Are you old enough to remember going to open registration in the gym during freshman year of college? Waiting in line for a whole day and trying to avoid any unnaturally early 8 AM classes. Such a waste of time had a silver lining as it gave me a chance to make some new friends in the queue. If we look hard enough, bottlenecks can provide some creative opportunities.

Unless you’re trying to apply for a patent, build a monopoly, or hold off an army – for most of us, bottlenecks are an annoying loss of efficiency and delay to our gratification as we slowly drip the ketchup onto our golden french fries. Fortunately, the internet has reduced bottlenecks by granting us simultaneous access for making transactions. And unless you happen upon an ancient bureaucracy or a grocery checkout during a blizzard warning, long lines have become a relic of the past. Until now.

I’m not alone in noticing that this week, this___ has to happen before that____. I’m waiting for an appointment with the only local welder to patch my sinking boat. He can’t work because the scheduling office is closed for Covid. My plumber is back from his home country but too booked up to fix my running toilet. The sales women is working from home and can’t place my order for 20 more copies of Creative You until she is back in the office. My painter is waiting for his power-washer guy to become available before he can make any repairs. I tried to order pimento leaves for my smoker but my source in Jamaica is out of stock… of leaves?

This is not just my problem. The just-in-time supply chain has been reported as habitually tardy. While the little league needs an umpire to play baseball, our automotive manufactures can build cars but have a macro-shortage of microchips to control the surround sound system and automatic headrests. Butcher shops can’t “meet” demand (apologies), and according to Reuters, we are a country out of zippers and “Shortages of metals, plastics, wood and even liquor bottles are now the norm.”

Sometimes bottlenecks aren’t even at the bottlenecks. Have you noticed the people at Lea & Perrins made the pin hole in their Worcestershire sauce spout a lot larger?
Find a bottleneck and break the glass with a creative solution to bring back the flow.

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Reaching up again

You’ll soon have a choice! You’ve taken shelter as our ancient forests burned and before long, you can decide how to repopulate your vacant fields. Are you going to select which seeds to plant, or just let the weeds take over?

We’ll be facing some of the biggest opportunities in generations with the chance to reinvent everything in our lives. It’s already been a year of reinventing as we hurried to minimize our exposure to sickness while somehow finding new ways for carrying out our most essential tasks. Now as we’re planning to reopen, we get to reinvent once again. Opening can take all of our joint creativity to transform the world we inherited to a place we can only imagine.

Instead of replicating what we had, we can reposition the framework of our lives to better suit how we want to live. In the name of survival our traditions have been boxed and stored away. Before unpacking our heritage, let’s pause to take a second look to see which rituals and customs retain value.

Our largest losses can bring our biggest gains. Virtual everything came at the expense of our humanity. As we begin to lace our shoes to leave our homes, our social ties need to be refastened. So much is gained and learned through collaborating with our networks and through our gatherings – traveling, and sports. As we return, let’s reimagine and expand our connections with people. When the masks come off, re-weaving our social tapestry is a good step forward as we begin starting over.

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Open Ski and Open Flower

We’re all dealing with the threats of Covid-19 in our own ways.
Along with the great harm and suffering, our public health crisis has left few bright spots but inadvertently in a backhanded way granted a small wish.

As we must take care in what we wish for, some of us have been dreaming for some time alone. As we spread out to prevent the spread of an unseen enemy, many of us are home during daylight hours to garden, with some time for reading, creating, learning an instrument or another language. We’re shuttered with our books, art supplies, and that old dusty guitar. While some of us have been overachieving In these initial stages of Corona style home arrest, I’ve been surprised to have done close to nothing on my wish list as all my stuff is obeying state orders and refusing to be touched. These few paragraphs are all I’ve written. If all we needed was time, are we really all creative now?

With our isolation, we are not alone as we are all together now facing a major shift in the ways we live. Up to now, many of us have succeeded in our lives by being specialists. Our uniqueness and particularly our skills have been our strengths as we relied on others for their strengths. Social distancing is dragging our wagons all the way back to the frontier where survival is again supported by our rugged individualism. Do-it yourself in your own six foot radius or do without – we are all generalists now.

While stretching and finding new ways – our time and energy is consumed in broadening our wings. Now we are all chefs, computer troubleshooter, teachers, and mask makers – we are learning to read graphs and look at growth rates like epidemiologists… or as day traders, learning to communicate remotely, while scrubbing the floor, cleaning dishes and doing an extraordinary amount of laundry, learning diplomacy as our family hovers. Some people are adventurously making their own coffee at home while others are experimenting with cutting their own dogs hair – perhaps without a license.

It’s like moving to a new place, and figuring out how to do the basics, except, now like some earth-wide beach house change-over day – everyone is changing at the same time and many of us are spending time in our own homes for the first time. We can try to replicate our old ways or we can reinvent better ways to work, function, and live our lives. We are all creative now.

So, if you’re using your clothing iron to steam sanitize your groceries, while watching three news channels at once on mute during a conference calling with your camera turned off, you are doing something different and being creative.
From 6 feet away, we’re reaching out to help others, offering a cup of sugar to our neighbors, making available our own expertise and resources to our communities and reaching out to those who are most isolated. As many of our cultural institutions are closed, our communities remain open. – Let’s use our creativity to make our communities stronger. Distant but still social.

We are all adapting, and we can now all believe in our creativity – we are all creative now. When we reopen, we will have new skills, we will have proved our resourcefulness, we will be more confident with our creativity. We are all creative now.

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Harvest time

The first seems like it belongs in science fiction. Snow is falling and my crops are ready to harvest from seeds planted just last week. The plants don’t require sunshine or rain, there is no weeding, no dirt, and they provide a steady supply of healthy radish, bean, and broccoli sprouts right in my kitchen. While, hydroponics has been around for centuries, do-it-yourself farms are becoming popular, as are micro-greens. I got started last year with this tabletop vertical Bioset farm that takes less space than a gallon of organic soy milk.
Just adding water twice a day for fresh eats in 5 or 6 days. This leaves endless opportunities to experiment with favorite vegetables but the real creativity is needed in finding uses for the I-Love-Lucy conveyor belt of hydroponic micro sprouts. The endless supply inspires new recipes and healthy eating.

Along with healthy eating comes some exercise. While people have benefited from the next practice for over 5000 years, I’ve been successfully avoiding it my whole life. While I thought I was in good shape, my wakeup call came after a Taekwondo black belt test left me with muscle pain for months. Please take note; it wasn’t me taking the exam! I became sore from just sitting in the audience. Watching for three hours from a wooden gym floor, alternating between folding my legs and kneeling. When crisscross applesauce felt more like a burnt pretzel, I realized, that something had to be done.

What type of tree are you?

Creativity takes focus, strength, flexibility and it helps if you feel good. With some commitment and little effort, Microgreen farming and Yoga both have helped me feel better – and this is something I wish on everyone.

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Treat every finger as loaded

It took a long time to accept what my dad told me. He said that when people accuse you of something, it’s often themselves who are actually guilty of what they’re accusing. Years latter Otto, my co-author and friend, said the most important thing to know about ethics is:

“When you point a finger at someone, you are also pointing three fingers back toward yourself.”

Try it! He said our outrage reveals more about ourselves than it ever does about the person being called out. What they say is about their values, perceptions, and shortcomings.

Knowing critics are mostly talking about themselves helps in defusing the impact. When criticized, we only have two healthy options. Accept what’s helpful, and delete what’s destructive – all the while peering through the open window of the critic’s own transgressions and laughing a little.

Any criticisms?

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Back from a black hole, here’s some underreported news. It’s unlikely one of the billions of black holes in our universe will consume us, but at this very moment, there are at least three black holes right here on earth lurking around and trying to vacuum us up. An escape pod won’t help us avoid the dust bag, but a balancing of these three powerful pulls against each other will help.

Of course the all-knowing Wikipedia nonchalantly warns us “A black hole is a region of spacetime exhibiting gravitational acceleration so strong that nothing—no particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from it.”

Without a telescope, many non-NASA folks have experienced black holes roaming around and causing us to miss dinner at the very time we are in the act of making something. It’s easy to get lost in the very place where ideas flow and creativity happens. Some of us frequently get lost tinkering in our own garage, studio, workshop, or on our computer where time can’t even escape, You know, days can go by all while using coupons to buy yarn, paint, cardboard, and precious glitter from the hobby store – that are all carefully arranged and glued together before being sent off to gracefully age at the very center of this black hole – otherwise known as a self storage unit. Making for the sake of making, without sharing, can become a black hole since all output first needs some kind of input to consume.

The second black hole is all consuming and drags us in before we start making something. Yes like an ancient Ms. Pac-man this black hole is actually the act of “consuming.” We tell ourselves, before we can do anything constructive; we need more data, more experiences, and more watching Netflixs! Creativity depends on Consuming! Putting off what can be done today because we aren’t ready – without enough research, because we didn’t eat enough ice cream to collect enough popsicle sticks, or maybe we’re just pre-absorbing life’s pre-experiences from the comfort of a gently swaying hammock, Over consuming is the selfish black hole taking the form of watching endless Seinfeld reruns in search of a sein.

Nothing personal, but we can be easily scorched from long-winded hot gas by the third black hole through over-sharing. Always talking about what we did, always showing what we made, playing in every game, displaying in every art show, making every Karaoke night, never meeting a stage or a microphone that we didn’t like. Events galore, the black hole of eternal promoting can bring vast rewards and expanding networks – while starving resources needed for developing our techniques and creating anything new. Watch a hilarious rerun enough times and we begin wearing the pie on our own face.

Exclusively being sucked into making, consuming, or sharing reduces our effectiveness. While all three are needed in parts, does one of these black holes draw you more than others? Balance is the escape pod we need. Welcome back

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Old Fashioned Summer

The Beatles, Albert Einstein, plus Thomas Edison all didn’t have a certain habit during dinner? These people of achievement, and I’ll include Alexander Graham Bell, didn’t interrupt their meals by looking at their smart phones.

Having the world’s store of information and people at our fingertips could increase our creativity if used mindfully, but often it’s not. Remember when waiting for a bus or in a checkout line meant a time to think or to start a conversation. Now with a free minute we’re out of pocket and starring at our screen – as if we’re a emergency room astronaut in the middle of a critical merger and acquisition of a hostile nation that is demanding our urgent attention.

Our phones are just the beginning of artificial intelligence. With the possibility of so much promise, AI also sadly brings a massive outsourcing of our mental processes from our large brains to our tiny devices – putting our creativity and our future at risk. Let’s take a stand this summer to take back our minds.

I used to wonder why so many people were looking at telephones – endlessly waiting for a ring? Then, I got a smart phone and joined the crowd. Getting news alerts, ignoring friends, checking weather, trouble falling asleep, scanning stocks, and never having enough time. I resisted games but became occupied with the endless feeds of twitter. Freeing me to work from anywhere but finding myself at work everywhere. Tightening acquaintances across the globe but loosening local ties.

Creativity thrives through our curiosity; however, the curious are the ones most susceptible to loss. Instant answers rob us from pondering too deeply about things like whether Pluto should be considered a planet and takes away our will to dream about a future with cordless toasters.

Not enough time is the reason many give as the barrier to creativity.

Smartphones are like sponges absorbing every last drop of our downtime by continuously pushing us today’s equivalent of Gilligan’s Island.

The more we repeat something like checking our phones, the more it becomes a habit that’s hard to break. Like eating peanut M&Ms and knowing that each tiny glance adds unnecessary weight doesn’t make it any easier to stop.
We have cravings, feel hunger pains, and start to rationalize that if we don’t check our phone, a worse version of our worse case scenario will occur.

Be part of the solution by honoring other peoples right to peace afterhours. Take your finger off the send button unless it’s an emergency – and then call someone who can actually help. Set some limits you can live with. Not anything too impossibly dangerous like stepping out of your home to get the newspaper without your phone fully charged and turned on. Try carving out Internet free zones in your life – and summer is the perfect opportunity.

What does an “old fashion summer” mean to you? Boring stuff like stretches of unstructured time for dreaming up ideas, reflecting, developing real friendships, experiencing nature, listening to music, playing sports and sunburn. We used to debate whether to answer the telephone during dinner and now we’re on 24/7.

Technology gives us tools to communicate and become more productive in every aspect of our lives, in every room in our house. AI promises to take on more of our mundane tasks. While this could free more of our time, this dividend of freedom is being squandered. What we need to hold onto are the parts that allow us to be creative and make us human.

Set some limits on your technology. Leave your phone behind, before we get left behind. Give our children a technology free summer and give ourselves a vacation back to a time when we could dream.

What will you do this summer?

The post Old Fashion Summer is a #Phonelesssummer #Screenlesssummer appeared first on Courageously Creative.

Staten Island Ferry

Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges

Leaving our homes, crossing bridges or stepping onto a ferry, and we’re transported to another shore. Likewise, at times we must leave the world of creating to the somewhat distant land of displaying what we have made.

Sharing and promoting our work takes resources away from creating, however, the internet offers access to tailored audiences and makes viewing and ordering comfortable for our patrons.

Step lively onto the ferry is what I was recently thinking when leaving the shores of creating and launching my artwork online for sale at SAATCHI ART.

I’ll periodically make original paintings and affordable prints available. My artwork has international themes with the aim of connecting shapes to show beauty. I’m starting with a series from New York City including the Staten Island Ferry and the bridges that I’ve traveled many times. Please take a look and tell your friends who may be looking to fill a blank space on the wall.

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“This is temptation calling,” is a friend’s way of roping me from work and persuading me to joining him for some boating. Even though it’s not either of our nature to abandon responsibility, on a beautiful workday, we’ll reprioritize our routines and find ourselves the only folks on the water. Pleasant distractions (like blog posts?) help us all to relax, defocus, open our perspective and bring fresh answers upon returning to work.

But even pleasant distractions aren’t always welcome. During some special moments, we find ourselves in the zone with ideas flying like sparks at a pace so quick they can’t all be caught. You may have experienced when your thoughts arrived like a sudden downpour or as flashes of light. We don’t know from what cloud they came and without knowing the steps to a rain dance, we fear that any distraction will bring drought and our hit song, prize winning poem, billion dollar business plan, or masterpiece painting – will be lost.

While deep in our flow, distractions can feel like attacks. Old fashioned defenses such as taking our telephone off the hook, or placing a do not disturb sign on the door will no longer stop our army of digital screens. Our increasingly louder, 24/7 hyper-connected world alerts us – like it or not – each time a butterfly bumps into a lilac and injures its wing.

After my son was born, interruptions became frequent and thoughts were lost down the drain with the bathwater. Then, another dad gave me some surprising advice that made all the difference and it’s something I’d like to share. He suggested welcoming all interruptions, especially at the early stages of our creative process. Since we generate more ideas than we can possibly follow up on, it takes considerable effort to record, sort, select and do. Instead our interruptions become a natural filter. The distractions cause our bad ideas to be forgotten while the great ones like air bubble always float back to the surface.

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UNFROZEN

It wasn’t my idea to get back on the ice,
But I did my best and learned something nice.
In the back of the closet, found old skates hiding,
Fitted them over double socks for proper sizing.

Pulled up the laces, tugged and tied,
Fully expecting to take a graceful slide.
Instead, the lake wasn’t only frozen, so were my skills.
Which became evident from anyone watching and seeing my spills.
Wobbling, skidding, ankles bending, have I declined?
This looked nothing like the promo that played in my mind.

With each glide, the blood started to flow
Having some warmth my confidence started to grow
After the thaw, gone was my fright
With one of my left feet becoming right.

What skills do you want to thaw? We can somehow find the time, space, plus resources but an obstacle we don’t always think about is fear we won’t be any good. Be confident that when starting up again, we will be terrible. So don’t let that stand in your way, rough starts are perfectly natural and to be expected. With a little warming up, our skills quickly thaw and we again begin to flow.

Is there something that you used to enjoy that you’d like to revive? Do your best, expect a few spills, and start something new today by trying something old!

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