Cultivating Creativit

I would like to share with you some interesting tidbits that I learned from a webinar that I recently attended (thank you, Joyce!J). As most of you are aware, I am not a very creative person and the thought of creating something outside my “structured” comfort zone sends me into an acute episode of hyperventilation.

The webinar, entitled Creativity: Put Your Finger on the Intangibles, was about discovering and cultivating one’s creativity. The speaker, Dr. Carmen Simon, shared four (4) techniques that will get our creative juices flowing. Allow me to share them with you:

    

1.       Volume

The story of Vincent Van Gogh tells us that during his lifetime, Van Gogh sold only one painting, and this was to a friend and only for a very small amount of money. While Van Gogh was never a success during his life, he plugged on with painting, sometimes starving to complete his over 800 known works. Today, they bring in hundreds of millions of dollars each.

How do we add volume?

·         Start with little ideas first. Creativity comes in molecules – when there are restrictions, you will be surprised as to how creative you will become.

·         Challenge yourself – i.e. I will write a song using the first word of the first book that I will open or What if I create a presentation that will only have black, white and red?

·         Habit – develop through practice -What do you do creatively every day?

2.       Use an (old) existing idea

How can we think of new uses for an old idea?

·         Keep the eye of the inexperienced – see it as if your are experiencing it for the first time – do not make assumptions.

·         Go BACK to move forward – i.e. look at old photos. Are you feeling nostalgia or isolation or pleasure?

·         Slow down and look around. All that it requires is that you look.

·         Think the opposite!

3.       Combining several old ideas

Fermat’s last Theorem was in Guinness Book of World Records for “most difficult mathematical problems”. Mathematicians around the world have been trying to solve the theorem for three hundred and fifty years. Andrew Wiles came into the picture and solved the theorem; a task that took him eight years. When asked how he did it, his answer was he would never have solved it if not for the studies and attempts in the past three hundred and fifty years.

                                How do we combine several old ideas?

·         Look at patterns

·         Perceive similarity

·         A sculptor once said, “I look at a piece of rock and see that the horse was in it all along”

4.       Knowledge broker

Walt Conti, the Founder and CEO of Edge Innovations, came from a Robotics background. He was then commissioned to design robotic whale from the movie Free Willy. The fake one looked so real that the real one wanted to mate with it. How creative Walt Conti was perceived to be!

How do we break new knowledge?

·         Deliver to other people something they may think  is new

·         Transport something that is existing in one field into a new field

·         Ask yourself: What will my audience perceive as new?

·         Collect Experiences – new ones – the more you collect new experiences for you the more you’re bringing new ones to others

·         When you go out and see what no one else has seen, you know what no one else knows.

But here’s an additional technique that we must not forget!

·         YOU! Do you know who you are?

·         You can’t engage in creative activities unless you know more about you

·         What is your distinct style?

·          What is your creative DNA? – (storyteller, enabler, entertainer, pagerper!)

·         Find your own distinct style by asking yourself:

o   What are you totally passionate about?

My answer is a life with Ryan Gosling… But hey, that’s just me!

I hope you find these things enlightening and inspiring like I did. :)

Credits to Mr. James New, Marketing Manager APAC at Citrix Online,  and Dr. Carmen Simon, Co-founder of Rexi Media

#GoToWebinars

My Mask

My hand is getting tired from holding up this mask. I've been holding it up for so long, I no longer know where my face ends and where the mask starts. Why do I wear a mask you say? Because I have to. I have a reputation to maintain, after all. I have to keep this persona , you see. Day in and day out, this mask I have to put on.

What's on the mask, you ask? It's a face with a perpetual smile; one that never falters. A face that says, "It's going to be ok." A face that says, "I'll take care of it." A face that says, "No, problem." A face that says, "Don't worry about it."

Why do I put on this bloody mask, you ask? Because I've had this mask on for quite a while; and people had forgotten that it is, after all, just a mask. I wear this mask because no one else will. I wear this mask because no one else wants to.

But then there are times when I want to put this mask down. There are times when I want people to see my real face. A face that says, "I feel a little tired today. Tomorrow, perhaps?" A face that says, "Gosh, what should I do?" A face that says, "I don't know what to do." A face that says, "Will you help me?"

I can't tell you how desperate I am to take this mask off my face. I want to rip it off my face, and throw it into the sea. I want it so badly I can taste it.. Maybe I will. Maybe soon. Or never.

A Harrowing Experience

I got off from work today at 30 minutes past midnight. It was not unusual for me to travel at that time of the night. It was a productive and busy day for me and I couldn't wait to get home and rest.

I first got into a jeep that took me to Taft Avenue. After getting off, I hailed another jeep that was on its way to EDSA. A few minutes into my journey, the jeepn stopped at a small intersection. There was a Toyota Innova, sitting there right by an island. It was trying to make a u-turn but was unsuccessful due to a bus that was parked at the side of the road. 

The driver of the Innova kept on pressing on the horn trying to tell the bus to move away and let the car through. But the bus wouldn't move. After a few minutes, the passengers of the Innova came out. The driver - a man - started pounding on the bus driver's window, but nothing happened (I wasn't sure if the bus driver was inside the bus or not). When that didn't work, the man stooped down to the ground and took a big piece of rock. He slammed it over and over onto the bus's side; while his companion - a woman - was pounding her fists on the bus driver's window. 

The jeep that I was on couldn't get through since both the bus and the Innova were blocking the road. All of the passengers, including me and the driver, were just sitting there watching the scene.

I first became nervous when I saw the guy pounding that big piece of rock on the bus; I could tell that the guy was pissed off. But still nothing happened; no movement from the bus. The man suddenly turned around and went back to his car. I thought he had given up. After a few seconds, the guy came out of the car; this time he was no longer carrying a rock. He was carrying a gun.

All of a sudden the atmosphere changed. I couldn't move; I realized I was frozen with fear. The ladies in the jeep started screaming; and the others started crying. The jeepney driver seemed to come out a trance and put the vehicle in gear. Then the jeep began to move.

After two seconds, I realized that the jeep was not moving back. It was moving forward! The jeepney driver went to to other lane (counter-flowed) and went on its original course to EDSA. I started to panic; the direction that he was going was parallel to the place where the man with the gun was! 

Dozens of scenarios flashed into my head. What if the man starts shooting? What if the bus driver ends up dead? What if the bullet misses its target and ends up hitting me or one of the passengers? We were right in the gunman's line of sight. To make matters worse, when the jeepney driver took the other lane, there was another jeep blocking the way. The jeep that I was on stopped; right in front of the bus and the man with the gun.

That's when the people on the jeep lost it. They started screaming, shouting at the driver to drive away. I was startles to hear my own voice, screaming for the driver to step on the gas. The driver, who did not appear worried at all, calmly stepped on the gas and drove away. As we were speeding from the scene, I couldn't help but wait for the sounds of gunshots.

There were none. We were safe.