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.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Insights From the Road, Sweating It Out
The following was taken from an electronic newsletter published by Dr. Firestien, on March 25, 2002Welcome 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
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