Do your wood projects stand out or do they look like everybody else's who used the same plan? Does your art make a viewer say "Wow, that's unusual?" or just "That's a nice painting?" Did you spend hours decorating a room only to have it turn out nice, but nothing special?

Creativity comes from dreaming and imagination. however, when we become adults we rarely allow ourselves the luxury of letting our mind wander. We're all concerned about 'doing it right' and 'what will people think'. To get out of the rut and create something dramatic, we need to return to the playful, delighted child mindset.

NASA has a creativity test that they administer to prospective engineers and scientists to insure that they hire innovative people. This test was given to 1,600 five year olds and 98 percent of them scored as 'highly creative'. At age 10, a mere 5 years later, this same group was given the test again and only 30 percent received the 'highly creative' rating. At age 15, only 12 percent earned the 'highly creative' status. Of 200,000 adults over the age of 25, only 2 percent would earn the same rating on this test. This is a good argument that we don't 'learn' creativity, we 'unlearn' it!

Albert Einstein believed "Imagination is more important than knowledge. knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world". But, unlike Einstein, we mostly go through life accumulating facts and knowledge in the belief we will become masters of certain arts by learning more. As we do this, we sacrifice our ability to see things in new ways. Rather we learn to 'color within the lines' of life. We fall into the trap of habit, always doing things the way we learned and the way we've always done it.

Here is an example of what the 2 percent of 'highly creative' people can accomplish. It is thinking outside the box (excuse the pun). Read Andrew Crawford and Peter Lloyd's wonderful book Celebrating Boxes. Click the link for a review of this book and details about purchasing.

Celebrating Boxes

Stephen Shapiro, the founder of the 24/7 Innovation Group has developed what he calls The Four Thinking Lenses which he offers to unleash your inner inovator. His four lenses are Thinking Like A Pack Rat, A Matchmaker, A Kid and A Contrarian. All four are described below.

THINK LIKE A PACK RAT

Collect new pictures of the world around you by looking with fresh eyes. You'll need to retrain your eyes and mind and Shapiro suggests this exercise. When you leave your house in the morning, imagine yourself in a different profession. Imagine you're a street cleaner, tree trimmer, gardener, policeman, school bus driver, or student. You'll see new things because we all see the world differently depending on our interests. See the world as art. Maybe there's a new shape, a new color or something else to lead you into your next project. Just getting out of your old pattern will generate new ideas.

THINK LIKE A MATCHMAKER

You've looked at new things, now look for new combinations. Intarsia artists constantly work in combinations, seeing the complimentary grains of various woods that form a painting in wood. Try those two new colors you saw in nature's pallette in a painting or room decor. Match two styles of furniture in one piece. If you are creating rather than reproducing, you need not be faithful to a style. Throw away that plan or combine two different plans. You never know, it just might work and you'll have created that one of kind extroardinary piece. As Dave (co-owner of Woodworkers Auction and woodworker extroardinaire) would say, "Why expect different results from the same actions?" So, trust yourself and let yourself branch out and see what happens.

THINK LIKE A KID

When you watch children play, you'll notice that the storyline just grows and grows for them. One will start with "I'm the Mom and I have 10 children....." and another will say "Yes, and....." and continue the story adding a new dimension to the story.

Adults playing the game start setting limitation right away. The story gets started and adults immediately throw down stumbling blocks with "Yes, but.....".

Instead of thinking of all the reasons why the project you dreamed up won't work, expand on it. Give it a "Yes, and....." while forgetting "Yes, but......". Don't worry about whether it will work, just get started and make adjustments as you go. If you have a few misses, not to worry, just start again and keep at it until you have created that piece with your unique stamp.

THINK LIKE A CONTRARIAN

Turn everything upside down and backwards. Writers sometimes use this method to prevent writers block. They'll write the ending first, and knowing where they want to end up will let them build the story that gets them to the desired result at the end. Picture your finished product. Write down the 'who, what, where, when, how, and how much' possible options for your project. Then mix and match the possibilities until you see a combination that you like.

Shapiro has another suggestion you might try and that is to work as a team. You can use this suggestion even if you are a one man show. Simply ask those people around you for their ideas about your proposed project. Or, ask questions like "If you were going to buy or build an entertainment center how do you picture it?" or "If you had a small corner of a room, not big enough for a chair or larger piece of furniture, what would you do with it?" or "What's your favorite color and why?" Listen closely and don't hesitate to incorporate your version of the best ideas into your work.

See, hear, smell and touch new things and open up your world. Forget how much you know and what the rules are. Use your imagination and the appreciation of your work and your satisfaction in it will increase right along with your sales.