“It was just one of those things . . .
Just one of those fabulous flings.
A trip to the moon on gossamer wings . . .
Just one of those things.”– Cole Porter
1. Look to nature for inspiration. Velcro was inspired by nature. The Swiss Georges de Mestral, inventor of Velcro, noticed how the sticky seed heads of burdock plants attached themselves to his pants and to his dog after walks in the woods. This observation led him to invent the product now called Velcro in 1948.
2. Follow Andy Warhol’s lead. Take a “known” image, and turn it into something new and fresh. Anything can serve as inspiration: old photos, pictures of the circus or a carnival, bathroom wall graffiti, a store display, and so on. Turn the mundane into something special.
3. Write a shitty first draft. Anne Lamott introduced the concept of “the shitty first draft” in her book, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
4. Collect stuff that catches your fancy. “Whether we call it collecting, scavenging, accumulating, scrounging, gathering or junking, it’s all about the urge to surround ourselves with our stuff, our loot, our stash, our hoard, our mother lode of treasures, and to read the inspiration that these sometimes inexplicably irresistible objects provide. Whether the collected objects are actually used in works of art or merely provide inspiration, the synchronicity between Artist and Object is undeniable.” — Lynne Perrella
5. Persevere. The Chinese bamboo tree will not sprout for the first five years after you plant it. You water and fertilize it for five whole years and nothing happens. Then sometime during the fifth year the Chinese bamboo tree sprouts and grows ninety feet in six days.
6. Be a tireless warrior for your project. Davy Rothbart – founder of “FOUND Magazine”–started a website, then a magazine, and now has a book that is a collection of notes, letters, photos, journals, and to-do lists that people have plucked up off the ground, found in alley ways, and picked off the floor of the subway. He advises that you have to be thick-skinned when, for example, someone in Cleveland won’t carry your magazine in their bookstore. His enterprise all started when someone mistakenly left the following note on his windshield:
“Mario, I fuc***g hate you. You said you had to work then whys your car HERE at HER place?? You’re a fuc***g LIAR. I hate you.
Amber
P.S. Page me later.”
7. Improve your visual thinking. Visual thinking is about using pictures to help you solve problems, think about complex issues and communicate more effectively. It takes you beyond the linear world of the written word, lists, and spreadsheets, and into the non-linear world of maps, sketches, symbols, and diagrams.
8. Reframe your mistakes. Edward de Bono suggests that there is a need for a positive word to describe ‘a fully justified venture which for reasons beyond your control did not succeed’. The available words such as ‘failure’ and ‘mistake’ are unfair and squelch creativity.
9. Think of new combinations of everyday objects. The Washing Machine/Toilet stores water after each washing cycle, which is then used to flush the toilet below it. In addition to its eco-friendly aspects, it is also a good space saver.
10. Break through writer’s block by writing the same sentence over and over again. Michael Mikalko, author of “Cracking Creativity”, “Thinkertoys”, and other great creativity books, uses a simple technique to get started when he has writer’s block. He simply sits down and writes, “O, lend me to some peaceful gloom,” over and over until his own thoughts and words come. Then he just keeps going.
(“Strawberry Drop 2.0″; courtesy of hermanau)
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