The first thing you must do to get the juices flowing is to take the initiative and break away from conventional thinking. When faced with a problem, open your mind and puzzle out a second, third or fourth solution. Creativity and humor go hand in hand. Lighten up and look at the absurd, the offbeat and silly aspects of a situation. If faced with a serious problem, make fun of it, give it a goofy name.
Laughter is like letting fresh air into a stuffy room.
In our results-oriented society, it's tough to not always aim for a goal. Creativity, however, is far more mercurial. One wise person described the process as that of a compost heap rather than a computer. Sometimes, you just can't rush it. You can keep the compost heap fertile by keeping a notebook and consistently jotting down any ideas, observations or insights you have.