4 simple tips to develop your creativity
by Paul McNeese

1. Ask the right questions. We all seem to have a pat set of questions about life. "Why?" seems to be a leader. But you know, it may not make any difference "why" something is, or happens.

The right question might be, "What REALLY happened?" And the WAY we ask questions -- the languaging -- is important. In other words, it's also important to ask questions in the right way. In fact, when you're tempted to ask "why," here's a possibly valuable substitute question. "What is it about ____ that ____. For instance, instead of asking, "Why did you move to Los Angeles?," ask, "What is it about Los Angeles that made you choose to move there?"

When you ask someone "Why?," that person sometimes may feel challenged, or negative. "Why did you move to Los Angeles?" might be perceived as questioning the wisdom of the decision. But if you ask, "What is it about Los Angeles that made you choose to move there?" there's no threat...no negativity. And when you ask this kind of question of yourself -- "What is it about this idea that appeals to me?" -- you'll find yourself opening up channels that wouldn't be available to you by wrestling with a "why" approach.

2. Ask your opposite. What I mean by this is, try a "contrarian approach" to whatever it is you're working on. If it's a business problem, seek out a vendor, a competitor or a customer to interview. You'll get specific perspectives and information you'd never come up with yourself. It's a way of playing devil's advocate that is much more reliable and comprehensive than trying to do it yourself.

3. Study something new each year. The most creative people I know are folks who seem to have an unquenchable need for new knowledge. And they also seem to study a lot of different things. What they tell me is that by learning about unfamiliar subjects they learn new ways of thinking and relating and associating. This gives them broader platforms for decision making.

4. Identify the real problem. After you've mulled over whatever is challenging you, be prepared to re-evaluate the first premise of what you're working on. Only after you've done all the creative work can you begin to see clearly where you're headed, and that's the time to ask yourself whether you're actually working on the right problem.

One of the world's major creative failures, I think, is that too many people fail to take that last, long look, to question the work already done, and to be willing to start over or keep on going, but this time in a new direction.

Well, these 4 tips to develop your creativity didn't take long to talk out, but it may take you a long time to master it. So please...start now.



Technique for Memorizing Numbers
by Kevin Jay North

We live in a society filled with numbers: social security numbers, dates, license plate numbers, prices, zip codes, etc. Yet without a special technique, numbers are very difficult to memorize because they are so hard to associate.

Our brains think with pictures, not with numbers. It's easier for us to visualize an elephant eating a ham sandwich than to picture the string of numbers $2,347.91. But what if we could mentally convert a number into a word, a word that represents a mental picture? It turns out that we can.

Suppose we assigned each of the digits 0 through 9 to a consonant. Then, when we want to remember a number, we convert the number into consonants, insert vowels, and form a word. This word can then be used to form an association much more readily, rather than trying to use the number itself.

As an example, suppose we want to remember that the Old Testament has 39 books, and suppose 3 and 9 translated into M and P, respectively. We could then insert the vowel A between the consonants to come up with the word "map". We would then visualize a huge map in front of us, with the Mediterranean Sea, Israel, Egypt, Mt. Sinai, etc.: a nice map of the Old Testament. Two weeks later we want to remember how many books were in the Old Testament. vWe recall that huge map with all the places on it. MAP... consonants are M and P... that's 3 and 9. 39! We did it! That's sort of a roundabout way of doing it, but it works, because of the associations.

So, you ask, how do I know that M is 3 and P is 9? The answer is that you must first memorize the following table of consonants and digits. Oh dear, you say. But wait... once this chart is memorized, it can be used for life! And second, there's even a scheme to associate the numbers with the letters!

   NUMBER   LETTER/SOUND   MEMORY AID
   1        t, d           t has one downstroke
   2        n              n has two downstrokes
   3        m              m has three downstrokes
   4        r              "four" ends with R
   5        l              Latin 50 = L
   6        j, sh, ch      J reversed looks like 6
   7        k, g (hard)    Visualize a K drawn with two 7s
   8        f, v           Cursive f has two loops like an 8
   9        p, b           P reversed looks like 9
   0        z, s           "zero" starts with Z