In today’s video, we get practical with a simple two-minute ritual to boost your creativity. I do this every morning and suggest you try it for 30 days.
- Minute One: Absorb Creativity of Others
Spend one minute absorbing the creativity of others in any format (listening to music, staring at art, reading poetry, etc.).
- Minute Two: An Unrelated Challenge
Take on a problem unrelated to your life and come up with as many potential ways to solve it as possible.
Change your inputs and challenges each day. Do this for 30 days, and you’ll build significant creative muscle mass, enhancing your innovative thinking and problem-solving skills.
Are you creating white space?
In art, the unused space around an object, known as white space, is as vital as the image itself. It frames the work, providing contrast and making the image stand out. Think of those minimalistic Apple ads with a tiny logo in a sea of white—great advertising leverages white space for impact.
If the white space creates better art, why do we allow our caffeine-fueled, always-on culture to cram our calendars like a game of Tetris, leaving no room for the vital white space?
To combat this, try a White Space Challenge.
- Carve out 5% of your week—just two hours.
- Schedule this time like an unchangeable meeting.
- Instead of focusing on tasks, let your mind wander. Reflect rather than do.
As Miles Davis said, “It ain’t about the notes you play. It’s about the notes you don’t play.”
Embrace the white space to unlock your creative potential.
Honey, I ate the bees.
Beekeepers in rural areas often face the persistent problem of bears raiding their hives, causing significant damage and loss of bee colonies.
In Turkey, Ibrahim Sedef decided to treat this nuisance as an opportunity.
By installing cameras to observe the bears’ behavior, Sedef discovered that these uninvited guests have a preference for high-quality honey.
Using this insight, he designed bear-proof hives and some bear-friendly sample containers, leveraging the bears’ keen sense of taste for free product quality control. Now, instead of merely causing destruction, the bears help ensure that only the best batches of honey are produced and marketed.
Sedef’s innovative strategy transforms a detrimental situation into a net positive one by embracing the opportunity rather than fixating on the negatives.
Now instead of being angry at the bears, he can guarantee top-notch honey, appealing to consumers looking for premium products.
This approach not only protects the hives (and makes the bears quite happy) but also turns a potential threat into a unique business advantage.
Where are your what-ifs?
What-if questions, a hallmark of innovation, can either spark creativity or stifle it, depending on their timing.
Sadly, many of us use these what-ifs in the wrong phase. Instead of igniting the early ideation phase, we often shift them to the risk-assessment phase, stifling potential with fear:
- What if the idea tanks and we lose our jobs?
- What if regulatory issues arise and costs skyrocket?
- What if competitors poach our key people?
- What if I look foolish in front of colleagues?
Where you place your what-if is as important as the question itself. Let’s reframe our what-ifs to envision positive change during the creative process’s dreamer phase:
- What if no patient ever had to wait at a healthcare facility?
- What if schools could travel to students in remote areas?
- What if we could turn the carbon in our pollution into diamonds?
- What if our training programs met people at their desks instead of classrooms?
What-ifs should drive blue-sky brainstorming, exploring possibilities without constraints. Especially in disruptive times, let’s stretch towards fresh possibilities and accelerated growth.
Where are you placing your what-ifs?
To your creative success…
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About Josh
Josh Linkner is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, venture capital investor, professional jazz guitarist, and a globally recognized innovation expert. To learn more or to explore a collaboration, visit JoshLinkner.com
