Whether your chosen medium is pictures or language, food or formulas, everyone has the capacity to be creative in their work. But we can often lose our motivation to create, making it difficult to stay focused and excited on a project. So how does one keep their creative well from drying up?

不管选择的媒体是图片、语言、资料还是公式，每个人都能在自己的作品中发挥创造才能，但我们经常缺乏创造积极性，所以很难在作品种创新，那么怎样才能源源不断地发挥创造力呢？

Maintaining your motivation to create is actually a long-term endeavor. Starting out can be tough, but with discipline and consistency you will eventually reach a point where staying motivated only requires minimal daily maintenance—a simple matter of learning to make the right choices at the right time.

保持创造性动机需要长期不懈的努力。可能刚开始，你需要付出很大的努力，但是坚持一段时间以后，你就会达到一定的境界，只需要每天进行简单的学习，就可以在适当的时间做出适当的决定。

Of course, everyone is different, and each person will have their own unique formula to propel themselves into a creative frenzy. So while this article offers some possible solutions, it is up to you to make the right choices to keep yourself motivated. Maintaining motivation requires paying attention to your behavior, listening to your instincts, and learning how to encourage, bargain, and even trick yourself into being creative.

当然，个人情况不同，训练创新思维的方式也就不同。这篇文章会介绍一些训练创造性思维的方式，但是否适用完全由个人决定。维持这种创造积极性，需要注意自己的行为，尊重自己的直觉，还要学习如何激励、劝说甚至是哄骗自己。

Phase I: starting out
第一阶段：开始阶段

As I’ve mentioned, starting from scratch is the hardest part, and rewards don’t come quick. But if you want to reach a point where all you need to do is give your motivation occasional maintenance, you have to start somewhere.

上面提到过，开始阶段最难，不会很快就有回报。但只有从这里开始，才可以达到只需偶尔维持就能产生创造性动机的状态。

Here’s a few tips to help you when you’re starting out:

开始的时候你需要做到以下几点：

Set goals
设定目标

It’s a lot easier to stay motivated when you feel like you’ve accomplished something, but how can you know when you succeed if you never set a goal? Give yourself something to achieve.

渴望完成某件事情的时候，动力会很大，但是没有工作目标的时候，什么时候成功呢？所以，首先确定需要完成的目标。
 
Stack the deck
打好基础

Keeping interested and motivated is directly related to those successfully met goals. Set yourself up for more success than failure by being realistic in your goal setting. Small, bite-sized tasks at first. As you get more and more successes under your belt, make your goals more ambitious.

兴趣感和驱动力会使你成功达到目标。制定一个现实的目标，会让自己少一点失败，多一份成功。所以，首先完成简单的任务，成功越来越多，目标也要越来越高。

Build a creative den
寻找工作空间

Whether it’s your desk area, a dark cave, a hotel room, or a home office, you need a place specifically set aside to be creative in. Once you’ve decided on that place, use it like the dickens. Each creative success you have in that location will train your mind to be creative within its boundaries. When I set foot inside my office, something clicks on in my brain, and I’m ready to work. Sure, it took about six months to turn into a den—but trust me, it’s time and effort well spent.

你需要寻找一个空间发挥创造力，办公桌、阴暗的房子、酒店的房间或是总公司都可以，只要是利于发挥创造思维的地方。那里的每一次成功可以训练大脑在此产生创造性思维，比如说，我一踏进办公室，大脑中就会产生灵感，我就准备工作了。当然了，这种灵感的产生大约需要6个月左右的时间，但这6个月的时间和努力绝对是有价值的。

Retreat, but don’t surrender
退却，但不能放弃

Never give up on projects or problems. Put them aside for a while, but always come back to solve them (even if it’s only developing a theory for solving them). Solving these problems will build your confidence, your knowledge, and (hopefully) your portfolio.

不要放弃工作、不要逃避某些问题。可以先把难题放在一边，但以后一定要解决（即使需要研发一套理论来解决）。这些问题解决以后，你的信心会建立，知识会增加，希望你的经验也会增加。

Find your cycle
找到自己的工作周期

Just as your body has optimal times for sleeping and eating, there’s also an optimal time when your body is at its most creative (and, unfortunately, least creative). For me, that super-creative time is in the morning. I know many other people find that they’re most creative late at night. Find out when you’re at your creative best, and start using that time to your advantage; save your least creative time to do the mundane administrative aspects of your job.

我们的身体有最佳的睡眠和进食时间，同样，也有最佳的创造性思维时间（也有最差的）。比如：对我来说，早上这个时间创造性思维最活跃。我知道很多人在深夜创造性最强。找到自己创造性最强的时间，利用这个时间努力工作；同时找到自己创造性最差的时间，这段时间可以做一些基本的行政工作。

The right tools
正确的工具

Being creative is difficult enough; don’t make it harder for yourself by using inferior (or just plain wrong) tools. Explore your options and find the tools that allow you to create what you want to create, and get the best ones you can afford.

拥有创造力很难，如果使用劣等的工具（有时是错误的），这样会更难。根据自己的选择找到帮助自己创新的工具，当然，最好是在可以承受的经济范围内，找到最好的工具。

Follow your progress
追求进步

Seeing just how far you’ve come can be an excellent motivational tool. If you don’t stop every so often to see where you were a couple months ago, and where you are now, do it—you might surprise yourself with how much you’ve gotten done, or how much you’ve creatively grown. Or perhaps you’ll feel you didn’t get enough done, and it will strengthen your resolve to work harder. Whatever the case, it’s worth it to check every once in a while.

了解自己的进步是一种很好的激励工具。如果没有回顾，就不会了解这两个2月来自己的变化。进行对比，你可能会有惊喜，你可以了解到：自己完成了多少，创造力增加了多少；或者可以了解到自己的不足，这样可以激励你更加努力工作。

Phase II: maintenance
第二阶段：维持阶段

Applying the tips from above, you’ll hopefully reach a point where you’re consistently motivated. Yet even when you’ve reached this plateau, you will occasionally hit points where that fervor wanes. It’s in those instances when you’ll need to try something new or different, set obstacles, or even take a step backwards in order to get your motivation back.

遵循以上建议，有希望达到一种境界：动力源源不断。但即使达到这样的高度，你也会偶尔碰到这样的情况：工作热情减少。在这种情况下，你需要尝试一些新鲜或不同的事情，为自己的工作增加压力、还可以后退几步，这样把工作动力找回来。

Here’s some things to try when you feel like you’ve hit a rut:

在达到一定境界后，你可以尝试做以下几件事情：

Don’t set any goals
不要设定目标

In the early stages of an idea, or if you’ve stumbled upon a creative endeavor you wish to experiment with, setting goals may destroy some of the spontaneity that makes experimentation so fulfilling. Let things play out naturally, and when you’re ready you’ll know if it’s time to duct tape that idea to a timeline.

在理念形成的初期，或者如果在你脑海中已经自发形成了一种思维，并想把它付诸于实验的时候，请不要过早地设定目标，因为它可能阻碍你的实验进程。就让事情自然地过渡，当你准备好的时候，你就会知道，该是时候制定一个时间表把你的想法付诸于行动了。

Make the goals unrealistic
制定不切实际的目标

I believe in certain instances that biting off more than I could chew worked out to my advantage. It helped me focus on the project, and push myself farther than I would normally. Unfortunately, you run the risk of failing to complete those goals, or completing them and completely burning out.

我相信，在某些情况下，不切实际的目标更能激发我的潜力。这样，我可以把精力放在某一个项目上，能力也可以超常发挥。然而，你可能是在冒险，因为你可能完不成、可能会完成、还有可能完全失败

Get out of the house
走出工作空间

While a creative den can often get the juices flowing, sometimes it helps to go somewhere different to work. It may not be as familiar and comfortable as your creative den, but it can provide different stimuli that can positively influence your ideas, and eventually your work.

可以激发创造力的空间经常会给你带来灵感，但有时候，工作空间之外的其它地方可以激发你的创造性思维。你有可能会感觉到陌生、不舒服，但可以带给你不同的灵感，这种灵感可以影响你的思维，最后会影响你的工作。

Study your peers
向同行学习

It can be helpful to see what others in your industry are doing. It may provide inspiration, and at the very least will give you an idea of what the standards are for excellence in your particular industry (which can help you figure out what to expect of yourself).

有时候，观察同行业人士的工作对你有帮助：可以给你提供灵感；至少，会让你了解行业的最佳标准，明确自己下一步怎么做。

Ignore your peers
忽视同行业绩

While it has its benefits, studying your peers too much can often cause you to focus only on their achievements, and lose focus on your own goals. What’s worse, it can often cause you to doubt your own work if it’s too different from the industry standard. When in fact you might be working on something just so different and fresh that it’s what the industry needs. Have a care, and don’t lose focus on your own work.

关注同行业人群的工作，虽然有益处，但如果过分关注会造成很多问题，比如说，只看重他们的成就，而忽视了自己的目标。更糟糕的是，有时候，因为你的作品与众不同、新颖，与行业标准有差距，你就会对作品产生怀疑，其实，这正是此行业所需要的。

Seek external stimulation
寻找外部激励

We’re absolutely surrounded by the creative output of both human beings and nature. Taking a closer look at everything around you can spark new ideas, and give you insight into how to solve some of your own creative problems. Whether it’s a museum, the center of town, or the biggest damn waterfall you’ve ever seen, there might be something out there to push you back into a creative mode.

其实，我们周围到处是人类和自然的创造物，近距离地观察这些创造物，你会产生新的思想，会找到解决问题的新方法。博物馆、城镇中心或者是你见过的最大的瀑布等等许多内容都能够让你产生创造性思维  。

Seek internal stimulation
寻找内部激励

While surrounding yourself with stimuli can be helpful, it’s often just as helpful to remove all external stimuli, and let your brain stimulate itself. For example, I often go running to help give me ideas. Not because I like running, but because it’s possibly the most boring activity in the world. It’s often easier for me to mull over creative problems when there’s nothing for my brain to do.

有时候，大脑自己产生创造性思维，即使没有外部因素的影响也可以。比如说，我经常会去跑步寻找灵感，我并不是喜欢跑步，只是因为这可能是世界上最枯燥的运动了。当大脑休息时，我更容易想出一些创造性问题。

Keep a sketchbook or notebook
做好记录

I can’t emphasize this one enough. Ideas—good or bad—need to be recorded. No one can remember them all. Writing down an idea for long-term storage might just free up some room in your brain to tackle new problems. What’s more, you now have a library of ideas to lend a hand when a deadline is looming and you’re not feeling your most creative.

这一点的重要性太大了。你应该把别人的想法记录下来，没有人能完全记住这些，写下这些想法可以让大脑留出跟多的空间去思考问题。另外，当大脑没有灵感的时候你可以借鉴这些内容。

Work through it
完成工作

While it may seem counterintuitive to force yourself to be creative, often it can work out for the best. It might feel difficult and clumsy at the start, but as you gain momentum you’ll almost always find your motivation has returned. And if it hasn’t, then take comfort in this—sometimes you may feel the work you’re producing is the most horrid abomination the world has seen, you may be producing good work after all. You’re just in the wrong state of mind to tell. Get through things as best as you can—you won’t know whether it’s good or bad until later on.

强迫自己产生创造性思维似乎是有点违背直觉，但通常会有好的结果。开始可能觉得有点困难、混乱，但随着动力的增加，你会发现工作积极性又回来了。如果还没有，你可以这样想：有时候你工作的内容可能是世界上最差的，以后，你可能会设计出一副好作品，在这种错误思想的支配下，尽全力干好自己的工作——现在你并不能判定作品是优是差。

Give yourself obstacles
增加必要的压力

Set a time limit, refuse to use a certain tool, make yourself take a more difficult direction—often these obstacles lead to some pretty exciting results.

设置时间限制，避免使用某一工具，让自己处于最困难的状态下——通常这些障碍会带来令人兴奋的结果。

Remove unnecessary obstacles
减轻不必要的压力

We sometimes set unnecessary limits on a project, which hinder our ability to solve the most important problem. If you feel you’re too restricted while trying to solve a creative problem, it can often help to reevaluate the restrictions, and see if some of the unimportant ones can’t be stripped away.

我们有时会设立一些不必要的限制，这些限制会阻碍我们解决最重要的问题。在解决创造性问题的时候，如果你觉得自己太受限制，那你可以重新考虑是否可以去掉一些不重要的限制。

Get on your horse
执行

So there you go. Hopefully, some of these suggestions can help you get on the right path to long-term motivation, or help you jumpstart your slightly-waning creative enthusiasm. As I mentioned above, these are by no means the only solutions. Only you can decide what direction is appropriate when. But with a little luck, experimentation, patience, and persistence, you’ll find the right regimen for keeping your motivation and creativity ever flowing.

现在可以进行创造性工作了。这些建议可以使你长期拥有工作动力，或者说可以帮你度过那个创造积极性逐渐变少的阶段。文章中提到的方法决不是唯一的解决方法，只有你自己可以决定什么时候运用什么方法。但是通过自己的实验、耐心、坚持，加上一点小小的运气，你就会找到一种正确的方式， 来维持工作的积极性和创造性。

利用比较方法设计网站 作品设计的诀窍

评论 (0) All