Ever feel like your thinking is going round in circles and you’re not really generating any new ideas? If you can’t even think of new ways of behaving how will you ever do things differently?

Here’s a quick exercise you can do when faced with situations where you need to generate new possibilities and think outside the box.

You take a problem statement, your outcome or a difficult situation and apply these four algorithms that play with the possibilities open to you. It’s best explained by giving examples.

Outcome: I want to give presentations with confidence.

Question: What would it be like if you did give presentations with confidence? (+/+)

Answers (Courses of action, useful states, new ideas, towards motivation): I would feel happy, proud, like I’ve achieved something, I’ll be able to do better at work, progress in my career more quickly.

Question: What wouldn’t it be like if you did give presentations with confidence? (-/+)

Answers (Away from motivation): I would not feel like I’m living up to my potential, I would not feel nervous before presentations.

Question: What would it be like if you didn’t give presentations with confidence? (+/-)

Answers: I would feel sad, uninspired, feel like I’m not progressing.

Question: What wouldn’t it be like if you didn’t give presentations with confidence? (-/-)

Answers: I would feel really good about myself, feel confident and in control, know what I have to do to progress.

The questions may seem a bit confusing so read them slowly. I find that they are helpful for putting me in that zen / no-mind state which is a really good creative state to be in. The last question especially makes me a bit dizzy!

You can apply the algorithms to a lot of things. Say you’re brainstorming around some ideas, you could ask: ‘What would we do if we were to build a new website to market this product?’ Or: ‘What would we do if we didn’t build a new website?’

A lot of people believe that some people are born with creativity. They say that those people are lucky to be a creative musician or painter. While I believe that some people might have certain physical dispositions towards particular activities, like a tall person having a better chance of making it to the NBA, it is my belief that every person has the resources to excel at whatever they choose.

Like so many other areas. Creativity is a skill that can be learned. People that are creative think, behave and act in a certain way. We can do as they do; model them in order to get similar results. Here are some ideas to increase your creativity or to behave in more creative ways.

1. Learn the skills, the rules and conventions.

You have to know the rules before you can break them. Picasso could paint life like portraits before he started to experiment with abstract styles. Find out how the art or skill is traditionally taught and follow that path. This could mean finding a teacher or mentor to guide you. It might involve doing research on someone who you admire that has results you want to achieve as well. If you want to become a great martial artist, find out how Bruce Lee trained. If you want to become a business leader find out how successful entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson made their money.

2. Discard what you’ve learned, break the rules and defy conventions.

Creativity is 90% perspiration in order to gain these afore mentioned skills and 10% knowing when to throw them out. This is where you follow your gut, your instinct, whim or muse and do what you feel like doing.

3. Interdisciplinary Inspiration.

Enjoy different kinds of media, then take the experience you get from them and see if you can translate those feelings into your chosen medium. John Frusciante, the guitar player of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is not only inspired by other guitarists, he tries to emulate vocalists as diverse as the WuTang Clan and Brandy. He is even inspired by Ricky Gervais the creator of the sit-com the Office. Maybe you could write a book inspired by a song, or start a business that has it’s core values inspired by a painting. Behave like someone who has Synesthesia. Someone who can taste shapes and smell colours.

4. Realise that the meaning of the communication is the response that you get.

You might have fancy ideas about what your project embodies, means or stands for. But everyone will interpret your work differently irrespective of your intended purpose. Now you can lament the fact that you are a misunderstood genius or use this to your advantage. You can steal or borrow ideas and themes from multiple sources to fashion your creation and people will experience it as complete and unique occurrence. They might be able to identify the influences but the parts will be subsumed into the whole.

5. Do the opposite of what you’ve done before.

When I’m playing music I’ll sometimes play it in reverse order just to find out what it sounds like. If you’re painting, why not switch around the colours to how you would normally use them; make the sky green and the grass blue. If you’re writing you could switch around any number of aspects, the motivations of the characters, their gender, paragraphs, chapters. This is similar to the cut-up technique used by poets and song writers.

6. You are always being creative, it’s just that your filters are sometimes too strong.

Finally, realise that you are always being creative. Your mind is coming up with all kinds of random ideas all the time. It’s just that you are filtering everything out. This is why some days you feel very creative (your filter is set low) while the next day you can’t come up with anything or even think that your past efforts are terrible (your filter is set too high). To get past this, you need to stop editing all your work and stop throwing stuff away. It might be that you come back in a few days and have a new appreciation for what you’ve created.