The Romance of Creativity

by Mitchell Ditkoff

One of the most important qualities of a creative problem solver is the ability to see new relationships between seemingly unrelated things. This person sees patterns and connections where others see only confusion and separateness. To the innovator, everything is related - and the discovery of that relatedness is what fuels their creative process. In fact, the creative process is very much like a relationship. And like most relationships, it often begins with fascination - that curious state of mind (and heart) that keeps us spellbound, charmed and aroused.

Simply put, whenever a person gets a new idea, a kind of romance begins. We become absorbed. Intoxicated. Smitten. Indeed, for many people, just thinking about a new idea is an aphrodisiac. It turns us on, psyches us up, and otherwise makes it very hard to eat, sleep, or obsess about cash flow.

While some people involved in a new relationship are able to sustain the accompanying excitement for months, most of us are less fortunate. It's the rare person, indeed, who knows how to savor and expand upon this feeling for years.

Ditto with the creative process.

After the intoxication of the initial encounter wears off, a less-than-incredible reality sets in. Where once we saw only beauty and pure possibility, now we see only blemishes on our high ideal. To make matters worse, some folks at this stage of the process begin to experience a crippling kind of performance anxiety. "Will I be good enough to achieve my goal?" we ask. "Do I have enough time?" "Do I have enough money?" "Can I really pull it off?" Call it "doubt" if you like, but any way you slice it, the honeymoon is over.

What routinely follows (as it does in most romances) is a painful period of re-evaluation. "Is this really what I want to be doing with my time?" we ask ourselves on the way to the refrigerator. "Is this worth all the effort?"

Long-buried fears of being consumed by "the other" surface, driving us into withdrawal and self-analysis. Instead of enjoying the outpouring of creative energy that accompanies a new idea, we study it. We talk about it. We control it. Anything but let go to it.

Before you know it, the ever popular approach/avoidance stage is upon us. On Monday we're totally absorbed in our new venture. On Friday, we're sure it's a waste of time.

But that's not all. The plot, like unattended bowls of oatmeal, soon thickens. Instead of maintaining our commitment to our new idea, we begin having flings. We flirt with other ideas, other possibilities, and other "new loves." We get into everything and anything - whatever it takes not to sustain our ongoing relationship with our original inspiration.

Is there any hope? Is there any possibility for all the thousands of creative thinkers on planet Earth to actually manifest their vision?

You bet there's hope. And something a lot more powerful - awareness. Simply by paying attention to the games you play to protect yourself (from failure or success) will go a long way towards ensuring their extinction.

To begin with, understand that all romances, no matter how inspiring, are temporary. The trivial ones simply end. The good ones mature, often growing into committed relationships - even marriages. If you are really serious about your current hot idea, be willing to get closer to it. Be willing to go from the romance stage to an intimate relationship. Understand what the creative process is - an impossible-to-deny encounter with yourself - your fears, your power, your vision, and what drives you to play the game of life. Be willing to see your new venture as it is - with all its blemishes, quirks, and vagary. Know that you will have your falling out periods and your disagreements. Know that you will sometimes feel like a fraud. Know also that the fuel for many creative breakthroughs has not only been passion, purpose, and power, but also confusion, conflict, and collapse. It's normal. It's human. It's part of the process.

So please, be gentle with yourself. Be patient. Breathe deep. And above all, do whatever you can - day or night, rich or poor, male or female, manager or managee - to put the elation back into your relationship to creativity.

This article is excerpted from BANKING ON INNOVATION, a 172-page workbook that accompanies 

Idea Champions' 2-day creative thinking training.
Mitch Ditkoff is the co-founder and President of Idea Champions, a management development and training firm specializing in breakthrough thinking and helping organizations establish sustainable cultures of innovation.

COURAGE FOR CREATIVITY

By Shawn Asala

Have you ever been challenged to do something creative?

A lot of times, while conversing with friends, I discovered that many people do not see themselves as creative. A while back while working in Northern Nigeria, I was sitting with friends at an open bar. We were bored and looking to have some fun just hanging out. So I came up with a kind of game where we would all take turns completing a story off the top of our heads. The game would start with someone saying “Once upon a time…”

The initial reaction round the table was, “No I don’t think I can do that, I’m not that creative”. But at the end of the day it was crazy. We had so much fun. We came up with such a mind-blowing, rib-cracking story that was out of this world.

Now I will ask you a question. Do you think you are creative? Have you ever been afraid to make creative suggestions at a meeting or brainstorming session?

I discovered that one of the greatest creativity killers is fear.

Perhaps we fear we’ll fail to create something effective. Or maybe we have unrealistic expectations of perfection? Fear of failure? Fear of success? Are we afraid of being judged, disliked or criticized? Laughed at?

Whatever the reasons, fear blocks creativity and conspires to keep our personal and professional lives adrift on a sea of mediocrity. Fear is an anchor that holds us down in business and family life.

A creative person accepts destiny by facing anxiety, fear and uncertainty with courage.

And believe me, a lot of the problems we face linger on only because we haven’t taken time to sit down, do some creative brain-storming and courageously apply the ideas we have been able to harness.

From my little experience, here are a number of ways to raise your level of creativity.

Ask questions. A lot of questions. Some of us do that naturally. (My siblings always make fun of me on that one. They expect it and I always deliver)

Read books, magazines, journals, and etcetera

Travel

Listen to music

Watch movies

Surround yourself with comedy and humor.

Look around you at society, find a problem that bothers you and determine to be a solution.

Just decide you are creative. Believe it, accept it, be it.

Well, I will sign out here. Feel free to share your thoughts on this.

THE BIG SECRET - Finding the Underlying Principle

by Mitchell Ditkoff

Sometimes the best part of a poem is the silence it evokes. Sometimes the best part of school is lunch. And sometimes the best part of a brainstorming session is the stuff we ignore – the seemingly trivial, laughable or absurd. Sad to say, many aspiring problem solvers – obsessed with the bottom line – miss out on tons of potential solutions because they're unwilling to explore what they think is "beside the point.” Too bad. Because the "point,” for many people, is simply the spot they’ve created that marks the end of their search.
Indeed, breakthrough ideas are frequently beside the point – or at least preceded by what appears to be a distraction from the work at hand.

Spontaneous laughter, for example – whether "appropriate" or "inappropriate" – is often a clue that a friendly AHA! is lurking nearby. Exaggeration, too, can herald a quantum leap in the making – not to mention kidding around, wisecracks, sidetalk and a healthy dose of the surreal. Each has a role to play in the creative process. Each can serve as a valuable clue to re-focus your ideation efforts. That is, if you know what to do with them.

If you really want to be a breakthrough thinker, you must be willing to invite these moments of seeming distraction – not just for comic relief, but for building a bridge to deeper levels of intuitive knowing – the realm where your subconscious mind already has the answers. At this stage of the game your challenge is not to invent, but to translate. Why? Because your subconscious mind has a language of its own, often using humor, illogic and the surreal to get your attention. Like an undercover agent, it speaks in code. Your mission is to decipher its code and use it as a catalyst to make sense out of the seeming unknown. HOW? By searching for the UNDERLYING PRINCIPLE hidden within ideas that don’t seem to make much sense at first blush. The concept. The gist. The essence.

For example, if you say the only way to get closer to your customers is to "marry them,” you may be on to something. The literal idea sounds silly, but the underlying principle implies a direction worth exploring – that is, spending more time with your customers ...or getting closer to them in various ways.

If one of your co-workers suggests that "becoming the CEO" is the only way "things are going to change around here,” don't just blow them off. Dig deeper. Find out what the underlying principle is of this seemingly far-fetched idea. Maybe it's as simple as your co-worker making the effort to become more empowered. Maybe it's a "role exchange day.” Or maybe it’s coming up with a new way of gaining access to the movers and shakers inside your organization.

In either case, the initial idea – however off-the-wall it sounded when first pitched – has hidden within it the power to trigger an entirely new line of thinking – one that may just be the key to your company's future success.
What oddball idea, recently shared with you by a friend or co-worker, may have – hidden within it – an underlying principle worth considering?

This article is excerpted from BANKING ON INNOVATION, a 172-page workbook that
accompanies Idea Champions’ 2-day creative thinking training.
Log onto www.ideachampions.com/banking_on_innovation.shtml for more info.
Copyright 2006 Idea Champions, Inc.
800-755-IDEA, www.ideachampions.com

Rule The World With Your Ideas

By Adedayo Olanrewaju Benson

"Lack of money is not as bad as lack of ideas"

Before creation, this whole world and the people in it were just an impression in God's mind. Everything was sleeping quietly in an idea.

 A great future awaits us all but I want to tell you that this future is waiting for the thoughts that God wants to transfer into our minds. Some of us have caught some ideas, some have not, but our future is sleeping quietly inside these ideas. However they are more powerful than we may understand. It may also encourage us to know that God did not finish creation, but only started it. The day an idea is introduced into your mind is the day creation begins with you. Creation begins with an idea. Everything visible today first of all existed in the form of an idea in someone's mind e.g. Cars, Microphones, Clothes, Aircrafts, and so on.

"Ideas are simply thoughts or plans or mental impression in our minds"

Every human being is potentially wealthy and prosperous. The poor people are the ones who do not have ideas because ideas are the seeds that guarantee a future harvest. The Soul does not eat physical food but handles intangible things, which are IDEAS. So the prosperity of our Souls is determined by the prosperity of ideas in our minds. (3 John 2).

I have found out that money flows in direction of ideas. Whatever stops you from getting ideas has practically stopped you from getting money. Ideas magnetize resources from the environment. Our quality of life can only be changed by the quality of ideas that flow through our mind.

Ideas are more powerful than the brain that produces them because they usually outlive those brains

IDEAS FOLLOW DECISION.

The brain has been designed to produce an idea that suits our decision. The moment you decide, the brain goes to work and supplies the ideas of how to get what you have decided to get and when to get it.

Many years ago, in a small town in United States, a doctor climbed his horse and rode to a chemist's shop. He went in through the back door (somethings that change our lives come secretly). He carried in his hand an old fashioned kettle and a wooden paddle. He brought these items to the shop clerk with a sheet of paper on which was written the formula for a drink. Both of them began to bargain and eventually the clerk gave the doctor five hundred dollars for the items that he had come to sell. What the doctor sold to the clerk was worth a fortune to the young clerk but not to the doctor who gave away the items for just five hundred dollars.

To the surprise of the clerk, the content of the kettle which has since become a household name in the world, began to pour forth gold. The content of the kettle has been heard of in more places on the earth than the gospel of our lord Jesus Christ.

Somehow, the young clerk added something to the kettle, the paddle, and the formula. That thing, I believe is an IDEA. Today, the content of that kettle is the greatest consumer of sugar in the world. It is sustaining sugar plantations, the worker and their families around the world. It is one of the world's greatest consumers of glass and has turned fortune of many men around. The name of the drink is Coca-Cola, and the name of the clerk is Asa Candler.

The same thing that doctor placed a value of five hundred dollars on has today assumed a value that is difficult to estimate. But the difference between the doctor and the clerk was just ONE idea. The doctor did not realize that all the while he was holding the kettle, the paddle and the formula, billions of dollars were potentially lying in his hands. Unfortunately he did not find the idea so he could not get the billions of dollars. But one young man caught the idea and was able to release the potential for the billion.

HOW TO GENERATE IDEAS.
You can never rise above the level of your ideas. The quality of ideas that flow through your mind determines the quality of your life. How do we get ideas? I classified the means into two- the ordinary and the extraordinary process.



A. NATURAL PROCESS

1. Identify a need. Find a need and fill it. For example, people need to wear clothes, make clothes. The problem with the average person is that our inner eyes are closed. "One man's problem is another man's opportunity"
2. Build on someone's experience /product. Simplify an existing process or product. For example, cables have being use for telephone but now we do not need cables. Someone got ideas for wireless phone systems. Sit down and think of how you can improve on the current methods and equipment employed in your field.
3. Create a need. Before, man used water to entertain visitors, but now we use soft drinks. Man is not born with innate desire for soft drinks. Its general acceptance by the populace has made it a standard requirement for entertainment. Man created the need for soft drink.
4. Exposure. Reading, traveling and asking questions help to arrange and rearrange thoughts in our mind.


B. SUPERNATURAL PROCESS.

The greatest ideas that man will ever know are the ones coming from the invisible realm. We must cultivate our minds and faculties to be able to receive from that realm. Some have called it the Sixth Sense. Some call it Intuition. In the church, we call it the Voice of the Spirit. It is the ability to receive what the five senses cannot know. How do we condition our mind to receive supernatural ideas?

1. Prayer Dr. Robert Schuller says: "sow a prayer reap an idea"

"Call to me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

2. Meditation in the Bible The greatest idea resource book in the whole world is the bible. It puts God's creativity on display. It demonstrates how God resolved so many seemingly impossible situations. Meditating on the word of God prepares our minds to receive inspired ideas from God.
Along with meditation in the Bible, there is the need for general meditation. Take some time out to think. Great works are product of great thoughts.

"Ten minutes of thinking can be worth more than ten hours of misdirected efforts"

It is mental work expressed through physical work that guarantees quality results. That is Smart work and Work smart yields better returns than mere hard work. "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field in the evening.''

3. Giving. It is clearly established in the Bible that giving provokes a flow of ideas from God. 1st Kings 3: 4 - 5

"Weak minds discuss people, Lazy minds discuss events but Great minds discuss Ideas."

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