CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 15 | All about creativity

17 january '14

Lateral thinking, step by step creativity explained, part 3

I've been reading the book. Everyday I manage to read about 50 pages. So in just 8 days it will be finished! Interesting is the pragmatic view of the book. Practical examples, excersices to try out for yourself and after a clear explanation.

Lateral thinking is the same as inductive thinking

Lateral thinking can be deliberately and self-consciously unreasonable in order to provoke a new pattern

Lateral thinking is a way of handling information

The lateral thinking attitude involves a refusal to accept rigid patterns and secondly an attempt to put things together in different ways.

Lateral thinking is always trying to generate alternatives, to restructure patterns.

Lateral thinking is never a judgement


All credits go directly to Edward de Bono!

ONE TIME CHALLENGE | MMA

17 january '14

Nobody can hurt me without my permission
by Mahatma Gandhi

Today I wanted to start with a nice quote. People use them all the time. Sometimes there are a few people who try to live by some quotes and make them rules for life.
Some rules I live by are in my post of yesterday. About the title quote. I just found it on the internet, because I wanted a catchy title to start this blog about my first 'fighting' experience.

I did a lot of judo, but for me, that is not fighting. Today I had my first lesson MMA. Mixed Martial Arts. MMA is a full contact combat sport. It's about striking, grappling. Standing and on the ground.

A hardcore training with conditional excersices. Learning some basic techniques. And getting really tired, stoked and creating doubt. For your interest, I'm the guy in the white short!
I would expect to enjoy this so much. The title says a one day challenge, but there is a big chance that I will go again. Also because I made a pact with a good friend, who happens to be my fishmonger. LOL. We gonna take a period of structural lessons MMA.

To see how I did, here are some pictures and a video.

 


Video

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 10 | All about creativity

12 january '14

Challenge yourself, know your space and die empty.

I started the session with a video. The video of +Todd Henry. Coincidence? Luck? I don't think so. Nothing happens without reason. An interesting video especially when he started to talk about "Unnecessary Creating". After that line I listened very intrigued and careful. 

It gives goose bumps to hear, see and notice this video. This moment at this time. This moment of doing challenges, planned everything ahead. And then hear someone on the other side of the world talking about the things I'm doing now. Without any knowledge at the start. 

Creativity as a challenge subject. Why the first subject? All questions that come to mind now! I don't know why, just a feeling. Coincidence? Hmmm.....

Question: What's the most valuable land in the whole world? 

Answer: The graveyard, because of all the unchallenged ideas, unwritten books, business ideas which stayed just an idea.

And +Todd Henry decided to write two simple words on his wall after hearing this.

DIE EMTY

Thank you +Todd Henry. I'm looking forward to meet you some day. 

Anybody who wants to know what I mean because you've been reading this blog? Just check the video below.