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. 

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 14 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

16 january '14

Wake up! It is time to start living!

The last two weeks I wake up around 7 am and go to bed around 1.30 am. Long days, fully packed. If somebody told me that I would do this now, a few months ago, I would say that person is crazy.

But now? I feel more alive and I'm still going strong. 

Sometimes my body feels tired, but my mind just keeps going on! How is this possible? 

1. I'm doing a lot of stuff, I really enjoy

2. I eat 99% extremely healthy food. The docter told me yesterday, I need to eat more 'bad fats', because of low body fat.

3. Active relaxation. Today I did a workshop Tango. An intense focus on the body, on the feelings, on the person you (try) to dance with.

4. Stimuli. As long as I get new stimuli I can keep going. When I don't get enough stimuli I melt-down and I eventually get the classic burn-out symptoms. I call this a Bore-Out!

Some of the rules I use in my life

- Once I make a choice, stick with it

- If I do something, I do it with passion

- There is no learning, without trying. (Niet geprobeerd is niet geleerd)

- Always ask a question before you start judging

- Challenge your own status quo

- Be curious, sincere and (brutally) honest

- Inspire and be inspired

- Everything impossible, until the first person has done it. I can be the first person

- Do uncomfortable stuff

- Fail as often as possible

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 1 | DAY 13 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

15 january '14

Healthy aging

Today I went for my annual health check. Sounds interesting? This are my  health check results at this moment.

Name: Tjitze Postma

Length: 176 cm

Weight: 71 kg

Age: 28 years

BMI: 23

Bodyfat: 8%

Organ fat: 1

Blood pressure: 64/121

Cholesterol: 4

Glucose level: 5.5

Metabolic age: 13 years :D (I think this is super funny)

The most scary thing (yeah some things are scary to do for me) was the scale. Since my last matches in judo I've never touched a scale again. I reject the machine deeply. It makes me feel anxious. When I see my weight I think about it and decide in my head, that I weigh to much. This is the process of years and years of weightless for matches. Even after 8 or 9 years I have the compulsive feeling of loosing weight. 

The nice lady who helped me said that I'm super healthy. There's only one big subject, which can become dangerous. That's the body fat. That super low for a guy. Normal would be around 12%. Below 8% is not healthy anymore. So she advised me to check this every 3 months or so. 

That's what I'm gonna do. My health is very important for 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.

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 1 | DAY 7 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

8 january '14
How an intense reading session on different blogs, can change your perspective and motivation!

Today was hard. I've been really tired and had no energy. Completely drained from all the work. Work which most of the time I don't even get paid for.
(Again time for a small insight.)

I'm a entrepeneur. But a weird one. I run two business. One on my own and one with two friends.

What moves you is my own company and is all about lifestyle sports education. I teach PE teachers all about 'the power of choices' with Freerunning. Breakdance is all about 'Failing with confidence' and another one is Capoeira, you're stronger together. So it's physical work. Courses, workshops and education.

Gropo Bouldergym is with two friends. And this is a sporting facility in the city Groningen. This is a special business.
We are a non profit organization and all the money the gym earns goes back in to the business. We don't get a paycheck out of this business. The doors openend november 2012 and we get around 40 - 60 visitors a day, depending on the day!
It's all about society, community and feeling. It's build by volunteers and run by volunteers. Sometimes people ask me, why are you doing this.

We are doing this because we can. It's a choice.

A lot of my time goes in this form of business and since we all got 24 hours a day my weeks are fully packed. Yesterday I worked from 7.30 am till 1.30 am! And because of the non profit, all the money goes in to the business. Because volunteers don't get money, we don't get money.

Why this choice for 30 day challenge? I want to do something different with my life! I live an extraordinary lifestyle, but still i'm searching for new opportunities. Most people think I'm crazy and I should be happy with the things I've build and do. But, weird as I am, I am not.

Search, learn, innovate your life, design it etcetera.

And today I read +www.smartpassiveincome.com. And it motivated. I am going to try and build up a form of passive income, to create more time. More time to do stuff that matter to me, but as important, matter to the world.