Researchers have found that people answer questions correctly 20% more of the time if they first think of someone they consider intelligent.
It also worked for increasing the creativity of solutions to problems--here some different researchers had some participants think of a typical punk and others think of an accountant. The ones who thought of punks scored significantly higher on creativity tests. Sorry, accountants (then again, probably the most creative acountants are in danger of going to jail...).
However, if you think of someone so creative that you know they are totally out of your league (Leonardo da Vinci, for instance) it actually is counterproductive.
People I might choose would include marketer Seth Godin (left), artist Ralph Steadman (right), writer Carl Hiaasen, and director Terry Gilliam.
Why not give it a try? Before your next writing session or other creative activity use Google images to spend a minute or two looking at pictures of people you consider very creative but not in the creative stratosphere (go to www.google.com/images, then type in the name of the person whose picture you want to see).
You may find it puts you into a more creative frame of mind--could be a great quick start to a brainstorming session, too.
You'll find 100 more ways to be more creative in my book, "Creativity Now!" (Pearson Publishing) and you can get it now at Amazon or your other favorite online or offline bookseller.
