"Breaking Creativity Blocks"

"Breaking Creativity Blocks"
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Oh no! I'm blocked again. No ideas. I just sit and sit and no ideas come.

Where is my muse when I need him or her?

I have to have ideas and a basic proposal in 90 minutes and I feel stale, blank, and dry, like a void in space. No ideas are coming, especially creative ones.

This blocked, frustrated feeling often happens when we are under pressure. One process I find that is helpful is to Alphabetize Virtual Sources.

Simply take a sheet of paper and write down the left side of the page the letters a, b, c,...to z. Then think of the name of a famous/ infamous person whose name fits [i.e.: Abe Lincoln for A, Benjamin Franklin for B, and Donald Trump for T]. You can use first names or last names or a mix, It is up to you.

Then proceed to randomly pick a series of letters from a - z and write them down on separate cards or pieces of paper. Now look up the names that match on your list.

You may have chosen D, X, M, T, U and the names from your list were:

D - Walt Disney
X - Xavier Cougat
M - Mickey Mantle
T - Teddy Roosevelt
U - Ulysses. S. Grant

The next step is to imagine how each of these people might approach your challenge. Walt Disney might focus on amusement or entertainment while Xavier Cougat would orchestrate the problem using a large group of players and Mickey Mantle might swing for the homerun.
Often the ideas will appear far fetched at first. That is when you need to use your always available logically creative thinking skills. Take the "wild idea" and ask yourself: How might I alter this to make it more workable (using any appropriate criteria or limitation).

This process helps "break mindset," "shift paradigms," and forces me to explore approaches I might never consider otherwise, especially under the pressure of a time restraint. This method can be used in many different ways. Instead of famous people's names you could use: a) cartoon characters; b) characters from literature; c) Super Heroes (Steve Grossman developed this version); d) occupations; and e) animals.

The possibilities are endless. The key is to force your thoughts into a new pattern, to "Think out of the BOX", to "Break Your Crayons," change your mindset quickly, and effectively find creative directions even when your muse is off on vacation in Barbados. By breaking your mindset you will open your mind to many more potentially creative ideas.

Offered by "Alan" (Robert Alan Black, Ph.D., CSP) a practitioner and author in the field of creativity.

All the best,
Harry, Alan, Frank and Mary Ann