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.
 

• Explain why the death penalty is both good and bad for society.
   
• You are in an airplane that is going through some very heavy turbulence. You are really scared. What are five things you can do to distract yourself?
   
• You have just won a 10 million dollar lottery. How would you think about yourself differently? Don’t answer the question what you would do with it. Consider how the money would change your self image.
   
• Do something on your computer today that is not ordinary for you. Be aware of how that makes you feel.
   
• Think of five alternative messages people could hear on the telephone while being kept on hold.
   
• Look at someone you think is physically unattractive, and fine ten things about them that is attractive.
     
• John Greenbrier is speaking to a group of 500 people when he suddenly burps. How can he humorously cover his social gaffe?
  

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. 
 

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