You’d be surprised at just how many ways you use creativity in your day to day tasks. From tackling and solving new problems, to brainstorming about marketing ideas, to making choices around the types of design and copy that work best for your brand. Creativity is a part of almost everything you do! 

And even though each person’s creative process can look very different, there’s nothing like a few inspirational creativity quotes to jumpstart your creative juices. We’ve put together some of our favourites. Keep reading to get inspired. And share your favourites to keep the inspiration flowing.  

1. When you’ve got cold feet:

“It will never be perfect. Make it work.” – Life

We all get a little nervous or even scared when we’re preparing to launch something that we’re really invested in. The stakes just feel so high. But the ideas that stay in your mind will never get realized to their fullest potential. You need to get them out there and test them so you can get feedback and data to improve them.

2. When you’re looking for a big idea: 

“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.” – E. F. Schumacher

It’s not always the biggest or flashiest ideas that are the game-changers. Actually most of the time they’re not. Those ones just happen to get a lot of attention. Instead, when you constantly and consistently look at how you can optimize our processes and your customers’ experiences, that’s where you’ll come across your best ideas and moves.

3. When you’re trying to get things just right:

“Creativity is nothing but a mind set free.” –Torrie T. Asai

In order to be at our creative best, we need to feel free. Ever wonder why so many great ideas are thought up in the shower? On a walk? Or as you’re about to drift off to sleep? When your mind is relaxed, it’s a lot easier to be creative. Of course, getting that relaxed during the day can be a challenge. But you can get your creative juices flowing by getting out of your head, and moving your body (dancing), or your hands (cooking or crafting) or even just voice (singing or meditating).

4. When you’re trying to avoid mistakes:

“It’s through mistakes that you actually can grow. You have to get bad in order to get good.” – Paula Scher

Our desire to make everything just right can be our worst enemy. It also assumes that we already know everything we need to know in order to do our best work. Now you’ve got to know that that can’t be true! There’s always something to learn that will help you improve your work. And you’ve got to start where you are, with what you know to discover what those things are.

5. When you want to add something new:

“Get rid of everything that is not essential to making a point.” – Christoph Niemann

When we’re focused on adding something new to a product or service we can miss an opportunity to streamline things. Before you add, look at what you can subtract. And consider what absolutely needs to be present. Keep asking yourself these questions every so often and you’ll be surprised at the new ideas that come to life when you look at the same things with a bit more experience under your belt.

6. When you’re second guessing yourself:

“Talent is good. Practice is better. Passion is best.” – Frank Lloyd Wright 

As an entrepreneur, you’ve got to wear many different hats. And there’s no way you can excel at every role. But the more you give to each thing you take on, and the more time you devote, the better you’ll get. It’s staying the course no matter how hard things feel that really dictates whether you’ll be successful. Not how much talent you start off with because you can always learn to do things that don’t come naturally.

7. When you’re trying to make it perfect:

“Leave it better than you found it.” – Bruce A. Nordstrom

Perfectionism is a creativity killer. So focus on leaving something better than you found it with each iteration. And keep in mind that you can keep building from there. You don’t have to get it all right/covered in one go. And it’s really not possible to.

8. When you’re in a rut:

“Look at usual things with unusual eyes.” – Vico Magistretti

When you spend so much time working on a product or service it can get hard to see how you can tweak it, change it or grow it. You just can’t take an objective look at things or see anything as a novelty. So it’s helpful to have conversations with clients, reach out to others in your niche, and those who you consider advisors or sounding boards to help you think of new questions and perspectives.

9. When you’re overthinking:

“You don’t have to be ‘a creative’ to be creative.” – Drory Ben-Menachem

Everyone has their own creative process. And much of the time there may not seem to be anything particularly creative about your own. But don’t let that discourage you. If you want to tackle a problem or come up with a new service or product, dive into the process however you see fit. It’s not the way that works for everyone that will get the job done for you. So trial-and-error your way to your own creative process.

10. When you feel like giving up:

 “The best views come after the hardest climbs.” 

We’ve all been there. Some of us are there right now. That place that you get to where you just want to give up. But like any other time in your entrepreneurial journey, it’s important to see things through. You’ve got to rule your ideas in or out with as much data as you can. And you’ve got to keep going until you’ve exhausted the different resources you have available to you. Otherwise, you might just stop before you reach your goal because you didn’t realize how close you were.

11. When you’re not feeling motivated:

“The work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work you should be doing for the rest of your life.” – Jessica Hische

What do you do when you need a pick-me-up and you’re not feeling motivated? Keep track of the things that excite you and motivate you. Because these are the things that will keep you feeling energetic and inspired when nothing else will. Make it a mission to cultivate as long a list of these types of things as you can. They’ll come in handy whenever you can feel your creativity and motivation dipping.

12. When you’re not sure how to start:

 “Curiosity about life in all its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett

Get curious! Before anyone can get creative, they’ve got to get curious. It’s important to examine the problems and opportunities in front of you with an open mind. To get familiar with all of their nooks and crannies. Otherwise, you’ll just be going in circles with the same ideas and reinventing the wheel.

13. When you’re trying to be innovative:

“The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” – David Ogilvy

To be innovative you’ve got to break the mold. And nothing breaks a mold or plays with conventions like a good joke. If you need to be thinking outside the box, but you’re having a hard time doing so, try this. Intentionally think of the wildest, the most ridiculous ideas that would be possible if there were absolutely no limits. And in the midst of your wildest ideas, you might start seeing new possibilities that you wouldn’t have otherwise. 

14. When you’re waiting for the perfect moment:

“Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” —Bruce Garrabrandt

As you’ve probably realized on many occasions, the perfect moment doesn’t exist. And waiting for it kills a lot of pretty good moments instead. Your most creative ideas and moments will happen regardless of what’s going on around you for the most part. So keep tackling your challenges and looking for new opportunities with different approaches and perspectives. And your creativity will come to life, the more you keep showing up, ready to do the work.

15. When your target feels impossible to reach:

“Have no fear of perfection—you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali

We can all fall into the trap of setting goals that are unrealistic. And when we do realize that we’ve done this, it can get hard to take any step forward. With your sights set on achieving perfection, everything else feels inferior. But forget all that. Every goal you set can be changed. You’re only setting targets based on what seems to be the best bet at any given time. And you can see them as moving targets based on the different things that you need to factor in over time.

16. When you don’t think you’re creative:

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” —Steve Jobs

Creativity doesn’t look and feel the same every time that it occurs. But there are some common elements. Like the way it creates connections. Sometimes it just takes zooming out from a problem a bit – or maybe zooming in. And the change in perspective makes something game changing seem so obvious. It doesn’t feel particularly creative – but it is!

17. When you’re tired of trying to be creative:

 “There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono 

There are times when a problem or opportunity doesn’t seem to involve creativity. It’s something straightforward and so there’s no need for a creative process to approach it. Chances are this is because you’ve gotten too bogged down in a certain way of thinking and now you can’t see any other ideas as working. In these moments when it can be tempting to take the easiest path, the one of least resistance, try to look at the opportunity at hand from different angles. And ask yourself if you can’t come up with something better than the status quo. When you challenge yourself to get creative, you can push your product or service where it may not have gone otherwise.

18. When you get busy daydreaming: 

“Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off, and does something about it who makes a difference.” — Nolan Bushnell 

Dreaming up new ideas is awesome. And an important part of the creative process. But it’s only a small part of it, no matter how big your idea feels. The real magic and creativity are in the doing. When you take your ideas and dreams and have to figure out how to bring them to life as tangible goods or services that your customers can enjoy.

19. When you’re contemplating the path less traveled:

“Creating opportunities means looking where others are not.” — Mark Cuban

In the wise words of Mark Cuban, you’ve got to be looking where others are not in order to create opportunities. And yes it’s definitely harder than it sounds to spot opportunities that no one else has tapped into yet. Or that might very well be in one of your blind spots. But this is why it’s important to work with a team that has diverse perspectives, to connect with customers often, and to lean on those who you trust as sounding boards. When we only hear our own perspectives reinforced, being creative becomes much harder.

20. When you’re not celebrating your wins:

“Strive for progress, not perfection.”      

Every step counts. No matter how small or big, progress is progress. And recognizing and celebrating your wins is a big part of building momentum for creativity. It’s a lot harder to be creative if you’re constantly focusing on what you see as flaws and gaps. The more you focus on opportunities, the more you will see and leverage them.      

21. When you’re not sure where to start:

“Use your imagination to fill in the blanks.” — Barbara Corcoran

When you can’t see the solution to a problem or the way to make the most of an opportunity, it’s time to brainstorm. And to let your imagination lead the way. Don’t rule anything in or out based on it being too impractical. Just let your ideas flow, and see if you can get some team members in on this too. Then take a look at what’s at the core of each of these ideas and how you can incorporate them into a realistic solution or idea.

22. When you’re worried about being normal:

 “The most talented, thought-provoking, game-changing people are never normal.” — Richard Branson                            

Normal and status quo are fine. They don’t rock the boat and they get the job done. But when you’re looking at different approaches to execute an idea or solve a problem there may be a much better way. One that you’re just not familiar with because no one else has done it. That doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t. Just start small to validate your idea, and then scale it up and out as much as you like.

23. When it seems so complicated:

“It’s all about new techniques — simplifying old techniques and consolidating steps. Making things go faster, but not worse.” — Martha Stewart        

Being creative doesn’t have to look or feel complicated. It may involve coming up with something new, but that doesn’t mean we’re talking about coming up with things from scratch. It can mean optimizing processes, reducing steps, reducing touch points, enhancing a user experience, and so much more. It’s all about progress.   

24. When you don’t feel original:

“It’s not where you take things from — it’s where you take them to.” — Jean-Luc Godard 

Creativity isn’t about pulling things out of thin air. It’s about remixing and repurposing. Recycling and reinventing. Ultimately we have access to everything that we need to make great products and services. We just have to figure out how to put the pieces together in ways that resonate with our target audiences. And in ways that offer value that is unique from our competitors.

25. When you want to be creative: 

“The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state which makes art inevitable.” — Robert Henri

Sometimes we get tunnel vision about what our creativity should like out. But the obsession with the destination isn’t productive. It’s the journey, and how we approach it that makes all the difference. So surround yourself with things that challenge you and inspire you on a daily basis as much as you can. Whether that means podcasts, or episodes of Shark Tank, or conversations with team members, or all of the above and more. As long as you keep pouring the inspiration in, when the right ideas align, creativity will strike. 

Find your spark with inspirational creativity quotes

There’s no set formula for productivity or creativity. And they can both seem so very elusive at times. So keep seeking it out in everything and everyone you encounter. As long as you keep looking to these little pick-me-ups and perspective changers, your ideas will start flowing in no time.