(in most cases)
One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in the journey to unlearn how to NOT be creative is
THE FEAR OF FAILURE
Once again, how we were taught to learn probably has a lot to do with our fear of failure. What kid doesn't think his parents will kill him or her if he or she comes home with a Report Card that has one or more Fs?
Think about it. None of the other "letter grades" have any direct link to a word which represents a level of achievement, or lack of achievement - except - F - as in - F A I L U R E!!!!!!!
But not succeeding is not the same a failing.
When Thomas Edison was asked by a reporter "How do you feel about the hundreds of failures you've had in your attempt to develop an incandescent light bulb?"
To which Edison replied - "We haven't failed at all - since we now know several hundred ways to NOT make an incandescent light bulb."
It's a Glass Half Full / Glass Half Empty thing. If you have a Wild Hare idea, try and use it, and things don't work out the way you hoped they might - somewhere along the way a possibility for something completely different may pop up - to be used - successfully - on some future idea. Sometimes we can learn the most from our failures.
Oh - and if you think about "failure" - with very few exceptions - it ain't FATAL.
Even when an idea doesn't pan out - you learned something - even if it's just What Not To Do - in this SPECIFIC application.
Honest - trying something new - won't kill you! OK so eating certain mushrooms might. And jumping out of a perfectly good airplane - which isn't about to crash - may have a higher risk of fatality than walking out to the shop and chucking up a chunk of wood to turn. But . . .