CHALLENGE 2 | DAY 16 | All about creativity

19 january '14

The research on creativity is not very creative!
But very interesting though....

If you start researching creativity. Most people tell the same story, only with different words and their own vantage point.


The secret to creativity by +Mike Dillon
You have to think inside box according to Mike Dillon, a former imagineer at Disney Studios. To be creative, to get new ideas, you have to fill your box with knowledge.
Experience new stuff! Do stuff you normally wouldn't do. With all the digital media there no longer is an excuse for not experiencing new stuff.

ASK QUESTIONS!!
WANDER!!
BE CURIOUS!!

Creativity and imagination by +Gregg Fraley
Ask the mind for images, text. Try to Relax, wander around, sit, sleep, do what works for you. Go for Mash Ups. Bring to concepts together.
Imagination is something you choose.

Ideas are meaningless unless you put them in to action!

CHALLENGE 1 | DAY 16 | 30 day challenges and learn to blog

19 january '14


If I want a good blog, I need to....

1. be clear on the subject
My subject is lifestyle design. Asking big questions and provoke people taking matter in to their own hands. I'm showing this by taking my own matter in my own two hands! Showing the world what you can do whit just 30 hours, spend focused, in a month on a special subject. Learning by trying. Trying to fail.

2. be authentic
This is me. Me is positive, hard working, realistic dreamer, game changer, life enthusiast, time manager, human being.
I need stimuli! I need inspiration! The world is full of inspiration and stimuli. This is me getting as much as I can out of this world.

3. try to write distinct, self explanatory, explicit
Learning by doing. For a dutch guy with no experience in language, this is very difficult. Especcially the sentence structure is hard.

How do you do it?

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 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 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