Creativity brings into being something that did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought. Pretty straight forward, huh? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand this one.

But what is creative thinking? Creative thinking is "the process we use when we come up with a new idea. It can be accidental or deliberate." Have you ever woken up out of a deep sleep with a great solution to a problem you'd been struggling with? Or been taking a shower and all of a sudden "the answer" pops into your head? That happens to all of us. We come up with our most creative ideas by complete chance when we're not consciously thinking about them.

So do you spend your day sleeping – or in the shower – when you have a tough problem to solve? No. You can use proven creative thinking tools to solve your problem.