2 Keys To Innovation At Work

I hear companies talk a lot about innovation. They often think those who innovate are mysterious or are magically gifted with a creative spark that simply doesn’t exist for the rest of humanity. In my experience, being an innovator comes down to 2 primary keys, and neither of them is magic.

The first key to innovation is discipline. Those who innovate the most are disciplined enough to get up every single day and do the work. In Steven Pressfield’s book, “The War of Art,” he tells a story about asking a great writer if he only wrote when he was inspired or if he wrote at a certain time. The writer responded that he only wrote when he was inspired, which was at 9 AM every single day. When we discipline ourselves to move toward an objective every single day, creativity shows up.

The second key to innovation is to approach life with a sense of wonder. Wonder is that feeling of possibility that we carry with us as we let go of the restrictions in our minds. To have a sense of wonder at work is to play with the possibilities of moving our lives forward. It is to have the willingness to try things out, even if they might not work. It is to imagine the positive side of “what if” and then embrace our discipline to play with an idea until we know if it will work or not. Far too many people get stuck in the restrictions of what might go wrong or what has always been done. Play with life a little and see what happens.

When you consistently discipline yourself while approaching life with a sense of wonder, you can never be the same. You will create more, play more, and achieve more because you will have used the two keys to innovation to unlock your potential.