Inspirational articles, e.g. beautiful works
Over the past few weeks, I have been reviewing every one of my previous blog posts. It is part of a review I am doing to consolidate the research I have done over the past 9 years. And what I have to admit is a bit painful... Compared to the quality of the articles I [...]
With so many options for how we can spend our time, how do we find something which not only provides value to us, but is also motivating to do. Research has found that when people feel motivated by making progress against something they find meaningful, not only does it make them happier, it also makes [...]
Book publishers. Casting agents. Record company executives. Gallery curators. TV Network producers. Newspaper editors. Agency directors. Up until maybe 20 years ago, these were the gatekeepers for the majority of the creative industries. If you wanted your creative work to be seen, heard or experienced by more than a handful of people, you needed the [...]
'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' This quote is often attributed to award-winning novelist E.L. Doctorow, but was popularised when it appeared in Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird (which also gave us some [...]
*Big announcement time* You are creative. Even if you don't feel it all the time, you have the capability to do great creative things. And yet, most of us don't FEEL like we are creative anymore. I would not be surprised if you had times at work in the past few years (or maybe even [...]
In improvised theatre, there is a technique which helps performers build on each others' ideas. It is called "Yes, and...". In many everyday situations, when people are discussing new ideas, the first response of someone else hearing a new idea is why it will not work. An exchange between two people might happen like this: [...]
There is a concept in Zen Buddhism known as shoshin, which means “beginner's mind.” Shoshin refers to the idea of letting go of your preconceptions and having an attitude of openness when studying a subject. When you are a true beginner, your mind is empty and open. You're willing to learn and consider all pieces [...]
Sometimes, in order to produce the best creative work you can, it means you need to prune ideas from a project. People have a propensity to try and solve problems by adding more detail rather than removing, but when it comes to almost any creative work, whether it is artistic or business, you need to [...]
Do you understand what it means to be mediocre? For most creative people today, the thought of being mediocre is a major fear. They think it means producing terrible work, which people would judge to be be worthless. However, mediocrity actually means something completely different. It relates to being about halfway to your end goal. [...]
How do we find our best, most creative ideas? In most cases, we need to get past all of the boring ideas first. The human brain has evolved to be as efficient as possible. That is why when it is set a challenge, the most efficient thing for it to do is to use the [...]
