If you want to brainstorm more creative ideas, think more creatively, and add more creativity to your life, trust this poet to give you the key to firing up your creative juices…

“You can’t use up creativity,” says Maya Angelou. “The more you use, the more you have.”

The secret to being more creative is getting the ball rolling. The more ideas you have, the more ideas you’ll get — just like the whole “rich get richer” upward spiral.

Ah, but how do you get the creativity ball rolling?

By reading books like John Maxwell’s Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work – and it’s one of the most practical, motivational books I’ve read. He devoted an entire chapter to creative thinking, and I’m spilling a couple of his beans here.

Best Ways to Fire Up Your Creative Juices – Maya Angelou

Why do you want to think more creatively? Because:

• Creative women attract dynamic, interesting, creative people.
• Creative women learn more, and are better able to solve problems.
• Creative women have more fun!
• Creative women are happier. (Maybe).
• Creative women know how to turn failure into success.

And, creative women trust themselves — they have a strong connection to why they are.

“Creativity comes from trust. Trust your instincts. And never hope more than you work.” ~ mystery writer, Rita Mae Brown.

Rita Mae Brown and Maya Angelou (also a writer!) would get along just fine – they both knew the importance of actively pursuing your creativity! Here are a few ways to think more creatively in everyday life…

Celebrate the “offbeat”

Creative people are a bit off center, eclectic, unusual, and “out there.” They’re not your usual dullards, plodding from one task to another. Creative people aren’t threatened by people or situations who are different — they seek out those experiences!

Most of us (especially women?) are uncomfortable, afraid of, or threatened by people who are different (especially women!). We’re more comfortable with people who are like us: normal, safe, familiar. So, to brainstorm more creative ideas, hang out with people who are different than you. The nuttier, the better!

Surround yourself with people you admire

“It’s a fact that you being to think like the people you spend a lot of time with,” writes Maxwell in Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work. “The more time you spend with creative people engaging in creative activities, the more creative you will become.”

This doesn’t mean you have to work at Google or Apple! But it does mean you need to go out of your way to find and spend time with people who strive to find the best ways to think creatively — perhaps women who are enchanted by life.

Grab your camera – even if you never take photos

This tip for firing up your creativity is from Christine Kane, who is a mentor to women:

“My favorite camera is a Pentax K1000. It’s completely manual, and it’s how I learned to take pictures. I’m not very good. When I first moved to Asheville, I used to walk around town on Sundays (the whole town was closed up then) and take pictures of all the buildings. These photos are now a treasure to me because nothing is the same anymore. (Every building has been bought, remodeled and now is filled with stores that sell trickly fountains, Buddahs, and things that smell grassy.) Take pictures of anything. And have fun in the old method of actually getting your film developed and the excitement of flipping through photos you haven’t seen yet.” ~ from 21 Ways to Be More Creative.

One of the best ways to think more creatively is to do things you don’t usually do. I never take photos, but Christine’s idea makes me want to grab my husband’s camera and start shooting away!

Get rid of your TV

Christine Kane also suggests not just turning off your TV — you should get rid of it altogether! “Any time I teach writing or creativity, this is one of the biggies,” she says. “TV is a mind-killer. It numbs you. It fills you with emotionally-charged images and over-simplified solutions. It dulls you. Turn it off. Even if this idea scares you, turn it off.”

Of all four ways to be more creative, I think “get rid of the TV” is one of the best ones.

About Maya Angelou…

“Maya is a kind of quintessential Everywoman: essayist, entertainer, activist, poet, professor, film director and mother-and she recently guest conducted the Boston Pops simply because she felt like it. She has written more than 20 books, and she once had three titles — Caged Bird, The Heart of a Woman and Even the Stars Looked Lonesome —on The New York Times best-seller list simultaneously for six consecutive weeks. In 1993 she became the first poet since Robert Frost in 1961 to write and recite a poem at a presidential inaugural ceremony—a performance for which she won a Grammy for Best Non-Musical Album.” ~ from an interview with Oprah Winfrey in O magazine, December, 2000.

“A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer,” says Angelou. “It sings because it has a song.”

What have you always thought you weren’t creative enough to do? Be a writer, perhaps? Read Want to Write More Creatively? Stop Killing Your Creativity!

Who – or what – fires up your creativity? What makes you sing?

Related posts:

1. Turning Failure to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Maya Angelou
2. 6 Ways to Create a Vision Board That Works – Martha Beck
3. 5 Ways to Help a Friend With Breast Cancer – Suzanne Somers

“I believe in businesses where you engage in creative thinking, and where you form some of your deepest relationships,” said Anita Roddick, creator of The Body Shop. “If it isn’t about the production of the human spirit, we are in big trouble.”

For more info about how Roddick started The Body Shop, read Finding the Right Timing in Life – Anita Roddick. And, click on The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business for specific tips for successful businesswomen.

When You’re Starting Your Own Business – What Successful Businesswomen Know

1. Believe in yourself. Your clients immediately know if you believe in your service or product, and they’ll assess you and your product or service accordingly. Tap into — and express! – your passion, integrity, and vision, and you’re more likely to be a successful businesswoman.

2. Gather a great team. When you’re starting your own business, don’t try to do everything yourself, even if you’re a freelance writer who works alone (like me!). If you can’t surround yourself with a smart, motivated team of employees or colleagues, then find a mentor. Soak up insight, feedback, and criticism from other successful businesswomen.

3. Leave your ego out of your new business. Your ego wants to keep you in control, make you look good, and manipulate people. Your ego wants to protect itself at all costs, and it doesn’t like vulnerability or rejection – which is part of starting your own business. Ignore your ego and focus on win-win situations for everyone. Speak up when necessary, even when you feel uncomfortable being in the spotlight!

4. Realize the value of failure. Successful businesswomen don’t escape failure. Successful businesswomen realize that success teaches more than failure, and that failing is a great opportunity to figure out how to do it better, or faster, or more efficiently. To learn more about what successful businesswomen know, read Turning Failure to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Maya Angelou.

5. Don’t give up yet! Starting a new business can be hard, and many entrepreneurs quit because finding clients is harder than they thought, they feel discouraged, they lose hope, or they no longer believe in themselves or their product. The longer you persevere, the more you improve your chances of starting a successful business. “A writing career is nothing more than a long series of disappointments punctuated by occasional moments of success,” says Michael Bracken. Successful businesswomen know that this isn’t just true of writing careers!

6. Stay organized. Staying organized not only shows your clients what a great businesswoman you are, it makes you feel strong, motivated, and capable. If you get rid of clutter, do things immediately, learn to say no, stick with your routine, and prioritize your goals, you’re more likely to start a successful business.

If you have any tips on starting your own business, I’d love to hear from you! Please comment below…

Related posts:

1. For Female Entrepreneurs – Martha Stewart’s 10 Rules for Starting a Business
2. From Hobbies to Careers – 5 Ideas for Turning a Hobby Into a Successful Business
3. How to Make Your Business Successful: Find Your Personal Advantage

“You did what you know how to do. When you knew better, you did better.” – Maya Angelou.

Bouncing back from failure involves accepting that you did the best you could at the time. When you know better, you do better…and the key is to learn from your business failures! One of my favorite books on turning failure to success is When Smart People Fail – click the cover for details. And, read on for specific ways to turn failure to success for female entrepreneurs…

Turning Failure to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Maya Angelou

“Failure is a cleaning of the house,” writes Linda Gottlieb, co-author of When Smart People Fail. “It’s an opportunity to reorient your career, to inspect it, to relabel it. You learn to keep all your options in play, be light on your feet. Surviving failure makes you bold…Failure liberates you and gives you the courage to risk in a big enough way to guarantee big success.”

Research shows that female entrepreneurs are risk takers and less cautious by nature. Female entrepreneurs are optimistic but not always resilient — which is a shame, because bouncing back from failure may be the biggest predictor of success in business, relationships, and life.

Get real about failure. Failure isn’t a fatal flaw or social disease that renders you helpless and unhappy. Female entrepreneurs know that failure is not a permanent condition. Failure doesn’t make you less worthy, less intelligent, or less capable. Failure isn’t who you are….failure is simply an event.

Stop, take a deep breath, and think. After you fail, figure out exactly what happened. Did your business location lead you to bankruptcy? Were you fired because you weren’t focused? Be honest and specific. To turn failure to success, identify your mistakes and take responsibility.

“If you don’t like something, change it,” said Maya Angelou. “If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

Regain control. When you know what went wrong, be deliberate not to make the same mistakes. Female entrepreneurs aren’t doomed to repeat history unless they’re oblivious! To regain control, determine what you did right and what worked in the past.

Also — remember that timing is everything. To learn how successful businesswoman Anita Roddick created the Body Shop, Finding the Right Timing — Anita Roddick.

Connect with other successful female entrepreneurs. Talk to women in business who have survived similar situations. Find out what worked. What would they do differently if they knew then what they know now? Compare stories. The more you hide your failures, the worse you’ll feel; so, be honest about your weaknesses and regrets. Not only is this emotionally healthy, it could open doors to new opportunities.

Adjust your perspective on failure. “I actually consider my failure to become a feature film director as the beginning of what I consider a saner and more successful life,” says award-winning Hollywood director Bert Salzman. “After winning the Oscar, I had visions of going right to the top, and when I didn’t get there immediately, I began to reconsider my life.”

Turning failure into success can be as simple as stepping back, looking at your life objectively, and realizing that failure doesn’t define you.

Work it, baby, work it! To turn failure into success, recycle your skills and talents. Reuse or re-label your abilities by breaking down the elements of your previous work into small, definable skills. Look at yourself differently – through the eyes of a stranger – and don’t be ashamed to share your hidden talents and abilities.

Failure can teach you compassion and humility. Failure can offer you a new sense of power and a different way to connect with the universe – if you let it. For more info on bouncing back, read 5 Ways to Build Resiliency – JK Rowling.

“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’ ” – Maya Angelou.

If you have any questions or thoughts on turning failure to success, please comment below!

Related posts:

1. The Key to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Coco Chanel
2. For Female Entrepreneurs – Martha Stewart’s 10 Rules for Starting a Business
3. When You’re Starting Your Own Business – What Successful Businesswomen Know