12 Things Nobody Told You About Albert Einstein (That Change Everything)

By Emeka Chiaghanam

   A creative person sitting at a cluttered desk with paintbrushes, notebooks, and a glowing idea bulb overhead

                  

The light flickered. Not overhead, but somewhere behind my eyes. A moment before that, I was staring at a blank screen, the kind that glares back like an unblinking god. Then it happened. The tiniest pulse of an idea. Stubborn. Wild. Slippery. That’s how it starts,  not with a thunderclap, but a whisper at the edge of your sanity. Creativity doesn’t knock. It breaks in.

And the truth? If you’re not tending to it daily, like blood to a wound or water to a flame, it leaves. It rots. It turns into something that looks like a life but isn’t one.

Let’s not sugarcoat it. Creativity isn’t a muse that visits when you’re in the mood. It’s a muscle. It’s a fire. It’s an unruly beast you either feed or watch die in a corner.

Here are 12 ways to make sure it lives.

1. Make Something Ugly on Purpose

Yeah, you heard me. Ugly. Not mediocre. Not safe. Something that would make even your most forgiving friend say, “You good?”

When you stop trying to impress and just create,  you tear the shackles off. There’s liberation in imperfection. And no, this isn’t some cliché about failing forward. It’s about removing the ego’s chokehold and letting your instincts spit paint, scratch paper, punch clay. Art’s first breath is messy. Let it cough.

Creative mindset tips like this encourage you to nurture creativity without fear of judgment.

2. Eavesdrop Shamelessly

Coffee shops. Bus stops. Family fights in grocery aisles. Real life isn’t curated, and if you want fresh dialogue, fresh ideas, real rhythms,  you need to shut up and listen. A woman once told her daughter in front of me, “Don’t marry a man who lies to his mother. He’ll lie to God.” I wrote that down. It turned into a monologue. That monologue became a short film.

Life feeds art. But only if you’re paying attention.

This is one of the simplest daily creative habits to awaken ideas.

3. Make Boredom Your Playground

Creativity isn’t born in overstimulation. Scroll culture? Kills it. You need space. Stillness. Silence so loud it makes your skin itch. Let your mind wander. Sit in the ache of nothing to do. That’s where ideas grow teeth.

I once spent three hours staring at a ceiling fan, convinced I’d gone mad. Then a poem came. I still don’t understand it. Doesn’t matter. The fan remembered something my brain forgot. Give boredom time and it’ll whisper the answer.

To boost imagination, allow your brain to wander unchained.

4. Move Your Damn Body

You are not just a head with arms. You’re a whole animal. And animals move. Walk without music. Run until your brain stops screaming. Dance like a demon’s trying to climb out.

Movement unblocks the mind. There’s science behind it, something about endorphins and neuroplasticity. But let’s keep it simple: your body stores ideas. You just have to jiggle them loose.

Physical movement can directly increase creative thinking and idea flow.

5. Write One Bad Sentence Every Day

Just one. A sentence so raw and wrong it makes you wince. Do it without thinking. I once wrote, “The moon is a liar and my mother smells like toothpaste.”

It meant nothing. Until it didn’t. That sentence became a character. That character became a play. Daily nonsense leads to occasional genius. But not if you wait for brilliance.

This daily ritual helps you stay inspired with minimal pressure.

6. Lie About Your Life

No, really. Sit down and write a version of your day that’s completely untrue. You fought a bear in the woods. You danced with ghosts. You told your boss to go to hell and built a treehouse in a thunderstorm.

Lying opens the door to absurdity. Absurdity breaks structure. Structure, once shattered, makes way for lightning.

7. Chase Small Joys Like They Owe You Money

Tiny delights matter. Warm socks. The sound of rain on a tin roof. A spoonful of peanut butter. That stupid dog video you’ve watched fifteen times.

Joy, real joy,  rehydrates the soul. You need it. Because dry souls don’t spark. When you chase what feels good, what feels weird, what feels real — your creativity follows like a bloodhound.

Small joys recharge your spirit and help nurture creativity effortlessly.

8. Let Yourself Be Stupid

Smart is safe. Smart is controlled. Stupid? Stupid is where invention lives. Make a fort out of pillows. Draw a horse with six legs. Wear socks on your hands and pretend you’re a monster chef named Greg.

The world drills seriousness into us. Drill back with wonder. When you unshackle logic, you unlock play. And play is where the gods of creation hang out.

9. Ritualise the Weird

Brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand. Eat spaghetti for breakfast. Write standing up. Talk to plants. Rename your left foot.

Ritual isn’t about religion. It’s about repetition with intention. When you ritualise the absurd, you’re telling your brain, “This is a safe space for nonsense.” And nonsense is fertile ground for invention.

These bizarre yet powerful daily creative habits keep your mind agile.

10. Keep a ‘Trash Ideas’ Journal

Not a dream journal. Not a gratitude journal. A trash journal. A place for everything dumb, broken, half-formed, or cringe. No filters. Just raw junk.

One night I scribbled, “What if the sun got fired?” That idea turned into a short story about a depressed celestial body working customer service. It won an award.

Trash is compost. Creativity loves compost.

11. Talk to Strangers (Even When It’s Weird)

Yeah, I know. Stranger danger. But real talk? People are stories with skin. I once met a woman on a train who told me she sells coffin pillows. I still don’t know what that means. But she haunted me. She ended up in a novel.

Strangers yank us out of our echo chambers. They gift us unfamiliar rhythms. Risk the awkward. It might bloom.

Random conversations can dramatically increase creative thinking by adding unpredictability.

12. Forgive Yourself Fast

You’re going to make crap. You’re going to hit walls. You’ll think you’re a fraud, a joke, a talentless echo. That’s part of it.

But listen: the faster you forgive yourself, the quicker you get back to the work. Don’t romanticise suffering. Romanticise resilience. The greats didn’t win because they bled more. They won because they kept swinging.

Every day, the world tells you to conform. To smooth your edges. To mute the colours. Screw that. You were born electric.

Protect the spark. Feed it. Fight for it. Get weird. Get raw. Get loud.

Because the world doesn’t need more perfection.
It needs people on fire.