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This Month's
Mind Flexors
Mind Flexors are concise exercises to practice the six characteristics listed below. If you put on ice skates and
skate a little bit each day for the next year, you will definitely be better on
ice at year's end. Research and common sense tells us that regular flexing of
your creativity capacity will make it easier for you to be creative on
demand.
Mind Flexors are designed to be fun and to exercise your
mind. You don't have to do all of them to increase your creativity, but practice
never hurts! Some people who have attended TMI's Unbind Your Mind creativity
class share ideas across e-mail or do the exercises with colleagues or
family.
There are no correct answers to the Mind Flexors. Give
yourself permission to think of as unusual answers as possible.
- You are going to start a
new corporation called LIFE. What do those four letters stand
for?
- Imagine yourself swimming.
Complete this sentence 15 times:
Swimming feels
like_______________.
- As you walk around today,
choose common names of items that would also make good, but perhaps unusual,
names for people.
- List ten things you would
like your computer to do that it currently can’t do.
- If you could improve on
plastic, what would you suggest? Be somewhat constrained in your answers by the
reality of physics!
- What would be the
implications on daily patterns if the hair on our heads never changed once we
reached the age of 13? Imagine it stopping growing, thinning, or changing
color.
- Write a four line piece of
poetry about your television set.
You are free to use these Mind Flexors for your
personal use. With any publication or duplication in a document, electronic or
otherwise, full credit must be given to Janelle Barlow, TMI, and permission must
be obtained.
Unbind Your Mind - Six Characteristics
People who rank high in the following six characteristics tend to be more
creative:
 Fluency of ideas: The more creative you are, the
more ideas you can produce in a given time. If your brain can rapidly produce 30
ideas, it does not matter if most of them are of little value. You say that
one good idea is better than 30 bad or mediocre ideas, but it can take 30 ideas
to produce one good idea. Most people do not produce their best ideas until
their brain has sorted through some average ideas. It is almost as if the brain
needs to get warmed up in the same way athletes put their bodies through warm-up
periods before competition or training.
Withholding of judgment: If you delay your
judgments, you will get more high quality ideas when you are brainstorming. When
you judge, you are looking for what does not work or fit, rather than
possibilities. It is within possibilities that creativity sits.
Tolerance of ambiguity: Tolerance of ambiguity is
the ability to live in a universe where there are no right or wrong answers,
where ideas or thoughts are vague and yet unformed. There are two sides to this
ability: willingness to see both sides of the same coin, and willingness to stay
in the questioning phase before rushing to an answer.
Flexibility and imagination: Creativity demands
flexible thinking, almost a childlike attitude of wonderment. To be creative,
you must operate as if the world can be as you create it.
Concentration: This is the ability to stay focused
on a subject, even while you feel frustrated or bored. It is the ability to
ignore distractions while trying to solve problems or accomplish something.
Concentration and determination are critical aspects of creativity.
Preference for disorder: Creative people tend to
like disorder. This does not necessarily mean mess. One of the stereotypes of
creative people is that of the messy inventor or writer with piles of paper
everywhere. Mess has little to do with creativity. Disorder is something else.
Preference for disorder refers to asymmetry in design, nonlinear thinking, or
shaking up the normal order.
Previous "Mind Flexor"
selections:
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#7
#8
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#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
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#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
#25
#26
#27
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#29
#30
#31
#32
#33
#34
#35
#36
#37
#38
#39
#40
#41
#42
| TMI, USA has a complete book of 365 Mind
Flexors exercises available. It is authored by Janelle Barlow, Ph.D. and is
titled, Mind Flexors. We will
also publish here new (never before seen!) Mind Flexors--seven at a time each
month. We invite our readers to add their own creativity to this list, and we'll
credit you with your contribution. We'll also list your creative answers on this
page if you send them to us. |
Creativity Training
Program
Unbind Your Mind & Mind Flexors
Publications |
