Keep learning to stay inspired and innovative
Innovation and inspiration are not things that are easily created. Or are they? Do we put so much pressure to create, to always be happy, to be innovated every waking moment that we are too stressed out to be innovative? What if we pursue experiences, we learn something new each day, we put down our phones and lift up our heads and look around the world around us? Innovation happens when we put many experiences together and come up with something new. Inspiration can come from a subway ride, from a building we haven't seen, or a random conversation on the street. We can't have those random conversations if we never look up. When I say keep learning, I am not referring to going back to get your MBA or working toward your PHD but learning about a new part of town, or meeting a new person, or trying some food you have never had. Everything may not work out that way you plan, but stop planning, and experience life, in real life.
Innovation can happen anywhere
Don't think you need a quiet place, the perfect cup of coffee, and your favorite pen to be innovative. It requires new ideas and thoughts. That's it. New ideas often come on my walk to work (yes, I can walk to work now). Also, I wake up in the morning new ideas are born. I want to create my future, not wait for it. To be a writer, I have read books about being a writer, attended meetups about being a writer, and talked with other writers to learn about writing. Luckily, I ran across a book by Jeff Goins, You are a writer (so start acting like one). It is true if I have a pen/pencil and a pad, I am a writer. So now I write. I am a writer in Brooklyn. I can actually say that now. Am I innovative? Yes. Am I inspired? Daily. Of course, I am spoiled because I do live in Brooklyn and married to the best inspiration in the world. So stop searching on how to be innovative and BE innovative.
Learning gives you more resources
By continuing to learn something, your brain creates more connections to other experiences and that helps keep your mind sharp, growing and helps being inspired. When I was a kid, I had a pretty fun imagination, and I was lucky enough to have parents that allowed me to pursue all sorts of things, from basketball to swimming to ballet to Russian character dancing to acting to computers to... well, you get the point. That seemed like a lot but I didn't like everything, ask my mom, I HATED swimming when I started, and then in High School I lettered in swimming. Go figure. I learn more from kids perspective than adults trained perspective. Kids are crazy creative. I teach and love it because when I think I have the answer to any question that may come, the students ask something I have never heard, "Can you create holograms in a web browser?". As of now, and what we define what a web browser is, the answer is no. But what happens when a browser becomes part of augmented reality and then the answer is yes?
So now what?
I love reading articles with all this inspirational words with nothing that I can actually do. Motivational speakers often do that a lot. They have energy, they have charisma, and they convince you can do anything... but what do you want to do now? I want to help you specifically. Here are some simple things that will get your mind going immediately.
- Write a summary of your past year (at least one page) Actually WRITE don't type it out. Pen/Paper.
- Learn how to fold an origami crane
- Draw a picture of yourself and show your friends.
- Talk for 3 minutes about a random topic (Here is a site that will give you topics: http://www.ratespeeches.com/t=Impromptu-Topics )
- Go for a 10 minute walk in any direction (that should be 20 minutes round trip)
- And document what you see WHEN you get back
- Don't look at your phone the entire walk
That is enough to get you started. Let me know how you feel after this experiment. I think I am going to have some more experiments. It makes me happy to write. So I write. :-)
Thanks for stopping by!