CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 18 | All about creativity

21 january '14

I have dyslexity

I can draw a dog spot on

and decorate a cake with fondant

Dyslexia makes reading and spelling both hard

but lets my art be on the cover of a card.

by Liza Pilsbury  from website: +http://dyslexia.yale.edu/DYS_creativeworks_spellthewordspell.html

I think dyslexia opens up doors you won't open up on a regular basis, if you don't need to. When you are confronted with a dis-ability. Something everybody else experiences as normal but you can't do it! This dis-ability creates, opens up doors. It opens up doors, because otherwise you can't get in. And to keep on going you need to open doors!!

This open door, in my opinion is the way to a form of lateral thinking. A way to manage with a 'regular' and/or 'normal' situation in a different way because you need to! Not because you want it.

It's a necessity! Dyslexia forces you into a new perspective. And when you're positive about this perspective you can create new abilities and opportunities. When you're more negative, you get stuck.

You go in to an 'I can't' modus. A very dangerous modus. Dangerous, because it shuts down your system. I can't, implies 'you won't'.
Dyslexia is definitely not the end of the world. When handled properly you can develop other abilities and learn abilities others, yet, don't have.
Embrace dyslexia, don't hate it. See it as an opportunity to learn new stuff. Stuff you otherwise would not see, feel or mention in this world.

Dyslexia is seen as a hidden disability but is also a hidden source of great abilities
Develop compensating skills as a reaction to their difficulties.

CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 14 | All about creativity

16 january '14

Lateral thinking, step by step creativity explained, part 2

Vertical thinking is all about rightness
Lateral thinking is all about richness

Vertical thinking selects a pathway by excluding other pathways
Lateral thinking does not select but seeks to open up new pathways

Vertical thinking selects the most promising approach
Lateral thinking generates as many alternative approaches as possible

Vertical thinking looks through approaches for the most promising one
Lateral thinking finds a promising one and keeps generating and keeps looking for more

Vertical thinking only moves when there is a direction to move to
Lateral thinking moves in order to generate direction

Vertical thinking is analytical
Lateral thinking is provocative

Vertical thinking is sequential
Lateral thinking can move in jumps

Vertical thinking follows the most likely path
Lateral thinking explores the least likely ones

Vertical thinking is finite
Lateral thinking is probabilistic

The vertical thinker says: I know what I'm looking for
The lateral thinker says: I'm looking, but i won't know what I'm looking for until I have found it



A small note about todays workshops

Teacher? You look exactly like Obi wan Kenobi of the Star Wars.

If I want to know about fantasy, I observe kids. If I want to be inspired, I converse with kids. If I want to be creative I listen to kids. 

ONE TIME CHALLENGE | Tango workshop

16 january '14

Charlie, Tango, Bravo

My first impulsive action of the year! I went fully out of my comfort zone today. On tuesday I went on a dinner with a colleague and friend. We had a great 'authentic' thai meal and spent the time with some great conversation topics. One of the topics was 'the Tango'. He told me a story about the beauty of this dance. Besides the beauty he described all the feelings and interactions, between human beings, while dancing this extraordinary dance!

So I was stoked and that same night I went for a research and found +www.tangogroningen.nl where they teach you all about the Argentinian Tango. The funny part is that the have lessens to try for free until thursday 16th, today! Without hesitation I mailed and today I had a workshop/lesson!

What a difficult but interesting way of dancing. Especially the feeling and interaction between the male and female. Learning to lead, learning to feel and learning all about your own posture and movement. A very uncomfortable situation for me. I had to touch strange women. I had to move in a way that I've never done before. I had to be social.

Patience, relaxation, feeling, listening, body language, focus, trying, failing, learning. So many words come to mind and all just after 1,5 hour of trying something I never tried before!

CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 13 | All about creativity

15 january '14

Lateral thinking vs. vertical thinking

Today I started reading the book of Edward de Bono. The book is called 'Lateral thinking, step by step creativity explained'.
Learning for me is also reading books about the subject. And to make it more powerful for me I make notes during the reading sessions.

A few notes of today:

- One can only admire a result but one can learn to use a process

- Liberation from old ideas and the stimulation of new ones are twin aspects of lateral thinking

- Lateral thinking is digging holes on different locations, while vertical thinking is digging the same hole deeper.

- You can't dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper

- Lateral thinking is a very basic part of thinking in general

Lateral thinking is 
--> restructuring old patterns and provoking new ones
--> the use of information for the effect
--> deliberately seeking irrelevant information
--> generative

Vertical thinking is
--> selecting only what's relevant
--> selective
--> making a conclusion after a pre determined series of steps
--> developing ideas which are generated by lateral thinking
--> proving and developing concept patterns
--> digging the same hole deeper

CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 12 | All about creativity

14 january '14

Teach what you preach and implement what you learn

My work today was all about teaching kids 'Free' 'Running'. And it is interesting to see that during this workshops more and more knowledge of 'creativity' is implemented. My workshop freerunning is all about the art of making a choice. Making a choice and taking response ability for your own actions and behavior.

We started with 10 minutes of free running. Own responsibility, own choice. You are the director, coach, trainer, first aid ;), motivator. Everything is possible as long as you respect your environment and your co students.

Next 5 minutes was all about individual creating. You take a certain situation and you try to make up as many options as possible to deal with the situation. Key words are focus, concentration, silence and no secret meetings or get-togethers. During this 5 minute exercise it is not allowed to speak.

Break time is about showing the different solutions you came up with. With each other we came up to at least 6 or 7 different, unique solutions for one given situation.

The exercise now is 10 minutes and you have to learn somebody else's solutions, you came up with. Learn from each other, communicate, respect. When one speaks the other listens. Explain the importance of this skill for example. And so on.

I came up with this idea because of the article I read. The article explained that creativity is a individual task and the group comes in the picture when decisions have to be made.


Today was a hard day of work! A hard but energetic day. My food is great, my energy level is perfect, I'm super stoked and focused. The kids have good energy and that resonates back to me.

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 11 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

13 january '14

Things I never thought I would do or try 

1. Ballet
2. Singing 
3. Pole dancing course 
4. Sky diving 
5. Mixed Martial Arts 
6. Writing

Will I master them to perfection? No! Will I fail? A lot I think. I will try to fail as often as I can, to learn as much as possible.

I'm going to participate in a writing course 16th of march at +www.schrijfatelier.nl. Just a small extra challenge to learn more about writing. Costs €150,- for a day course in Amsterdam.

Ballet is at my hometown and costs me €195 for 30 lessons. So this can be a 30 day challenge of course. I'm going to check how this works, and what the possibilities are for a grown man with no experience at all! Fun!!

MMA is on friday nights. It starts at 6 pm and stops at 7.30 pm. I will try it this friday 17th of january. The nerves are already in my stomach, when I think about it.

Singing really gives me the nerves. I really, really can't sing. That's my opinion. This is really out of my comfort zone..... We'll see. Lesson cost around €20,- for half an hour. Reasonable prices.

CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 9 | All about creativity

10 januari '14

Creativity, it's a skill for life!

First video 4 lessons in creativity by +Julie Burstein

Creativity is about shifting between control and letting go (sounds to me as a nice metaphor for convergent and divergent thinking)

If you want to be creative, please pay attention to the world around you!

1. Experience
2. Challenge
3. Limitations
4. Loss

Reading these 4 lessons, I more and more think that doing these challenges everyday experiencing new stuff and discovering my own limitations and try to push the boundaries of those limitations is a valuable thing!

Fail and come out of it, more beautiful. Scars and cracks are not by definition ugly.