Creative-Concentrate of Innovation
There is never a lack of creative-concentrate of innovation on this earth; there is simply a lack of available and willing human partners. A lack of people who are willing to be nudged out of their comfort zones eager to explore and investigate the realms of the unexpected. I am one of these people. Someone who has always believed that inspiration seeks out other people, settling in the souls of the pink haired, the bold floral printed flowing pants wearers who breathe out strangely scented smoke rings.
My research has shown however that I do not need to wear floral printed headbands, braid my hair or inhale mood enhancing substances to come up with new ideas, although these alternative methods do inspire ideas in some people. When my creativity pool runs dry I simply pick a random title off my bookshelf and start eagerly turning the pages, devouring the authors’ thoughts and trying to mingle and match them with my own ideas.
The inked pages never cease to inspire. Today, Elizabeth’s Gilbert new book Big Magic caught my attention and in particular her free flowing thoughts on ideas:
“It is only through a human’s efforts that an idea can be escorted out of the ether and into the realm of the actual. Therefore, ideas spend eternity swirling around us, searching for available and willing human partners. (I’m talking about all ideas here-artistic, scientific, industrial, commercial, ethical, religious, political.) When an idea thinks it has found somebody – say you- who might be able to bring it into the world, the idea will pay you a visit. It will try to get your attention.”
This simply stated paragraph conjured up the world of ideas perfectly, the brightly coloured kaleidoscope of free thinking thoughts and ideas, moving gracefully throughout the universe forming a variety of beautiful and unique brightly coloured patterns.
What is a kaleidoscope? The Oxford Dictionary describes it as follows: “a toy consisting of a tube that you look through with loose pieces of coloured glass and mirrors at the end. When the tube is turned, the pieces of glass move and form different patterns.2.[sing.] a situation, pattern, etc. containing a lot of different parts that are always changing.”
The kaleidoscope is the brainchild of Scottish inventor Sir David Brewster in 1817. The word kaleidoscope is derived from ancient Greek and made up of three parts:
[1] καλός (kalos), “beautiful, beauty”
[2] εἶδος (eidos), “that which is seen: form, shape”
[3] and σκοπέω (skopeō), “to look to, to examine”,
[4] hence “observation of beautiful forms.”
The bold, colourful and ever changing patterns captivated markets in London and Paris with two hundred thousand kaleidoscopes selling in just three months.
A simple toy, yet one that captures the realm of creative-concentrate of innovation perfectly helping us understand its intricate nature in beautiful detail. As Gilbert says, “Ideas spend an eternity swirling around us.” They are focming colourful patterns of unique connections inside your head as you read this. There is an endless supply floating aimlessly through the universe connecting with others and forming a myriad of beautiful patterns. Innovative new ideas are the invisible artworks, unseen to the naked eye.
The science of creativity should thus focus on bringing these beautiful pieces of art to life, the challenge remains in finding the right tools to help us do this. We must identify the techniques that will assist us in unravelling and observing these hidden forms, the unseen shapes of significant beauty that are swirling around us waiting to be discovered.
References:
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, ISBN 0-19-431538-X, Oxford University Press, 2000
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaleidoscope, Retrieved 2016-02-10.
Big Magic, ISBN: 978-1-4088-6674-0, Elizabeth Gilbert, Bloomsbury, 2015
#AmazonGiveaway Ideas Like Shoes
Free #AmazonGiveaway, entering is super easy simply click on the link to the left or on the book image below and you could stand a chance to win a free copy of Ideas Like Shoes. This book could change your life. All you need is one simple idea and this life changing read shows you where to find it.
Boost Your Mood and Be More Creative
On New Year’s Eve there were 14 of us huddled around the dinner table in Cannon Rocks exchanging light conversation and some humorous banter. Only the day before we were 15 – on Wednesday night the 30th December 2015 at 8.10pm my mom took her last breath and we were forced to say goodbye. Farewell to a mother, grandmother, wife and friend.
One minute she was there with us and then she was not.
Why? Why? I have wrestled with this question for many hours. Why are good caring people, loving and generous people pulled from this Earth so young? Why must people endure such excruciating pain? Why have scientists still as yet been unable to find a cure for this dreaded disease which has been sent to Earth from the pits of Hell?
We cannot answer these questions, but Jeremiah 29:11 reminds us: “God knows the plans he has for us, plans to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.”
While we were huddled around the dinner table one of the kids pulled out a game of 30 seconds. How ironic -30 seconds – all that separates us from life and death. My dad excused himself from the table and my sister-in-law started tidying up the kitchen. I sat there not quite sure if it was fitting to engage in such a light hearted activity listening to the sounds of children’s laughter, while extreme sadness was eating away my insides. It was after all only 24 hours since mom had left us- since she had breathed her last 30 seconds.
Heather Jean Steyn 20-01-1949 to 30-12-2015
I stayed seated and was soon delegated to join one of the teams. More than a simple game of 30 seconds what struck me most was exactly how my mom (Heather) had impacted the lives of everyone seated around that table so significantly.
In fact more than half of us wouldn’t have been there at all if it wasn’t for her. My brother and I and all the grandchildren actually carry a physical part of her that will be passed down many generations yet to come. Unless you have experienced death first hand, it is extremely difficult to empathise with someone else and understand exactly what they are going through. You may think that you feel their pain, but it is not until your own heart has ached so deeply and longs to finish a conversation it can never have, that you will you know what they are experiencing.
My personal experience has shown that emotional pain like this affects your thinking; it hinders the creativity process and dampens enthusiasm. It is extremely difficult to pick up a pen and be creative when your focus and attention is elsewhere. Why would you create when you have a legitimate reason to lie on the couch, watch catch-up series, stuff your face and feel sorry for yourself? Does this apply only to me or is everyone in the same boat affected equally?
Perhaps when it comes to grief we need to allow ourselves time to process and deal with our emotions. How much time does one need? Does it vary from person to person? Or are we simply giving grief the space to stifle creativity and drastically increase anxiety levels.
A research paper highlighting the links between creativity and emotions shows that creativity is affected by how a person feels. Flexibility, originality and eureka moments were examined. The study shows that it is not only positive and negative emotions that affect creativity as one would expect but specific types of emotions have a role to play too. Creativity increases when you feel happy, upbeat or elated, anxiety, unease, tension and fear decrease creativity. A feeling of calmness, serenity or extreme relaxation appears to have no effect on the creative process and neither do feelings of sadness, disappointment or discouragement.
Long-standing views in psychology have shown that positive emotions such as those mentioned above increase creativity because they broaden the mind allowing free floating thinking, whereas negative emotions tend to sap the creative process as they result in a more narrowed, linear, step-by-step focus. More recent research however carried out by psychologist Eddie Harmon-Jones and his colleagues suggests that it is not entirely the positive vs negative emotions that are most important in understanding attentional focus, but more the motivational intensity. The compulsion one feels to jump in and complete a task or avoid it entirely.
Whatever the factors may be affecting your creative potential, if your income is derived from your work, these limiting thoughts and excuses can be detrimental to your bottom dollar. So the focus must be on improving the feel good factor so that you are motivated and encouraged to jump in and complete the tasks at hand. The better you feel the more likely you are to come up with innovative new ideas.
Try one of these guaranteed mood shifters to help inspire the flow of creative juices:
- Play some of your favourite music.
- Read an inspiring passage or a moving love letter.
- Watch funny YouTube clips.
- Watch an inspirational video.
- Read something that makes you laugh.
- Visualise positive emotions and experiences.
- Practice mindfulness meditation.
- Write in a gratitude journal.
- Help someone in need.
- Strengthen positive relationships.
- Exercise
- Spend time in natural surroundings.
- Visit an unusual environment.
- Play a game of 30 Seconds.
- Reflect on loving memories
30 Seconds, may be the game we played huddled around that dining-room table on New Year’s eve that has forever etched a place in my memory. It may be the short space of time separating life and death, the brief moment one gets to say goodbye to a special loved one. 30 Seconds is also all it takes for a spark to ignite a flame, the time it takes for connections to happen in the brain and inspirational genius to follow. The birth of a simple idea that can change the world could happen in 30 Seconds. Never underestimate the power of a fleeting moment in time, it has the potential to drastically alter the course of your life.
References:
http://www.aliceboyes.com/creativity/
https://hbr.org/2015/08/the-emotions-that-make-us-more-creative
http://cdp.sagepub.com/content/22/4/301.short
http://www.creativitypost.com/create/banish_excuses_and_boost_your_mood_to_feel_more_creative
The Next YouTube Sensation
Today if you want to sell your car, sell your house or anything else you need a good video…people are glued to screens. TV screens, iPad’s, cell phones, laptops, computers, and cinema. Digital advertising boards grab our attention and family photos slideshow continuously in digital frames throughout our homes. We need video…
I purchased a copy of Michael Rosenblum’s book called “IPhone Millionaire – How to Create and Sell Cutting-Edge Video”. We spend more than eight and a half hours a day staring at screens; this is more time than we spend eating, sleeping or doing anything else. To effectively communicate with people, we need video. I am the proud owner of a digital camera, a video camera and an IPhone 6 with new cutting edge video capabilities all I need to do is point and shoot. How hard can it be to make a movie? Rosenblum makes it sound like child’s play, fun, carefree, easy, quick and so simple that any idiot can do it, right?
Michelle Phan is a 22-year-old YouTube phenomenon. At present she has 8 198 060 followers on You Tube. How financially lucrative could that be? At the age of 18 Michelle’s prospects did not look so good though. She was the daughter of two Vietnamese refugees who had arrived in America with nothing, not a cent to their name. She was raised by her mother as her father had abandoned the family when she was still a young child. Her mom had aspirations of Michelle becoming a medical doctor, but she had other ideas, dreams far removed from stitches and emergency rooms. She wanted to make art, and so she did.
Michelle started posting how-to-videos on You Tube about make-up techniques. She shot video selfies, simple do-it-yourself makeovers and uploaded them to the web. People loved them. With more than 300 videos on her platform which have been viewed more than a billion times. Her global community keeps growing, making her one of the most watched faces on the web.
A passion for art and make-up, a video camera and a BIG IDEA!
In addition to her successful YouTube channel, Michelle has co-founded ipsy, the world’s largest and most passionate online beauty community. Ipsy has more than a million subscribers in the US and Canada. She has also teamed up with L’Oreal to launch her own make-up line “em”. Michelle has also recently partnered with Endemol Beyond USA to launch ICON, a lifestyle network, featuring original programming in beauty, fashion, wellness, DIY, food, human-interest stories and travel. Her book, called “Make Up: Your Life Guide to Beauty, Style, and Success – Online and Off.” launched in October 2014.
It all started with selfie videos, do-it-yourself make-up tutorials. Would you have bet on this million-dollar idea? Not likely.
To strengthen our creativity pools and increase our chances of finding life changing ideas like this one, we must venture out of the comfort zone, master new skills and use these to spark connections and set our thinking off in unchartered directions. Always up for a challenge, I set aside a few hours in my morning recently to make movies, this was an exciting new venture. Watch out Steven Spielberg here I come! By lunchtime the excitement had dwindled somewhat, I had been staring at the screen for three hours and was yet to discover that WOW moment that would grab attention and invite people to stick around and watch my movie. Making movies wasn’t as much fun as it seemed. Making movies takes hard work, planning, preparation, storyboarding, shooting, editing, cutting, trimming, recording and a whole lot more technical jargon that we’ll leave to the experienced film makers out there. Besides what was I going to make movies about after all?
My time is valuable, after spending 12 hours fiddling around with a video camera with absolutely nothing to show for it I was quite tempted to throw in the towel and stick to words. Words come quickly and don’t require half the amount of planning and preparation. The story is right in front of you, in black and white; you can see it and make changes to it effortlessly as you go along. There I was, heading straight back into the clasps of my comfort zone. Why are we scared to take up a new challenge? Scared to persist until we have mastered something new? Why do we give up when things get challenging? Are we simply impatient beings? Or is it a slightly more complex process, one in which fear grabs us around the neck and throttles us as we start something new? What are we so fearful of? Are we scared of failing? Being unable to master something new? Are we scared of what people may think and how they will judge our new endeavours? Are we scared of actually succeeding? Or are we scared of how long it will take to master? Are we scared of how much time we will squander in the process without any guarantees that we will have something worthwhile to show for it in the end? Are we fearful of being childlike and silly pretending to be something that we’re not?
Be it FEAR or IMPATIENCE that has you tightly gripped around the neck, you must break free. Proceed anyway without expecting any short term reward at all. Stick to it!
Michelle Phan started off with a passion for make-up and a video camera, some selfie videos and an idea, she kept shooting. Trust your gut feel and keep creating.
As Michael Rosenblum says, “You can now do with your IPhone what J.K. Rowling did with her typewriter-create something great.”
So perhaps the cutting edge video capabilities on my new IPhone is all that I need to become the next YouTube sensation, just point and shoot, right? How hard can it be to make a movie?
Not sure what it is about yet – but watch this space!
References:
https://www.youtube.com/user/MichellePhan
Bounce Your Way to New Ideas
At the Waterfall Lifestyle Centre in Midrand, South Africa you can experience the free jumping revolution; which is taking the world by storm. BOUNCEinc has opened its doors and boasts a colourful space buzzing with adrenalin and excitement, you will find more than 100 interconnected trampolines in what their website describes is a ‘spring-loaded urban playground’.
BOUNCEinc is a world where the rules of gravity no longer apply. You can fly through the air with ease and experience the sensation of a slam-dunk, try some risky air manoeuvres, play dodgeball warfare and try your luck at wall running.
If you are 6 or 60, there is no age limit to having fun. The activities can be as easy or challenging as you like and you can visit BOUNCEinc to develop your aerial sport manoeuvres, sit back and soak up the buzz as you watch the hub of activity unfold before you, or arrive with the good intention of burning up a few hundred calories in a hard core workout whilst having some fun at the same time.
The buzz at BOUNCEinc is infectious, an adrenalin rush with soft and safe landings. It is innovative, unique and different. People like to experience the thrill of something different.
News spreads quickly and it took only a few weeks before my eldest daughter Melissa and some of her friends tried it first-hand. The videos, in action photos and stories that came home captured the experience perfectly.
This spring-loaded urban playground is a brilliant idea, but it gets even more innovative; included in the price of an hour long jump session is a pair of sticky socks. Not any pair of socks, but a brightly coloured branded pair with the word “Bounce” etched onto the foot. You bounce in sticky socks, you soak up the adrenaline rush, you share the experience with friends and family and best of all you take the socks home with you and wear them.
Bounce Inc. gets free marketing as the colourful footwear attracts attention. You have a wearable memento to remind you of a good time; the colourful ball of socks in your cupboard drawer inevitably tempting you to relive the memorable experience again soon.
One good idea triggers another. In 2011, Ant Morell and Simon McNamara stumbled across an indoor trampoline park in San Francisco that was hosting a lot of children’s parties. This chance encounter sparked their thinking. They had witnessed the growth of extreme sports worldwide and decided to create a ‘free jumping revolution’. They borrowed more ideas from sports like Parkour (where people jump from building to building), the National Institute of Circus Arts in Melbourne and Cirque de Soleil to piece together this innovative adrenaline filled concept that is taking them to new heights – BOUNCEinc.
In his book, ‘Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation’, Steven Johnson writes: “Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
It takes random connections between seemingly unrelated objects that may have been lying dormant in the recesses of your creativity pool for years, to spark new ideas.
Try it! The muscle conditioning, massive cardio workout and rush of blood to your head will definitely be worth it.
The Hunger Games Guide to Success
I love a real feel good Romance movie and do not particularly enjoy a “skop, skiet and donder flick” South African slang for a gruesome and bloody action movie. I walked into our living room a while back to find my eldest daughter totally engrossed, glued to the TV screen. “What are you watching?” I asked her, “Hunger Games”, came the abrupt reply. It was evident from her body language that she was not willing to be drawn away from the screen and engage in any lengthy conversation. “Looks gripping, what’s it all about?” I asked.
“Mom it’s not your scene. A bunch of kids are forced to kill each other in a fight to the death on a reality TV show.” “You’re absolutely right! Sounds disgusting, why are you watching such rubbish?” “Mom, just read your book then.” I plopped myself down on the couch anyway, and within a few minutes Katniss Everdeen had me enthralled as I sat glued to the screen watching her fight for her life.
It turns out “The Hunger Games” is a series of three adventure novels written by Suzanne Collins. By 2014, the trilogy had sold more than 65 million copies in the U.S. alone. The book is a dystopia set in “Panem”, a country consisting of a wealthy Capitol and twelve districts in various states of poverty. One boy and one girl are selected by lottery each year to participate in the “Hunger Games”, a televised event where the participants, called “tributes” are forced to fight to their death. The purpose is to provide entertainment for the Capitol and reinforce their power and zero remorse policy. Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year-old girl from District 12, a keen archer, who volunteers to participate in the 74th Annual Hunger Games in the place of her 12-year-old sister Primrose who is picked for reaping. Revolution against the Capitol ensues and Katniss emerges as the figurehead of the rebellion.
It turns out that a bit of romance tossed between some bloody action makes for a quite gripping movie. Collins says that the main source of inspiration for her story came from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, where Minos forces Athens to sacrifice seven youths and seven maidens to the Minotaur, who kills them in a labyrinth. The Roman gladiator games also offered some inspiration, but it was her fascination with reality TV programmes that ultimately fueled the flame. It was while channel-surfing the television one night somewhere between people competing for prizes and footage of the Iraq war that randomness happened and the idea for “The Hunger Games” was born. Collins had filled her creativity pool and made the right connections. Be open to new ideas, a Greek myth and some channel-hopping brought about a million dollar idea, things connect when you least expect them.
So what can else can we as idea seekers learn from “The Hunger Games”?
Luck has landed you exactly in the place where you find yourself right now, surrounded by the people you mix with, driving the run down tin can that gets you from A to B or the luxurious red Ferrari, living in the house that you do, working in the company that you do and living the career you have always dreamed of or dreaded. Life is reality TV and you are the star of your own show, the “tribute” participating in your own “Hunger Games”. Will you sit back and provide entertainment for other people? Will you think on your feet and take action? Will you stand up and take charge using what is at your disposal right now to ultimately determine who stands victorious? Or are you a sitting duck? Take a step back and watch the movie reel unfolding before you, how will it end? You are both lead actor and director. You can change the scenes. You can redirect the movie. You can choose the ending.
Katniss Everdeen was armed with a bow and arrow, a skilled archer. Her proficiency brings attention and raises awareness for District 12 and proves most beneficial, is it her ability to send an arrow exactly where she needs it that saves her? Or is it the ability to think on her feet and make snappy decisions? We can be highly educated, armed with unmatchable knowledge and skills and still find ourselves weighted down at the bottom of the corporate ladder. What then is the secret to success? The ability to think on your feet and come up with great ideas is your strongest weapon. The person armed with innovative new ideas will outplay anyone in the arena. It is the idea men that emerge victorious and stand triumphant.
Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year-old girl from the poorest region of Panem, District 12, formerly known as Appalachia, a district where people regularly die of starvation. She randomly volunteers to participate in the 74th Annual Hunger Games to save her 12-year-old sister Primrose who is picked for the reaping. This 16-year-old girl, from the poorest district, becomes the figurehead of the rebellion and leads the revolution. We too have the ability within us to emerge as heroes in our own TV show. In life it is the idea men that get ahead and anyone can come up with good ideas. It is not the most educated, knowledgeable or skilled people that find the best ideas. Big ideas are sparked from deep creativity pools, a library of seemingly unrelated connections. The idea men that get ahead in life build deep creativity pools. Everyone has one. How deep is yours?
Bigger and better ideas pave pathways to success and bring the money.
Like it or not we are “tributes” in our own Hunger Game. We are fighting to lead the way in our respective fields. If we don’t innovate and find new ideas we die.
Toast It
I slipped the freshly sliced artisan rye bread into the pop-up toaster, as I prepared some mashed avocado for our lazy Sunday night meal. A stainless steel 4 slice version toaster secures a prime spot on my kitchen counter. Within a few minutes the toast had popped and we were sinking our teeth into the delicious hot buttered avocado on toast slices.
The humble toaster graces most of our kitchen counters with a slice of toast featuring on most breakfast plates across the globe. Some like it topped with scrambled eggs, dipped in egg batter and fried or simply drenched in peanut butter and jelly. Besides the gluten intolerant, who reach for stickier versions that only but resemble a true tasty slice I don’t know of anyone that doesn’t eat toast. It forms a staple part of most diets.
Jon Carroll, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle published an article titled Rye Observations which was published on the 4 May 2009. In this article he shares an unusual breakfast experience. His friend Anne Lamont, a novelist and spiritual advisor lived on a houseboat in Sausalito Harbor. She was actually sub-letting half. This restricted space meant that she did not have much room for appliances and was limited to a simple toaster oven.
Anne was creative, and determined to host a social brunch for 5 or 6 close friends in this confined space despite a lack of usual catering amenities. The result, a Festival of Toast, she purchased a variety of different breads to suit many tastes, and there was no grand entrance of any other exotic dish. The Festival of Toast was a Festival of Toast, the humble slice featured front and centre. The guests were free to doctor the toast just as they like it.
Sometimes it is when we are most restricted that creative ideas somehow flow freely, just like Anne Lamont demonstrated in her idea filled Festival of Toast brunch.
Toast is usually not considered to be the centre of any meal and is usually an add-on. When ordering breakfast in a restaurant or at a hotel the waiter will ask, “Would you like toast with that?” Toast is usually included as an optional extra at no charge or if ordered separately will not break the purse strings at all and is usually the most cost effective option if you are cash strapped.
Imagine my surprise on discovering that you can purchase a piece of toast for $200.00. Yes you read that correctly one slice of toast in exchange for $200.00.
This is however no ordinary piece of toast. You pay the money and your name, web address or any word of your choice is etched onto the toast and uploaded to www.yournameontoast.com. The more you pay for your toast the higher it appears on the listings. Every dollar collected goes directly to Oxfam Ireland, an innovative fundraising initiative to support a worthy charity.
This seems like an incredibly silly idea, but just like the Diet Coke and Mentos video which went viral across the globe, people like silly ideas. Silly ideas get talked about and silly ideas drive a lot of traffic to your website. More traffic means more business. Your personalised slice of toast is a web link driving traffic back to your business. Yournameontoast.com has already raised more than $13000 for Oxfam.
Throughout my first book Ideas Like Shoes you will be reminded about the importance of looking at things more closely and questioning everything. This must become part of your daily routine for you to truly become an idea man.
Someone sunk their teeth into a piece of breakfast toast topped with strawberry jam and thought up this clever marketing initiative that raises money for Oxfam. What other uses does a humble piece of toast have? What questions are you asking each day as you drink your favourite cappuccino and bite into your breakfast burrito?
Famous artists have used many different mediums to express themselves. Da Vinci used paint and a pencil, Rembrandt a brush and Rodin moulded intricate artworks out of clay. There is always another use for that simple thing that presents itself before you each and every day, even toast. You have probably never heard of toast mosaic, neither had I. Artists create unique masterpieces using hundreds and thousands of pieces of toast.
“The Toaster” is an incredible work of art created by Ingrid Falk, of Sweden and her husband Gustav Aguerre, of Argentina. “The Toaster” measures approximately 16 feet by 15 feet and you can view it at the Modern Art Museum of Buenos Aires in Argentina. This artwork is constructed from approximately 3053 pieces of toast. See it online at http://www.mrbreakfast.com/breakfast/?p=1117.
There is always another use for that simple thing you see in front of you every day. You must simply look more closely and keep questioning everything.
Never underestimate the power of a small idea. Look at things in your daily life more closely, and ask questions every day.
Everything has more than one use.
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