Creative Problem-Solving for Everyday Life – Simple Practices for Adults & Kids

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Hey, it's Kat and I'm back for another solo episode.

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And today I'm going to talk about creativity and how it's not just a

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powerful tool for artists, but for anyone to be able to unlock personal

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growth, leadership, and success in life.

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I'm also going to share real world examples of creative leaders and also

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how we can cultivate that in ourselves in, in our children, plus my number one,

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powerful way of cultivating creativity that you can exercise in Anytime doesn't

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cost you anything and it's just a very simple thing to do coming right up.

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So stay tuned.

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Hey, my name is Kat and I'm Lee and welcome to the

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wildly wealthy life podcast.

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In this show, we explore the journey of what it means to live a truly

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exceptional and fulfilling life.

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Each episode focuses on how a foundation of brilliant minds and brave hearts.

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Nurtured through the arts leads to lifelong success.

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Get inspired with actionable tips to foster a growth mindset,

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leadership values, and creativity in children and adults, turning

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their potential into lasting contributions for their communities.

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We hope that you embrace the challenge to shift your perspective as we equip

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you and the next generation for a I

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think there's this very common misconception that creativity

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is reserved for the very lucky few who are born with it.

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And I beg to disagree.

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I think that creativity is actually for everybody.

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In fact, I do believe that All of us are born with creative capabilities.

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We were created after all.

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And so all of us are truly born to create.

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I think the first step is actually recognizing what creativity is.

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And then the second is acknowledging that, yes, you are a creative being.

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Everything about you actually desires to create.

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It's just that some of us never practiced it and are not open to it.

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And that's why we'd never really tap into it.

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In Robert Franken's book, Human Motivation, he defines creativity as the

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tendency to generate ideas, recognize ideas, come up with possibilities and

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alternatives to solve problems, to communicate, or to entertain each other.

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So creativity is simply just that.

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It is not just about making art.

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It is more than that.

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It is really, truly just the ability to be able to see something and have a

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different perspective about it and see if you can solve a problem a different way.

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A simple example of creativity is literally just, you know, reorganizing

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your day, reorganizing your routines.

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You can have more efficiency in your day that is being creative.

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That's looking at your day and seeing.

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Oh, I don't think I'm doing this as efficiently, or I don't think I'm being

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effective in my day if I do it this way.

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So then kind of removing yourself from that and looking, okay,

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well, how can I do it differently?

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Creating a new way of going about your day is creativity.

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The key here really is, again, number one, recognizing what creativity is,

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and number two, acknowledging that you already have that creative capability.

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And of course, a third one is having the openness to actually put it into practice.

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My number one powerful tool for actually being creative.

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And if you don't get anything else from this podcast episode, just get

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this one thing, because if you do this one thing, it will dramatically

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change the way you do life.

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Number one.

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It's literally to listen, to sit still and to listen.

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And that is very hard to do.

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It's very hard for me to do because I'm such an active person, but I have

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found time and time and time again, that when faced with a situation, when

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faced with a problem, if I just quiet myself and actually take the time to

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just be still and not busy myself with.

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So many things that I need to do for the day.

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I actually find that the answers come to me.

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And I think that is the testament to, again, just how this world came about.

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For me, I really do believe that this world was created with so much

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intention, with so much purpose, and Everything in us has so much purpose.

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We are filled with purpose.

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And the way we can exercise that purpose is literally by stepping into

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our creative power and doing the way we do things, because actually no

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one else does it the way that we do.

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And the only way that you can tap into that power is not maybe

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not the only way, but I really do believe one of the most powerful

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ways is to sit still and to listen.

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Another way to actually cultivate creativity, I believe is sleeping.

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And I say this because I am the worst at sleeping.

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I am an early morning person, and I'm also a late night person.

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I become very chatty at night because my brain is always on fire.

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I'm always so full of ideas.

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And then in the morning I wake up and I'm like excited to get to my day because I

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just have so much that I'm excited about.

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And what I realized is that there's power in rest and there's actually.

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So much that happens when we sleep.

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I forgot the guy that I listened to.

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I completely forgot it.

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If I find him, I'm going to put it on the show notes, but basically this guy,

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um, he is a dream expert and the sleep expert, and he studied dreams and sleeping

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for so many years, but what he has found is in the sleeping in a deep sleep.

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And when we're dreaming, this is actually where creative ideas come

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because this is where our brains and our system, everything in our body,

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our nervous especially is so relaxed.

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The ideas actually flow into us when we're more relaxed than being tense.

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Like, and a lot of times when we're awake, we are tense because we're

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thinking about so many things we're stressed out about different situations.

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but when we're in that deep sleep, all of a sudden.

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All of the tension goes away and our brains actually

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naturally becomes creative.

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And I think that's also the reason why when we wake up and we think

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about our dreams, we're like, Oh my gosh, what was that about?

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What?

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Like that was the craziest dream.

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I've, I always have these experiences.

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I wake up and I have the craziest, craziest dream.

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And one of the things I've also done in my own practice is actually record my dreams.

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So if I have a crazy dream, I would grab my phone right away and I would

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just kind of voice record what happened.

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And then.

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For the most part, I don't do anything with it, but it's just a

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fact that like, okay, let me recreate.

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Let me kind of narrate what I saw in my dream at night.

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Um, I think there's just power to that.

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And we may, I may not see, you know, the tangible relationship of

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that, but I do know that something is happening when we're sleeping.

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So yeah, two power of things you could do.

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One is sit still and listen to is actually get some rest and sleep.

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Paul Allen, who is the co founder of Microsoft, is not only a technological

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visionary, but he is also a music lover.

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He played the guitar and he has credited his love for music and his guitar playing

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skills to have given him an edge in the way he problem solves and how he

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sees things in the technology world.

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He believes that his ability to play the guitar is actually a major

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source of his creativity and success.

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Jim McKelvey is the co founder of Square, a mobile payment system.

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And his success really came from the recognition of a simple problem.

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Small businesses and vendors couldn't take in credit card payments

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easily because they don't have the capacity to, you know, have the

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systems like a big retailer would.

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And so by recognizing the problem and coming up with a solution, which is It

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plugs into the phone, small businesses and vendors can take it with them on the go.

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As they plug it into the phone, they can charge customers with

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their credit card payments.

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And it's incredible that someone saw that problem, recognized the need,

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and came up with a solution for it.

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And aside from his innovation with that Square technology, he is also

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an artist and a glassblower, applying his creativity and problem solving

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skills in a whole different world.

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Chuck Steerick is the founder of Sweetwater Sound, one of America's

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largest online retailers for musical instruments and audio gear.

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And before he founded Sweetwater, he was a professional saxophonist running a

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mobile recording studio out of his van.

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And in his time doing that and just being immersed in the world of music, he

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really got to know the musician's needs and was able to drive massive success

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for Sweetwater Sound because of his innovation and customer service and making

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Sweetwater a customer centric company.

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He credits his music background as really the thing that gave him insight

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and the ability to see the gaps in what the customer really needs.

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And that's why it is such a successful company.

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He also believes that his experience as a musician really gave him

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the drive and the persistence to be able to build his business.

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Those are just three of the very, very few creative leaders and entrepreneurs out

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there who really attributes creativity as the driving force behind their success.

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So how can we do this ourselves?

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Well, creativity is a muscle, and it can be practiced just like anything else.

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One of the things we can do as an adult is to never stop learning.

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Take up a hobby that is just purely fun.

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For fun.

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It's just a hobby in my studio.

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I have a couple of adults who literally take piano lessons

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just because it's fun for them.

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It is not because they're trying to, you know, become the next

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amazing songwriter singer.

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Uh, they don't want to become the next classical pianist.

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They are literally taking it just for fun.

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For exercise of their brain.

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And also just because for the pure enjoyment of it.

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So finding a hobby that you really enjoy doing and exercising that

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creative part of your brain is one of the ways that you can do that.

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Another thing is just rearranging your day, looking at your day and seeing,

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okay, what can we do differently?

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As I've kind of already mentioned in the beginning of this episode.

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Um, another way is to look at daily problems that we have, and instead

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of Going autopilot and going at it the way we've always gone at it.

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Uh, maybe sit back and just say, okay, well, what are three

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different angles that I can come up with to solve this same problem?

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Another simple way to exercise creativity.

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And this is an exercise you can do with the children in your lives.

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Uh, it's something that I learned in one of the teacher trainings I attended

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in a Simply Music teacher training.

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Uh, Simply Music is the, uh, piano method that I am certified or licensed to teach.

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And, it's basically looking at an item and just coming up with However,

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many different ways you can come up.

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So for example, I look at this eraser, right?

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This is a whiteboard eraser, basically just looking at it and

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seeing, okay, well, what are 20 different ways that we can come up

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as a use for this whiteboard eraser?

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Another exercise that, uh, Lee and I actually did one time, we were out for

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a walk and I remember this, we're like, okay, this is really gross and it's

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really, it's really gross, but it's just a way to kind of humor ourselves.

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Okay, so, so don't hate.

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We were like, okay, what are ways that we can basically come up

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with different ways to Name poop.

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Yeah, what are different ways that we could say poop?

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And we just went through the alphabet It was a through Z and he would say, you

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know, he would take a I would take B.

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Oh, he would take C Think thankfully I got D because I just said that you know

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dingleberry something like that, right?

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I know this is so gross and hilarious and cheeky, but like seriously Anything,

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right, that could exercise your brain.

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For us, that was just like a fun thing for us to do because we're silly like that.

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So yeah, we just went through the alphabet and came up with different words for poop.

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So take it or leave it.

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But that is a way to exercise your creativity.

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And another way is just collaboration.

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So the more that you collaborate and really surround yourself with

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like minded people, people who Recognize the value of creativity.

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People who acknowledge that they are creative, they're innately

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creative human beings, and number three, people who are willing to put

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themselves out there to practice it.

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I think that by surrounding yourself with, with creative people, you will

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find that, wow, there is power in company of like minded individuals

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who want to grow creatively.

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So those are ways that we as adults can nurture our own creativity.

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And of course, They can apply to the children in our lives too.

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However, I'm also going to give a couple of examples that are very much

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specific to our approach with kids and how we can nurture creativity in them.

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So here are five ways that we can cultivate creativity in the

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children that are around us.

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One is to let them be inventors.

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Kids, I think are just naturally inventive, right?

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They come up with, with crazy ideas in their mind.

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And so why not take that and actually, uh, Make it into an exercise.

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Let's say once a week you have what you'll call the invention hour and go through

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Your daily activities at home simple daily activities at home like washing

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dishes or cleaning the toilet Whatever that could be for you and ask them to

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Brainstorm and see if they could invent something that would make something

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either easier or faster or better, right?

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It's just an exercise to get them to realize that, oh my gosh,

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yeah, I can come up with ideas.

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I can come up with inventions.

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So yeah, have an invention hour once a week.

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Number two is create problem solving games for them.

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So whatever difficulty they're facing, especially at school, maybe encourage

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them to see, okay, well, how can we gamify this hard thing right now?

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Is there a way that we can approach this that's going to make it more fun?

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And is there any other angle that they could look at that would really help

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them solve this problem effectively?

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Number three is fusion of interests.

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This exercise is really about encouraging the children in your lives, how to

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see two different things that are from completely different fields

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and how they relate to each other.

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So for example, science and music, just asking them questions.

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Are there any patterns in science that are kind of the same as music?

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Uh, how do they work together?

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Would there be a product that you could come up with that would

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blend both of them together.

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You know, there's so many different examples and so many different fields that

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you could look into, whether that's, you know, let's say martial arts and math.

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I don't know, you know, I'm just coming up with things here.

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How do they relate to each other?

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And even if it's so far fetched, the idea here is to just encourage

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them to exercise their brain and to see if there's correlations and

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patterns that can work together.

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And by doing that, you are nurturing their natural creativity.

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And the last is celebrate crazy ideas.

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Let kids be kids.

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Their thoughts are wild.

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They have crazy things probably that they think about.

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And, you know, when they come up with these crazy ideas, just

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don't come at it with judgment.

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Just really celebrate them and encourage them to keep having these

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ideas because it is in that, that they get to really build their confidence

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and exercise their creative courage.

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So I hope that by now you can really see that creativity is a

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tool for a wildly wealthy life.

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When we recognize what creativity is and acknowledge that we have

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it, and we are open to practicing it, we get to see things from a

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different perspective than others.

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And through that, we're able to come up with creative solutions

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and creative ways to communicate that the world may need from us.

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And that can lead to our success and I'm not just talking about

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like, okay, big inventions, right?

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It doesn't have to be that it can literally be applied to your everyday

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life and something so little that could just Make your day so much better.

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So I hope you enjoy that today until next time live a wildly wealthy life.

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All right, friends, that's a wrap on today's episode of wildly wealthy life.

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We hope you're feeling fired up and ready to take on the world with

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your brilliant mind and brave heart.

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If you love this episode, make sure you hit that subscribe button on YouTube

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or your favorite podcast platform.

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It helps us keep bringing you the good stuff.

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And Hey, while you're at it, drop us a rating or review.

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It takes like what?

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30 seconds and it makes a huge difference for us.

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Also, if you know someone who could use a little guidance on growth,

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mindset, leadership and creativity, share this episode with them.

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Sometimes that one conversation can spark up a whole new direction.

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Thanks for hanging out with us today.

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Go out there, live wildly, be wealthy in all the ways that matter to you.

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And we'll catch you on the next one.