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.
 

• Design a visually appealing cover for a new magazine called, “On Time.”
• 
   
• Give yourself 90 seconds to write down as many adjectives as you can to describe yourself. 
• 
   
• Every building has a “grandzine.” What is its function? What does it look like? What would happen to the building if it didn’t have one?
• 
   
• Make a list of as many objects you can think of that would make good drawer handles.
• 
   
• Think about the people you know who perhaps aren’t doing so well in their careers, but you know they could do well at something else. What would that be? Do this for five people.
• 
   
• You are a band that plays slow jazz with tremendous heart. What is the name of your group?
• 
   
• A man runs into a tire shop and buys 30 used car tires. What is he going to use these tires for? Start your list and keep adding to it throughout the day.
• 
   

   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

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:
     #1
     #2
     #3
     #4
     #5
     #6
     #7
     #8
     #9
    #10
    #11
    #12
    #13
    #14
    #15
    #16
    #17
    #18
    #19
    #20
    #21
    #22
    #23
    #24
    #25
    #26
    #27
    #28
    #29
    #30
    #31
    #32
    #33
    #34
    #35
    #36
    #37
    #38
    #39
    #40
    #41
    #42
    #43
    #44

Creativity Training Program 

Unbind Your Mind & Mind Flexors Publications 

TMI US
8270 West Charleston Blvd.
Las Vegas, NV 89117

tel: 702 939-1800
fax: 702 939-1804
email: tmius@tmius.com

Copyright © 2005, TMI US