Keep Your Creative Mind Strong

There was a time I didn't need the gym. I was young and constantly doing physical things. I could eat anything I wanted and I wouldn't gain an ounce of fat. Now the story is different. I'm past the age where I can rely on my metabolism to keep me thin. Now I have to watch what I eat and make a point of staying active to keep in good shape. Fortunately, I enjoy my time at the gym. I find it to be a very creative place. While my body does the exercises, my mind can go in all sorts of directions often finding some interesting thoughts to ponder. 

Today I realized that it isn't downtime that my mind is getting in the gym. It is a workout of its own. It is when the creative side of my entrepreneurial spirit gets to come out. (It happens in other places as well, my shower at home and my car being the best of all.) Without this time though, my creative side would constantly be overshadowed by the analytical side. When I am in the office speaking with clients, it is most often my analytical side that is doing the work. It stays strong on its own because of this constant activity. My creative side, though, only gets to come out when I am in certain situations (IE. gyms, cars or showers).

It is incredibly important for all entrepreneurs to keep that creative side active. If you are in business for yourself, you likely remember the moment when the dream of entrepreneurship popped into your head. It was wonderful wasn't it? The rush of suddenly seeing the world differently. A world opened up by the vision you had for your product or service. The feeling of unlimited potential, of all the possibilities ahead. That was the creative side of you shining through. 

Many entrepreneurs lose touch with that creative side. Once they make their dream a reality, they fall into the trap of indulging only their analytical side in order to run the business on a day to day basis. Businesses need to deal in cold hard facts and numbers if they are to succeed, so there is a place for the analytical mind without a doubt. However, it should not overshadow the creative mind.

Creative thinking is where you are going to find ways to expand your business, please customers and create a great environment for your employees. It is how you will see not only where your business is going, but where it could go. It will allow you to step out of the numbers and see your business as an organism in a huge world where it plays a part. It will help you to see other parts your business could play, or perhaps an idea for a whole new business. It will keep that anxious urge to create alive in you, and that is the road to a wonderful life full of accomplishment! Shut all that down and you become a simple manager. Is that why you started your own business? To be a manager? I highly doubt it.

Take the time to keep your creative side active. Find that place or activity that opens you up in that way. Make a point of being in those situations that allow your mind to roam free. Keep seeing those opportunities in that wide open world that you first saw when you dreamed your business into being. Look at the road ahead through your creative eyes and marvel at the possibilities.