Creative people are often said to have an open mind. The rest of us often think we’re not capable of it. But we are — all we need to do is stop putting limitations on ourselves. If we settle on the first thing that comes to mind, we often miss the spark of the best idea we might ever have. It takes a bit of effort, but challenging ourselves to think, “How else could we…?” stretches our mind, and opens up space to think and do things differently. Often with meaningful and inspiring results.
Remember those brainstorming exercises back in school, like list as many ways as possible to use a paper clip? They were meant to get us thinking of many possibilities, opening our minds to other ways of doing things. It’s a useful skill for life.
If you’d like to learn new ways of doing things, take the first step: Talk to Fran.