Consider This …

We’re ready for a summer holiday.  We need an innocent break from worries of recession.  A couple of days away from the oppression of oil tycoons and Dow Chemical will do us all a load of good.  We’ll flip a few burgers on the grill and spend time with the kids.  We’ll soak in some sunshine and try not to think too much about the intesifying glare of international disdain that threatens the pre-eminence of America. 

Make no mistake, our country is headed for major life changes.  Perhaps we’re on the verge of our twenties, escaping at last from the swash and buckle of teendom.  Perhaps we’re maturing into the responsibilities of adulthood, where nothing is certain and our accustomed pride implodes.

In our own business lives, when we grow past the startup and begin to look at how to establish long term sustainability, do we do so in the old way, with aggression, bravado, and competition?  Do we seek to establish ourselves as the one with all the toys, do we respect only those who evidence gigantic material gain?  Do we apply all the recommended tricks to trap wealth and in the process let our souls shrivel from neglect?

The deep, loving, intense, devoted, dedicated cultivation of soul has been missing in our culture.   So now, the current requirements for growth have everything to do with soulful revitalization.  Establishing sustainability in your business is about incorporating soul needs - yours especially, and also those of your customers. 

It may seem impossible, but actually only requires a little creative practice.  Learning to integrate your inner being with your business structures and offerings will be the most satisfying accomplishment of your life.  Taking advantage of global awareness, our maturation as a nation has everything to do with developing reverence for soul, just as the maturation of places like India and Africa has everything to do with integrating practicalities into what has previously been dominated by eternal mysteries.

Take a look, for instance, at this report from Stefan Sagmeister, renowned Austrain designer:

In addition to citing a fascinating range of outside influences, Sagmeister proves that sometimes the best ideas are generated from a source very close to home - ourselves.  In his case, it was his own journal that spawned his latest success, proving that professionals should not shy away from the highly personal.  He tells us, “By far the most interesting project I have been involved in the last years is a series of typographic works that came out of a list I found in my diary under the title, ‘Things I have learned in my life so far.’  Every one of these pieces was published, and so far they have appeared as French and Portuguese billboards, a Japanese annual report, on German TV, in Austrian magazines, as a New York direct mailer, and an American poster campaign.  The series was influenced by my grandfather (who was educated in sign painting, and I grew up with many of his pieces of wisdom around the house), by American artist Jenny Holzer, as well as the rustic wooden signs available in tourist stores all over my hometown of Bregenz in Austria.”

As you bask in sunny Independence Day frivolities, consider how you can carry some of the whispers of soul that permeate the holiday back with you when you return to work.

Consider movement.  The lustful straining of the seed towards the egg; the slow plod from ignorance to skill; the innocent wind rocking the trees; getting up and going on a Monday morning.  Everything begins with movement.

Studying a few of the core physical realities surrounding us can be liberating, and help distract us from ourselves.  Contemplating the bare wonder of sight or hearing or touch can lead to amazing insights.  No element of our existence is more powerful, however, than movement.  Losing yourself in the dance of anything is a sure way to creative insight.

Observe interactions around the office, the body language that is so revealing.  Watch people on the street and listen to the flow of their movement.  Contemplate a natural scene in terms of what is moving.  Watch television with the sound off.  As you sit reading this, slowly clench one fist and then release it, tuning in to the fine points of muscular action and concommitant emotional response.

Because of this essential value of movement, we’ve come to understand that physical fitness makes a huge difference to mental and emotional states.  A day that includes a nice long walk and a few yoga stretches is inevitably a happier and more aware day for me.  Touching back in on the foundational wellspring of movement ensures a brighter creative outlook.

A fun recent post by Mitch Ditkoff is the results of their poll asking when and where people get most of their creative ideas.  Check it out and see how many people seek movement when looking for new ideas.

It doesn’t matter if you’re outrageously out of shape and king of the couch potatoes.  Take advantage of your ability to move, if it’s only a finger lift to start with.  Let the mysteries of movement penetrate, sway, and entertain you.  Even on a Monday morning, you’ll find yourself refreshed.

There are quite a few of us on the net urging the business world towards creativity.  I liked Sonia Simone’s message yesterday, a straightforward directive to get in touch with your creative side or perish like an old, abused machine. 

I think it’s important to distinguish between creativity and innovation.  The latter is a sometimes result of the former.  But many creative efforts don’t lead to innovations or anything else tangible or obviously helpful.  Still, every time we open wide to possibility, every time we get out of our own way and open to inspiration, we strengthen our survival skills. 

If you think words like perishing and survival are too strong for this context, make no mistake, the counsel of so many bloggers, mentors, experts, and thinkers these days to attend to your creative development is deadly serious.  Unlike a sport or knitting, you don’t take up creativity as an amusing distraction; you don’t practice it only on Saturdays.  Rather, you adopt the creative life like you adopt a nutritious diet, and it sooner or later permeates every waking moment.  You become a person who is open to ideas, and change, and possibilities.  You become a profound listener, a keen observer, a compassionate colleague.  You evolve in every fiber of your being.  You become able to face the future with calm assurance.

And yes, the implication is that if you do not attend to this evolution you will be lost in the rush.  If you accept your sadness or oppression or boredom as simple facts of life, and do not attempt to ‘be the change you want to see in the world,’ your business will fail, and your efforts will go unrewarded.  You’ll be left wondering why you’re not successful when you did everything by the book.

Even though, or perhaps because global population has grown astronomically, we need every soul to seek fulfillment, we need every mind to open wide to ideas, we need all people to learn to respect and appreciate one another.  Unless this happens, our old ways will carry us quickly to extinction.  We’re being challenged to become better than we’ve ever been - more knowledgeable, clever, and compassionate.  And the way this kind of development is most readily accessible is through creativity.

Awesome.  Yesterday’s post at Heart of Innovation by Mitch Ditkoff sets it all out for us.  100 easy ways to be more creative at work.  Check it out, print it, hang it by your desk.   It’s one blog post that can become your life saver.

Of course, the biggest step in changing anything is the very first one.  You have to start somewhere, you have to initiate change, your willing (yearning) spirit is the single most important ingredient in any innovation.

Most likely, you have no yearning for improvement unless you’re unhappy with things as they are.  And who am I to deny your complacency?  Maybe you’re plenty comfortable and content with your job and your life.  If so, stop reading now.

But if you are anything short of bliss-filled, you can probably use some new approaches.  I’m here to reassure you that life doesn’t have to be suffering.  If you’re unhappy, frustrated, uncomfortable, unappreciated, or just generally sad or feeling lost, maybe it’s time to re-cast yourself in a new light.  Once you decide to experiment with such renovations, the possibilities will endlessly multiply.  Mitch’s list is a viable jumping-off place.

An element of this argument is abdicating control.  When seeking personal change, it’s necessary to relinquish your accustomed hold on things.  It’s essential to take a step back and let the universe speak.  It’s required that you do your best to forget your own idea of yourself.  If you’re stuck in your thinking or problem-solving, the first thing to do is give it up. 

And today I’ll suggest that the second thing to do is go straight to Mitch’s list, close your eyes and pick one.  Follow it through and then thrill to the ways it brightens your outlook, improves your process, returns you to meaningful productivity.

Time for another dollop of everyday creativity development.  This is the next installment in a long line of tiny little actions you can take, whenever and wherever, to help develop your creative abilities.  A well developed creative sense is the first step towards fulfillment in life.  Our western economy has all but destroyed individual creativity, and huge numbers of us don’t even know what the term means. 

If the analysts are right, though, the economy now developing - which is undeniably of global concern - depends on such precise self- and business-definition as to render competition irrelevant.  This means that you have so distinctly defined your particular gifts that you can be characterized in a way that’s entirely different from anyone else in the world.  Pretty tall order, huh?  All very well for Google and Twitter, but my individual path surely can’t be that creative.

Au contraire, we must remember that all businesses are made up of individuals just like us.  The only difference is that some individuals have taken the time to become deeply acquainted with their creative selves, and the groundbreaking advances their enterprises offer are the result.

So here’s today’s pointer.  A while ago I posted about habits, and how it’s helpful to switch them out now and then.  This is a related concept: dig deeper into your creative sense by trying out new responses to the same old same old.  Do you always grumble a brief “‘Mornin’” to your coworker upon arriving at the job?  Just once, try looking them in the eye and asking sincerely, “How are you today?”  Do you always hold staff meetings in a conference room?  Try scheduling one standing up around the office, or at the cafe down the street.  Is there a task at work you find distasteful and generally avoid?  Try facing it head-on despite your reluctance, pretending you’re thoroughly enjoying it.

Especially poignant is a new approach to someone who generally peeves you no end.  What if you refuse to respond at all to them?  What if you smile sweetly instead of allowing yourself to be frustrated?  Most likely, any kind of new and different response from you will make all the difference to your whole day.

Doing anything in a different way from the norm will open your eyes; and clarity in perception is a greatly helpful tool as you seek your creative potential.

A final note for all my fellow aging baby boomers:  switching out your responses, practicing variety in your actions, simply doing old things in new ways is a powerful weapon to combat dementia.  Want to stay alert through your old age?  Then do everything you can to climb out of your mid-life rut right now and enter into full realization of possibility.

If you’ve been following this particular set of posts, you know I’ve been looking at ways of awakening personal creativity.  I would do the proper thing here, and provide links to all the various related writings, but in looking at the list of them, I see that nearly all touch on this subject.  So if you’re a new browser here, just start at the beginning and work up. 

I’ve mentioned listening, appreciating, doodling, and many more simple techniques.  And today, the technique I’ll both name and employ is that of doing nothing.

Sitting here poised to write this entry, I’m bursting with things to say, and bolloxed about where to begin.  Somehow, though the tank is full, the ignition’s not working.  Feeling pressured to get other business done, to meet work obligations, I’m clearly not capable of succinct communication here at the moment.

Surely this happens to many of you.  You find yourself stalled, for no obvious reason.  How wonderful that there’s a way to manage these lapses.  Simply do nothing!  Sign off, be still, go away, take a recess, stare at a wall.  I’m here to inform you that, despite any external pressure, it’s ok to take time out.  More than that, it’s a healing and productive thing to do in many instances.

Stopping to smell the roses is not just for retirees.  It’s absolutely key to successful living.

David Armano at Logic + Emotion had this to say about specificity a week ago:
“We live in a world where the little things really do matter. Each encounter no matter how brief is a micro interaction which makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The sum of these interactions and encounters adds up to how we feel about a particular product, brand or service. Little things. Feelings. They influence our everyday behaviors more than we realize.”

There’s an assessment of being that the Easterners deliver to us: we are at every moment either accepting or rejecting. With absolutely everything we encounter, our first reaction (which is most often subliminal) is attraction or aversion. Our attitude about the ‘other’ is unfailingly conditioned by this emotional, and essentially paranoid response.

Check out this premise as the hours unwind today; or even just over the next few moments. Look around as you sit at the monitor right now, and notice your immediate responses to objects nearby. I love the coffee cup; I’m afraid of the to-do list; I’m attracted to the letter from my father; I’m skeptical about the hi-tech, oddly-shaped felt tip pen; I adore the big pile of painting supplies; I become slightly ill when viewing the floor’s clear need for a vacuum.

Why do we muddy our progress and perceptions with these persistent automatic judgements? The coffee cup and the to-do list have equal rights to existence and to my attention. Do I not make things more complicated than necessary by coating them with my emotions?

The answer is, of course, yes and no. In our quantum universe, we know our responses create our reality. We are born responders, and will always emotionally judge our experiences. But getting a handle on this, and realizing clearly that this is the nature of your humanity, will help to liberate from any shackles emotions create.

So while our creativity is anchored in the specific, it remains relatively useless until you manage to see past your native prejudices.

Back when I was a nine-to-fiver, I never had time for life. Existence was made up of working, eating, and sleeping, and I felt continuously hurried. Now that I’m running my own business, my work has become an expression of my life (as opposed to life being an expression of my work) and it’s a vast improvement. But I must admit I still feel pressed for time, and my days are overflowing with stuff to be done. This is a good thing, since I love my work, but it’s key to maintain proper perspective, nonetheless.

What I’m talking about here relates to yesterday’s post: as you learn to notice, study, and love the details - the minutia of your experiences - how do you keep from being overwhelmed? There are an infinite number of details: can you possibly attend to them without drowning? A phobia about this is probably what hampers many a brilliant conceptualist, who views the specifics with distaste and suspicion and therefore is seldom successful.

I have no definitive answers, but here’s a suggestion, a theory I’ve built after decades of confusion. Working with specifics is how we learn to love, to bond organically, to apply our compassion to manifest realities and to cherish unconditionally. Concepts and generalities are the stamp of ego applied to awareness of specifics.

For example, perceiving specifically, we notice that our coworker is feeling blue today. Generally, we sympathize with bad days, having had them ourselves. If details scare us, we won’t betray any empathy for our coworker; if we love specifics, we’ll naturally transfer the general empathy we feel to specific comfort for the individual.

And how do we keep this from monopolizing all our time? The answer’s inherent: we move on to the next detail. We dwell in details, and allow generalities to take care of themselves. We aren’t overwhelmed because we’ve developed an equal devotion to each specific as it arises, and we view our conscious hours as an unbroken progression of interaction with small truths.

It’s been a wild past few days, with my email server down, my home network screwing up, my son and family moving to another state, and clients falling all over themselves with unreasonable requests. But I have missed you, my dear blog!

All the craziness - especially suddenly and completely losing control over communications - has put me in mind of another essential creativity principle. It goes like this. We’ve already looked at the willingness to surrender control as a basis of creative practice. But it’s really not supportable to continue human existence without some small sense of personal power. So the way we hang on in tumultuous times is through specificity.

In the art world, it’s often said that art resides in the particular, never in the general. General expressions miss their target completely; the more specific an expression, the more impact it can have.

Somehow during the chaos of the past few days, I managed to watch a wonderful TED video with Amy Tan, focusing on this examination of details as the foundation of her creative output. Especially if you’ve ever read her fiction, you’ll delight in her self-revelation and wisdom here.

‘The devil’s in the details’ when you have a big idea and then try to collect the specifics to make it happen. Your committment to the fine points must be as avid as your passion for the goal. A huge amount of business success is simply left to die on the vine because of lack of passion for the details.

But especially in times of confusion, when big ideas elude you and control slips away; or times of emptiness, when direction and excitement are lacking, a focus on the particulars can bring extraordinary inspiration. No good ideas for marketing? Turn your thinking to the minutia of customer’s interaction with your product. Worried about potential recession and not sure what to do about it? Take an in-depth look at any one aspect of your business and figure out how to be more efficient there. Burned out and wondering if this is all she wrote about your life? Reserve a small amount of time in your day for playing with any small reality that holds attraction for you, letting the experience of that play inform you about yourself. When life hands you lemons, instead of tossing them away as insulting and useless, consider their particular gifts and put to good use their virtues!

In short, as the winds of change wreak havoc on your plans, you can find solace and power in the intense, personal, passionate appreciation of the tiny realities of the moment; you can weather the storm if you’re willing to align with the trivial!

“Part of understanding the creative urge is understanding that it’s primal. Wanting to change the world is not a noble calling, it’s a primal calling.” I came across this revelatory statement in Hugh MacLeod’s gapingvoid write up about creativity from a couple years ago.

From this point of view, it’s easy to see why many of our old ways don’t work. The total disregard for individual creativity enforced by Industrialism and our system of public education results in a society that’s essentially deformed. You can’t ignore the primal, it derrives from a power stronger than gravity. By attempting to deny personal creativity, we become mere shadows of ourselves.

But is creativity by definition ‘wanting to change the world?’ I would suggest it’s more about wanting to know the world, to drill down to essences, to offer your best abilities in service to your compassion. Creativity is dwelling in the interface between your inner knowing and your interactions with the world, and finding ways to harmonize the two. Creativity is our primal impulse to bridge the gap between heaven and earth.

So if you need justification for spending time developing your creative self, just remember that it’s instinct, as natural as breathing. If you care about your health and appearance, you devote time to exercise. If you care about your soul and happiness, you make room for creative practices in your life. And if we all care about justice, excellence, and prosperity, it’s high time we all buy into the culture of innovation in business.