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4 keys to creativity
by Paul McNeese
1. Be willing to bend. I always feel a little subversive when I
talk about this key. Why? Because you need to read a couple of
extra words into this phrase??¦the words are: "the rules." You see,
I'm not talking about bending to someone else's will or adopting
someone else's ideas. I'm talking about bending your rules! This
means, pay attention to whether your mind is locked in to a
pattern of behaving a certain way because you've been told that
this is the way it's done. You see, I was always told that the
rules are the rules because they work. What they didn't tell me
was that sooner or later, things change. What used to work just
fine may not work any more.
As soon as that becomes clear, creativity has an opening. What's
more, the old saying "If it works, don't fix it" can be a real
cop-out. Maybe -- just maybe -- it could work a little better if
it were creatively changed. Now, I don't believe the other
extreme -- "If it works, break it" - I don't accept that as an
option. But I do think that almost any rule can be re-written to
work better so as to fit a changing, dynamic environment, and
that's a real creative challenge. So question the rules. See if a
different approach, a different method, or a different attitude
might yield a different - and better -- outcome.
2. De-stress. Creativity and stress just don't fit together. You
can't expect your mind to work well when your body is stressed,
because they're both part of the same system -- the system called
YOU. So take care of stress. Spend time relaxing, meditating,
even daydreaming. This simple process can often be a direct route
to creative insight. And, since stress is often a consequence of
fear, there's a natural "fear" consequence when approaching
creativity because the creative process usually takes you outside
of your comfort zone. You need to be willing to??¦
3. Take chances -- to move outside of that comfort zone --
perhaps in small steps -- and be willing to fail or to make a
mistake; that is, to have no outcome at all, or an unsatisfactory
outcome. That's all part of the creative process. And here I'd
like to add that most successful people failed many times on the
way to their success. The minute you become willing to fail, you
become capable of real success.
4. See mistakes as lessons, not failures. This is particularly
interesting, because it's a creative act in itself to break out
of the notion that a mistake isn't a failure. I think that our
system of schooling builds this into us from a young age. Getting
it "RIGHT" is very important...our grades depend on it. So,
getting it "WRONG" is the same as "BEING BAD." Get off it. Look
at mistakes as object lessons about what doesn't work. Forget
about right and wrong.
12 Simple Exercises for Effective Reading
by Peter Shepherd
1. Point with your index finger or a pen to the words you are
reading. Try and move your finger faster, this will aid you in
establishing a smooth and rhythmical reading habit.
2. As you move your finger along the line that you are reading,
try and take in more than one word at a time.
3. When you have reached the limits of the previous exercise,
then take some light reading material and try to read more than
one line at the same time. Magazine articles are good for this
purpose because many magazines have narrow columns of about 5 or
6 words, and often the material is light reading.
4. Various patterns of visual guiding should be experimented
with. These include diagonal, curving, and straight-down-the-page
movements. Exercise your eye movements over the page, moving your
eyes on horizontal and vertical planes and diagonally from the
upper left of the page to the lower right and finally, from the
upper right to the lower left. Try to speed-up gradually day by
day. The purpose of this exercise is to train your eyes to
function more accurately and independently.
5. Practice reading as fast as you can for one minute, without
worrying about comprehension. Don't worry about your
comprehension.
6. For this exercise you are concerned primarily with speed,
although at the same time you are reading for as much
comprehension as possible. Reading should continue from the last
point reached. Do this for one minute and then calculate your
reading speed - call this your highest normal speed.
7. Practice reading (with comprehension) for one minute at
approximately 100 w.p.m. faster than your highest normal speed.
8. When you can do that, continue increasing your speed in
approximately 100 w.p.m. increments. If you calculate how many
words there are on an average line, then it is easy to convert
w.p.m. into lines per minute. E.g. if a line has 10 words and you
are reading at one line per second, then you are reading at
600 w.p.m.
9. Start from the beginning of a chapter and practice reading
three lines at a time, with a visual aid (such as a card) and at
a fast reading speed, for 5 minutes.
10. Read on from this point, aiming for comprehension at the
highest speed possible. Do this for five minutes, then calculate
and record your reading speed in w.p.m.
11. Take an easy book and start of the beginning of a chapter.
Skim for one minute using a visual guide at 4 seconds per page.
12. Return to the beginning of the chapter and practice reading
at your minimum speed for five minutes.
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