Whack To Be More Creative

What are employers, schools and businesses looking for when they accept people into their organizations? Before you answer this question let's agree that they already attract people who have integrity, intelligence and desire to excel! What do organizations look for beyond a student's transcript or a manager's recommendation? It is no longer good enough to get top marks and not live a balanced life.

Employers, schools and businesses want creative individuals that can solve problems and be unequaled at bringing their products and services to market.

The problem is that as a society we have encouraged conformity and discouraged creativity! Yet creativity is exactly what present and future generations need to overcome existing problems and help the world. Young children are already creative. It is as they go through life that their creativity lessens! It is time to give creativity a chance to flourish among young people.

Below is a simple exercise to test your creativity. It certainly gave me a fresh perspective.

The exercise is found in the book A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech¹.

"Shown below is a Roman numeral nine. By adding only a single line, turn it into a 6."²

IX

Have you figured it out?

This is what the author suggests, "If you're "thinking something different," you might put an "S" in front of the IX to create "SIX". If you did this, you've taken the IX out of the context of Roman numerals and put it into the context of Arabic numerals spelled out in English. What prevents some people from doing this is that even with only three examples of Roman numerals-VII, VIII, and IX-they get locked into the context of Roman numerals. Let's look for another answer. Can you think of other ways in which you can add a single line to "IX" and turn it into a 6?"²

IX

"Another solution might be to add the line "6" after IX. Then you get 1X6, or one times six. Here the ``X`` no longer represents ``10`` or the English letter ``X`` but rather the multiplication sign. Everyone has a lot of knowledge; by shifting the contexts in which we think about it, we`ll discover new ideas."²

If you are tackling a problem and need a new perspective ask someone who knows nothing about the rules governing the problem. They may easily shift contexts as they are not limited by boundaries. They may come up with unheard of ideas that have viable solutions.

Do you remember The Deepwater Horizon oil spill that happened on April 20, 2010? It is one of the worst oil spills in history. Karan Jerath came up with a solution to prevent oils spills. At the bottom of this article is a link to an article explaining how he did it; you may have a budding inventor in your mist.

Karan Jerath states that the oil spill was in his "back yard" so to speak and he did not come up with a solution immediately. He worked at it. Make sure you add perseverance into the mix when you teach creativity. Rarely is hard work excluded when going after a worthwhile goal.

My point is this. Encourage schools and organizations to make creativity courses mandatory and to celebrate finding solutions to everyday problems. A Whack on the Side of the Head is loaded with ways to get your creativity flowing. Read it with your kids. Celebrate that your children are innately creative and instill in them a love of solving problems. You have given them the greatest gift of all; you believe in them and their unique abilities. Fill their lives with the joy of helping others.

https://news.utexas.edu/2017/02/09/a-future-face-of-energy

1. A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech, Copyright © 1983, 1990, 1998, 2008 by Roger von Oech, Grand Central Publishing, Hachette Book Group, 1290 Avenue of the America, New York, NY 10104, ISBN 978-0-446-40466-2

2. A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger von Oech, page 21

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5 Reasons to Stop Expecting Life to Be Just and Fair

Having observed that transformational growth only occurs in us when one precondition is met with one response, I have learned not to expect life to be just or fair at all.

The precondition is 1) when life is tough, together with the response, 2) we submit in humility - a strength that can only be issued in weakness.

Life isn't fair and it isn't just. Yet very often we've all been blessed with favour far beyond the fickleness that life has the potential to execute. Not always, however, have we been thankful when things have rolled our way.

Gratitude ought to be our response at all times. Especially when life is unfair and unjust.

Of course, it's easy to say that; much harder to live it. Thankfully grace forgives us for botching it so often.

Here are five reasons to expect less justice and fairness in life:

1. It's unsustainable: we cannot hope to live an emotionally balanced life with imperious expectations. When we give up our expectations for justice and fairness, all of life suddenly becomes manageable. Expecting life to be fair and just creates a lack of sustainability in life.

2. It's unrealistic: if all we had to do was expect justice and fairness to receive it, or to see it within the lives of the downtrodden, or within the lives of loved ones, we would all live fantasy lives. Reality dictates that we win some and we lose some. Expecting life to be fair and just is plain unrealistic.

3. It's irrational: courting virtuous disaster, all hope, joy and peace ekes out of us when we've had our expectations dashed. We're quickly found irrational when expectations run awry. Expecting life to be fair and just makes us irrational. Sometimes it's our expectations that contribute to poor mental health.

4. It's unreliable: do you really think you can dictate any reliable percentage of the fairness and justice of life? Expecting life to be fair and just banks on the shifting sands of fortune that bear alignment with reality just a fraction of the time. We would never gamble on such odds.

5. It's irresponsible: people depend on us everywhere in life. When we come to expect justice and fairness in life - ours, and for others we care about - we tend to let people down, and more often. But responding in accepting the fact that we cannot control the fairness and justice in life builds empowerment in us as we speak it, and within others, too, as they endeavour to live in the same vein, because they see that if we can attempt it, surely they can too.

When life is tough, even more important is it to submit in humility.

May God bless you as you press patiently into His graciousness in trials.

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10 Power Questions To Get You Motivated

There are times in life when we need to motivate ourselves. We often have big ambitions we want to achieve. Sometimes, however, the motivation and clarity we need evade us, and the limited timeframes we have mean we need to get busy when we simply lack the zest to do so.

The following are a set of simple questions we can ask ourselves to begin to create the direction, the clarity and above all the motivation for ourselves to act:

1. What is the highest vision for my career, my life and myself?

This is really a reminder question for us. A key element of a balanced life is to have a clear vision of who you want to be and where you want to take your career and your life. This question is an opportunity for you to create that vision (preferably on paper), or if you already have it, to remind yourself of it.

2. What's the bigger picture here?

This question follows on from the first. When you have your vision, your subconscious mind will start to think creatively about how you can begin to make that vision happen. What's the bigger picture here, allows you to keep your thinking at a higher level, rather than bringing it down to the detail of life too quickly.

3. What are the key activities I need to be engaged in to get me to where I want to be?

This is a great all-encompassing question that takes you down a level in terms of your thinking. The focus of this question is the key activities. These are the 20% activities that will give you 80% of your results (according to the Pareto Principle). Again, this keeps your thinking at a level that allows you to focus on just those things that will get you to your outcome in the best way possible. You are not down at the micro or detail level yet. A good way to approach this is to come up with a list of just 2-4 key activities. These will become your projects from which your key tasks will flow.

4. How can I leverage my time, energy and money?

Leverage means investing a small amount of your resources in such a way that you get results that are many, many times greater than that investment. It could be, for example, that you invest a given amount of your time, energy and money to acquire the time, energy and money of many others. This is a form of leverage that is used to very powerful effect, for example, in the business world, and is how many businesses grow from sole-entrepreneurship to global status. Therefore asking yourself this key question constantly, permits you to engage fully in those activities that will give you the greatest return on your time, energy and money.

5. Do I need outside help?

This question flows on logically from the previous. It opens up your thinking, and allows you to consider the fact that others may be able to help you in your quest. This question prevents you from getting caught up in believing that you have to do everything yourself. Often when we are in this mode we can easily become overwhelmed, and this can sabotage our results. It is therefore useful to be asking yourself this question constantly so that external resources regularly show up for you.

6. What is stopping me from moving forward?

Sometimes we don't consider this question, and simply try to achieve our aspirations in life. By considering what may be stopping you, you are giving yourself the chance to acknowledge what is going on for you at a deeper level. This can reveal blockages that go way back, that may even have begun in childhood and could still be affecting you today. By using key techniques such as Energy Therapy to clear psychological and emotional barriers, you can begin to move forward and work more effectively towards your outcomes.

7. Given who I am, where I am in life, who I want to be and where I want to be in life, how can I use the time I have to the greatest effect?

This question may be detailed, but it acknowledges that you may have a limited amount of time in which to act, and therefore recognises that you need to use that time wisely. It also acknowledges who you are and where you are in your life right now whilst recognising that you have aspirations to improve. This is a powerful question that encourages you to look beyond those activities that may seem urgent but may not at this moment in time be in the best interests of your overall vision.

8. What can I do?

The is another all-encompassing question that begins to bring your thinking down to the task level whilst allowing your subconscious to consider all the options open to you. It also focuses your mind on what you can do rather than what you feel you can't.

9. How can I get started?

Getting started is one of the most difficult parts of any project or vision accomplishment. Asking yourself how you can get started brings your focus back to the current moment, and allows you to decide what your first step is going to be. This point alone can open up numerous doors in your mind, and can begin to make what may have seemed overwhelming or impossible, possible.

10. How can I work smarter?

Once we've started on our journey towards our vision, we can often get caught up in the detail of the work, and risk losing both our focus and direction. The upshot is that we can become derailed and distracted, and the effectiveness of our work can suffer. Asking yourself at every stage of your journey How can I work smarter will help you to find better, more useful and more intelligent ways of achieving your aims.

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