Whether you’re trying to solve a tough problem, start a business, get attention for that business or write an interesting article, creative thinking is crucial. The process boils down to（歸結(jié)于）changing your perspective and seeing things differently than you currently do.
People like to call this “thinking outside of the box,” which is the wrong way to look at it. Just like Neo needed to understand that “there is no spoon” in the film The Matrix, you need to realize “there is no box” to step outside of.
You create your own imaginary boxes simply by living life and accepting certain things as “real” when they are just as illusory as the beliefs of a paranoid delusional. The difference is, enough people agree that certain man-made concepts are “real,” so you’re viewed as “normal.” This is good for society overall, but it’s that sort of（那種）unquestioning consensus that inhibits your natural creative abilities.
So, rather than looking for ways to inspire creativity, you should just realize the truth. You’re already capable of creative thinking at all times, but you have to strip away（去掉）.I like to keep this list of 10 common ways we suppress our natural creative abilities nearby when I get stuck（受騙）. It helps me realize that the barriers to a good idea are truly all in my head.
1. Trying to Find the “Right” Answer
One of the worst aspects of formal education is the focus on(集中） the correct answer to a particular question or problem. While this approach helps us function in society, it hurts creative thinking because real-life issues are ambiguous. There’s often more than one “correct” answer, and the second one you come up with might be better than the first.
Many of the following mental blocks(心里障礙） can be turned around to reveal ways to find more than one answer to any given problem. Try reframing the issue in several different ways in order to prompt different answers, and embrace answering inherently ambiguous questions in several different ways.
2. Logical Thinking(邏輯思維）
Not only is real life ambiguous, it’s often illogical to the point of madness. While critical thinking skills based on logic are one of our main strengths in evaluating the feasibility of a creative idea, it’s often the enemy of truly innovative thoughts in the first place.
One of the best ways to escape the constraints of your own logical mind is to think metaphorically. One of the reasons why metaphors work so well in communications is that we accept them as true without thinking about it. When you realize that “truth” is often symbolic, you’ll often find that you are actually free to come up with alternatives.
3. Following Rules
One way to view creative thinking is to look at it as a destructive force. You’re tearing away the often arbitrary rules that others have set for you, and asking either “why” or “why not” whenever confronted with the way “everyone” does things.
This is easier said than done, since people will often defend the rules they follow even in the face of evidence that the rule doesn’t work. People love to celebrate rebels like Richard Branson, but few seem brave enough to emulate him. Quit worshipping rule breakers and start breaking some rules.
4. Being Practical
Like logic, practicality is hugely important when it comes to execution, but often stifles innovative ideas before they can properly blossom. Don’t allow the editor into the same room with your inner artist.
Try not to evaluate the actual feasibility of an approach until you’ve allowed it to exist on its own for a bit. Spend time asking “what if” as often as possible, and simply allow your imagination to go where it wants. You might just find yourself discovering a crazy idea that’s so insanely practical that no one’s thought of it before.
5. Play is Not Work
Allowing your mind to be at play is perhaps the most effective way to stimulate creative thinking, and yet many people disassociate play from work. These days, the people who can come up with great ideas and solutions are the most economically rewarded, while worker bees are often employed for the benefit of the creative thinkers.
You’ve heard the expression “work hard and play hard.” All you have to realize is that they’re the same thing to a creative thinker.
6. That’s Not My Job
In an era of hyper-specialization, it’s those who happily explore completely unrelated areas of life and knowledge who best see that everything is related. This goes back to what ad man Carl Ally said about creative persons—they want to be know-it-alls.
Sure, you’ve got to know the specialized stuff in your field, but if you view yourself as an explorer rather than a highly-specialized cog in the machine, you’ll run circles around the technical master in the success department.
7. Being a “Serious” Person
Most of what keeps us civilized boils down to conformity, consistency, shared values, and yes, thinking about things the same way everyone else does. There’s nothing wrong with that necessarily, but if you can mentally accept that it’s actually nothing more than groupthink that helps a society function, you can then give yourself permission to turn everything that’s accepted upside down and shake out the illusions.
Leaders from Egyptian pharaohs to Chinese emperors and European royalty have consulted with fools, or court jesters, when faced with tough problems. The persona of the fool allowed the truth to be told, without the usual ramifications that might come with speaking blasphemy or challenging ingrained social conventions. Give yourself permission to be a fool and see things for what they really are.
8. Avoiding Ambiguity
We rationally realize that most every situation is ambiguous to some degree. And although dividing complex situations into black and white boxes can lead to disaster, we still do it. It’s an innate characteristic of human psychology to desire certainty, but it’s the creative thinker who rejects the false comfort of clarity when it’s not really appropriate.
Ambiguity is your friend if you’re looking to innovate. The fact that most people are uncomfortable exploring uncertainty gives you an advantage, as long as you can embrace ambiguity rather than run from it.
9. Being Wrong is Bad
We hate being wrong, and yet mistakes often teach us the most. Thomas Edison was wrong 1,800 times before getting the light bulb right. Edison’s greatest strength was that he was not afraid to be wrong.
The best thing we do is learn from our mistakes, but we have to free ourselves to make mistakes in the first place. Just try out your ideas and see what happens, take what you learn, and try something else. Ask yourself, what’s the worst that can happen if I’m wrong? You’ll often find the benefits of being wrong greatly outweigh the ramifications.
10. I’m Not Creative
Denying your own creativity is like denying you’re a human being. We’re all limitlessly creative, but only to the extent that we realize that we create our own limits with the way we think. If you tell yourself you’re not creative, it becomes true. Stop that.
In that sense, awakening your own creativity is similar to the path reported by those who seek spiritual enlightenment. You’re already enlightened, just like you’re already creative, but you have to strip away all of your delusions before you can see it. Acknowledge that you’re inherently creative, and then start tearing down the other barriers you’ve allowed to be created in your mind.
不管你試圖解決一道難題，創(chuàng)建一家公司，為（這個(gè)）公司做宣傳或者寫一篇有趣的文章，創(chuàng)造性思維都起著關(guān)鍵作用。做這些事的過(guò)程可歸結(jié)為：改變思考角度，學(xué)著用不同于你現(xiàn)有思維的方式看問(wèn)題。
人們喜歡把這（創(chuàng)造性思維）稱為“在盒子以外思考”，然而這種叫法并不科學(xué)。就像（The Matrix 1999，黑客帝國(guó))中的主角Neo（尼奧）需要認(rèn)識(shí)到“沒有湯勺”一樣，你得知道你不需要走出“盒子”（因?yàn)檫@樣的“盒子”不存在）。
生活當(dāng)中，你把某些事物當(dāng)作“真實(shí)”接受，拒絕那些多疑的錯(cuò)覺。然而，這樣的話（接受前者，拒絕后者），你實(shí)際上已經(jīng)（給思維）做了一個(gè)假想的“盒子”——因?yàn)榍罢呖赡芮∏【拖窈笳咭粯犹摕o(wú)。很多人認(rèn)為約定俗成的觀點(diǎn)是“真實(shí)”，所以視其為“正?！?。這有利于社會(huì)整體的運(yùn)作，但它是不加質(zhì)疑地肯定，可能阻止你創(chuàng)新思維的天性。
所以，與其四處尋找激活靈感的方法，你應(yīng)該知道事實(shí)。任何條件下你都有創(chuàng)造性思維的能力，但是你得剝?nèi)ラL(zhǎng)期生活以來(lái)積累的一些假想的思想障礙（或者“盒子”）。
我喜歡收藏這么一份清單。這是抑制我們創(chuàng)新思維天性的10種常見方式。我自己也曾在這些方面栽過(guò)跟頭。它（清單）讓我認(rèn)識(shí)到這些因素阻止我頭腦中已有好主意的蹦出。
1 試圖尋找“正確”答案
正規(guī)教育的最大毛病是著重于尋找一個(gè)問(wèn)題的“正確”答案。這種處理問(wèn)題的方式對(duì)社會(huì)整體運(yùn)作有好處，卻損害了創(chuàng)造性思維，因?yàn)閷?shí)際問(wèn)題往往是模糊的。（實(shí)際問(wèn)題）經(jīng)常有多個(gè)“正確”答案，下一個(gè)答案說(shuō)不定比你之前想到的那個(gè)更好。
推翻下面所述的思想障礙，我們會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)問(wèn)題有多個(gè)答案。為了得到不同的答案，可嘗試用不同的方法重新思考問(wèn)題。用不同的方式思考那些本來(lái)就模糊不清的問(wèn)題。
2 邏輯思維
實(shí)際問(wèn)題不但是模糊的，而且它經(jīng)常顯得極其不合邏輯?；谶壿嫷呐袛嗨季S是我們衡量一個(gè)創(chuàng)新見解的有力工具，但是它通常也是后者的最大敵人。
避開邏輯思維的最好辦法是用類比的方式進(jìn)行思考。打比方非常有助于交流，原因是我們無(wú)需仔細(xì)思考（比方的邏輯性）就領(lǐng)會(huì)了對(duì)方的意思。如果你認(rèn)識(shí)到“真相”往往只是一個(gè)標(biāo)志，你就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)大腦中涌出很多見解。
3 遵循規(guī)則
從某個(gè)角度看，創(chuàng)造性思維有一股破壞性的沖勁。你把大家制定的規(guī)則撕破，在面臨“大家”都這么做的抉擇時(shí)，（敢于）問(wèn)“為什么”或“為什么不”。
這一點(diǎn)，說(shuō)起容易，做來(lái)難。因?yàn)榧词褂凶C據(jù)表明規(guī)則行不通時(shí)，人們通常會(huì)維護(hù)（他們的）規(guī)則。人們喜歡贊美像Richard Branson（理查德.布蘭森）一樣的叛逆（傳統(tǒng)）者，但是很少有人去效仿他們。不要再崇拜（規(guī)則）叛逆者，你也開始打破一些規(guī)則吧。
4 講求實(shí)用
如同邏輯，實(shí)用性也是衡量一種見解可行性的重要標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，但是（實(shí)用性）通常在見解成形之前就將其扼殺。不要讓編輯（比喻實(shí)用性）和藝術(shù)家（比喻創(chuàng)新見解）同處一室。
等你的見解成形之后再考慮它的實(shí)用性。盡量多問(wèn)“當(dāng)怎樣做....,會(huì)怎樣”的問(wèn)題，干脆任你的想象馳騁。你可能會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)一個(gè)極好的主意：它是如此之實(shí)用，沒人能想到！
5 玩不是工作
讓思想處于“玩”的狀態(tài)，這是激發(fā)創(chuàng)造性思維最有效的方法。但是，很多人把玩跟工作分開。近年來(lái)，有好點(diǎn)子和解決方案的人收入頗豐，而“工蜂”們（比喻只忙于做事的人）只是為這些創(chuàng)造性的思考者（前者）忙碌。
你聽到過(guò)“努力工作，然后盡情玩”。你需要注意的是，對(duì)于一個(gè)創(chuàng)造性的思考者來(lái)說(shuō)，兩者是統(tǒng)一的。
6 那不是我的任務(wù)
在高度專業(yè)化的時(shí)代，有些人樂(lè)此不疲的探索那些（與自己專業(yè)）不相關(guān)的生活、知識(shí)領(lǐng)域，就是他們才能把事物廣泛地聯(lián)系起來(lái)。廣告大佬Carl Ally（卡爾.阿奈）曾經(jīng)說(shuō)到創(chuàng)造性的思考者——他們想成為萬(wàn)事通。
誠(chéng)然，你必須了解你涉足的專業(yè)領(lǐng)域，但是你應(yīng)該把自己看成是一個(gè)探索者，而不是機(jī)器上一個(gè)特定的齒輪——永遠(yuǎn)只圍繞中心旋轉(zhuǎn)。
7 做“嚴(yán)肅”的人
維持人類行為文明的準(zhǔn)則可歸納為：（遵守）規(guī)則，（堅(jiān)持）原則，共同的價(jià)值觀，及按大家的思維方式想問(wèn)題。這些（準(zhǔn)則）并非有錯(cuò)，但是你在思想上應(yīng)該知道這些無(wú)非是有助于社會(huì)運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)的大眾想法。在此基礎(chǔ)上，你要允許自己把所有準(zhǔn)則推翻，去除幻覺。
從古埃及法老，到中國(guó)皇帝，到歐洲皇室，這些決策者在面對(duì)棘手難題時(shí)都曾問(wèn)策于愚人或弄臣。愚人不擔(dān)心褻瀆（權(quán)勢(shì)者）或忤逆既定社會(huì)習(xí)俗，從會(huì)道出真相。允許自己變成愚人，看事物的本來(lái)面目。
8 避免模糊性
我們清醒地知道幾乎所有事情都有一定的模糊性。雖然把事物劃分為非黑即白的做法可能造成災(zāi)難性的后果，我們?nèi)匀贿@樣做。人類心理有一種追求確定性的本質(zhì)。但是，創(chuàng)造性的思考者會(huì)拒絕接受牽強(qiáng)的確定性作為慰藉。
模糊性是你尋求創(chuàng)新過(guò)程中的朋友。事實(shí)上，大多數(shù)人在探索未知時(shí)都會(huì)感到不安，因此只要你敢于擁抱模糊性而不是避開，那么你就占據(jù)了（相對(duì)大多數(shù)人的）優(yōu)勢(shì)。
9 犯錯(cuò)是不好的
我們討厭犯錯(cuò)，然而錯(cuò)誤往往最能教導(dǎo)我們。Thomas Edison（托馬斯?愛迪生）在實(shí)驗(yàn)電燈泡成功之前失敗了1800次。愛迪生最大的優(yōu)點(diǎn)是不畏懼犯錯(cuò)。
最好的事莫過(guò)于從自身的錯(cuò)誤中學(xué)習(xí)，但是首先我們得允許自己犯錯(cuò)。嘗試你的各種想法，觀察（效果），記下你學(xué)到的知識(shí)，然后試別的想法。問(wèn)自己：如果犯錯(cuò)了，最糟的結(jié)果是什么？你將發(fā)現(xiàn)犯錯(cuò)帶來(lái)的收獲遠(yuǎn)勝于其壞處。
10 我沒有創(chuàng)造力
否認(rèn)自己的創(chuàng)造力就像否認(rèn)自己屬于人類一樣。我們都有無(wú)窮的創(chuàng)造力，但是前提是必須認(rèn)識(shí)到我們可能為自己的思維加限。如果你告訴自己沒有創(chuàng)造力，你將變得那樣（失去創(chuàng)造力）。所以，別這樣做。
因此，喚醒你自己創(chuàng)造力的過(guò)程與那些尋求精神覺悟的人相似。你已經(jīng)覺悟了，已經(jīng)有創(chuàng)造力了，但是你得先剝?nèi)ニ斜畴x事實(shí)的錯(cuò)覺。相信創(chuàng)造力是你與生俱來(lái)就擁有的，然后推倒你在思想當(dāng)中樹立的其他障
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