Others in the scientific (and sometimes pseudo-scientific) fields seem to believe that women tend to have naturally better sensory-motor coordination than men.

A new study showed that young women have better visual-sensory motor skill coordination than their male counterparts, an argument many times confirmed. It is believed that women excel in fine motor skills while men are better at motor skills that necessitate more strength rather than accuracy.

A remnant stereotype

The stereotypical presentation of the subtly flirtatious secretary has also contributed in how we regard women as more naturally belonging in front of a typewriter/computer. It’s the aesthetically pleasing image of a hard-working, beautiful typist, elegantly and adeptly keystroking on her typewriter. A male secretary is, to this day, sadly an unusual sight in the professional world; something doesn’t seem quite right. What many people forget is that back in the 17th and 18th centuries, all “secretaries” were men!

Men can be better typists than women – or not

Many men tend to be seriously goal-driven and competitive and thus they learn to touch type efficiently to advance their career. Women may not be so concerned with career-ladder climbing, and they make do with an average word per minute score – or so some people say.

In fact, touch typing is a manual dexterity skill that’s gender-blind. Anyone with the willingness to devote adequate practice time to the process can learn to type efficiently and well. Touch typing is a skill that is equally available to men and women alike, and is decidedly a matter of practice, exposure, and expert learning.

Motor skills and visual-sensory coordination are skills anyone can improve on irrespective of their gender. Men and women alike can learn to touch type efficiently thanks to typing classes or with the use of typing software like Ultimate Typing.

Apparently, factors such as profession and lifestyle affect a person’s typing efficiency more than gender ever will. A programmer or data entry employee, for instance, is someone who is expected to have lightning fast typing efficiency, which is something they learn and improve on with practice.

To say men are better typists than women or the other way around is to lose sight of how touch typing is ultimately a skill that anyone can excel at.

Learning English is now made easy with the wide range of resources available over the internet. Initially, the valuable resources that taught the necessary English grammar and spelling knowledge tended to be priced fairly high, making it impossible for people on a budget (such as students) to easily purchase them. However, with the passage of time, the rising level competition in the market, and the availability of e-reading material means that books have become more competitively priced, making it easier for individuals to learn English without straining their budget. Here is a list of five books that provide the necessary English spelling and grammar knowledge while being cost effective.

Essential Grammar in Use with Answers: A Self-Study Reference and Practice Book for Elementary Students of English

Raymond Murphy (Author)

This grammar book is highly recommended by teachers and professionals and is described as a complete guide towards learning the basics of English grammar. The latest third edition has been updated and now offers more exercises and learning material for readers. The book is also known for its clarity and easy language that allows students and learners to absorb the information quickly. The book also contains answers to exercises, which mean that learners that wish to study on their own will find no difficulty. Lastly, a summary is also included within the book that highlights all the key grammar rules, making it ideal for a quick revision and review.

Advanced Grammar in Use with Answers [Paperback]

Martin Hewings (Author)

This book is specifically designed for students that are at an advanced stage of learning English. The latest version focuses on the technicalities present within the English language and allows advanced learners to grasp the underlying concepts with greater clarity. A section of the book also focuses on basic grammar thereby allowing students to review previous concepts before studying any further. The book is an ideal resource for self studying as the clarity of language and availability of answers mean that little or no help is required.

Improve Your Spelling in English: Materials for Learning and Teaching – Students’ Workbook

Meryl Wilkins (Author)

This comprehensive guide is ideal for students and teachers that are seeking to discover strategies that can significantly accelerate the spelling learning process. The book includes a range of exercises that focuses on various areas within English vocabulary and allows learners to focus on learning strategies that target different aspects of spelling.

Basic Spelling

Michael Temple (Author)

This book is specifically designed for learners that are at the “beginner” stage of learning spelling. The book highlights a range of words and letter combinations that are frequently misspelled and focuses upon words that are commonly used in communication. The book is highly recommended for anyone that initially wishes to target their personal area of weakness and practice from an array of exercises that focuses on an extensive range of words in common use.

Have you heard of the word “autodidacticism”? It’s a compound word made from the roots auto- (Greek for self, same) and didacticism (education, learning). Autodidacticism therefore means “self-education” – the process of willingly immersing yourself in a body of knowledge in order to obtain new insights, skills, or information.

In other words, whenever you are teaching yourself something you’re considered a self-teacher, an autodidact.

An autodidact is someone who critically and willingly seeks out knowledge. Autodidacticism is by definition the informal, private, self-teaching process during which the self-educator gathers, processes, absorbs, and uses new knowledge.

Who’s an autodidact then?

Anyone can be an autodidact! An 8-year old girl who, led by curiosity, flicks through “Vanity Fair” (either the book or the magazine) is exhibiting an autodidactic tendency, for instance.

At any time when a person is making a focused attempt to acquire new knowledge in a private setting, this is considered autodidacticism. So, by and large, when a person expresses a motivation or willingness to learn something, he or she is an autodidact.

Autodidacticism fact sheet

• An autodidact is a self-educator, someone who is a teacher and a learner at the same time
• Autodidacticism is often carried out informally and privately, although an autodidact might consult and discuss with others to elaborate or challenge what he/she learns
• Autodidacticism can start at any point in a person’s life and end (or not) when desired
• Autodidacticism is not limited to using books; from craftsmanship skills to history and astronomy, virtually any material is considered an appropriate body of knowledge
• Autodidacticism stems from a person’s need to acquire more knowledge than other settings (school, family, friends) are capable of providing
• Autodidacticism is the result of human inquisitiveness, the urge to engage with lifelong learning on a discipline or matter you are passionate about

Key features of autodidacticism

• The self-learner has full control over their learning (from topic to knowledge depth, to study hours and learning approach)
• Autodidacticism is often spurred by the individual’s passion and thirst for knowledge
• Unlike conventional educational settings, autodidacticism is a conscious, self-imposed activity the learner takes great pleasure in

How do you become an autodidact?

Everyone at one point or another has  engaged with autodidacticism. Reading a poem at school and then going to the public library to read more of that talented artist’s work, being inspired by a friend’s soap-making talent and then watching YouTube videos to learn how to make soap yourself, even trying out a new recipe – these are all examples of autodidacticism.

Find a hobby, craft, discipline, art, or sport you’re passionate about. The first step to mastering it is immersing yourself in the existing literature and documentation around it. This could be anything from books and online articles, to videos and discussions with experts about it.

Autodidacticism is greatly advanced when you have a fit, strong memory. A good memory helps you process and understand new knowledge at your own pace by recalling it often for deeper, critical processing.

Autodidacticism is a completely beneficial habit to acquire. It ensures you learn things of true interest that help you become a better qualified person in what you love and are passionate about. Being a self-taught individual gives you a discerning edge over those who don’t engage with lifelong self-directed learning. If there’s a good time to become an autodidact, it’s now!

Creativity, the ability to “think outside the box,” is a trait that is sought by employers in both their potential and current employees. Any individual who is creative, the thinking goes, will be able to design solutions that are innovative and yet still compatible in the existing business environment. However, many individuals struggle to tap their inner creativity. This usually results in lack of productivity and the inability to be innovative and combat change effectively. Here is a list of ten methods that you can apply in your daily life in order to become more creative.

Reading

Reading fiction that is far from reality, such as “Alice in Wonderland,” can significantly enhance the power of your subconscious to be creative. Reading is an activity can be performed before beginning or before completing a difficult task, as absurdity or unrealistic stories can allow you to unleash your creativity.

Understanding the Problem

Rather than dwelling on the complexities present within the solution to a problem, experts recommend higher focus on the problem itself. Re-conceptualizing the problem can allow you to think of creative solutions and design a solution that offers the greatest benefit.

Projecting in Time

Studies reveal that individuals are able to design more creative solutions to the task at hand by projecting the task into the future. This means that rather than thinking about the problems that you will encounter tomorrow, think about a year or a decade from now, and design solutions to your existing and potential future problems at the same time.

Letting Your Imagination Run Wild

Using counterfactuals – statements that express conditions that are contrary to existing known facts – can significantly boost creativity, a recent study revealed. Imagining the opposite of what has happened can allow individuals to tackle problems from a different perspective. Counterfactuals can involve either removing barriers that create a hindrance or adding resources that can significantly accelerate the achievement process.

Design Solutions to All Your Problems at Once

Rather than tackling one problem at a time, psychologists recommend thinking about a variety of problems simultaneously. This will allow you to enhance your creativity while also recalling similar problems that you have solved before. Memory training will help increase your ability to remember problems that you faced in the past, and the solutions you came up with.

Writing

Writing can significantly boost your creativity, and this exercise can be done on a daily basis (preferably in early morning hours before you tackle the work for the day). Writing down your problems and listing a range of solutions can allow you to be innovative and design appropriate solutions.

Avoiding Daydreams

Although many people believe that daydreaming results in the unconscious mind wandering into a creative mode, recent studies suggest that daydreaming has little or no impact on creativity. Rather than daydreaming it is advised to think and act on a problem in real time.

Argue Out Loud

In case you are working in a team and have a range of solutions on how to tackle a problem, experts advise you to argue with your colleagues out loud. Arguing out loud will allow you to understand the real-life complexities of a solution and get the team motivated to focus on the problem at hand.

Using Your Mood

A study revealed that people are usually able to tap their inner creativity when they are in a very positive or very negative mood. This suggests that anger and happiness can both be used to think of creative solutions to problems.

Physical and Psychological Distance

Individuals are usually able to design a better solution if they physically and psychologically distance themselves from the problem. This means that rather than imagining yourself in the current location, you can imagine yourself in a different location and time and work from that perspective.