What place does creativity have in your life? Here are a few related posts you may have missed.
“Innovation is born from the interaction between constraint and vision.”
“Some people look for a beautiful place, while other people make a place beautiful.”
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I love to cook.
It is one of the passions that help me express my creativity and serve it up to those I love. I consider recipes as mere guidelines for consideration.
We recently bought 75 pounds of peaches as part of my wife Wendy’s annual canning efforts. She, along with myself and our daughter Rachel as helpers, spent the better part of two days turning these orbs of juiciness into precious gifts for friends and family. This year Wendy chose peach salsa as a new culinary adventure which included all sorts of peppers and spices we rarely use. With my cooking experience, I tweaked the recipe to keep the heat tolerable and tasty.
Unfortunately, I also experienced what is called pepper hands, which had me holding an ice pack for most of that evening!
What are your passions?
How frequently do you engage in these activities?
What are some new and creative ways you can and will serve them up to others in your various communities?
—Bruce Garrabrandt, Artist, Author, Speaker
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Where in your life do you experience the most creativity? Where are you and what are you doing during these special moments? I tend to experience many of these moments when I am cooking, coaching, and more recently, when playing with my grandchildren.
Adapting a recipe with new ingredients and spices, engaging in deep dialogue, and being open and playful during seemingly ordinary moments often generates both positive results and delight.
Creative sparks are almost always the outcome of various elements coming together in new and different ways.
How can you combine seemingly ordinary moments and life ingredients into more creative ones?
Consider welcoming other cooks into your kitchen to create something tasty today.
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What are the things in life you love the most? Where do you find yourself being the most creative and enthusiastic?
Complete the following sentence. “I am looking forward to….” Repeat this sentence five or six times for both your personal and professional efforts.
What activities and people spark your energy and engagement? Where and with whom do you find yourself going through the motions, waiting to punch out so that you can get on with the good parts of life?
Filter your day’s activities through the lenses of the words: More, Less, Start, and Stop. How does your affection and desires to engage in some of these pursuits enhance your enthusiasm and creativity?
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Over the past month or so, I’ve noticed the numerous announcements of this year’s crop of Nobel Prize winners. When you examine these exceptional individuals for their big ideas and contributions it is apparent that their work stood on the shoulders of many other curious and creative thinkers, who preceded or currently partner with them.
It’s clear that being a “Lone Ranger” never consistently produces the best ideas, and even if it did, life would be pretty lonely.
Where are you currently working alone and experiencing limited success and considerable frustration? Who are some of the curious and creative thinkers in your communities that can help you come up with more prize-winning ideas?
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Try the exercise of counting to one hundred by tens. This is no big deal for us adults, but for a two or three-year-old it’s pretty neat stuff.
Here we go:
10 — TEN
20 — TWENTY
30 — THIRTY
40 — FORTY
50 — FIFTY
60 — SIXTY
70 — SEVENTY
80 — EIGHTY
90 — NINETY
What comes next for my grandson Weston is, of course, TEN-Y! 🤣
How creative and playful are you in your personal and professional pursuits?
What enjoyment would you experience, and what new ideas might result to improve your life if you played and danced with a few more ideas?
Consider looking into the philosophical thinking and meditations of the stoics. One of my favorite books easily digested by even beginners is The Daily Stoic, by Ryan Holiday.
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I recently learned about Chip Conley through Seth Godin. They first met when attending Stanford and were part of a think tank or mastermind group supporting their entrepreneurial spirits.
Without question, Stanford is one of the finest academic institutions in the world, yet Chip and Seth saw it as limiting in some way. They decided to attract other great and creative thinkers, and take responsibility for their own extracurricular education.
Follow these links to learn about Chip and Seth, and how their continuing education is turning out.
How and in what ways can and will you create a DIY education plan for yourself? Who will you choose as your professors or partners on your journey?
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How innovative and creative are you compared to those around you? How do you stack up against your colleagues, your competitors, and to the global pioneers that are transforming our world with new exponential technologies?
If your ego has gotten a bit bruised by pondering those questions, there is coaching for you in today’s quote.
Take a few minutes to examine one or two top priorities in your personal or professional worlds. What is your vision for each area, and what limitations or constraints exist?
Consider expanding your vision in these areas to the point where the constraints become greater, requiring you to be even more innovative.
Even if you shoot for the moon and miss, your innovative efforts will land you among the stars.
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Variety is the spice of life, they say. How much variety do you experience on a daily basis in your job and personal life? Whether its your organizational budget, your own financial situation, or your personal habits in spending time, perhaps you would benefit from a bit more experimentation.
Where would spending or perhaps investing more resources — including money and time — provide for potential quantifiable or qualitative value? How might a bit more creativity, innovation, and experimentation spice up your professional and personal worlds?
Please reply to this post with the “outside the box” efforts you plan to initiate.
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Who are the people who help you live a full and productive life?
To what degree are you more like the Lone Ranger, living by the motto, If it is to be, it begins and ends with me?
Years ago, a former mentor shared the idea that leading a million dollar company required 10 people, but that 10,000 were required to run a billion dollar company. Today, these numbers are often considerably less, due to the amazingly creative people and exponential technologies making their way into our lives.
What current task are you struggling with that requires greater capabilities and creativity than currently available? Who are the Tonto’s and other great people in your world that could exponentially boost your productivity and success?