CREATIVE CAFFEINE

A dose of creativity stimulation

 to ignite fresh thinking

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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A curious case of the creeps

I generally don’t think about insects very much at all. I moan about mosquitos. I hate flies. I love butterflies and moths. Bees are my favourite. They rock. Paper mites give me the creeps. That’s about the extent of it.

Do you think about insects ? Are you curious about them?

I few months ago, I decided to cocoon my insect-related ignorance and apathy (defined "I don't know and I don't care") and to transform it through curiosity into wonder and delight. The impact was a fresh and hopeful perspective, newfound interest, and the widening of my world.

Do these outcomes  sound attractive to you?

Then read on, and by all means, please try this at home!


 

Before we get into my insect story, I want to make sure you're not thinking curiosity is just for astrophysicists or kids with lots of time on their hands. Here are three things you should know: 

1. Curiosity is a clear sign of intelligence

In 2011* a study was published in...
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How do I know if I have a creative mind?

Find out what makes up a creative mindset and take the assessment below

Don’t you just love a sharp, good quality pencil. There’s nothing like putting a sharpened pencil to paper and making your mark. I get a thrill from a clean page in a good quality notebook and quiet pocket of time to write or draw. Perhaps a blank page intimidates you? If so, here’s a trick: just start.

 At Creativity Wake-Up, we like to think of creativity as a prized pencil, used for writing your life’s story. At the tip of the pencil, the lead or writing element, is your creative mindset, skillset and toolset. The mindset is at the base because this is the foundation of your creativity. You build your creative skillset on the mindset that you are development. To your creative skillset, you add tools. But it all starts with the mindset. Without the creative mindset, the skills and tools will not get you very far!

 At the back of the pencil, you have an eraser. It is...

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When not letting go impacts your business

Last week I wrote about having to let go of our much-loved and well-used record collection and vinyl turntables. (The turntables went yesterday. Boohoo. See photo at the end of this post.) Since then, many of you have reached out to say that you are experiencing something similar, so the story seems to have have hit a chord.    

I’ve been digging deeper into the importance of letting go and I think you’ll be interested in my findings. It seems businesses have an even harder time letting go. I guess in business there is the multiplier effect of not just one, but many minds unwilling or unable to let go.

Is your business making the mistake of not letting go?

 Are you limiting creativity and innovation in your business by hanging on too tightly?

Here are three ways that not letting go can hold your business back from innovation and growth:

  1. Incapacitated learning
  2. Functional fixedness
  3. Sunk cost bias

1. Incapacitated learning

‘Incapacitated...

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Is Not Letting Go limiting your creativity?

My struggle with letting go

His words punch me in the pit of my stomach. A twisting dread. A panicky longing. “I’ve sold the first lot. The buyer will be here any minute,” he says.  

My husband has been talking about selling our turntables and records for a long time. Suddenly it is all happening. It’s real. The collection of vinyl we have built up in our twenties and the Technics decks we spent so many happy hours playing them on will soon be gone.

“It makes perfect sense,” my rational mind tells me. He’s moved onto digital mixing and can get all of the music from the cloud. I haven’t put much effort into learning how to use our CDJs (digital turntables) and hardly play anymore. The records weigh a ton and take up a lot of space. They hold a lot of value but were gathering dust.  

Yet, in LockDown, I had hauled them out again and had a spin. I got my groove back and rediscovered the joy of mixing music that you can...

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How do we help people unlock creativity?

A search that unearthed a surprise

“Arggghhh!” The farmer clenched his fists and cried out in frustration. He’d lost a hammer in his field and was wasting precious time looking for it. Not that the hammer itself was so precious but it was solid enough to do damage to his machinery should it be ridden over. When he rang up a friend with a metal detector, neither of them were aware of the turn the day would take.

The friend set off into the field and began to scan the ground. After some time, the alarm sounded and he started to dig, thinking that he had uncovered the hammer. Instead, he pulled up an ancient gold coin. Wha? More digging. More coins and some jewellery. Flummoxed and thrilled in equal measure, he called the farmer and they dug together. They could not believe their eyes. Could it true? Was this real? What they had unearthed was a true treasure trove!

This is the true story of farmer Peter Whatling and his friend Eric Lawes. In 1992 they found what is...

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