How to Get Unstuck & Become Creative

How do you get unstuck?

I want you to do, although experiment with me for just one moment. You should think about an area of your life; it could be in your career, it could be in your relationships, it could be in your health, it could be in your day today. An area where you feel like you're being held back. That you have yet to make any kind of new progress. I want you to think about this because I will share some tips on how to free yourself.

How to literally get unstuck.

So there's a story about a driver driving a tall truck and not paying attention. Now, often, we need to pay more attention in life. But this driver goes underneath a bridge and gets stuck because the truck is too tall. And the more and more pressed on the gas, the more stuck and stuck he became, and then at that time, he was thinking, oh, I should back out.

He was already stuck. As you can imagine, the cars started to back up, and traffic ensued. Also, a crowd gathered, wanting to know what was happening there. And it was too late by this time.

A lot of emergency vehicles and emergency support started to show up. And they're coming up with all these ideas. They all assembled, and they began to push the truck further, further in. Nothing happened. It didn't even move. Then they began to pull, and pull, and pull. And they did that to absolutely no avail. And then, finally, when they felt like nothing was working, they tried everything. And often in life, we say we've tried everything. They concluded that the best thing to do was to destroy and demolish the truck to free up space, and then cars could get through.

At that time, a six-year-old child yelled in the crowd, Why don't you just let the air out of the tires?

 And that's precisely what they did.

There's this mass group a-ha moment.

You know those a-ha moments, those eureka moments?

They let the air out of the tire, the truck lowered, and they could pull the cart. And so that's an example of how to get unstuck. But sometimes, it has to come from the mind of a child. You've heard me talk about this book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions," that there are many advancements where industries are stuck; they haven't made much progress or innovation. A lot of the invention comes from somebody or a party, or a team, outside of that industry because it takes external minds sometimes to look at an industry with fresh eyes, a beginner's mind, if you will, and say, why don't you do it this way?

If you're in the industry, you grow up with the same blinders and identical education, which could also be the exact boundaries that keep you from divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is logical thinking, coming up with one answer and one conclusion, and divergent thinking is coming up with many solutions. It's using the power of your imagination. So again, I want you to revisit an area of your life where you were pressing on the gas and weren't making progress.

You were stuck.

As the king of acronyms, I want you to remember UNSTUCK. UNSTUCK, write this down. The U stands for uplift. Uplift, what does that mean?

A study done at The University of Bergenin, Norway, said there's a direct correlation between those with a positive mental attitude, they're an optimist, and more creative flexibility, more output of divergent thinking, and more creative ideas. And you know this, right?

When you're in a good mood, you come up with more ideas, as opposed to when you're singularly focused, stressed, or fighting for flight, the pictures don't flow. So, the first tip is to uplift yourself.

Monitor your state.

As we've talked about, all learning and creativity are state-dependent. You don't have imagination. You do creativity. APartof, it understands your state.

Now, the N in UNSTUCK stands for noise. And you're thinking, noise? How does that make me a more divergent thinker and creative person?

You can listen to specific noises to help you get creative. That alpha, relaxed state of awareness, or even better, a theta state, that you're right when you go in and out of sleep and so simple. So imagine nature sounds will put you in that state. Also, binaural beats. Some of you are familiar with that technology, which will put you into a theta or alpha state. Another noise you can listen to is music.

Music will put you in a mood. And as we're talking about creativity, it's similar to Hollywood, where they use music to evoke a particular state of mind. They use soundtracks and scores to put you in a specific mood.

Then why not do that by design? Is there certain music that puts you in a creative space? Think about that when it comes to noise. Now, the S in UNSTUCK stands for support. Support. Often, if we're stuck in an area of our life, again, our careers, finances, personal health, productivity, peace of mind, and relationships. One of the things that help is perspective.

When you change place or the people you spend time with, perspective gives you a new point of view. Also, asking for help, as we know, is a sign of strength, not of weakness. And so, if you are stuck and going through some hard times, everybody needs that person.

A person to encourage you, to be able to uplift you, and if you don't know this person, then remember to be that person for somebody else. Most importantly, be that person for yourself. Now, the T in UNSTUCK stands for truth. Truth. We are often in a set place and can't make progress because we lie to ourselves. If we're honest about this, sometimes we delete or distort; we may generalize things about our situation that keep us current.

So, for example, if it's your finances, some people aren't willing to look at their finances. They avoid it. Or they don't want to look at their credit report. Or maybe in a relationship, they're lying to themselves, thinking about something in the past reinforcing the current state, or thinking about the future, how that person could be better. Still, they're not completely honest about how they feel deep down. So you need to be honest.

You need the curiosity to know yourself, know what's most important to you, who you are, and how you work. Also, if you are interested in learning, dare to be yourself. So, remember, the next time you feel stuck, get unstuck.

The U stands for what?

• Uplift. You wanna uplift yourself 'cause everything is state-dependent. 
• The N stands for noise. Look for serene environments, trickling water, and rain.

Water often works really well for people. Even taking showers, we know that the proximity to water helps with your creativity. So the noise is significant. The S stands for support. That no person is an island. That there's no one, even if they say they're self-made, nobody's entirely self-made. It takes a village to be able to do this. And so, get help from the people you need and ask for support.

The T stands for truth. Know your truth. Some people are stuck because they're lying to themselves. And so have the courage to not delete, distort, and generalize, but to own where you are. Because to be able to manage something, you have to measure it. And that requires you to look at these critical indicators, whether it's your performance, whether it's your health, whether it's your career. Look at that credit report.

You know?

Look at your income statement. Look at your biometrics to see where you are in truth, not something you're imagining. And then, to wrap it up, the U stands for urgent. We know you must get the job done when you create a time, money, or emotion constraint. So, it increases creativity, commitment, and concentration. So, put yourself in a situation where you will give yourself two days to figure this out or one hour to figure it out. 'Cause a constraint leads to creativity.

The following letter is C, which stands for care.

That self-love and self-care are not selfish. Take care of yourself because you cannot be creative on no sleep. It's hard to be creative when eating lots of processed foods and having this brain fog. All the things we talk about in our podcast show. And then, finally, the last letter is K. If you feel stuck, maybe there's a gap between where you are and where you wanna be because there is a knowledge gap. So you learn faster and have more information to make better decisions because you can only make a good decision based on your current knowledge.

If you have limited knowledge about a subject, you can only make a limited amount of decisions about it. So, seek proper, practical knowledge. Now, remember, knowledge by itself is not power. Knowledge is the potential to be power. It only becomes power when you know what?

When you utilize this. So go through this framework of getting unstuck. Put it towards what we discussed at the show's beginning, and let us know your success stories.

Our team's greatest joy is to listen to and read these joyful stories from you. They inspire other individuals to be able to prioritize their mental health, their brain performance, and their habits. And when you share these, you get to learn it twice. Plus, you're helping other people because your unique superpower is your fantastic story.

Summation: So share the story of your progress along with Kwik Brain. So I encourage you to take a screenshot of this episode, tag me in it @jimkwikand share your big a-ha with everybody else. How are you gonna apply it?

What was one idea you could apply immediately to turn this knowledge into the application that turns into the desired results and the results you deserve? I'll see you in our next episode.