Perhaps you’re tired of hearing about the benefits of creativity. You need an answer and you need it now! What good will it do you to muddle about in the artsy-fartsy world of creativity, when you should be making plans, running numbers, and getting results? And particularly since you may not be feeling like the creative sort yourself  . . .  or at least, right at the moment. You’re fresh out of ideas.

Hear, hear. That’s what I say. There’s been a lot of fuss about creativity and its value, and blah, blah, blah, but I’m with you: if I can’t see it, if I can’t touch it, if it’s pie- in-the-sky dreaming, what possible use could it be? Imagine all that wasted time crafting a vision. You’ve got work to do!

Well, not to worry. It’s easy to stifle creativity, if you know how. Just follow these ten easy steps, and every possibility that might arise will be crushed like a bug beneath your unrelenting boot of indifference.

1. Don’t Think about What You Want. Certainly don’t think about it in excruciating detail. Who cares what you want, anyway? Don’t you live and breathe to meet the needs of others? Thinking about what you want is just plain selfish—and there are plenty of people around you who are willing to tell you so. Avoid the whole bother by thinking mostly about what others expect of you. Spend all of your time trying to get into other people’s heads and imagine how you could disappoint them or make them happy. That would be the safe thing to do.
2. Don’t Choose Anything in Particular for Yourself. Choice is so . . . final. Once you’ve chosen an outcome, something you really want, there’s that whole “commitment” thing to cope with. You’ve got to keep on wanting it, keep on maintaining your desire for it, keep on honoring your decision to pursue it. Feh! So much work, all that keeping on. Well, not actual work—just, you know, sort of a mindset. But isn’t it easier not to set your mind on anything? Let it be brain-loose and fancy free, instead of adding your own desires to the pile of desires you’re already trying to fulfill for others. I mean, how much brain have you got, anyhow?
3. Don’t Ask for Anyone’s Guidance, Particularly Someone You Admire. Those people you admire, they’re all working much harder than you. It’s true! You know it and I know it. They couldn’t possibly be expending all that energy just to create something for which they have passion. They couldn’t possibly be having the time of their lives doing it. If you ask them, you know they’re just going to tell you to go for it, with all their “Go for it” bravado. Easy for them to say, now that they’ve already done it! But what about you? Wouldn’t it be easier just to leave things as they are and go for a drink in the pub? Maybe you could invite someone you admire for a drink instead of asking for advice or support.
4. Don’t Believe in Any Sort of Dream. Really. How naïve are you? Just because there are hundreds of thousands of people on the planet Earth today living their dreams, doesn’t remotely mean that you’ll be one of them. The odds are like winning the lottery, aren’t they? You know what makes those odds so high? The fact that people like you have a hard time maintaining their belief. You don’t know how. You’re not sure you even believe in your ability to manage your beliefs. You’re probably right. Just because your beliefs produce amazing positive or negative effects in your body is no reason for you to begin caring about them. Don’t try to pin your beliefs down as to whether they serve you or not. Don’t try to create beliefs that would actually support you. Ignore them like most people do, and guarantee you’ll stay on an even keel.
5. Don’t Tell Anyone about Your Dream. God forbid they should tell anyone else! Next thing you know, perfect strangers at parties will begin to ask about your dream. They’ll want to know if it’s “done” yet, as if it were a batch of cookies. What right have they got to know? Let’s be clear right now: Your dream is your dirty little secret. If you let it out, others will try to encourage you to make it come true. Who needs that kind of motivation? Gosh, if others started to invest in your dream, then who knows what could happen. Resources and coincidences, popping up out of nowhere! Like you need that sort of falderal in your life. Bah humbug.
6. Worry More. Everyone knows that life is struggle and strife until you die. If you were meant to have fun, God would have made the whole world Disneyland, wouldn’t he? Instead, you’ve got bills to pay and kids to feed, and parents to take care of, and lots and lots of other things to worry about daily. You’d like to stop worrying, but we all know that worry makes the world go round. Even if 99 percent of what you worry about never comes true, aren’t you happy knowing that you’re prepared for that bastardly 1 percent? Without worry, you’d be nowhere. Imagine all those extra brain cells you’d recoup and have to repurpose. Like you have time to figure that out. 
7. Don’t Think about Your Options. Don’t think about what your life might be like if you >suddenly started doing something you enjoy. What a waste of energy that is! Much easier to assume that your fate is pre-determined and just ride the track from here ’til the end. Oh, I suppose you could change the course of your life, but imagine all the wreckage you’ll leave in your wake: friends who don’t know who you are anymore, because you don’t want to spend your time the same way as you used to; family members who think you’re a fool for trying to improve your luck; a spouse who feels abandoned because your new “thing” is boring as hell to him or her. Whatever. You can’t afford those kinds of losses. Trust me. You’ll never make any new friends. Your family won’t survive if you shift gears. Your spouse is probably already packing because you “look funny.” Don’t even think about the options. There aren’t any. Stuck, stuck, stuck is the name of the game for you.
8. Don’t Take Any Risks. Play it safe. Nobody really cares about you but you. If you don’t take care of yourself, who will? You can’t be putting yourself out there day after day, endangering the security you’ve spent all these years building up. You’ve got a comfort zone, and you should stick to it. Sure, it’s the size of a postage stamp, but so what? You don’t really need to be braver, do you? If you were braver, you might do something foolish, like dart into a burning building to save some children or speak in public. I offer these thoughts only in your best interest. If you don’t challenge yourself, you have a much lower chance of getting hurt. Go with the obvious.
9. Take Badly Timed Measurements of Your Progress, and Take Them Often. To really stifle creativity, be sure to measure your progress toward any creative goal at all the wrong times. Measure yourself when you haven’t done a creative thing all day, all week, or all month. Write it down! You’ll want to preserve these moments for posterity. Or, for impact, take a measurement of your progress when you feel you’ve done something particularly stupid. If you’re so dumb—and we know you are—you’ll never achieve anything creative anyway. Be sure to capture these moments in all their detail to confirm your limited ability to do anything right. These records will help you get over yourself and any inclination to be creative. By now, you should be feeling even the slightest remaining wisp of your creative ideas blowing away on the wind.
10. Don’t Even Think the Words Vision, Dream, Possibility, or Creativity. The less you open your mind to the thought that unlimited possibility exists in the universe and that you just might be able to access it, the better off you’ll be. The absolute evil here is practicing the visioning process that people are talking so much about these days. Because the more you practice, the better you’ll be at it, and then creativity will enter your life whether you want it or not. You may even discover that you are the creator of your experience, and then what will we have accomplished? Don’t embarrass either of us. Accept your lot, leave well enough alone, and you’ll find your creativity leached out of you like the life-as-you-know-it endangering disease that it is.

I hope that you’ve found these tips useful in your endeavor to stifle creativity. If, on the other hand, you’ve found these tips an inspiration to perhaps give creativity a go, well, I wish you luck my friend. You’ll probably change your life and get what you want.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

About the Author:

Kim Marcille Romaner is an expert on the science of amplifying possibility into reality and helping people and businesses apply it to create change and improve results. A renowned speaker and consultant, Kim's 25-year background in business leadership ranges from Fortune 500 experience to small business ownership. She's founder of Possibilities Amplified, Inc., and author of the forthcoming, "The Science of Making Things Happen: Turn Any Possibility into Reality." For more information, visit PossibilitiesAmplified.com or e-mail Kim@possibilitiesamplified.com. You may reprint this article if you include this byline and source box.