College Creativity

College is an interesting time in the life of many young adults they learn to develop many habits. The clubs we join, the classes we take, and the teachers we encounter play a significant role in our attitudes when it comes to being creative and innovative in our approaches to everyday challenges.

We are so often set to stringent guidelines that it limits our ability to successfully find new and more efficient solutions to old problems and methodologies. Systems fall victim to the concept of BTWADI “Because that’s the way we’ve always done it.”  Doing things the same way as always, being stuck in unnecessary stringent routines.

The truth is these routines can easily be broken when provided with the right environment, and a little courage to question the status quo from time to time.

One important thing that permits us to continue to develop our creativity is the option of asking questions. The questions being asked should be beneficial in the sense of gaining knowledge or insight into the situation. They shouldn’t be an exertion of power, or a demonstration that you can outsmart someone. Questions of that nature will discourage creative thought process and the drive to discover.

A second factor is not being afraid of failure, just as important is not punishing yourself or another for that failure. Trying new things means there is a chance of failing. As opposed to punishing failure, learn from it, receive feedback from those you are working with or those around you. Another important aspect of this is rewarding attempts at innovation sometimes it is more important to reward the attempt at a new solution, this reward will encourage us to continue to generate new solutions.

These creative tricks come in very handy when it comes time to look at senior design projects, or research capstones. What is something that interests you and that can be further explored? Important research isn’t necessarily new research, but research that contributes new insight, including insight into tried and tested concepts. As Edison said” I have not failed, I’ve just found 10.000 ways that don’t work.” Don’t be scared to get creative sometimes it is the 10.001st solution that will revolutionize your field of study.