Tag: creativity

Visualize with words (creativity exercise)

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate: exercises, Writer's creative bites

jonathan-swifts

I like to call visualization : strategic thinking while having fun. When you read about principles of strategic thinking it might sound too managerial and business oriented, but it is actually a sort of visualization: where you tactfully visualize and plan your desired outcome. Once you develop the ability to relive in your mind what you would like to experience, you are somehow training and preparing your mind (and body)  to achieve  in matching that picture with your performance.

Often guided meditations and visualization exercises are tools with aim to awaken all of your senses and help you more easily and vividly imagine you succeeding in your goals.

But also your writing can help you in visualizing what you want. You know you read good book if writer is capable in his words to put you in the center of the story – where you have impression you are experiencing everything written.

So the next exercise I will propose will help you not only in your visualization, but also you are practicing your writing.

Exercise is very simple, yet effective:

Your task is to name three things, topics, projects – what ever you are working on (or would like to achieve) and describe them using words you never used before to describe them; how that accomplishment looks like, feels like. Try to be descriptive as much as you can, use your senses and be precise – write a poem about it.

Let’s give it a try:

  1. First word: writing

Leaving engraved deep trails, beyond all boundaries and false confinements. Soundless I’m heard above all mountains and below every ocean; materialized thoughts in the smell of graphite, focused desires in every beat of pen on paper, caught ideas with smiley face, released drama in every vowel.

Where and when I offer me to you.

2. Second word: coaching

In service, empowering,  alignment of what I am with fruitful response: where other side becomes glitter in its own eyes and smiles with confidence and determination, air is filled with blooming possibilities and every atom of my knowledge is transferred and received openly, crushing any doubt, inability and disbelief.

3. Third word: creativity

Every moment, every day is new and gives new beginning; different, weird and enjoyable – there’s nothing to be afraid, no reason to hide. It’s warm, exciting, giggly, live, sharp, focused and likes to dance and cuddle.

In the sea of everything existing, it’s the laughter that connects, inspires and teach: with every key stroke, plaudit nod and  receptive silence.

It’s making unbelievable desirable, silly sensible and complex simple, but truthful.

So this is my take on the exercise. Now it’s your turn. Do you use visualization in your work? Does it help you in your writing? Please share in the comments below.

And therefore, though thy name shall pass away,
   Even as a cloud that hath wept all its showers,
Yet as that cloud shall live again one day
   In the glad grass, and in the happy flowers,
So in thy thoughts, though clothed in sweeter rhymes,
Thy life shall bear its flowers in future times.
A Vision Of Poesy (an excerpt)
Henry Timrod

If you liked this post and you are interested in getting more inspiration for your creativity, sign up for our free bimonthly newsletter.

The importance of capturing ideas and how that impacts your overall creativity

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Business in Rhyme, Write, create, innovate!

tharp

There is simply too much information out there. And we become forgetful.

And we mix, misplace ideas, dates, terms, names…It’s simply getting hard to

keep up with everything going on around us.

As a creative, in order to nurture your creativity you need to be more than just well organized and  tidy. You want to have all your ideas stored, in one place where you can access them anytime for some further inspiration or the continuation of the project that you put on hold.

Why is that important? Author Steven Johnson, in his book, “Where Good Ideas Come From” suggests that is of vital importance to have that one central storage point, because every time you go to that place where your previous ideas are collected – that encounter is likely to strike some additional inspiration. Further more, combining new ideas with your previous ones, will produce something completely different that you’ll probably like even more – and this is how new, exciting and creative things are born.

In this enlightening interview famous choreographer Twyla Tharp shares how she keeps her inspiration intact:

Plain old file boxes, like the ones that line shelves in lawyers’ offices. I write the project name on the box, and as the piece progresses, I fill it up with every item that went into the making of the dance.”

So what can you do to make your creative work even more creative?

  1. Assign that sacred creative place where will you put your ideas for any later reference and inspiration:

For many writers it is a computer, notebook or evernote: I for example like to put the articles I’m currently working on to be on my desktop so I can access them anytime. Once I’m finished, they are stored to a delegated folder, so my desktop is never crowded or messy.

pinknotebook

My creative corner and pink notebook 🙂

I always have with me this cute pink notebook as I still like to write by hand (sometimes I have a hard time to read what I wrote (I have a terrible handwriting), but persistence is what counts :))

No matter what’s the nature of your creative work you can design your own inspirational box, board, have that shelf or drawer to place all your favorite items and ideas.

  1. Develop your own system.

Once you have that special place, throw in some additional organizing – maybe using index cards, have folders you can arrange by dates or subjects… there are numerous options: it’s important to find the way that works best for you.

  1. Review your creative place from time to time: let out, to let in.

Now, as much as I like to be able to retrieve my ideas whenever I like, there is a hinder that we might get overwhelmed with too much collected stuff, items, papers, books, old hobbies we are not interested in anymore .. that actually can make us feel lost in times and bring additional confusion into our work.

In that case, I simply try to check in with myself – how do I feel about that particular idea or item: if it brings some bad emotions, memories, maybe it’s time to let it go and make room for something new to occupy that creative space. Honesty and looking really deep inside ourselves will tell us if particular idea is worthy of holding on to or not.

In such ways you have your ideas organized and accessible and you are not in danger of becoming a hoarder of trinkets and ‘maybe some day’ items.

How do you organize and store your ideas?

I had the happy idea that what I do not understand is more real than what I do,
and then the happier idea to buckle myself
into two blue velvet shoes.
I had the happy idea to polish the reflecting glass and say
hello to my own blue soul. Hello, blue soul. Hello.
 
It was my happiest idea.
Mary Szybist

If you liked this post and you are interested in getting more inspiration for your creativity, sign up for our free bimonthly newsletter.

Poetry improves lives: a guest post by Dave Brooks

by Maja Todorovic, posted in Poetry improves lives: guest post series

This is a guest post, a courtesy of a fellow poet and writer Dave Brooks and his insightful reflection on how poetry can benefit our lives. A must read 🙂

The use of creativity in business is a vast subject and has been covered in a number of dimensions in the past, with both positive and negative connotations. Creative accountancy is seen as bending the rules. Being overly creative can sometimes be taken as not being practical. But in reality, in the office disciplines such as general management, line management and business management, creativity has a role to play in the areas of engagement, communication and more importantly of late, compliance.

I want to talk about poetry as opposed to just generic creativity, but for this we need to understand what poetry is. It would appear to mean different things to different people. Many folks still remember the rote learning of classic lines during childhood. There is a general assumption that poetry must rhyme and often there is a distrust of anything more sophisticated than a birthday card ditty. Why not start with a definition or two, to get us on the same page.

1. Literary work in which the expression of feelings and ideas is given intensity by the use of distinctive style and rhyme.

2. Writing that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of experience in language chosen to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound and rhyme.

There are so many bones to pick over in these two definitions, it is hard to know where to start, but let’s drop a few of the more obvious words as these can cloud the picture. “Literary” might make us think we are writing something not for business, but I would like to think that all good writing should be judged by this standard, whether for artistic purposes or for the annual accounts.

One might argue “Feelings” or “emotional response” are inappropriate as an aspect of business communication but I say oh contraire. The most common speech written for internal business use is that for a regular management update to the staff or stakeholders. These pieces are designed to engender passion and followership, sometimes in the case of our US colleagues on the edge of religious zeal or fervour.
We also know that rather like poetry that there are horses for courses. One rambling heroic poetic does not fit the space available for a Haiku. Where time and audience dictate the medium and the composition, we cut out cloth accordingly. So on this point, I think the use of “distinctive style and rhyme” is spot on.

But the part of these definitions I wish to focus on today is that of the transference of ideas and the concentrated imaginative awareness of experience. Yes, my friends, I wish to lead you on the road to compliance. Compliance is not a dirty word. We all agree to abide by some conditions when we start to work for a company. Even those of you out there who are like me, self-employed have to meet the rules set by the bank, the tax office and often business specific regulator. However, there are two big issues with regulation and compliance with it; initial awareness and change.

When first joining a company, a dozen or more documents will arrive at your door and you are deemed to have read them and understood them. This will be anything from the pension scheme to the use of a corporate dentist. They will also include the use of IT policy, security, ethical behavior and external communication with the press and third parties. We are overwhelmed by them and the best way to make sure nobody reads a policy document is to thump them over the head with it. Big paper documents which are measured by quantity not quality provide no value. Yes, you need a long form of the policy, but you also need a simpler way to get the message across.

Do you remember “Concentrated” from the definitions above? Well if we combine with this “Ideas”, “Experience” and “Imaginative” we come to only one conclusion, the use of analogy or imagery. By explaining through the use of metaphor or telling of war stories, a general level of awareness can be created, maintained and improved.
This is equally true with the second scenario, the ongoing maintenance of compliance.

The use of simile and imagery can open tired eyes and part of the role of poetry is the selection of language that engages. We should not be tied to the same old staid subset of English but rather make use of our fabulous language made rich by an array of poets from the Bard up to Carol Anne Duffy and beyond. Lowest common denominator thinking and writing belittles the intelligence of our audience. A fine example of this in practice is through an organisation I have been working with for two years called the analogies project (www.theanalogiesproject.org) that specialise in uses of analogy and story-telling to improve Information security compliance. But why stop there? The sky is literally the limit. Why not use story-telling to make pensioners more aware of the perils of life online? Why not use metaphor in schools to encourage road safety?
In all of this, the written word is at the heart of this work. Good words, strong words, creative and imaginative words. The use of vocabulary that sometimes calls for the use of a dictionary. My second-language speaking colleagues do this without any more of embarrassment. So why does the thesaurus seem to be a book that gathers dust when we leave school. My poetic heart underlies the work I do with my business brain. One feeds my stomach and one feeds my soul. I encourage every one of you to do the same.

Dave Brooks is a poet, novelist, contributor on the Analogies Project, freelance risk consultant and vocalist on the YouTube single Fiscal Cliff by the Academy of Rock. More about his work you can find at http://poetryonthemove.webs.com/

If you would like to contribute with your guest post visit this link for further information. And, if you are interested in getting more inspiration for your creativity, sign up for our free bimonthly newsletter.