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.
-
A woman purchased a mynah
bird at an auction following some high-spirited bidding. “I assume this
bird can talk,” she said to the auctioneer. Finish this joke with at least
2 or 3 endings, then test them on people you know. The “traditional” answer
to this joke is at the bottom of this page. Don’t look at it until you
give your own creativity a chance.
-
Look around the room in which
you are seated. Notice everything that is white and in your imagination
paint them a different color. How would it feel to work in a room painted
these alternative colors?
-
Look at one of your e-mails.
What are three unusual improvements you could make in them?
-
List ten things people would
do differently if they never stopped growing.
-
Finish this sentence 20 times:
Some people only see the “bad” in the world because _________________.
Then choose your most personally pleasing answer.
-
What if people had a genuine
multitude of eye colors—more than just blue or brown? Each of these colors
represented something predictable about these people. Choose 8 colors,
and then indicate what that predictable thing would be.
-
Invent a new type of pen.
Describe the kind of “ink” it uses; how is it shaped; how big is it? Draw
it if you can.
Traditional answer
to this joke: “Talk!” exclaimed the man. “Who do you think has been bidding
against you for the past 15 minutes?”
Janelle Barlow, Author
Mind Flexors, I and II
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
#45
#46
#47
#48
#49
#50
#51
#52
#53
#54
#55
#56
#57
#58
#59
#60
| 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 |
