CREATING YOUR FUTURE
“Great ideas often receive violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
~ Albert Einstein
Granted, sometimes inspiration strikes like lightening and a glorious fully formed idea flashes into our consciousness like a gift from the gods.
If you do happen to be the lucky recipient of such manna from heaven, rejoice. Because it doesn’t happen very often.
More often great ideas that are converted to business successes are the product of creativity, persistence and risk.
Don’t be discouraged by looking at the end results of success stories. Instead, take inspiration from their inauspicious beginnings.
- Federal Express was initially proposed in a school assignment by Ivy League business student Frederick W. Smith. His professor rewarded the idea with a “D”. Undaunted, Smith started the company a few years later anyway and within a few months had lost seven million dollars.
- Apple Computers began as a partnership between Stephen Wozniak and Steven Jobs who had to sell an old Volkswagen and a programmable calculator to raise their first capital. It still took them a little while to move out of the family garage and into a “real” office.
- Bill Bowerman, a University of Portland track coach, started the sportswear giant Nike with a waffle iron and an idea.
A waffle iron?
As renowned cowboy Will Rogers once said: “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.”
Let’s regress for a moment.
Children embrace curiosity and creativity because they have no preconceived notions about the end results, and because they have no fear of being “wrong”. Consequently, they are open to many possibilities and can avoid self-imposed limits.
“All children are artists,” Pablo Picasso once said. “The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
As we age, the artists inside us all are increasingly censored by our internal “what-if” critics until they are completely blocked.
Our normal pattern is the one we default to in our lives, even if we know it is not the best one to choose. We don’t want to take risks to change – sometimes we don’t even know how to change. So we become, and stay, stuck.
Many of us live in a state of denial. New ideas are ignored, criticized or otherwise pushed away. Our mind is literally closed to new or different ways.
To achieve greatness in our lives, those inner artists have to be liberated.
“Keep doing what you’ve been doing, and you will keep getting what you’ve been getting,” observed American Jackie B. Cooper, an automotive industry trainer and pioneer.
So, how exactly do we go about rescuing the inner artist?
The cure for a closed mind is curiosity. What others have to say is always interesting and always provides a new perspective. Possibility and opportunity live in the open mind.
“I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow,” said Woodrow Wilson of the value of listening to others.
Open-minded people have a wide variety of friends and acquaintances. They strike up conversations with strangers to lean more about how other people think.
Perhaps because of the connection to a child-like mind, creativity doesn’t always own a respected corner office in the corporate world. And because new ideas have the power to challenge the status quo, they are sometimes not even invited to the boardroom.
There is no doubt that recognizing the value of creativity and choosing to live with an open mind can take you out of your comfort zone. But it can point us in the direction of our dreams.
“Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.”
~ Alice Mackenzie Swaim
Now that you have the resolve to go forward creatively, how can you get the skills to actually do it?
Take this challenge. For one day, consciously find even a small way to achieve each of the following.
- Be aware that things can be done in different ways. Find at least two other ways to look at everything you do. Challenge everything you know to be true. Remember: many of the things held as true 200 years ago have been proven to be false. There is ALWAYS at least one other side.
- Give yourself permission to be creative. Start out small, perhaps taking an art class, write poetry or learn a craft. As you grow more creative and discover your own style, venture further and further into the real world. Perhaps you need to live outside your comfort zone. The more you find your creativity, the more you are living.
- Think of creativity as a skill. As a skill, it can be developed and improved. Adopt the mindset that you want to increase your creativity, and take specific measures to grow your mind. Stretch your creativity by actively seeking different views: listen to all types of music, visit an art museum. What you do to increase your creativity does not matter so much as making that conscious effort to develop your creative muscles.
- Design creative environments. Whatever inspires you should be close at hand, within reach or view. Paint your walls an interesting colour and fill the room with rich and textured fabrics, accessories and objects.
- Search out an abundant amount of information. The more you read, watch, listen and feel, the wider and broader your creative well to drink from.
- Avoid becoming too entrenched in your routines. Try different foods. Wear different colours and styles than you normally would.
- Challenge your beliefs to see if they are distorting your perspective on a situation
- Integrate opposites. Find ways to be right on both sides of an argument. Join a debate team, or start one yourself. Read news stories from different papers.
- Reframe what you hear or see. What’s another way it could be interpreted?
Commit to stretching your creative muscles once a day for a week. Gradually increase the number of times you exercise your creativity until your creative abilities are strong and always at work. Practice, practice, practise.
“One hundred per cent of the shots you don’t take don’t go in,” says hockey superstar Wayne Gretzky.
Mind Mapping
“Close your eyes and imagine where you want to be. Imagine the complete journey you need to take in order to get there. Now go pack. Your reservations have been made.”
~ Michelle Ustaszeski, American writer/photographer
Project:
Mind maps are also known as spider diagrams to display ideas, notes, information, etc. in far-reaching tree diagrams.
- Lay out a large sheet of paper lengthwise across a table and write a concise heading for the overall theme in the centre of the page.
- Start a new major branch from the central theme for each major sub-topic or cluster of material.
- Each sub-sub-topic or sub-cluster forms a subordinate branch to the appropriate main branch.
- Continue on this way for ever-finer sub-branches.
It may be appropriate to put an item in more than one place, cross-link it to several other items or show relationships between items on different branches. Colour-coding or using different styles of writing may help with this.
“With every pair of willing hands comes a free mind.”
~ Unknown
Brainstorming
“You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.”
~ Albert Einstein
When a group (of typically 4-8 people) gets together to explore the possibilities of a specific issue or problem, it’s called classic brainstorming. The aim here is for everyone to contribute as many ideas as possible without feedback, and to encourage the freewheeling flow of creativity. A facilitator is often used to enforce the rules and write down the ideas.
Creativity: an indispensable partner in business and in life.
“Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion.
You must set yourself on fire.”
~ Fred Shero, NHL Hockey coach
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