Are you stuck in a rut? Playing it too safe? Settling for just OK? Or are you finding inspiration every day and stretching the bounds of your creativity?

In his energizing session at IABC’s World Conference, “all-star” speaker Sam Harrison challenged all of us to tap into the power of making smart choices each day to bring abundant creativity into our work and life.

Harrison knows of what he speaks. Previously a senior vice president with an S&P 500 firm, he now is a highly sought-after speaker and teaches creativity and writing at Portfolio Center, a graduate studies program for writers, designers and photographers. Harrison is also the author of three best-selling books: ZING! Five steps and 101 tips for creativity on command and IdeaSpotting: How and where to find your next great idea and IdeaSelling: Successfully pitch your creative ideas to bosses, clients and other decision makers.

Harrison wowed the standing-room-only crowd with his rousing appeal to make creativity a choice. “We all make hundreds of choices each day,” he said, “and many of those choices will determine whether we move toward fresh inspiration and creative communications or slide into familiar ruts and weary messages. Look for choices that lead to creativity.”

Highly creative people don’t allow themselves to remain victims. Instead, he urged, become a victor rather than a victim. “Shed the excuses that are holding you back.”

Harrison offered advice on how all of us can foster our creativity:

• Develop a choice consciousness to inspire and expand your creativity
• Seek inspiration rather than waiting for it to knock on your door
• Don’t remain “under the circumstances” – make choices instead of allowing choices to make you
• Fill your work with life rather than your life with work
• Put yourself in the middle of a creative vortex by surrounding yourself with a network of creative people to share ideas and support each other
• Never work for someone who is not a friend of your enthusiasm

You can find more of Harrison’s tips on stimulating your creativity in his Zingful Tenets.

Need a dose of Sam Harrison’s inspiration to rev up your creative juices? IABC Phoenix members will have the opportunity to hear Harrison in person when he visits Phoenix on Saturday, Sept. 29, as part of Phoenix Design Week. Join members of the Valley’s creative community for the first PHXMIX, an evening mixer event featuring Saturday’s closing keynote presentation by Sam Harrison. Registration is $20 for IABC Phoenix members.

This is the second in a series of reports from the 2012 IABC World Conference by IABC Phoenix Past President Cory Craft.

Plan now to attend the 2013 IABC World Conference in New York City June 23-26.