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.
Write three newspaper article titles that could be read two ways. They might
elicit a groan or laughter. For example, Icy conditions caused by bad weather.
The average person, according to research, has 52 hours of unfinished work
on their desks. Make up a list of five unfinished tasks that would surprise
you if you found them on your desk.
Make up a motto for yourself using the letters in the word “Model.”
Women’s shoe styles seem to circulate from high heels to low heels, chunky
toes to pointed toes. What is a possible different style that would break
all these normal variations?
You have been invited to deliver a speech about Diet Coke. You have to keep
an audience entertained about this product with five points you are going
to make.
Back list is a concept applied to the book industry. It’s books you have
written in the past and continue to sell even today. How could this concept
be applied to families?
What electrical appliances are not wireless now, but it would be very handy
and convenient if they were.
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:
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| 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
|
