CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 19 | All about creativity

22 january '14

Why it's important to not know

Perspective on lateral thinking
Deliberate generation of different/alternative ways to look at things and/or situations
The challenge of assumptions. Ask 'why'.

The purpose of thinking
Thinking is about being effective, not about being right. Being right is about being right all the time. Being effective is about being right at the end.
Lateral thinking brings up ideas which may seem wrong in the proces, but are necessary for the upcoming restructuring and  'being right' in the end.

A small story about proces of change not the proces of proof.
'Education is soundly based on the need to be right all the time. Throughout education one is taught the correct facts, the correct deductions to be made from them and the correct way of making these deductions. One learns to be correct by being made very sensitive to what is incorrect. One learns to apply judgement at every stage and to follow up this judgement with the ‘no’ label. One learns how to say, ‘no’, ‘this is not so’, ‘this cannot be so’, ‘this does not lead to that’, ‘you are wrong here’, ‘this would never work’, ‘there is no reason for that’ and so on. This sort of thing is the very essence of vertical thinking and accounts for its great usefulness. The danger lies in the arrogance of the attitude that assumes that vertical thinking is sufficient. It is not. Exclusive emphasis on the need to be right all the time completely shuts out creativity and progress.'

Edward de Bono, Lateral thinking | creativity step by step

The importance of being right all the time creates a situation where one is afraid of failing and/or making mistakes.

I promote failing! Fail as often as you can! When you fail, you learn.
Doubt it. Doubt, if you gonna make it or if you going to fail it. Enjoy it, be curious. This is what we call a learning process. If you know you will pass a test. If you know you will make it to the other side. If you know, what will you learn?

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 15 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

17 january '14

The art of making a choice

A friend of mine told me something today. When I see you, I see a person who made choice making in to an art form. You don't just make a choice. There happens more inside that brain of yours. 

Ofcourse that made me think and the more I think about this, the more I get his point.

When I talk with people it's all about choice. Being positive is a choice. Choosing to go for subject which you can influence, is a choice. Choice and choosing is a way of life. I enjoy the process of choice making. Deciding what to do.

And the power of choice is what really keeps me going on this subject. If you make a choice, it is important that you stick with it until you reach the point or goal which is bound to the choice. Otherwise, what's the point of making the choice if you go in a different direction before reaching your goal or point.

When you buy stuff, you have to pay for it. Most of the time there is a que line. Now the interesting part for choice making. You make the choice to buy. You want the product. If you want to use the product you have to stand in the line until you are at the register and you can pay. 

The question: 

What is the value of waiting in line, move a spot, and quit waiting before you reach the register? Do you really like to start again all the way in the back. If you don't finish the line all the way to the register, all the effort would be a loss.

Please, think about that, let it walk the brain before you make another choice.

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 2 | DAY 11 | All about creativity

13 january '14

How to capture your creativity

First note
Our creative potential is virtually shut don by early schooling. When there is no time for fun, eventually creativity will vanish.

Second note
The myths about creativity keeps us shore bound.

- With the right skills you can boost your creativity by a factor 10 or more.
- Creativity is an extension of what you already know
- New behavior and ideas emerge as old behaviors interact
- Behavior flows and it never stops changing
- Creativity is always an individual process
- Groups are better at selecting good ideas than at generating them.

4 techniques for a creative boost

1. Capturing
- Pay attention to new ideas that occur
- When an idea or thought flows in your mind, write it down
- Three B's for places, which are popular, to capture ideas. The Bed, Bath and Bus

2. Challenging
- Put yourself in difficult situations
- Go for open ended problem solving. As many as possible solutions
- Try to solve "Ultimate Problems"
a. You have 24 hours to create world peace
b. One year to stop pollution and prevent future pollution 
c. Stop the process of aging
- Failure is a great wellspring of creativity

3. Broadening
- Train often
- Train diverse
- Take courses in subjects you know nothing about

4. Surrounding
- Surround yourself by diverse and ever changing stimuli

Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/capturing-creativity

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.

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 9 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

10 januari '14
You know the feeling of being stuck in life? You don't know why you live on this planet? 

What can I do so I contribute to this planet? I live a crazy and different lifestyle already. Most people I know work 9 - 5. Get married. Have kids. Buy a house.
Me I'm 28 and I got nothing of that matter.
 There always are a lot of people who envy what I do. I'm free, I can choose, nevertheless I'm not happy and don't know my core-passion at this moment.

I started this blog for many reasons. The three that immediately come to mind are:

1. I lost my passion. I'm in search of. And I think this can help me on that journey
2. I really like to inspire people and be inspired
3. Keeping track of all the stuff I do with my life. A sort of diary.

Like I said in this post. At this moment my life is all about two companies. A boulder gym with two friends and a educational company. That's work wise.

Things I really enjoy are:

1. Food
I'm a food maniac. Vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds, fish, chocolate, super foods and small amounts of cheese and eggs is all I eat. And for drinking, I only drink water or green tea and fresh herbal teas. Only on saturdays I allow myself to eat some 'bad' stuff.

So,
- I don't eat bread
- I don't eat pasta
- I don't eat rice
- I don't do caffeine (just what's in green tea)
- I don't do alcohol (occasionally red wine)
- I don't do drugs

Portabello with homemade pesto, cherry tomato,
goat cheese and some pine seeds,

For example, I start my day with a smoothie build form a green vegetable like Kale, Spinach, Lettuce, Paksoi. Put this in the blender with banana, avocado, oranges, papaya, kiwi, chia seeds, maca powder and hennep proteine. Depending on the season I also use strawberry, dragon fruit, lychees, pomme granate.

2. Sports
I climb. I climb a lot. But I started with judo when I was young. After judo, came breakdance. From the breakdance I went into kitesurfing. The difficulty I encounter is that after I while I've seen the world of the sport and look for a new challenge. Now my challenge is climbing, and I still keep going and don't feel bored at all!

I need a lot of stimulus to keep me going. Some people suffer from Burn Out. I sometimes suffer from a Bore Out. Same symptoms like a burn out only an other cause.


3. Training
I like the principles of training. And as you can see, the other to topics have a connection with training. Food is important, it depends on the type of sport your doing. But for example, this week I train not much because I do full maximum power training for climbing. But in regular weeks I go to the gym 3-4 times a week, climb 3 times a week, walk with my two dogs (at this moment three)

CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 8 | All about creativity

9 january '14

Tēnā Koe - Welcome (aka 'there you are' in Maori)

Fun to start with a new challenge! On the list can be written the language culture of the Maori. I'm really looking forward reading en learning about this culture.
But for now we go back to the subject of the Challenge. Its all about creativity.

Today I went on the Youtube and watch some of my favorite channels: +www.ted.com. I ran in to a lot of speeches about creativity. They all are unique but they also got a lot in common. The notes I took during the videos, is what I'm sharing and I will also give you the link to the video.


The first video | You're more creative than you think you are by +John Paul Caponigro

We hear and we forget, we see and we remember, we do and we know.

Free association
1 Don't judge
2 Don't censor
3 Set a high quota
4 Move on when you reach saturation
5 Analyze after

Draw/Sketch the scenario or pattern which you see in your mind, so you can alert your brain and mind to keep an eye out in reality during the day.

- Break the rules
- Learn to fail

Fail often! The only real failure is not learning from failure!

Play!

A nice book to read: Brainrules


The second video | The art of creativity by +Taika Waititi

Look through the lense of a child

It's about perspective
It's about obsession
It's about failure

What you see in this video is a lot of what I already recognize now from other videos, books or text. It's about free associative, connect and combine, quantity, perspective, fail as much as you can.


The third video | Creativity as a life skill by +Gerard Puccio

"To live is to have problems and to solve problems is to grow creatively" +J.P. Guilford

Evolution teaches us conformity
Conformity --> Comfort --> Don't think, just follow --> No growth
Creativity --> Uncomfort --> Think, and lead --> Grow, learn and adapt

But evolution also teaches us creativity!

We are born to be creative

Divergent thinking --> The creation of variation
Convergent thinking --> The selective retention of those novel creations which enhance the ability to survive

Contextual focus is deliberate manage your thinking.

And again of course, why not.
- suspend your judgement
- go for quantity

To get the best idea, have and learn to create many ideas!

For how we know it, education is about finding the one right answer. Conformation. The interesting part is, life itself is everything BUT one right answer.


The fourth movie | Creativity requires time by +simplybest007
In the movie below there's a short explanation about the factor 'time' in the context of creativity. Watch it, enjoy it and learn ;)

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 8 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

9 january '14

Why?
This subject is on the list because I was a little bit afraid that I wouldn't start. Or that it would be difficult. But I really enjoy writing about my experience. It is still difficult, but that is because i'm a perfectionist. Especially creativity is not hard at all. But I find it really hard to write about learning to blog or shaping my 30 day challenges.

Shaping my challenges is not a difficult task I already have until september. Maybe some subjects will switch, but there are only a few that need serious planning.

Yesterday I decided that Singing is going to be a new challenge to put on the list. Another one which I want to do is create an E-book instead of just writing à book.
And this sounds a bit crazy but I always wanted to learn some basic Ballet.

Extra:
- Ballet
- Singing
- Write an E-book
- Adsense

I just made a Facebook page. I don't know if that's a good thing, but since I'm still a newby in business I listen to most people around. Everybody tells you, face book is a thing you need to do, especially when you're in business.

CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 7 | All about creativity

Creativity and why we all want it!

I want to be creative, because I think it's a skill that can enrich my lifestyle. Maybe creativity gives you more choices, perspective and even opportunities? I don't know.
What I do know is that we all want it. What I now know, because I've done one week, is that we can all learn to be more creative! And learning is a choice you make.

For example
Why am I always a bit jealous, on the person who get's amazing critics in talent shows. Especially the singers. I really love the singing. Singing for me is a form of vocal creativity. For me it's expression, music gives me a feeling. Music is something you can share with others. And for me, it feels like a connection tool for human beings. (Same for me, when I'm talking about or doing sports.)
With a song you can connect with people. They can identify, I can identify, you can identify.

But in my head it goes: "Awh, I wish I could sing like that. But unfortunately I can't sing."
Why do I/we say that?

Did I really (really) try? No. (shower sessions don't count)
Did I take lessons? No.

How can I or we be jealous on a skill we all possess. I have a voice. I can sing a song. My opinion is that I really suck in it! But let us put this skill into a challenge.

Let's go and take lessons. At least then I can say I've tried and really suck in it. It's easy to say: "I suck in this or that", without exploring all options and trying or training.

Creative above average
Ideas, movement expression, verbally all areas in which I can say: I'm creative. But when I thing about creative, I think about

- Writing poems or a novel
- Singing
- Painting
- Sculpting
- Drawing

Most of the time skills where people create something out of nothing. This is what I want to do to! Why?

the funny part now, while I'm writing I see the headline and I already know the answer.
I DON'T KNOW WHY WE WANT TO BE CREATIVE! But I know I want to learn it and try to become more creative. Do you want to learn it?

Note: I'm going to put a new challenge on the list: Singing lessons

For the people who like to see one of my Interest and Happy videos, check below.