Linus Pauling was a chemist, biochemist, author, educator and activist. He won multiple Noble Prizes for his work in different fields. Pauling was gifted and talented, but he understood the value of “doing reps” when it came to ideas and creativity. Pauling was credited with the quote: “The best way to get a good idea is to get lots of ideas and throw the bad ones away.”

Reps. We have to do them and we need a lot of them.

Creativity is a muscle. If you want to be more creative, have better ideas, and come up with more creative stuff, you have to commit to working out your creative muscles.

• Write.
• Draw.
• Paint.
• Sing.
• Read.
• Watch a movie.
• Take a picture.
• Film something.
• Look at a magazine.
• Listen to music.
• Have a conversation that inspires you.
• Look for something to inspire you.
• Make something.
• Go on Pintrest.
• Surf the Internet.
• Do work.

Without reps, we will be tempted to say we’ve hit a wall when the reality is, we just haven’t kept our tank full and our muscles ready to work.
What is your favorite way of staying sharp?

Remember when we first started? Every day we did something for the first time. Innovation was not a goal, it was a necessity…and it worked. It worked really well. In fact, it worked so well we found some things we got REALLY good at doing and we shifted from innovating to executing.

During that shift, we started to get scared of innovation because innovation and new ideas might change the methods we found that worked. We traded new ideas and innovation for successful execution. It’s an honest situation, but it gets scary. When we stop innovating and ONLY execute, we stop growing creatively.

It’s a fight every single day to avoid this very tempting trap. Never sacrifice great for good. So, how do we make sure we continue to innovate? How do we get unstuck if we have slipped into “execution only” mode?

1. Identify the innovators on our teams. Who are the people who have not gotten sucked into the norm? Lean on them. Usually, they are going to be new to our organization. They tend to be young and not know what is or isn’t acceptable. Some of them may be attendees or volunteers. They have a different lens and filter. It’s key to LISTEN more than we TALK to these people. Empower them to use their voice…it does not mean you’re a bad leader, it actually means you’re a smart leader.

2. Ask Questions About Everything. Questions inspire creativity. Statements cement fear. Why can’t we change this? Why would we not want to try something different. How can we make this better. How will people respond if we adjust this thing?

3. Embrace Teams. If we have ideas we know will work but we don’t have the bandwidth to pull them off, create a team to work on the idea. Pull people from other areas and task them to work together. It will help your creative culture and help get things done. An hour of intentional work will move the ball. Further, people working on projects that are outside of their area will be more creative through the process. This is a great space for testing before an idea gets too costly or too far down the line if it’s not viable.

4. Focus on passion, not job description. If someone is passionate about something, create space for them to work on that idea or project. Just because it doesn’t fit in their job description doesn’t mean they can’t excel at these endeavors. Some of our best projects or ideas will come from passion, not paper.

5. Study Others. As connected as we all are, we can learn from one another better now than at any time in our history. Use twitter, Facebook, internet campuses, podcasts, blogs, and email to find out the HOW and the WHY of people we admire. Technology allows us to be closer than ever. Take advantage of the tools, but don’t stop studying. Always be ready to share what we are learning with our teams. This will also help you identify some unique new ideas that may not be happening in your community or in the world, for that matter.

6. Be Intentional With Creativity. Don’t assume ideas are coming. Change the canvas often. Be intentional with creating space for ideas to be developed. Invest in creativity and culture. It does not have to cost a lot to break the norms of the day. Getting out of the routine will help you get back to everyday innovation.

7. Put Execution Into Vision. I know it sounds like an odd idea to break out of execution mode by executing, but our new ideas will never change our norm if don’t put them into action. As we develop the new things God has for us, we have to be sure they fit into our vision. If they don’t, we are just trying to be cool or different for the sake of being cool or different. That is never successful. Never waiver for the vision, but never let grass grow under our feet by not putting ideas into action.

How do you fight the temptation to execute more than you innovate?

It takes intentionality to live in our sweet spots. Organizations, teams, job or whatever is not created to set us up to be our best, they are set up to achieve an objective. That’s the nature of a position. So we have to be intentional to be our creative best by making sure we are managing the process of finding our sweet spot and then staying in it over time. Here are 5 keys to knowing if we are headed in the right direction:

• Explore the world & opportunities. To figure out where we are our best we have to do a little exploration. What makes us tick? What makes us feel we matter? Stop focusing on the title on your door and more on the passion in your heart.
• What excites you? When you use your core strengths it becomes obvious to everyone around you. What projects make you feel most engaged? Where do you feel the energy?
• What makes you unique? What sets you apart from everyone else in your organization? What do you bring to the table that no one else can bring inside your organization? Does your history create space for you to bring a different toolbox to the job than anyone else? Your unique YOU will help you approach the job and projects different, and thus gives you a lens no one else can have. When you feel this happening you know you are on to something that
• Put a tag on it. Name your strengths and identify your weaknesses. When you do this you know what should be delegated and where you can excel. Further, as you develop you will start naming strengths in other, strengths that can help them be their best and curate the best possible team. Avoid using cliché words. Be creative and unique in how you frame yourself, your team, and your work.
• Be scared & brave. When you are scared…you are probably doing the right thing. When you are forced to be brave you figure out that this fear and courage is forcing you to engage in something bigger than you…big enough to challenge you and make you better. When we do work that does not scare us or force us to be brave we are not being challenged enough to get into our sweet spot.

So, are you living in your sweet spot? What are you going to do about it? What other questions do you ask yourself to make sure you are finding your sweet spot?

 

Recently, I discovered a post written around the concept of Idea Magnets. Idea Magnets are people who attract ideas and other creative people around their projects and thus, create amazing content repeatedly. Idea Magnets are necessary on any creative team that’s going to grow and enhance organizations. They’re necessary because they bring out the best in others. They also balance inspiration and implementation. Here are eleven characteristics of Idea Magnets:

• They’re always absorbing diverse and interesting points of reference. They collect all the time and this allows them to always have content ready to share and ideas in the bucket.
• They ask rich questions. They understand how questions uncover the real problem and solution.
• They prefer to listen before they talk.
• They generalize opportunities and challenges in an effort to find places from which to develop and create new possibilities.
• They are connectors. They connect people, problems, solutions, and resources. Sometimes these are obvious connections and other times they are far from obvious.
• They drift from foreground to background in group settings. This allows them different perspectives. It also can depend on how they’re feeling, how inspired or engaged they are, or how uncomfortable the setting has become.
• They embrace the opportunity to add by employing an intentional “and then” philosophy that enhances creative thinking.
• They are encouragers of other creative people and ideas.
• They’re active at cheering for others to win.
• They continually stretch what is possible and have a vision for accomplishing the “impossible.”
• They understand when it’s time to change course, stop, or end an idea. This takes bold confidence and leadership. Idea Magnets tend to see this end before the masses.

Have you identified any Idea Magnets in your life? Are there other characteristics that you think would benefit Idea Magnets?

Success is never guaranteed. There are so many factors at play for our efforts to start to gain traction and birth momentum. Success, especially in creative matters, is not given, it is earned There is however an equation that can help position us for our best chance to succeed:

Vision + Ideation + Vulnerability +  Hustle + Perseverance = the launching pad.

• Vision – We have to have it. It may not always be ours, but we have to have vision. Without a clear vision of the why and the inspiration that vision brings there is no reason to get out of bed and try to make anything happen. Vision also breeds excitement and passion, two necessary ingredients for creating owners not renters of our initiative.
• Ideation – Develop the ideas that will propel the vision. Ideas are vehicles that make vision move.
• Vulnerability – It takes a healthy dose of vulnerability to share our ideas. Further, when we have vulnerability as part of our equation it creates space for authenticity to exist. Authenticity develops trust and in order to do anything of substance we have to trust the tools, people, and vision around us.
• Hustle – It takes a lot of work to be successful. Don’t buy the lie that overnight successes are just that…overnight. There is a lot of blood, sweat, tears, sacrifice, pain, joy, and emotion in every successful entity. Work, and creative work at that, is not sexy, rarely admired, and often detested. But, if you want success you have to be willing to do the things no one else will do. You have to care more about your project than anyone else. The minute someone else cares more than you do…you are sunk.
• Perseverance – Some days are great don’t get too high. Some days are awful don’t dip to low. Persevere. Stay on task. Don’t get distracted. Follow the plan, work the plan, stay on vision…the methodic march is more effective than sprinting for a day and being forced to rest for two. When we understand that we are running a marathon not a sprint we understand pacing and the need to respond to issues rather than reacting to them.

Then there is luck. Some people believe in it and some don’t but anything successful has to have the right environment around it. Time, market, team, audience, and a host of other “stars” have to align. Hopefully when they do, and they will for your entity, you have worked your equation and are ready to chase the momentum that they can create…the sail towards success.

At the end of the day, we need you to be successful. Its not a want…it’s a need. Are you ready?

There is nothing wrong with a 9-5 job. It is more than admirable. In fact, a lot of people dream of the day we can show up at 9 go home at 5 and not think about our jobs when we are on the beach, in the car, or playing with our kids.

But oh creative culture…you have ruined us. Because of our attachment to our art, and our inability to cut the tether from our creative core, we think, dream, process, and obsess about how our ideas will impact our jobs. For some it is a gift. For others, our creativity is a curse. But why? Why can’t the creative job not be completed during our “shift”?

• We are not in a setting that inspires us to think creative.
• When we are at work we have too much to do and not enough space to be creative, unless we plan and make that time.
• We get interrupted. (twitter, people, emails, ping-pong, meetings, lunch, responsibilities)
• We are afraid we won’t appear to be working when we do what it takes to process creatively.
• There is not a premium on ideas but a premium on execution. (Both are necessary)
• The routine of work bores us and depletes creative energy.
• Our environments are not conducive for creativity.
• Teammates, co-workers, bosses or employees cause us to be afraid of sharing that idea that might just change everything.
• We feel we will be rejected.
• We don’t feel enough ownership to be vulnerable.
• We have been told no before, so we feel we no longer are responsible for dreaming. (This could not be more wrong. As artists we are responsible to the idea and the inspiration, now how it is accepted or rejected)
• No one asks us, so we don’t assert our creative energy. Which causes us to rob ourselves and to rob others of the chance to collaborate on something amazing.
• We are frustrated.
• Our pace is too frantic.
• We are comfortable and stretching would mean getting out of that comfort zone.
• What if our idea is accepted…what would that mean. No thanks!
• We don’t feel valued enough to share our best ideas.
• We have gotten bored, and are so bored we have not realized it yet.
• We have to many priorities and not enough delegation.

Being creative is an honor. It is not always comfortable. It has requirements and responsibilities associated with it that at times can be an inconvenience. We need you to be your creative best and to share that with the rest of us. Are you ready? It may be uncomfortable, it may cost you, but it could also change….everything!

What would you add to this list? But more importantly, what are you going to do today to be a creative monster?

I think we often confuse creativity and art.

Art is the expression of creativity. Its birthed from creativity and lives because of creativity. Likewise, artists are conduits for creativity. Still, art is not creativity.

Then, what is? I think creativity is_____:

• Simple
• How we solve problems
• How imagination comes to life
• A peak into the future
• Everywhere
• Never entitled
• A gift that’s respected
• Inspiring
• The ability to inspire
• The chance to bring clarity
• Beautiful, yet sometimes ugly
• Amazingly humbling
• Desperate for attention
• Desiring to be stretched
• Found in our intuition
• Teachable
• Confusing
• Abstract
• Comforting

Now it is your turn, what do you think creativity is? ___________

 

It is not easy to stay creative. We get busy. We have responsibilities. Life gets fast and intense. We want to create our best stuff, all the time, but it is not easy. Sometimes we need a little jump-start. Other times, we need to intentionally create just to stay fresh. Here are a few FREE ways to keep you creative:

• Stay alert – Look for creative inspiration. Look for things that spark an idea or your imagination. They may be anywhere. When we stay alert we identify the hidden nuggets of creative inspiration in the world around us.
• Write something down – Daily. Write down an idea or a thought, maybe a picture. Write it down and save it. If we don’t write ideas down we risk losing them. Are you willing to lose a unicorn if you could capture one?
• Take a picture – Every day. Take a picture of something. Taking pictures forces us to frame our world. It forces us to look at one area not the entire panoramic. Taking pictures gives us a lesson in composition of the world around us.
• Have a conversation – Talk to someone who agrees with you, someone who will disagree. Someone who challenges you and someone you can encourage. Conversations build community and community builds great art.
• Change positions – Find a different place or angle to work. New canvases create new opportunities for ideas.
• Get alone – Sometimes we have to get alone. Block out the noise and the distractions. Turn off email and twitter. Avoid Instagram. Find the screaming ideas that are hiding in the silence.
• Listen to something new/ different – Music we love can inspire us but so can music we don’t know. Change the soundtrack and adapt it to the mood you are in or the mood you need to get into.
• Don’t settle – Look at art you have created and find adjustments. What can you make better?
• Don’t quit – Ever. It is the only thing that will keep you from being your creative best. Quitting is the end goal of the resistance…don’t fall victim. Failure and setbacks can make you better. Tomorrow is only a day away…unless you quit.

What are some things you do to stay creative?