What makes creative output creative? How do you recognize creativity when you see it or hear it? Imagination, originality and inspiration all come into the mix, for sure, but does creativity have to be an example of something utterly new? I don't believe that it does... some of the most strikingly creative works generate their impact by offering a new perspective. They illuminate the previously invisible in a thought-provoking new way.

* Keep your eyes, ears and brain on the alert for new viewpoints

It's all too easy to get stuck in a same-old same-old pattern of thinking about your life, your business, your coaching, your website... Restrictive habits have a habit of sneaking up on you quieter than a mouse in silk slippers. But if you truly want to run your business creatively and sustainably, you need to keep your eyes, ears and brain actively on the alert for new viewpoints.

Granting yourself the opportunity of a fresh perspective on a regular basis is fundamental to your creative health. In experimenting with a fresh angle, you're far more likely to come up with some novel questions for yourself, along with some engagingly creative answers too.

* What's creativity got to do with your website?

Now you may be thinking... what's creativity got to do with my website? Don't I just need to follow a tried and trusted formula that works? The answer is, of course, yes, an effective formula is a great asset. But unless you imbue your website with the essence of you and your business, it will look like all the rest. So it's actually a question of taking the formula and adapting it to your own style. Creatively.

A website with character is far more attractive than a bland template.

* How to access that fresh perspective

The most straightforward way to get a different perspective is to go somewhere that's not part of your normal, everyday routine. By positioning yourself physically and geographically in a different place, you can access different mental and emotional perspectives too.

This is often what happens when you go on holiday - after a day or two you begin to see the challenges you had when you left home as somehow separate from your holiday self. The physical distance enables you to gain an emotional distance too. And with the emotional distance comes the opportunity to see the whole situation from a new mental perspective, offering the opportunity to come up with innovatively different possibilities. Einstein famously stated that you can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created. Similarly you often can't solve problems in the place in which they were created.

* Don't shrink from the scarily unknown

New surroundings provide fertile ground for creative ideas too, of course. Anywhere that opens you to a sense of new experience will get your creativity sparking. And it doesn't only happen in those beautiful, relaxing places where you can enjoy reflective time, although the opportunity is distinctly pleasant!

More often still, the creative sparks come thick and fast when you're outside of your comfort zone. Don't shrink from the scarily unknown... try embracing it as a raw creativity opportunity instead!