Remembering Your Creative Genius

Remembering your Creative Genius If you've been following us on Twitter lately, you might have noticed that we post a lot about creativity, and everyone's capacity for it. Creativity has traditionally been thought of as an inherent gift - some people are born creative, and some are not. Those born without this "Gift" get to watch enviously as the Creatives innovate the world. And although it may be true that certain people are born with special talents, their abundance of creative genius does not mean you have any less. You were born a Creative Genius. I promise. Think about it this way. Did you come out of the womb knowing how to ride a bike? No. Did you watch all the other kids riding bikes, and think to yourself "I can't do that." Maybe, but if you did I'll bet someone pulled you up off your chair, sat you on a bike, and taught you the ropes. Bike-riding is a skill. Practice enough and you'll feel like you were born doing it. Creativity is no different. Creativity takes practice. If you've spent your adult life focused on analytical, intellectual tasks, you can bet your bottom dollar those creative skills are rusty, but they're there. They're just waiting for you to exercies them. And that brings me to another point. Creativity is an incredibly broad subject, and you can have many talents and proficiencies within it. Did you try painting, coloring, sketching, clay modelling, graphic design, dance, music, drama, comedy, poetry, prose, calligraphy, and find yourself drawn to none of them? They are only a tiny, tiny fraction of what it means to be creative. The arts do not have a patent on creativity. Creativity can mean problem-solving, innovating, imagining, bringing together, breaking apart, fierce curiosity, and more. Notice how I didn't ask if you were "Good" at any of the above definitions of creativity. I simply asked if you were "Drawn" to them. There are a handful of people who can pick up a paintbrush for the first time and be 'Good' at it. For the rest of us, being 'Good' only comes with practice. If you feel drawn to a subject or mode of thinking, that is all you need to get your creative genius flowing. With practice will come the skills you need to execute what's in your perfect mind.  So the next time you hear somebody talk about "Creatives", allow a little thrill of recognition to run through you. YOU are a Creative Genius, through and through. Share Tweet Forward Creative Genius YOU Medallions   Are you, or someone you love, having trouble remembering what an AWESOME Creative Genius you are? These hand-crafted sterling silver medallions were created in collaboration with artist Sandra Lewis as a talisman, reminding you of your true capabilities. Keep it close, and let your hand reach for it whenever you doubt yourself. Take strength from it, and remember what a beautiful, elegant, capable, and creative genius you are. These medallions come in a variety of styles, and are now on sale in the store, and are the perfect gift for yourself or others! Get Yours Tip of the Week   Bring Your Best Self This weeks we have an on-the-road tip! I'm travelling and working with all kinds of awesome groups, and these Creative Geniuses wanted you remind YOU to bring your best self to the table.

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THE PLAY REVOLUTION I'm inspired by playfulness when I see it. People playing with their dogs or kids, the guy who fills his workspace with toys, the woman with the dashboard of her car filled with odd objects or a silly bumpersticker. The checker who greets me at the grocery store and when I say loudly in response to the amount I owe, "Are you kidding me!?" gets the joke and laughs. You can inspire playfulness anywhere, anytime. You can spend a day or a year pretending to be an artist, you can take up the ukelele and start your own one person band. You can plant your garden in the shape of your favorite _______.  Organized and spontaneous play allows us to relax and let the good in.   PLAYINGaccelerates innovation. It's an automatic de-stressor.  It opens wider that two way interchange with life and puts the critical self on hold.  It lets the alpha waves in.  Those are the good fairy waves that help your brain mash thoughts together to come up with better ideas. And playing...  PLaYING requires only a willingness on your part to suspend belief and use your imagination as a guide. Ask yourself, how can I make this more fun?  How can we do something silly? What kinds of ridiculous things might I wear, eat, do?  When we were young we spontaneously played.  Secretly, when we are alone, we still do.  Sometimes it is just a fantasy that we are having in our heads, other times, we experiment, we take a Zumba class, we join a team, we dress up for a football game.  All of this makes us healthier, and believe it or not, wiser. When I first moved to Seattle, Scott Ward and I secretly played tennis almost every afternoon. Scott is my secret weapon. Not only is he a superb visual artist, he is also my favorite playmate. We were both terrible at tennis, the ball would go wildly all over the court. Rather than swim against the current, we decided to make up our own game.  We called it Tigawatab.  In the game of Tigawatab, every time your ball was at the net because you hit it badly, you had to run  to the net and do a set of pushups or a plank hold, or run around the outside of the court. At the time, I believe we were both trying to get into better shape, so this was our way of making "workout" fun. Variations on Tigawatab included if we were alone on the court, we would take over the one next to us and play both courts when the ball went flying over there. We made up stories about the tennis ball, we made up songs, we parodied grunting, you get the picture. playing is easy.  it's natural. You are going to have a meeting, you decide to bring costumes for your team and have them wear them.  You don't have to role play (although you could) you don't have to do anything more than offering freedom and people will respond. I can guarantee once they get beyond the shock (and you let go of worrying about that one person who won't play with you) they will expand into their true nature...that of a child. Your meeting will be fun and you'll be surprised at how much more you get done. . Honestly,we all need to play more, and more often. He doesn't know it yet, but Scott and I are starting a PLAY REVOLUTION. Do you want to come out to play? PLAYING AT SCHOOL ZAC HOLDING HIS V2R DRAWING  When I told teacher/therapist Mike Barber about my "give back" year, he invited me to show his high school students how to draw their vision into reality. His students rocked it! If you want me to come to your school, business, NFP, email me. PLAYING ON THE AIR SUSAN CRAMPTON DAVIS INTERVIEW If you are stuck and need to weed out your subconscious, this is the woman to help you do it. She interviewed me on the radio. Super fun. #checkherout  SHOUT OUT THE ARTIST FORMERLY KNOWN AS SCOTT WARD This guy helps make it happen. I know you think it's all me all the time. nope. here's my secret weapon playing with his mustache.

Prioritize to Get It Right

Goal setting smoal setting.  You can set all the goals you want, but if you don't get your mind wrangled around the right priorities, you may as well forget about it.

In David Rock's book Your Brain at Work, Dave talks about the pre-frontal cortex and how easily that tiny little stage gets overwhelmed.  The secret to keeping yourself on track is to calm down, slow down and set priorities so that you can actually make progress on the things you really want.

Imagine this scene: you are all hyped about your new goal to stay focused on finishing that _________.
But when you have the time to do something with it, you decide you better check your email just in case...and suddenly that little window of time to get the ________done gets dissipated by drivel.

It's part of what all of us have to deal with in the age of information.  So what to do about it?

1.  Take a moment to remember what your goals are.
2.  Look at the things you need to do.
3.  Prioritize them into the ones that are going to require the most brain power first.
4.  When you have finished doing that priority one first, go check your email : -)

In my world, I'm all about rewards. You want to mess around on the guitar? Draw a picture? Get that client's drawing down first, then you can go do whatever you want.  Before prioritizing, if I got behind on projects, I'd have to claw my way back from distractions to do one small thing.  After prioritzing, I had more time for all the fun things and I didn't feel so weighed down by worry.

Next time you feel overwhelmed, try this.  Make a list of all the things you need to do.  Then figure out which takes the most brain power, put that in the number one spot.  Then go through the rest of the list to see where else in your schedule you can do a few other high priority brain items.  Between sets take time to go running, call someone, or do something different. Taking a short break allows your brain to recharge.

Goal set, go ahead!  But be sure to remember to prioritize so you can get what you really want!