Creative thinkers use their minds fluently. This means they generate large numbers of ideas. You can do this too by following these five simple steps.

Friday Video: TED Talk – Is there something you’ve always meant to do, wanted to do, but just … haven’t? Matt Cutts suggests: Try it for 30 days.

Have you ever encountered a problem only to become stumped trying to come up with a solution? How often have you found yourself saying that there is just no possible answer and you think that you have reached a dead end?

Friday Video: TED Talk – Behncke Izquierdo (a TED Fellow) shows how bonobo ape society learns from constantly playing and is key to problem solving. Can it work for humans?

So you want to be a better thinker? Use these simple techniques to develop your critical thinking skills.

Have you ever fell in a creative rut? Sure, we all have. It’s that mental ditch in which you find yourself going nowhere very fast. Creative blocks are normal and, though most of us despise them, they often lead to amazing gifts that refuel our creativity and help us evaluate our strategies.

Perhaps you are going through one of the most difficult times of your life right now, whether it’s financial, personal, or whatever. It is a problem and you need to solve it. Sometimes this requires a total change in our thinking.

Friday Video: TED Talk – Without even realizing it, we’re barricading ourselves against strangeness — people and ideas that don’t fit the patterns of who we already know, what we already like and where we’ve already been.

There seems to be nearly endless tips out there that exist to boost creativity. This is fantastic since there are always times when creativity simply will not come. Since everyone is different and since different days bring different strains on creativity, the more creativity boosting techniques the better.

Creative expression should be honored and valued at work.