A cliché about creativity is that everything has to be always new. New ideas, new solutions, new products. No one who sticks to the old is creative. And sooner or later he will be punished for this lack of innovation.
Well, I can reassure you: That is not the case.
Creativity does not mean that something has to be completely new
Creativity does not mean that something has to be completely new. That is hardly going to happen. We all build on our own thoughts and results as well as those of our predecessors. Creativity means that something must be new to a particular person or purpose. If you offer your customers the fifth cream cherry yogurt, you will have problems. But a new target group could be happy about this creamy cherry yoghurt. Or your old target group might like the cream-cherry product if you give it a new packaging. Do not turn the popular recipe over as yoghurt; make ice or quark out of it. You are already creative - and have created something new.
Note: Creativity also means to modify something old, to find a new purpose for it or to inspire other target groups for it.
Use articles multiple times
In the text area, among authors and journalists something is commonplace. Given the generally rather low fees, an article only pays off if it is used several times. For example, an article is rewritten and sold to another client. Or you can use it for yourself, your own website or your books.
Mature designs
The same authors store early drafts of articles or books that seem to "hook" somewhere, once in the drawer. At some point, they get them out, they walk off easily and the thing is already running.
Find another audience
An event or marketing agency develops several ideas for customer A. For one of them, the customer decides, the rest wanders "in heap". Instead of destroying them, you might like Customer B. (So you should always collect your ideas, at least the better ones.) You never know when you can use them again.)
Or to take myself as an example:
New use
I incorporate elements from set courses into new ones or use them as material for my texts.
To combine to new product I combine ideas for articles or courses that I have not followed up and knit completely new texts or courses.
Find new variants
At the same time, I offered my courses as a group course, individual course and self-study course, thus finding new product features and target groups for them. In this way I am flexible and can choose which product variant I prefer at the moment. For example, right now essay writing for me is much better option than writing stories for blogs.
How do you find new fields of application for old ideas?
You do not have to frantically tap all the old ideas on whether they can somehow be reused. As I said, sometimes it is enough to "store" an idea or a product until the flash of inspiration flashes in, usually in response to new conditions.
Sometimes pure coincidence brings a new revival to an old discovery. For example, some medicines were intended for a completely different purpose before finally finding "their niche".
What it takes is a few patient tests and a lot of attention and perseverance.
Questions that you can ask yourself are, for example:
· Which idea do I like and do I want to test and expand under further conditions?
· Which idea I think is good in principle, but it could run better and perhaps use a little "fresh blood" in the form of new application areas or target groups?
· Which idea (or product and so on, that does not matter) from my box of ideas could fit this new question or problem? (Instead of reflexively looking for new solutions, look first, if not a few old ones fit.)
· What ideas do I know from my environment, my knowledge, my experiences, which I can adapt to my own needs?
· Which old ideas could I combine and new purposes?
· And so on.
And if, like me, you're keen to keep your resources running, rather than plunging into new adventures and developments, then there's another advantage to saving you a lot of energy. In this sense, you have much success in making old things new.
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