Here’s a simple tip if you want to be more creative. Stop being so damn cool.

You know who you are. Yeah, you. The one who wears those smashingly sexy skinny jeans and that not quite perfectly fitted t-shirt with the obscurely fabulous design? You sir, (or ma’am) are the coolest person on the face of the earth.

You’re also incredibly boring.

Despite what you may have learned in art school or the local speakeasy you love to frequent, being cool does not make you more creative or interesting. It makes you inhibited and afraid.

Think about it. If you are constantly worried about how cool or current an idea is, you will self-edit yourself to death. A waterskiing beetle singing show tunes? Seen it. A pack of wild nuns chasing a wildebeest through the streets of Des Moines? Only if we can get Jesus to direct and that 10-year old opera chick to do the soundtrack.

The key to opening up your creativity is embracing the inner dork. It’s in there, trust me. When you find yourself unwittingly tapping your foot to a Captain and Tennille song? That’s your inner dork, fighting to come out.

Let him out. Stop judging yourself. Enjoy all that life has to offer without attaching any label to it. Just soak it in and let your soul determine what you like. You might actually be surprised by what tickles your un-hip fancy.

When you’re trying to come up with new ideas? Just let them flow. Don’t be afraid if something horrifyingly uncool comes out of your mouth. It could be the beginning of a great thought. Or not. But that’s the point. Ideas don’t read Rolling Stone or listen to NPR. They don’t go to underground clubs or hang out in cramped coffee houses. They don’t look down their noses through their designer glasses and find fault with everything they see.

No, a good idea just wants to be heard. It just wants to surprise, delight, confuse, inspire, upset or disrupt your brain in some way.

But if you keep slamming good ideas down like you’re playing some kind of hipster version of whack-a-mole, the only ones that will manage to survive will be those that fit into your overly narrow worldview.

And your overly skinny jeans.

- TJ Bennett