Let Something Wonderful Happen

One of the plotlines of the classic Arthur C. Clarke book (and movie) "2010" is that as the long-lost Dave Bowman appears to current astronauts orbiting Jupiter, warning that … "something wonderful" will happen and they must leave (a new sun was soon born, which somehow led to the easing of cold-war tensions across the globe).

While a second sun is highly unlikely, 2010 can certainly be a year in which something wonderful happens to you. This isn’t just a sappy new age mantra.

Research has shown that people who expect great things are much more likely to receive great things. People who expect to come up with great ideas and are open to them, are the ones who develop the killer ideas.

So in this last year of 2009, resolve to have a more open mind in the coming year. Resolve to find a way to expect great ideas. Resolve to expect great things. Try it.

In this case, may life imitate art for you. Happy New Year.

Turning Primary Colors into a Kaleidoscope of Ideas

We all remember kindergarten (some more clearly than others); we were given three sheets of construction paper and ordered to “make something.”

Has that really changed? Isn’t that what coming up with ideas is all about: given a few primary facts and asked to make a kaleidoscope?

Think of the three primary colors as the building blocks of an idea – the who and what, etc. – and the cutting and pasting and arranging as coming up with the idea. Different combinations, shapes and gradients create new colors and make for new ideas. Ideas are all about connecting the unconnectable and linking the unlinkable. But only if you’re open to taking chances – at the risk of seeing wonderful new patterns and designs emerge.

Think of the slight turns of the kaleidoscope as important questions needed to change the lens and create a whole new picture… “What if…?” “Wouldn’t it be cool … ?” “If money was no object, what about…?”

So, the idea is to understand your building blocks – the primary colors – and be open to seeing all new combinations that come with the right questions and right frame of mind.

All it may take for a great idea to pop is a slight turn of your creative kaleidoscope.

Ideas Never Take a Snow Day

For many kids in the area, today is a snow day. Or, as I look outside, more like a slush day.

It’s amazing that within 30 seconds of finding out school is closed, kids have no shortage of ideas of how to spend the day. Okay, I do have two teenagers whose ideas are to immediately fall back asleep, but think back to when we were young. We were so grumpy to get up for school, but once it was called off, we had no shortage of energy – and ideas of how to fill the time. More plans were made with more ideas than we could fit into the day.

Now we struggle to get an idea. We get up and have no idea what to wear, no idea what to eat for breakfast, no idea how we will get to work on time, no idea what to tackle first, no idea how we’ll get through the day …

Why?

We’re not ready for ideas. We put our minds in a state that doesn’t welcome ideas. Ideas don’t pop into closed minds, irritated minds, grumpy minds. As many creative experts say, ideas come to those that expect them.

Getting ideas is not about superior creative brainpower – it’s about accepting the fact that you are more than capable of developing ideas and that you will do so.

If you have no idea, you will have no idea.

No Such Thing As Useless Information

What is it about life that allows some people to be creative and not others? Or, more specifically, some people interested in being creative and others not.

In thinking about this, I decided to examine my past all the way back to the log cabin and realized:

I loved maps; listening to faraway baseball games on my transistor radio (nothing like a crackling Ernie Harwell); the book series on space exploration at my grandparents’ house; my copy of Richard Halliburton’s Complete Book of Marvels (from 1941, so much so that I bought the book on eBay a few years back); my first almanac in 1970; the private pilot manual I bought when I was 12; the chemistry set my parents bought me in the early 70s (the first thing I did was go into the back yard and just mix EVERYTHING together. I lived); zip codes; the dud Comet Kohoutek; baseball stats, including the ones I invented; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the Senate Watergate hearings as a 13-year-old.

What does this say, other than affirm what my kids think – I was a bit of a nerd growing up? It said I had – and still have – an insatiable curiosity about the world. I had to know. And still do. (Before you label me, I also played baseball, basketball, football and ice hockey).

If a strong aspect of creativity is the ability to connect the unconnectable and link the unlinkable, doesn’t it make sense to fill a kid’s mind with as stuff as possible? The more stuff, the more links. The stuff commonly known as useless information – that suddenly becomes useful.

So, I say to parents: let the kids watch cartoons. Let them explore. Let them ask. (Please!!) Let them read … anything. I’m not saying create a nerd; I asking that you raise kids that are curious about what’s down the block, around the corner, in the next town and in the nearest galaxy. It's okay to mix in video games -- in fact, limits are actually hard to enforce.

You never know when the Banana Splits will help you sell the next product.

Thoughts?