CREATIVE CAFFEINE

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Tales from Dragon Slayers: How to apply creative thinking for results

The crumble of black seeds I hold in my palm are supposed to produce the best granadillas in the country. Large, juicy, and sweet with the perfect amount of tanginess. I’m eager to propagate my favourite fruit.

Yet, a year later, I have nothing.

So many seeds but no fruit. Not even a leafy vine.

Was I swindled by the kindly nursery worker at the garden centre?

No. The seeds were truly fantastic.

The problem is… I didn’t water my seeds.

Simple science.

Stuck in the same patterns of thinking and behaviour?

Not experiencing the growth you desire?

You may have a watering issue.

I can relate!

Like with my seeds, the desire for fruit is just wishful thinking unless I water my learning with action.

Learning new things but doing nothing about it is like putting seeds in a pot in your room and forgetting about them. The seeds may draw some water out of the soil, or perhaps someone else may water them, if you’re lucky. The most likely scenario is your seeds will dry...

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Five things we learned in 2023

Uncategorized Dec 11, 2023

It's not often that I set an intention for the year and stick to it.

By the third month, I'm usually marching off on a tangent and by the fifth month, I may even have forgotten that I had intentions in the first place.

This year was different. In early January, both Celia and I captured our aims for the year as part of a vision-boarding exercise with the lovely Isa Gesseau at IbiArt

 

 

The word that emerged for me was SOAR. When the word first popped into my head, I thought, "Lord let that word not be spelled sore."

Sadly, it has turned out to be a terribly painful year for many people, not least of which for the citizens of Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. Our hearts are indeed sore as we think of the terrible suffering so many people have endured and continue to endure.

Rather than causing us to give up on humanity, geopolitical warfare and our own unstable political climate in South Africa have spurred us on to work even harder. It's clear that the world needs...

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Joy: A natural force for creativity which you can cultivate every day

As the last whistle blew in the 2023 Rugby World Cup Final, South Africans everywhere erupted in jubilant celebrations.  Relief from the nail-biting championship flooded the nation and, despite the many challenges South African citizens face, the win reignited hope. The joyful mood has ignited 'possibility thinking' and people are filled with gratitude and courage in facing the country’s future. “If we can do this, what else can we achieve?!”

It is easy to find joy as winners of a major sporting event. What about finding joy in the daily grind of life? What about war and death? The Book of Joy by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu opens with these words by Tutu: “We are fragile creatures, and it is from this weakness, not despite it, that we discover the possibility of true joy... Discovering more joy does not, I’m sorry to say, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak… Yet, as we discover more joy, we...

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Blueprint for Thriving: Design Your Life Like an Architect

 “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

This probing question is not just for youngsters. In our Creative Thinking Workshops, we hear people in their 30s, 50s or even 70s ask themselves the same question. A sense of stuckness leaves a yearning for more responsibility, new scenery, a new role, a side hustle, or a different career altogether.

They are asking,

“How can I use my creative thinking to design a life where I can thrive at any age?”

I too asked myself this question several years ago as I contemplated a transition out of a long and fulfilling career as a professional architect. I had spent two and a half decades studying and practicing architecture. It had been a satisfying journey but I was ready for a change.

Could my training and experience in design thinking help me craft a new path? Can life can be approached like an architectural design problem?

The answer was a definitive 'yes.'

I found many of the practices and principles I learned as...

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Unleash Your Inner Fashionista: What Fashion Designers Can Teach Us About Creativity

Uncategorized Apr 21, 2023

Last week I stepped out of my comfort zone by attending a fashion show at the Norval Foundation Art Museum in Cape Town. I have never been a fashionista (sadly somewhat of the opposite!), but when I entered the show and drank in the atmosphere filled with anticipation and a sense of glamour, I felt swept up in the excitement. As the lights dimmed and the music began, the audience gave a collective gasp at the exquisite models sauntering down the runway wearing magnificent creations by South African designer Kat Van Duinen.

The experience was exhilarating and encouraged me to delve a little deeper into the world of fashion. Here are some of the fascinating characters that I “met” during my explorations and three lessons they teach us that will boost our creativity.

 

1. Be true to yourself

Designer Kat Van Duinen, whose stunning work we enjoyed at the fashion show, explains that when she started her career she often felt very self-conscious about the clothes she...

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How hurry kills creativity and what to do about it

creative practice Apr 05, 2023

When I first heard the title of the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, it immediately resonated with me. Perhaps it has already captivated you as well. This year I feel that I am moving a little too fast. How can it be April already? So much has happened so far this year and everyone I speak to seems to be operating like a person with their clothes on fire.

I think this gif captures the mood of the year so far very well.

A potential client said recently: "We just don’t have time to be creative."

I thought: "You don’t have time not to!"

Hurrying is a state of mind. It is that foreboding sense that your huge to-do list is towering over you, casting a cartoonish monster shadow over your day. Everything must be done quick, quick, quick. Even as you are doing a task, you are thinking about the next task to be done. As a big-city dweller, I pick up this same sense of urgency from the people around me. I imagine it is the same in most big cities.

Signs to look out...

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What you do Everyday Matters: How to Build Personal Creative Habits

Uncategorized Mar 29, 2023

If you want to direct your life on a path of continual positive change, then you need to tap into the most powerful force for change in the universe. Fortunately for you, that force is always with you, ready to lend a hand if you just ask. That force is time. Time is the force that magnifies those simple daily disciplines into massive success. There is a natural progression to success: plant, cultivate, harvest—and the central step, cultivate, can only happen over the long run.

Most of us don’t notice the impact of tiny things that we do every day. When it comes to change and growth, we want to see big, visible signs of improvement. We want to see our savings grow, our skills improve, or our race times shorten.  We can’t always perceive (and therefore don’t value) the tiny, daily signs of change. This is where bad habits creep in. It’s easy to do the bad habit. It seems insignificant. Whether I do it or not, I don’t see the impact straight...

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Embrace your weirdness

 

Theodor Seuss Geisel wanted to make reading fun. The children’s books of his time were mind-numbingly ordinary “Dick and Jane” type books. Dick and Jane were two sensible children who did predictable things and always obeyed the rules.

Geisel had other ideas for children’s books, weird ideas. He thought up strange characters doing odd things. He concocted unusual poetic meters and bizarre artwork.

In 1957 he wrote The Cat in the Hat under the name Dr. Seuss (pronounced ‘Zoyce’ like voice – yes, really). The book was rejected by several publishers for being too unconventional. His work was too weird! But when he eventually found a publisher, the book was an instant success. Children loved this strange cat who turns a cold, wet day into a day of fun and mischief. The Cat in the Hat is still one of my favourite books. It’s hard to believe that it was published in the 50s, it still feels so fresh and contemporary.

...

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3 Creative Ways to Beat Year-End Burnout

Uncategorized Nov 09, 2022

Ever feel like December is rushing up at you like a crazed reindeer with a firecracker in its antlers?

I will never get used to Christmas decorations appearing in shops literally the day after Halloween. One day your grocery shop is watched over by cobwebbed skeletons and menacing pumpkins and the next day you’ve got smiling Santas and rosy-cheeked elves beaming down at you from the rafters.

Meantime, your brain hasn’t quite accepted that September is over yet, and you have literally 4,358 things to before you take your year-end break. Which is now… next month. In addition to getting all this work done, you need to assist your kids with their exam preparation and/or attend a myriad of year-end activities, plus finish off all that admin that you really don’t want to drag into a new year.

Ironically, when you need your energy and focus the most, it can be at its lowest ebb. You’ve got your foot flat on the pedal, but your energy tank is blinking empty,...

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Carpe Diem and other creative lessons Dead Poets Society

creative lessons Oct 12, 2022

I recently rewatched the thought-provoking 1989 hit movie, Dead Poets Society.

Remember, that iconic film?  Robin Williams plays John Keating, an unconventional English teacher, who inspires his class of boys at an elite conservative school to be courageous freethinkers who seize the day.

While watching the film, it dawned on me how much it influenced my thinking. I can now see some of the fruit grown from the seeds of ideas planted all those decades ago. 

Take a trip down memory lane with me and be reminded of these powerful lessons from the memorable character, Mr Keating. (If you’ve not seen the film yet, what are you waiting for?)

Lesson 1: Strive to find your own voice

“You must strive to find your own voice because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are going to find it all.”

Like all creative thinkers, Mr Keating celebrates the diversity and uniqueness of each of his students. Right from the start he encourages...

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