Fuel for Creatives: Time (Part 3 of 3)

Coffee is morning fuel. Gasoline is car fuel. Sunlight is plant fuel. What is fuel for creatives?

Ideation + freedom + time = creative fuel. (Read Part 1, Ideation and Part 2, Freedom)

Time.

While training as an actor, our troupe garnered loads of great instruction from John Barton's video series "Playing Shakespeare." Actors such as Ian McKellen, Judi Dench, and Patrick Stewart played the text wonderfully, showing us newbies how it's to be done. Our English accents would have to come later. (Much later. Even now, my English friends say my faccent (fake/accent) boasts a Mike Myers feel. Ah well.)

One thing I took away from Barton's teaching is this: the word "time" is the most important word in Shakespeare. I've said that word differently for the past 15 years because of Barton's instruction.

Time.

The word itself is weighted with permanence and sobriety. It is not a flippant word.

Time.

The word is a gift, or a curse, depending on one's vantage point.

Time.

We must make time. We must guard this precious resource. We must take the time we have been given and use it doing what we love: creating.

Yes, we can come up with a great idea and have all the freedom in the world, but if we don't make time, our creative process stops short for a week. A month. A few years. Then decades. Then.... a lifetime.

Make. Time.

Our mantra:

We have all the time we need and more. We will spend our time doing the things we were created to do. We will not settle for excuses. We will not blame our schedule, our friends, our families, our jobs. We will use our time to create and share our expressions. Our creativity is a God-given expression that brings vibrant life to ourselves and to those with whom we share our creativity. 

In Steve Jobs' much quoted 2005 Stanford Commencement speech:

"Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life."

***

Fuel for Creatives: Ideation (Part 1 of 2)

Fuel for Creatives: Freedom (Part 2 of 3)

Fuel For Creatives: Creative Freedom (Part 2 of 3)

Ideation + Creative Freedom + Time = Fuel for Creatives. Read part one on ideation here.  

Now that we have our idea, we gotta mix in a little freedom to create the idea and add a healthy dose of time to let it steep and brew. 

Freedom first. A picture = 1,000 words. So here's my words on creative freedom:

"Freedom" by Zenos Frudakis

Zenos Frudakis's vision for his sculpture "Freedom," now roaming the streets of Philadelphia:

I wanted to create a sculpture almost anyone, regardless of their background, could look at and instantly recognize that it is about the idea of struggling to break free. This sculpture is about the struggle for achievement of freedom through the creative process.

Defining 'freedom' would be a daunting task even for Webster... we'll not even bother looking it up. Instead, we'll ask ourselves a few questions in regards to the Frudakis sculpture.

• What do you see in this picture? 
• What do you see in the four figures?
• Where do you picture yourself?
• How did that last figure finally break out of the 'mold'? 

I have to first want freedom in order to put in the word to get freedom. We must define creative freedom for ourselves, otherwise it's someone else's freedom... and that's not freedom at all.

So if we all desire creative freedom, what is holding us back?

Leave a comment below and we'll converse on it a bit.

***

Read Fuel For Creatives: Time (Part 3 of 3)

Fuel for Creatives: Ideation (Part 1 of 3)

My wife got me thinking. It's one of her gifts.

We chat about her skin care line, Sugared Beauty, and sire some some ideas for the fall season.

I come alive.

Last week, an executive of a multi-million dollar company asked me for some ideas for his business. A new plan emerges from the brainstorming session.

I come alive.

I sit down to a blank computer screen to write a silly little story using a kit called The Writer's Toolbox.

I come alive.

Are you the same way? Do you love coming up with new ideas, fresh perspectives, and that movie-plot twist on a hum-drum, same-story approach to life and business that put's you on a thrill ride at Six Flags?

If you're reading this you are. There's a word for idea generation: ideation. (Spell check just told me that word doesn't exist. You're behind the times Mr. Spell Check.) My thoughts on ideation here.

As creatives, ideation is the starting point, the spring board, the appetizer to sharing ourselves, via our creative expressions, with the world.

A bit of boldness: that unbirthed idea, the one that you have that just needs to be unearthed, may change the your home. Your community. Heck, it may change the entire world. That is why it is so imperative to get your idea out.

It must be shared.

What if...

• Your idea saves a business and thousands of jobs.
• Your painting changes the way people see the world.
• Your parable resonates with people, metamorphosing them into believers.

It all starts with that idea. We'll chat about part two and part three of this creative fuel process later this week. Hint: part two doesn't involve fear. Just sayin'.

What change can you bring today with your gift of creativity? To your kids, your business, your spouse?

***

Read Fuel For Creatives: Creative Freedom (Part 2 of 3)

Give Life to Ideas and Creativity by Killing the ADD/OCD Demons

I sometimes get distracted easily.

To write, create, or ideate I'll often need to get away. Do you ever feel this way?

So, off to the coffee shop I go. My favorite writing nook vacant, I now inhabit this space:

Now I can write. Finally no distractions. Fast forward about an hour. Here's the rundown...

• Checked the four other posts I'm working on and added a scant thought or two to each.
• Texted my wife twice.
• Consumed some soup.
• Watched a youtube video.
• Sipped the coffee.
• Talked with some friends who sat down and surprised me.
• Posted on said friend's Facebook wall.
• Checked Facebook . . . a lot.
• Looked around aimlessly to try and avoid completing this blog post. 

I'm for serious on that list. Those things actually just happened. To make matters more unproductive, I just wrote it all out and am still yet to (actually) begin this post.

Luckily I'd already started a blog post about short attention span disorder (SASD). I don't know if it exists in the medical books, but I know it exists whenever my creative juices get flowing. It's as if our subconscious doesn't want us to contribute and share our gifts and talents. Could this be true?

Not for us it's not. Relinquish Your ADD/OCDemon. Say 'yes' to focus and 'no' to distraction.

What are we looking for in the distractions and false accomplishments anyway? The main reason we run from our ideas is fear. Fear of failure. Fear of looking foolish. Fear of risk.

A challenge:

1. Take ten minutes to write out that idea you've been working on for work, home, or school. Turn the iPhone off. No distractions.

Example: I want to think of a new way to start the meeting at work, the class at school, or the decorating project at home.

2. Write out at least three entirely different ways you could accomplish your idea. Write out the really dumb ideas too. Nothing is off limits.

3. Pick one from the three, do it, and drop me a note to tell me how it went!

What ideas do you have that you need to share today?

The Writer's Toolbox, an Exercise in Creative Bravery

My wife, ever the cheerleader (thanks babies!), bought me a wonderful gift that I didn't bother to even open. How rude. Yes, but the time had to be right. Tonight's the night!

The gift, The Writer's Toolbox, by Jamie Cat Callan, is both a book(let) and several simple inspiring exercises to get the brain jogging into the land of twists, turns, conflicts, descriptions, and plots.

Today's exercise: using the sticks!

1. Draw a "First Sentence" stick." Write for a few minutes.
2. Draw a "Non-Sequitur" stick. Write a bit longer.
3. Draw a "Last Straw" stick.

Here's what came out... my 'sticks' sentences are underlined.

***

On Tuesday, Margaret told me she liked the little oranges with the seeds better than the ones I bought.

I hated her for that.

Her distaste for anything ‘unnatural’ drove me to commit mind murder, the likes of which I’d not experienced since grade school. Kenny Malich, not Margaret, was the object of my half-rage then, but it felt the same now as is did back at Glen Heights Elementary in Canton.

We were celebrating Thanksgiving. My parents made me a pilgrim-like collar out of four sheets of thick black construction paper cut to form a circle around my neck. Sticking out awkwardly from my shoulders, the collar looked like a umbrella missing a few strands in it’s DNA. I pulled my socks over my pant cuffs and half way up my calf to further compliment my colonial-ness. There’s a shadowy memory of a hat and an odd belt buckle, but I can’t be certain at present. My costume, though complete, was anything but authentic, real, and natural.

Kenny was an indian. Oh yes, he got it all. He had the moccasins, the war paint, and even a hatchet. So cool. They were all the read deal too. Even the hatchet.

So why did I hate him and why did Margaret’s comment about the seeded clementines set me reeling back to childhood?

“You could make a living doing that kind of thing.” I suppose I could, but I had never thought about it, until then.

Produce aisle. Frozen for who knows how long. Holding oranges. I didn’t even know if I was blinking. It could’ve been five seconds or ten minutes. From the looks of my meager audience, my journey to elementary school and back to my seeded clementine selection had transformed me into a stick-figured mime.

I should’ve passed a hat and collected a few bucks.

“Yeah, well, woulda coulda shoulda ya know.” It was the first thing that came to mind. I would’ve felt more comfortable walking out of the grocery store half naked.

Maybe she felt that way because of the oranges, maybe she just didn’t like me because I forgot to pay her back for one too many lattes. Perhaps she even felt the same way I did about Kenny.

The past seems to be sinking down on all of us Margaret.

****

Got the creative juices going! 

Try it. I dare you.

Lady Gaga + Warren Buffett = Tips for Business Artists

She is hanging from a chandelier, covered in stage blood, dressed in. . . what is that?

Welcome to my brain when I first saw Lady Gaga perform on an awards show several years ago. I looked over at my wife, who's also a business artist like myself, and noticed her jaw in a similarly dropped state.

Warren Buffett. Ever heard of him? Well, apparently he's a big-wig businessman, although he doesn't consider himself one. "I am not a businessman. I am an artist," Buffett once confessed. A wealthy artist at that: he's worth over $47 billion according to Forbes. Some say his net worth is over $60 billion. That's a lot or 'illions' either way.

We may not all be aiming to net illions with an 'm' or a 'b,' but I think we can all agree that creativity must thrive and breathe in everything we do. That said, here's some tips brought about by inspirations of Gaga and Buffett, the unlikely dynamic duo.

Tips for Business Artists:

• Be passionate and sell what you're selling unapologeticly. Whether products, services, or consultative information. 
• Be confident and convey your love for what you do. Your prospect will only buy it if you do first. 
• Grab attention and don't let up.
• No limits. Pandora's box what? There is no box. Let 'er fly kiddo.
• Keep creating, reinventing, and work. I could rant on this, but I already did: creativity might be painful work. That's why it's called 'work.' Get to work, and then don't stop. Ever. 
• Don't be afraid of what people think of your beliefs.

Now go. Do. Create. Enjoy. Share.

Why Ideas and Ideation Give Me a High

I'm hooked.

I've always loved ideas, brainstorming, coming up with a plan, thinking abstractly, imagining 'what if' and the like.

Case in point (let's see where this takes us):

What if . . . we all didn't use air conditioning for an entire day during the heat of summer. We could donate all the money saved--just for having one relatively uncomfortable day. Hmmm. If each home cost an average of $3-5/day to cool.... if 1,000 people jumped on my what-if bandwagon, we could contribute around $4,000 to a good cause. If I doubled my energy-saving crusade, $8,000 saved and given. And let's just say I got (now I feel like I'm hatching a pyramid scheme) 10,000 people to do this next summer and collected the $4-$5 saved from each of those people. Around $50,000. Maybe I WILL do that. Would you join?

But here's the thing: coming up with that instantaneous idea came about by asking 'what if' and man, it gives me a slight high to see those ideas start to germinate, take form, and possibly grow. Even more, when those ideas are shared with other ideators (see post on ideation if you need clarity on that word--I did) the ideas take a new shape. Ever-new!

My joy is to string those mini-eureka moments together to form a lovely, creative life for years and years to come. Sarah, my wife and lovely ideator partner, inspires me daily to do just that.

What if....

What if . . . we weren't afraid to think in new ways. To come up with solutions to things that we DON'T think need to be fixed--just to make it better. 

What if . . . ideas are God's gift to us and our gift back to God is to share the idea, enjoy it, ruminate on it and see what it becomes.

What if. . . your spark of ideation changed your city, your country, or your world.

What. If.

New Favorite Word: Ideation

When I grow up, I wanna be an ideator.

Realization #1: I love and thrive on creativity, ideas, and innovation.

Realization #2: I get bored easily.

Are you like this too?

While at the gym today, I was listening to a podcast I'd downloaded nearly a year ago from Ideasicle.com. Gaurav Suri, a philosopher, author, fMRI specialist (no, I don't know what an fMRI specialist is) was speaking on what happens in our brain when we create. The podcast, though a bit dry at times, was tremendously inspiring and made me forget my workout--always a good thing.

Listen to it here.

Suri, through his research and other smarty-pants things, deduced that the 'ah-ha' moment an idea is birthed in our conscious (though often unconscious) mind, massive amounts of dompamine are released into the brain. In normal people language: when we have a cool idea we feel awesome.

(Side note: cocaine and nicotine have the exact same effect on our bodies.)

People actually make a living of doing this idea-making thing. Some license products, or even ideas, to companies who desire to produce the ideas, market them, and sell them to the public. Apparently the process of formulating ideas and concepts is called ideation. And it's my new favorite word.

Dreaming up ideas is a lot more fun, and healthy, that smoking a cigarette. Or using cocaine.

And it's cheaper. . . not that I would know. Just guessing.

Honest.