To get more creative and reduce your stress - Notice your thinking.

I started writing this piece while sitting in the USAirways club in Charlotte, NC, waiting to board a plane to return to Buffalo, NY. I was returning from delivering creativity training programs to the Federal Aviation Administration in Norman, Oklahoma and to the Veterans Administration in San Antonio, Texas.

One of the objectives of my training programs is to help people become “deliberately” creative. By design, these programs can help people make their ideas happen instead of waiting for them happen. I believe that to become deliberately creative, one needs become aware of their thinking. In meditation this is know as being the “observer.” Psychologists call this, “meta-cognition” or thinking about one’s thinking.

When teaching people how to generate ideas, I tell them to defer their judgment; to hold off on judging an idea until they have a number of ideas to choose from. The very act of deferring judgment is an exercise in meta-cognition and becoming the observer of one’s thoughts. We need to notice when our thinking is judgmental so that we can defer that judgment, and as a result change our idea generating behavior.

Observing one’s own thoughts goes far beyond creativity training. I consistently remind myself that my thoughts are not “mine” but are just the stuff that I am thinking about. There really isn’t any reason to get attached to those thoughts even though they are floating around in my head.

I recently made it part of my daily practice to notice my thinking. So, if I get upset about something, I try to shift my thinking to the “observer.” I ask myself, “It seems like you are upset about this. What’s that about?” By observing my thinking, I’ve noticed my stress level decreases. I also find myself living more in the present.

I am doing my best to notice my thinking as much as possible, and to not take what I about think so seriously. After all, it’s just an idea. I have even posted a reminder on my computer screen to “notice my thoughts.”

If you are interested in becoming more aware of your thinking, I recommend the book, “The Theory and Practice of Meditation” edited by Rudolph M. Ballentine, M.D. I found the section on “Meditation in Action” by Swami Ajaya, Ph.D. very useful.

Find Your Creative Space and Get More Productive

This article about finding your creative space was recently published on my e-newsletter “Innovation Espresso.” Please see the bottom of the article for a list of creative spaces that my graduate students at the International Center for Studies in Creativity found helpful for them.

Find your creative space and get more productive!

As some of you know, in May of 2007, I stepped away from the business. During the past year, I was able to remove myself from the daily demands of the world and gain an entirely different perspective on life. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have had this opportunity.

However, I didn’t spend the entire time in a cave meditating on my navel. In addition to shedding over 30 pounds, having some major spiritual insights (I labeled this year as my advanced Jedi Master training from the movie “Star Wars”), I wrote two books. One book is the sequel to my first book, “Why Didn’t I Think of That?” which was published over 20 years ago. I am currently collaborating with a novelist, Hallie Saxina, on this project. I am excited with the possibilities that might result from this joint effort. We plan to publish the book in the next eight months.

Where is your creative space?

Because I had been away for a year, I wanted to make this edition of Innovation Espresso special. I wanted to tell you what I have experienced and learned. I wanted to convey some of the lessons that come as a result of slowing down and stepping away from the world for a while. I wanted to impart some great wisdoms… and that is why it has taken me so long to write this piece. My judgment got in the way of my productivity. Finally, I decided to let the ideas simmer, trust the intuitive part of the creative process and let the proper topic surface at just the right time. That time, for me, is right now.

As I write this, I am sitting at the dining room table in the main house of our family farm in Colorado. It is a beautiful summer afternoon. I can see our red barns and the Colorado Rockies in the distance. The sun is shining and the sky is that light indigo, “Colorado Blue” color. This is a creative place for me.

As I began to reflect on the places that inspire me, I thought of my study at home in Buffalo, New York. When I sit at my computer, I look out over my tree-lined yard and watch my resident ground hog devour apples that I have left for him. As I consider my Colorado creative space and my New York creative space, the common denominator is nature. If I can't be out in nature, I love to look at it. I like to see the natural contour of the land and the folds of the leaves on the trees. I also like to hear the sounds of waves or water tumbling over rocks. A number of years ago, I built a pond with a small waterfall on my property in New York. I get some of my best thinking done while sitting around that pond.

Have your ever walked into a place, rubbed your hands together and said, “I could really do some great work here?” Artists and musicians have studios; craftsmen have workshops, professors and pastors have studies. Where is your creative space? Where do you go to do your best work?

One of my friends (who is a professional artist) describes her studio as her sanctuary. It is her “safe place.” When she is in her studio she is able to create, try out new concepts and leave her work in progress. Her studio is filled with light; it’s clean and well organized and is just the right temperature for her. It is also the place where no one disturbs her. It is her retreat from the hectic, outside world; a place where she can immerse herself in a private world of concepts and colors.

Other notable creators have had their working environments as well. Schiller loved the smell of apples so he filled his desk with rotten ones. Proust worked in a cork-lined room. Mozart composed after exercise. Frost would write only at night. The extreme case was the philosopher Kant, who would work in bed at certain times of the day with the blankets arranged around him in a specific fashion. While writing “The Critique of Pure Reason, Kant would concentrate on a tower visible from his window. When some trees grew up to hide the tower, he became frustrated and the city fathers cut down the trees so that he could continue his work.

I am not advocating that you stock your desk with decaying fruit or cut down the trees in your neighborhood, but what are the attributes of your optimal working or creative environment? Remember, if you expect yourself to do creative work – then you need a place to do it.

I asked my students who are taking my graduate course, Facilitating Creative Problem Solving, what they found were creative spaces or times for them. Here are a few:
(1) In the middle of night when I wake up in bed;(2) Driving the two hours it takes me to get to class; (3) Before falling asleep at night; (4) While I am mowing the lawn; (5) Sitting at my picnic table in my back yard listening to my fountain; (5) In the kitchen chopping vegetables; (6) In grocery stores or coffee shops; (7) When I got to "Office Max;" (8) Sitting by a favorite lake or pond and (9) Sitting in the bathtub.

Insights From the Road, Sweating It Out

The following was taken from an electronic newsletter published by Dr. Firestien, on March 25, 2002

Welcome to Insights From The Road, the e-newsletter of creativity from "The Gold Standard of Creativity Training," Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. Enjoy!

Sweating It Out

Whew! It's hot in here. I mean hot. Very, very hot. No, I'm not speaking figuratively. I'm not describing a group that's brainstorming so fast they set the Post-It® notes on fire. Although, right now, I wish I were talking about one of my groups. But, no. I'm really hot because I'm in a Native American sweat lodge.

What's a sweat lodge? I didn't know about this ancient purification ritual until a good friend of mine suggested I try it. I won't go into all the details of the ceremony - I can't begin to do it justice. Basically, it involves a small, igloo-shaped hut, 36 steaming hot rocks, and a whole lot of prayer. Oh yeah, did I mention it's hot?

So, what's a creativity guy like me doing in here? Surely it's not to be more creative. I can hardly breathe right now, much less come up with new ideas. I'm uncomfortable. I don't even think I could utter a word. But when this is all over, I'll sit out on the cool grass and enjoy the relief and peace of being out of here. And, I will have had a new experience that I can remember for years to come.

The creativity lesson here is to do different things. Recently, I found myself doing the same things over and over. Get on an airplane, do a program, come back, go out to dinner with friends - the scene never changed. So when my friend offered the experience of a sweat lodge, I took it. Why? Because I'd never done it before.

You have to be open to new experiences. You can always use new input. Now the sweat lodge will become part of the storehouse of experiences I can draw on next time I get stuck on a problem. Remember, the essence of creativity is to take something from one world, combine it with another world and come up with a new idea or concept. The sweat lodge experience was another world for me.

This experience also reinforced my own need to be open to new ideas. The idea of sweating a Sunday afternoon away didn't appear to be my idea of fun at first. And it wasn't what I would call fun, but it was a meaningful experience that I would do again.

So next time you find yourself getting stuck, look - I mean really look - for some different experiences to try. They don't have to be as extreme as a sweat lodge, but they should be something different for you. And, be open when those experiences present themselves to you.

Who knows? You might get a breakthrough!

Sincerely,

Roger

Insights From the Road, I Can See Clearly Now!

The following was taken from an electronic newsletter published by Dr. Firestien, on November, 2002

Welcome to Insights From The Road, the e-newsletter of creativity from "The Gold Standard of Creativity Training," Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. Enjoy!

I Can See Clearly Now!

Recently I had eye surgery - cataract surgery to be exact. You might be thinking, "He's too young for cataract surgery." I thought I was too, but the type of cataract I had can develop at any age, and very quickly. From my doctor's diagnosis, it appeared that I was, at best, legally blind in my right eye. (It is a good thing that I didn't have to take a driving test.)

The procedure was quick and painless. It was my first surgery since I had my tonsils out at three years old. After the surgery, I can describe the result as nothing short of miraculous. In fact, I no longer need to wear glasses. I was astounded at the colors in the trees, the beautiful blue sky, and the detail I could now see in the faces of my friends and family. For several days I just looked at the world. The colors and shapes of nature were astounding to me. I found myself slowing down and looking at the world, just looking.

What is the creativity lesson here? From my perspective, it is to slow down and look at nature. Observe the world around you. Nature can provide some wonderful answers to the challenges we face. The invention of Velcro, for example, came from the inventor's observation of how a cocklebur stuck to his clothes. From cockleburs to fasteners, the same principle applies.

Next time you get stuck with a challenge, take a lesson from nature. Take a break. Get away from the challenge. Slow down a bit and look, really look at the world around you. Notice those things that appear very familiar to you; the trees, your home, the scenery on your way to work. See if you can make a connection back to your challenge. You might be amazed at the insights you discover.

Sincerely,

Roger

Insights From the Road, Don't wait for the BIG Idea

The following was taken from an electronic newsletter published by Dr. Firestien, on September 25, 2003

Welcome to Insights From The Road, the e-newsletter of creativity from "The Gold Standard of Creativity Training," Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. Enjoy!

Don't wait for the BIG Idea

Some of my closest friends happen to be artists, musicians and writers. Go figure... One friend, Carmelita*, designs and makes delicate pieces of pottery. Another friend, Roland, is an extremely talented sculptor. I have one of his pieces in my home. The detail in it is amazing. Both of my friends are very artistically successful. Roland, however, has a problem. No matter how hard he tries to sell his work, he has difficulty getting commissions for new sculptures. Roland had been through two agents, expensive advertising-and still no luck.

Recently, Warren, an artist friend of Roland's came to town to meet with some clients. Warren's primary art is landscapes and still life. Warren has painted, in his estimation, over 8,000 works and has clients all over the world. He paints every day, whether he's working on a small personal piece or a large commercial work.

I began to consider why Warren was so commercially successful and Roland was not making sales and gaining clients. And then it occurred to me: Warren constantly produces work and consistently shows it. He doesn't wait for the big commission to come around. He paints small pieces and big pieces, landscapes and still life. Warren will admit that some of his pieces are "better than others" - but that doesn't mean he doesn't show each piece and offer it for sale. While Roland is toiling laboriously over the detail in one piece, and waiting for inspiration, Warren has produced three.

So what is the creativity principle here? Don't wait for the big hit, the home run, the stunning breakthrough-when a number of smaller incremental ideas and steps may solve the problem just as well. Sometimes clients tell me that they really need the big idea, the earth-shattering breakthrough that will radically change their business. When I hear this I know there is trouble ahead. Why? Because most of these clients wouldn't recognize the big idea if it hit them in the face! Their business systems won't support it, their people won't understand it, and the radically new idea will take years to get to market...when they have only months. In these cases, I tell the client that yes, it would be great to get that big breakthrough, but it is equally important to recognize multiple incremental improvements.

Another creativity principle is: Quantity breeds quality. The more ideas you generate for solving a problem, the greater are your chances of getting a good idea. As Dr. Linus Pauling, the Nobel Prize winner for chemistry and peace stated, "The best way to get a good idea is to have lots of ideas." Similarly, George Bernard Shaw was once quoted as saying, "When I was young I observed that nine out of ten things I did were failures. I didn't want to be a failure, so I did ten times more work."

According to Warren, the best way to sell lots of paintings is to paint lots of paintings. Somewhere in the heap will be some very good pieces of work. Keep this quantity breeds quality principle in mind the next time you are coming up with ideas for solving a problem. Don't make Roland's common mistake of using up all your energy to get the solution "just right." Recognize and affirm gradual progress.

These principles worked for Pauling, for Shaw, for Warren. They will work for you. Who knows, you even might get that big breakthrough you are looking for along the way.

Sincerely,

Roger

Insights From The Road, It Takes Two

The following was taken from an electronic newsletter published by Dr. Firestien, on September 6, 2001

Welcome to Insights From The Road, the e-newsletter of creativity from "The Gold Standard of Creativity Training," Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. Enjoy!

It Takes Two

Recently a good friend of mine was working on a major writing project. She procrastinated for months. When she finally began, she described the writing process as "agonizing."

As soon as she had written a page or two, she would edit and re-work it. She was a good writer, but too hard on herself. She asked me to coach her on the project and I agreed. As part of the coaching process, we watched the movie "Finding Forrester."

In the movie, Sean Connery plays William Forrester, a Pulitzer Prize-winning recluse who never gave the world a second novel. Living alone off his royalties in a Brooklyn apartment, Forrester reluctantly becomes friends with a neighborhood teenager, Jamal Wallace, a talented 16-year-old basketball player whose secret passion is writing.

In one scene, Forester and Jamal are sitting across the table from each other at typewriters. As Forrester begins pounding away at the keys, Jamal just stares at a blank sheet of paper. Forrester stops and asks Jamal why he isn't writing. Jamal replies, "I'm thinking." Forrester bellows at him, "Don't think. Just write. Write anything!" Forrester then delivers one of my favorite lines in the movie: "You write the first draft with your heart. You re-write with your head."

In our book, "Creativity Unbound," Blair Miller, Jonathan Vehar and I discuss the idea of the writer's mind and the editor's mind:

"Great authors are of two minds. One is the writer's mind, the wildly imaginative, freewheeling renegade. The other is the editor's mind, which goes back after the writer's mind has done its work and weeds out the extraneous, non-value-adding words, phrases and ideas. Not even the greatest writers can perform those two functions at the same time. In fact, the great writers are vigilant about keeping those two functions distinct."

This same principle applies to all creative thinking. Alex Osborn, in his breakthrough book "Applied Imagination," noted two distinct kinds of thinking that are essential for being creative. One is divergent thinking, which is generating lots of options. The other is convergent thinking - judging those options, focusing and making decisions.

Good news! We all do both kinds of thinking every day. The secret to becoming more creative is to become conscious of which thinking mode you're in, so you can separate your divergent and convergent thinking.

So next time you want to get more creative - whether it's for a major writing project or just to make your office more efficient - first let the writer's mind loose. Go for some wild ideas. Don't judge your ideas; just let them flow. Then, after you've generated many options, apply the editor's mind to sort and refine those ideas.

Once you separate the writer's mind from the editor's mind, you'll be amazed how creative you can become.

Now, go get creative out there!

Sincerely,
Roger

Insights From the Road, September 21, 2001

The following was taken from an electronic newsletter published by Dr. Firestien, on September 6, 2001

Welcome to Insights From The Road, the e-newsletter of creativity from "The Gold Standard of Creativity Training," Roger L. Firestien, Ph.D. Enjoy!

September 21, 2001

On September 11, a colleague and I were working in Washington, D.C. when the hijacked jet slammed into the Pentagon. I will never forget the black plumes of smoke that rose from that huge building. Because we were also working in a federal building, we were evacuated soon after the attack.

My colleague, David Gonzalez, and I spent Tuesday afternoon watching television in our hotel rooms and drinking coffee in the few street cafes still open. It was a beautiful September day -- such a contrast to the terrible destruction that had occurred earlier. After two days, we managed to rent a car and drove back to Buffalo.

About a week later, I decided to write this installment of "Insights from the Road." I'd like to share some ways to deal with this terrible event.

1. Deal with your grief. Use whatever spiritual practice works for you to sustain you through this time. Identify and use the things that help you cope.

2. Support each other. Studies have shown that close-knit, supportive communities actually increased the longevity of their members. (Want more info? Email me at roger@rogerfirestien.com.) Don't be afraid to ask for help, and be open to giving as generously as possible in return.

3. Remain flexible. A client we spoke to recently said she and her staff were doing many things differently since September 11. According to her, the creative problem solving techniques she's learned from me have really helped her and her staff be more flexible, and yes, more creative.

4. Remain open to new ideas. There's a saying in creativity studies that every act of creation is first an act of destruction. We've all experienced this horrible act of destruction. After dealing with our grief, we might begin to see the acts of creation, and even re-creation, that are possible. There are new ideas out there that will be helpful. Notice them -- and use them.

5. Keep your personal vision of the future strong and alive. If you haven't written down your vision for your future, write it now and affirm it every day. The power of our founding fathers' vision built this nation, and it's your personal vision that has taken you this far in life. On earlier trips to Washington, I've seen the Declaration of Independence. It's a manifesto for creativity for our nation.

Finally, be sure to take action on your vision. Get moving as soon as your emotions allow you. As Joel Barker said in his video "The Power of Vision": Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes time. Vision with action can change the world. Let's use our creativity to change our world into a much better place.

Sincerely,

Roger