great opportunities for you. I know this language sounds a bit hippy, but it’s true. I believe that we manufacture our coincidences by being aware and in an open, receptive state. Follow the book, have some fun with it, and see what happens for you.
BY YOU
This book focuses mainly on giving you the skills to create inspiring opportunities that you can then make happen. To really break free of the norm and create something new and something different in your life you need a process or a system. It’s a bit like driving a car – you need to learn the process to know how to drive. After a while, you no longer need to think about the process of driving. It simply becomes second nature. It’s the same with learning how to be creative. First you learn the process and then, once it’s second nature, you can improvise, you can mess with it any way you want. It’s not fixed, it’s flexible. But it does have some good logic to it, so it is important that you follow it consciously a few times before coming up with your own version of the process.
THE BASIS OF CREATIVITY IS SIMPLE …
This is the process …
… but that ain’t enough!
It lets us know where we are going and what the output from each of the three stages – Insight, Ideas and Impact – should be …
We’ll explore each in turn and for each one I have included loads of tools and techniques to help you. These are exercises designed to stretch your thinking and your perspective so that you get a new angle into the possibilities that open up for you. The process will open the door to opportunities that you won’t have thought of before, and this will not fail to excite and energize you. The exercises might not be the kind of things that you usually get up to, but that just makes it more of a laugh.
Again, these exercises are not set in stone, nor are they exhaustive. I could have included hundreds of them, but I cut them down so you wouldn’t feel boggled. They are based on strong principles of creativity so try them a few times, and then if you wish you can adapt them or invent your own. If you come up with some blinders, send them to me and I’ll put them in the next edition. In 30 years I expect the latest edition to be weighty enough to be used for bicep curls.
So we know where we are going and what we are doing, but that still isn’t enough.
Let’s go back to that beautiful sailing boat again. So we now know how to leave the harbour, go out into the sea and sail. That’s the process. There are also a load of things to do under that process such as start the engine, untie her, motor out to open water, pull in the fenders, place her nose upwind and raise the mainsail. These are the exercises or ‘Doing the Do’.
But a good sailor doesn’t just know what to do, but how to do it. It becomes an instinctive and natural part of them. The way you approach any activity has a huge impact on how well you do it. We have all gone to parties because we felt obliged to go, but would have preferred to be somewhere else. The party could have Sinatra singing live, champagne shooting out of fountains and a never-ending stream of attractive guests to dance with, but if you are not in that mood, you will still be a miserable party goer and not good company at all. At other times when you are just in the right mood, a bag of crisps and a bottle of Vimto is enough to make the evening one to remember.
It’s the same with this book. There are a number of principles that you need to apply to make it work best for you.
THESE ARE ALL ABOUT ADDING YOUR MOJO!
That is, putting a bit more of the magic that is you into this adventure. I believe that these principles are more important than any process or fancy exercise. They are the key to unlocking your creative future, and one of them is to lark about, so start smiling! This is going to be fun.
‘To the proverb which says, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,”I would add the words, “and a road map.”’
Cecile M. Springer
HOW TO PLAY WITH THIS BOOK
This book is for you. But you can use it in many ways. You can use it on yourself, right now. I think you will learn more if you do. You can carry out all the exercises and scribble down the results in the book. Or if you want to keep this book all neat and shiny, get yourself a notebook just for the purpose. Every time you are asked a question in one of the exercises, write down what you think and feel. Let the journal build and be a foundation to the rest of your life. No scribbles means no fun, so let rip and fill it with stuff – any old stuff – because stuff makes you have different ideas. Stuff is stimulus and it helps break you free from difficult or stuck situations.
Creativity is about experimentation, trying things out. Some exercises may work fabulously for you and the issues or challenges you are working on, others may not. Play with the exercises, adapt them and make this book yours. There are no rules and no right and wrong. So please don’t just read this book. Engage with it by playing. Sail the boat.
If you follow the book’s flow and try out the exercises you will create fresh options and opportunities regardless of whether you have a particular area in your life where you want more choices, or you just fancy a good explore.
Once you have had a good play, practise the exercises some more. Practise on your life, practise with friends, help colleagues create freedom to choose new ways of living their lives.
Apply it to everyday issues, such as:
• How to run your time better
• How to spend less time travelling
• How always to keep up with what’s cutting edge
• How to improve your relationship with your boss
Or bigger stuff like:
• How to retire by 45
• How to become more famous than Persil
• How to be the person you want to be
The more you do this, the easier it becomes, the more it becomes part of you. An automatic fun process that will enrich your life and guarantee that you will always have options, you will always have inspiring possibilities. Bored, stuck, average are never words to worry about again. Your life is getting shiny already!
I guarantee that if you are stuck, if you don’t see dazzling results, it won’t be the process, it won’t be the excercise, it will be how you are engaging with it.
There are all sorts of creative processes in the world, but they all look pretty similar. There are some basic
