Everyone can be creative. You may not believe that you are a creative person, but it is all in the mind. To be creative requires overcoming limitations brought on by either yourself or others. Creativity involves thinking outside the square and taking chances - something your own defenses may resist.

Creativity is a way of looking at things in a fresh way. It is about looking at the same things as everyone else and seeing something different. There are ideas everywhere - in places, people, objects and events. The car you drive, the pen you write with, the kettle you boil, the clothes you wear - they all started life in the mind of one person. Someone had an idea, and someone acted on it.

Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a fresh new way. This means rearranging what you know in order to find out what you do not know. Think about that for a moment.

One way to think creatively is to simply take a fresh look at everything you take for granted. Ask yourself questions. The more questions you ask, the more ideas or solutions you will be able to come up with.

The same approach applies to problem solving. Try to look at things from a different perspective. Consider how things could be adapted, modified, rearranged or combined with other things.

For example; imagine you are selling your house. Think about that spare bedroom you have in the house. You have always looked upon the spare room as being just a bedroom. Someone else might see it as an ideal office or games room.

The reverse might also apply. A friend of mine who had trouble selling his house was getting depressed with the lack of phone calls. He was advertising his house as having 2 bedrooms and an office. He made one simple change to the advertisement and the phone rang off the hook. He sold the house within days by just changing the wording from '2 bedrooms and an office', to read '3 bedrooms.' This was a simple, but creative solution.

So think creatively and keep an open mind with everything you do.