It is difficult to express your creativity in a project if you are unable to make any choices regarding how the project is done. Eventually in order to create something new you will need to leverage your own autonomy and make choices regarding your project.

This is not to say you need a total lack of constraints or limits in order to be creative. Quite the opposite. Having a strong set of constraints and limits while still preserving the ability to make choices within those boundaries is where you can find your creativity jump.

This pillar can be leveraged in two steps. The first is recognizing the areas of autonomy and the choices that we have. Over the course of the week watch for the areas within your work where you are making choices. Acknowledge those choices. There is often a layer of choices that we defer either by habit or avoidance. I found there was a tremendous amount of decisions I was deferring out of conflict avoidance as I was going through this exercise.

Watch the choices you make each day for a few days. Especially the ones you make by default, habit, or out of avoidance. You don’t need to change the decisions you make, just acknowledge them as you make them.

The second step is to critically review your choices one at a time. Now, this step takes some energy. Once you acknowledge the bounds you have and the freedom you have within the constraints of your work you will need to start to exercise some of those choices.

If you are working on your own project this is significantly easier than if you are working at a job or for a client since you will need to do the work in a way that the client or boss will approve.

If your decisions require approval, try, ask, and sometimes take a chance.

That said if you are being micromanaged in your work and can’t afford to be fired, you may need to find another outlet for your creative energies. And if you are a boss with employees you would like to see be more creative you can’t micromanage them. They will need autonomy and the ability to make choices.