YES! AND… Facilitate. Innovate. Transform – Creative Gorilla # 24
“I’m tuning in”
Miracles, you do not have to look for them. They are there, 24/7, beaming like radio waves around you. Put up the antenna, turn up the volume – snap… crackle… this just in, every person you talk to is a chance to change the world…
Hugh Elliott, Standing Room Only weblog, May 6, 2003
(The blog is not for those of a sensitive nature)
This week I took a taxi to Cairo airport. Being a car passenger in Cairo invariably leads you to close your eyes and hope, (the drivers have their eyes closed already), but this was 7.00 a.m. on a Friday with little traffic around.
Even so my taxi was “cut up” by a speeding driver. A kilometre further up the road on a bend the speedster lit his hazard flashers and slowed. My driver took the opportunity to overtake and accelerated.
Every antenna in my body stared resonating, “Why are his hazard lights on? Something is wrong… why the hazards?” and I clung to the hand strap. (Seat belts? Hah!).
Rounding the bend at 100 kilometres per hour (my eyes glued to the speedometer) we hit an accident scene. My driver braked, skidded on spilt oil and we began scraping along the central reservation. My antennae were right. Antennae are useful (if you are in control!)
Before the launch of the Creative Gorilla, I was concerned I might have insufficient inspiration to move past five articles.
The impetus to start writing was the advice Michael Neill gave me. He told me, when he began writing his tips, his creative antennae became sensitive to the weakest signals that might be the basis for a tip.
A year in to writing Creative Gorilla articles, I find I agree with him. I am constantly seeking new stimuli and if something occurs, even slightly out of the ordinary, I begin immediately to explore it for potential clues to an article.
As a result, my creative antennae are more finely tuned and I now sense a new topic or two every two weeks, usually when I am not focussing on marketing, proposals and invoicing.
So
So what conclusion might you draw from the above about stimulating personal creativity?
To create regularly it helps me to have a Desire to sense stimuli and to free space in the mind to tune in to them. But that is not really enough.
I also need to have:
- Drive to develop those ideas (an end goal in mind)
- Determination to produce a finished product
- Discipline such as a regular deadline to incentivise me
It also helps if you Delight in creating!
Action
Consider your creative antennae. Are they finely tuned? How might you enhance their sensitivity? Do you have the desire? Or is one of the other Ds your stumbling block?
To Close
Luckily we suffered no major damage in the accident and I was able to reflect on my experience on the aircraft home.
Are our “antennae” passive receivers of information or are they radar antennae? I think radar.
The more waves we send out looking for ideas and the more energy we put into the effort, the more chance that something new will cross those waves and reflect back to us.
Our experience then allows us to identify them as new. You might like to click on this link and consider the analogy with radar.
Enjoy bouncing these ideas around this week.
John Brooker I Facilitate, Innovate, Transform.
Yes! And… We facilitate leaders and teams in medium to large organisations internationally to:
- Make Meetings Outstanding
- Make Transformation Simpler
- Turn Opportunities in to Reality
Imagine what we can do for you…
Contact John or Kate Brooker:
Speak: +44 (0) 20 8869 9990
Write: [email protected]
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