4) Write daily to counteract laziness. Why do you think so many people choose to remain mediocre rather than extraordinary? Because it’s easier to engage in convenient things that don’t require thinking or exerting effort. Playing video games is convenient. Watching cat videos is convenient. Loafing is convenient. It’s not that you should avoid these things altogether. The point is that you should be mindful of your objectives. Where do you want your writing to take you tomorrow, the next week, or after a few years? A writer writes, period. You don’t become a writer by telling others that you’re a writer. Write every day to sustain the habit, most especially during the times when you don’t feel like writing.

5) Unleash the child in you. Have you ever seen a senior citizen playing the hula hoop or riding the carousel? Many of us, as we grow old, are becoming cautious of avoiding things that we feel would make us look stupid. It only looks stupid because we care too much about what other people think. Why should you care about earning the approval of people you don’t even know? This is not to say that you shouldn’t act your age. Don’t let the passing of years destroy your recollection. Studies show that unleashing your inner child will not only give you a more fulfilling lifestyle, but it helps to stimulate creative thinking as well. As adults, we have wisdom in our bag of experience. When we were children, we had our insatiable curiosity for discovery. Children’s authors continue to sustain that insatiable discovery by looking at things through the eyes of a child. What reason do you have to deprive that inner child in you?

6) The angel is in the whole picture, but the devil is in the details. This can well be a new twist on the idiom that refers to a catch or mysterious element hidden in the details. When someone is explaining an idea to us, we often hear them say, “Look at the big picture.” This is because we tend to draw our conclusion based on the potential benefit of an idea as a whole. However, critical thinking requires that we deconstruct the idea and look at the finer details. This allows us to better exercise our creativity and judgment. Keep a healthy balance of looking at the big picture and the finer details. It can stimulate your imagination to branch out and formulate different ideas.

7) Think outside the box. Conformity is overrated. There is a time to go with the flow, and there is a time to go against it. Make an assessment of your situation. Are you constrained by a society or organization that stifles your optimum creativity? Are you required to submit to the whims of higher authority in your creative outputs? Do they tell you what to do instead of asking you what you want to do? Are you willing to submit or compromise? Creative differences between major film production studios and their directors and screenwriters often result in substandard films. When this happens, the blame often falls on the director or screenwriter. Creatives like to think outside the box because this makes for a fresher approach to new ideas. You don’t have to think in the way the majority thinks. You can always assert your unique ideas. Is it easier said than done? Think of it this way: It’s better to exercise your assertiveness to get originality than to trade your originality for the sake of conformity.