I have a great idea. In fact, I have more than one great idea. What about you?

Even if you do not consider yourself a creative person, I bet that you have had a few great business ideas, tens of interesting ideas for a book or a movie and thousands of creative ideas of various kinds and sizes.

The fact is that ideas happen all the time. They flow freely – interrupting serious business meetings, lurking around while we are taking a shower, changing our daily plans and challenging the way we do things.

But there are the times, when we desperately try to come up with something original and it does not work! Our mind simply refuses to be creatively-productive. It happens to me once in a while (for example, when I am trying to think of a topic for the next post).

I found that when I feel stuck and uninventive I usually follow what I call “10 Un-Rules of Creativity” and they help me overcome a mental form of creative paralysis. These are actually the guidelines that many graphic designers, architects and writers already use. But I believe that whether you are trying to come up with a new marketing strategy, write a piece of software or think of fun things to do for the weekend – you can benefit from applying them in your life.

1. Give yourself permission to be creative.

Many people who start learning about self development mistakenly believe that they lack creativity. Well, it turns out that you do not have to be a special kind of person to be creative.

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Scientists have estimated that it takes a worm about 100 erroneous tries before it learns that turning left leads to pain (small electroshock) and turning right leads to pleasure (food).

In theory we have been blessed with intellectual, analytical skills and cognitive abilities that are a million times superior than those of a worm. In practice, there are times when we find ourselves dumbstruck, wondering why have we done something so stupid… AGAIN!

While we might not always be able to avoid making mistakes all together, there are a few things we can do to reduce their frequency.

How Not to Make the Same Mistakes?

1. Appreciate yourself.

Taking every little mistake too close to heart, influences our self image and brings our confidence down, which, in turn, leads to more failures and lower self-esteem. Do not beat yourself up for what has gone wrong. There is a huge difference between “trying your best” and “doing everything you are theoretically capable of doing”. Always strive to do your best, but do not approach every task as a personal life challenge.

2. Break the habit.

Have you ever taken the wrong way going somewhere and when, weeks later, you went to the same place, you automatically turned to go in the wrong direction again? As if the erroneous part of the road has been included in the directions that your mind remembered.

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Do you believe in coincidences in life?

Just yesterday you were thinking about an old friend that you had not seen for ages and for some unexplainable reason this morning they called you.

Or how about the time when you made a seemingly insignificant decision: to grab a cup of coffee at Starbucks, to go to a friend’s party after work, to put your profile on one of the online dating websites – and this decision changed the course of your life.

Or about the time when you almost ran out of gas in the middle of Everglades National Park and suddenly right after a road sign “crocodile crossing” there it was – a tiny gas station lost in the middle of nowhere? (Ok this might not have happened to you. But I am sure that you have a similar crazy story to tell, when a situation you found yourself in looked absolutely hopeless, but strangely enough it resolved itself in the best possible way).

The question I ask myself is – are all these events just a chain of coincidences or have they been carefully woven into the invisible fabric of reality that we call destiny?

How does it work? Can we change or escape our fate or are there some events that we must face no matter what?

I wish I had it all figured out, but I am still trying to find answers to these questions. What I have read, studied and noticed from my personal experience is that there are a few Universal Laws that work without fail throughout the course of our life and to some extent shape our destiny.

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