1. Deadlines are fear-based; if you want to be creative you must give yourself an "incubation period." Deadlines create distractions that rob your attention, research indicates. Even with a deadline looming, to get creative you should focus on your work in an environment protected from distractions.

2. Competition is fear-based; collaboration is fun-based. If you want to amplify your creativity, research tells you to foster confidence to share your ideas with others. Be open to debate with collaborators and create a noncompetitive environment. You'll hit new heights of creativity!

3. Catching people doing things right, rather than punishing them for doing things wrong, is fun-based. Public celebrations, according to research, of accomplishments are a boon for creativity. If you want to spark creativity, publicly recognize someone's work or contributions!

4. Sparking intrinsic motivation is what fun accomplishes when you use it as a motivator. Intrinsic motivation, research proves, is critical to creativity. Anyone, it turns out, can be highly creative - when they become intrinsically motivated! Motivating yourself with fun clears away barriers and allows your experience, knowledge, and skills to foster new, creative ways of thinking.

5. You are more likely to have a creative breakthrough if you were happy day before. When you're happy, which usually happens as a byproduct of fun-based motivation, research clearly indicates a great chance of your happiness "incubating" overnight to show up as a creative idea following day.

How about that? I couldn't have asked for more compelling evidence that fun is a better personal and professional motivator than fear. Amabile's 8-year study clearly shows that today's happiness predicts tomorrow's creativity! So start getting happy today by motivating yourself with fun and then re-create your world tomorrow!

By way, Lady Jane Grey was reluctant to take throne of England because she was only 15 years old and she held unpopular Protestant beliefs. Her reluctance was well-founded; young Queen relinquished crown after just 9 days, plead guilty to treason, and was eventually beheaded.

Let's give fear, as our motivator, same fate. Fear becomes a nine day wonder when we replace it with fun today!

While I was touched by boy’s persistence, I was equally touched by manner in which he ran. With each attempt, he looked so confident...so natural. No signs of fear, nervousness, or of being discouraged—as if he didn’t give a care about world around him. His only aim was to run freely and to do it as effectively as he could. He was just being a child—just being himself—being completely in moment. He was not looking for approval or was not worrying about whether someone was watching or not. He wasn’t concerned about being judged. He didn’t seem to be bothered by fact that maybe someone would see him fall (as there were others in park aside from him and his mother) and that it would be embarrassing if he did fall. No, all that mattered to him was to accomplish task or activity at hand to best of his ability. To run...and to feel experience of running fully and freely.

I learned a lot from that observation and experience, and have successfully brought that lesson with me in my many pursuits in life. Since then, I’ve always believed that in each of us is a little child with absolute courage. A child that has ability to run freely (or express himself fully and freely)—without a care for anything external—without a care for what people would say if he/she experiences a fall.

I believe that that courageous part of us, that courageous child within us all, will always be with us for as long as we live. We only need to allow it to emerge more fully. We only need to once again connect with that child within us—and give that child permission to run freely, just like that boy in park.