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Do you feel like the major reason you're not more creative is because you just don't have enough good ideas? Or that you don't have enough ideas at all, good or otherwise!

Here's 3 steps to having all the creative ideas you'll ever need...

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If you’ve found creating about as easy as tap dancing knee deep in molasses lately, here are 7 ways to help you get your creativity flowing again:

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Being highly creative is all about finding your natural rhythms, and getting into your creative flow so you create without even thinking about it.

Here then are 7 secrets of creative flow you can start putting into action today:

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How you organise your creative space has a major impact on how freely you create. If you’re struck with an idea you just have to start work on, but then rush to your work space only to find a sea of materials, papers and miscellaneous ephemera piled a foot high, and your tools and equipment partially buried underneath and scattered around various other parts of the room, you’re not giving yourself much of a chance to create at your most freely.

Imagine an Olympic sprinter preparing for the final of the 100m. He’s going to want to be fully prepared, clothed, and warmed up physically and mentally so he can be at that starting line in the best possible position to perform at his best for the race.

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What if there were some secret code you could crack that would allow you to be as creative as you wanted, some way of finding the creative routines and techniques that worked better for you than any others? How valuable would that be to you?

Well, there is a code, your own unique creativity code. It needn’t be such a mystery if you follow these 5 steps to finding it:

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However many creative blocks you overcome, if underneath them all you realise you’ve lost the desire and passion to create, it will end in the same result. No creating plus lots of frustration and unhappiness.

What can often happen is because it’s felt like you’ve struggled to create freely for so long, because it’s seemed like you always have a hundred different obstacles to overcome, that creative passion at the core of it all has been reduced to a mere flicker, rather than the roaring flame it once was.

Imagine it as being like a single candle burning on the ground floor of a huge skyscraper. If you’re on top of the building looking down, there’s no way you’ll be able to see the flame or feel its warmth. All you’ll see is a dense mass of concrete glass and steel....even though the candle’s still burning.

So how do you rediscover this passion through all the dissonance? Here are 5 steps to help you on your way:

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Your inner critic is that destructive voice (or symphony of voices!) in your head that tells you you’re not creative. Here are some of the other common phrases it comes out with:

• You’re not a REAL artist, you’re only playing around.
• Who ever told you that you had talent anyway?
• Why bother starting a new creative project when you’ll only mess it up?
• You should be doing something more worthwhile with your time.
• Creating is such a selfish act.

How many of those sound familiar?

When you listen to your inner critic and take whatever it says as the truth, it’s unlikely you'll ever get to creating anything. But you needn’t listen to it so attentively.

Here are 5 steps to silencing your inner critic that you can start using right away:

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If your creativity was your partner in marriage, what kind of marriage would it be?

Would it be a relationship of mutual respect and trust, where you gave your creativity the acknowledgement, time and attention it deserved as such a significant part of your life? Would you spend focused time together regularly to strengthen and build your relationship? Would you explore new things together to keep the relationship fresh and interesting?

Or, is your relationship with your creativity more like one where there’s neglect, even denial that it exists? Do you resent the demands it makes on your time, and when you ever do spend time together it’s doing the same safe old things you’ve done a hundred times before?

Which of these two kind of relationships is most similar to how you are with your creativity? Honestly?

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For creative people, perfectionism is one of the most dangerous and destructive tendencies we can have. In fact, let your perfectionist habits get out of hand, and before you know it, you’re not just obsessing about how to FINISH a creative project, but you can’t even decide which pencil to pick up to start drawing, which shade of green to use for the background of your new painting, or which word to begin the next sentence of your novel with!

So here are 7 steps to becoming aware of, and beating, perfectionism and setting your creativity free once more:

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There are probably many times you’ve felt your creativity has left you completely, that it’s dead and buried, and you can only now visit its gravestone and reminisce mournfully at the good times you had when you were younger...

Well, the reality is far from that bleak or final. Your creativity may be in a state of slumber, but it can never die. Here then are 5 steps to giving YOUR creativity the kiss of life:

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