02/05/2013
Why Lipstick?
Thinking differently fuels new ideas, problem solving, and innovation.
But how do you find new ways to think?
What tool do you use when ideas run dry?
I use "Thinking Caps." Imagine putting on a different perspective just by putting on a new imaginary hat (and thus a new approach). Here are some ways to do just that:
1. Put Lipstick on (your lips not your head) to Inspire a Different Persona
Somehow slathering on some lipstick endows me with a persona that loves teaching even though I teach on the phone. The fact that noone else can see my lipstick makes it a mischevious sneaky thing that inspires me to play grown-up teacher.
When wearing no lip-stick I'm more apt to be less grown-up and sing Carpenter Songs
(PLEASE DO NOT TELL ANYONE THAT I'M A CARPENTER'S FAN).
Putting on lipstick is gesture that not only involves a kinesthetic action shift, which can render a refreshed-out-of-the-rut approach, but it embellishes my lips which inspires a feeling of "show-time." I rise to being more entertainingly educational than if I didn't allow myself some play... at least I feel like I do.
Many writers have similar devices that they endow with special powers to fuel their inspiration: Wearing special baseball cap, crown, or shirt; using a certain pen, placing a desk totem or a lighted a candle on one's writing space, waving a magic wand, calling the Muse with a Muse Megaphone, drinking a fifth of whiskey and doing an interpretive dance (oh wait, that might just be me).
At the very least, when the imagination is engaged in creating these assigned powers, fresh ideas are more possible as is the feeling of child-like fun. AND fun is an elixir for creativity; too much seriousness chokes off the process. Are you too serious? ARE YOU?
Oh and speaking of NOT serious, my funny Facebook play-pals came up with a bunch of new names for lipsticks. (caution: some are offensive...yet very funny).
Send me a friend request if we're not friends yet.
2. Exposing Yourself to an Empowering Attitude
Okay, so I watched this you-tube video several times because it DELIGHTED the heck out of me and because sometimes I procrastinate (just for empirical research). Later in the week, a $100 expense was was added to my monthly debit list and instead of going into stress and crankiness, I saw that face of the baby smiling. How sweet was that? I started using that smile for small moments of disappointment; our malleable minds can make switches like that and with practice we can begin to live an easier existence. Seems like a small, frivilous thing, but over-time our health and fulfillment can be impacted in significant ways.
3. Wearing a Different Thinking Cap:
What would your idea be like if you wore a hat that changed your default mode to one of:- Intense curiosity
- Expectant brilliance
- Being a big shot
- Thinking in tedious detail
- Operating in wild abandon
- Sublimating any anger, regret, or guilt you have constructively
- Imagining you are a great in your field and anything you DO is ingenious
Much of the persona of being creative comes from acting "as if" we are ... creative.
These devices make that shift easier:
- Brush negativity shot your way by others off your body as if brushing off lint.
- Take a walk and massage the earth with your feet to bring yourself into the present.
- Imagine a slide of a visual or new idea with each breath out as if your mind was a slide-show.
- Expect creativity to delight you.
01/09/2013
welcome
The following are pages from The Muse is IN: An Owner's Manual to Your Creativity that were used in a teleconference book-release party.
Here's how I cut down a four page Preface to one when my editor told my my book needed to be one third the size I intially sent in:
