The Creative Mind

Artists, as well as entrepreneurs and other creative people, often use storyboards, journals, mindmapping and other idea tools for developing creative projects.

Maybe you kept a diary, or still do. Or use a notebook as a helpful tool for personal growth, and to track your thinking and inspiration. In one video here, en*theos CEO Brian Johnson comments, “I love using journals to capture my thoughts.” In another video, Lisa Sonora Beam talks about the power of visual journaling.

New edition of my Developing Creativity newsletter:

"Roadmap for the Holidays" program ;

"The M.A.P.P. free interview series" (9 exceptional women on motherhood, ambition, passion and purpose) ;

article: "Multi-Talented but Under-Challenged?" ;

book: "StrengthsFinder 2.0" - and more.

"Why instilling admiration for hard work rather than raw talent is the key to fostering a well-adjusted mind."

Stephen Grosz writes: "Nowadays, we lavish praise on our children. Praise, self-confidence and academic performance, it is commonly believed, rise and fall together. But current research suggests otherwise — over the past decade, a number of studies on self-esteem have come to the conclusion that praising a child as ‘clever’ may not help her at school.

"In fact, it might cause her to under-perform. Often a child will react to praise by quitting — why make a new drawing if you have already made ‘the best’? Or a child may simply repeat the same work — why draw something new, or in a new way, if the old way always gets applause?"

His book: The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves by Stephen Grosz. http://shrd.by/emTSPf

"As children, fear is a natural part of our lives, but as adults we view fear as a disease. It’s not a disease." - Psychologist Robert Maurer //

“Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness.” James Thurber  //

Ben Stiller stars in and directs a movie version of Thurber’s famous story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” and comments, “At a certain point, you want to be taking chances. That’s when you’re having the most vital experiences.”

"Are young Americans losing their creativity? Research in recent years has suggested just that, seeming to show that they're less creative now in decades past--despite the fact that intelligence, as measured by IQ tests, continues to rise. Now, though, researchers have discovered that the dynamics of creativity may not break down as simply as that."

Author David Burkus addresses many of the myths of creativity, which often get in the way of personal creative work, and business innovation.

"We say we want more creativity, but when we are presented with new ideas, we have a hard time recognizing their utility. This is something I see in almost all organizations.”

"It is in the movements of emotional crisis that human beings reveal themselves most accurately."

"While we refuse to organize the confusions within us we will never have an objective understanding of what is happening outside."

"Today a novelist’s preoccupation with inner psychological distortions does not stem from a morbid love of illness but from a knowledge that this is the theme of our new reality."