“To stimulate creativity, one must develop the childlike inclination for play and the childlike desire for recognition.” – Albert Einstein
Anything can be art: a simple doodle, a crumpled paper or one huge collage of junk. The best art though is intentional art, no matter the depth of beauty.
Intentional art is art that originates from a beautiful source, it is not something the is created and then made beautiful. Knowing me, I have to say that everything is beautiful, but what you already believe is beautiful is the best source of art.
What are 5 things you think are beautiful? Now, how can you turn them into art?
It’s a simple process to becoming an artist. After knowing the answers to those two questions, all that is required is action, a bit of your imagination and a touch of insanity.
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere” – Albert Einstein
Ground yourself so you can learn to be alone, inquisitive, have time to think, to use your imagination and to add to the flame of creativity.
Being alone is vitally important. It gives you the time to shut everything down, let your mind be free and for you to produce ideas and solutions that you would have never thought of before because you are constantly enabling an overload of information to transition into your mind. Day by day, the mind is twitchy, hyper and working too fast for too long. It is in this action that much of life, of creativity, of a purpose is lost.
I remember the couple of times I was grounded as a kid and the multiple times I grounded myself as an adult. I locked the door, laid on the floor and sometimes listened to light music, read a magazine or just sat there contemplating the world outside my room. I would also write. Other times, I would destroy things and try to put them back together. There were plenty of times I sat on top of my dresser, looked out the window and watched birds fly, watched clouds in the sky and questioned life. The more special times were when I thought of incredible life changing ideas – something that is guaranteed to happen once the mind is quiet. The most important lessons in life are the ones which are learned when alone, when one has a relaxed mind and can work out an understanding without any predescending variables.
It was during these periods of grounding that I would meditate. Not on purpose. Not based off of a video or internet advice on how to meditate. Meditation simply is, it’s not something that can be forced because in that very purpose, in that very goal, there is a working mind and a sense of strife to achieve. That is not meditation. The meditation I am speaking of is the one that does not seek calmness, relaxation or solitude. The one I speak of is that which will revitalize your energy, your motivation and resilience. The one which unlocks the treasure chest of creativity in your brain and releases it into all of you which then transfers to all that you touch. The one that makes art, art.
Stay Positive & Getting Grounded Doesn’t Seem Like A Threat Now Does It
The benefit of Daydreaming is that, if it’s done for an extensive period of time, it’s exhausting. Exhausting to the point that it ends up easier to live that dream rather than daydream about it. Try it.
Previous generations had it easy didn’t they? Much easier than us anyway.
They didn’t have electronics to take them to a new world. They didn’t have the ability to Google all the things they love, the items they didn’t have or even focus on working hard to get them. They had a simple life. Hard, yes. But simple.
Our generation and any hereafter can Google more and further than our imaginations could previously take us. We Google surreal images, pictures representative of predictive futuristic consumerism. We now Google thinking it will help, yet we do very little or nothing that blogs suggest, that articles advise, that pictures inspire, that the world needs. We waste our time Googling for two reasons.
1. We seek safety, security and the knowledge that “everything is alright”. The same reason, in fact, as why you check Twitter and Facebook 20 times a day to see that everything is okay, nothing serious has happened. We never think that maybe, if something serious were to happen, if our security was breached, if we felt unsafe, that we may just feel it and know? Do we really think Googling, checking News, Twitter feed and Facebook will really be the primary acknowledgment that we are in trouble? No.
(It does good to take a moment to realize that this process is what has put us in trouble)
2. Our imaginations have been released, but not far enough. We search and stretch our minds as far as the web will let us extend them and then we feel like we got there ourselves, accomplished. We feel that since we imagined it, that it is real, attainable and easily reached. The ability to see and understand that which would not be attainable without the web is creating a surge of jobs not filled, inventions not made, and ideas not created. It is as though whatever is on the web is as far as the mind can reach, but this is false.
What you can Google, discover on Twitter, view and share on Facebook can well be used as a bridge to a further discovery. They are not your destinations, they are someone else’s and this means that there is a calling upon you to take what you view and learn to improve it, make it better, and most importantly add your imagination to it.
Or you can simply avoid this roadblock and let your imagination run as wild as possible. Of course, by doing this you will only find out that you can actually go further than what is proposed on the web, what can be dreamt of, created and achieved by another.
Success is really what you call “Mastered Creativity”. What you will find below are some constructed writing challenges and exercises to push your creativity. They are formed in a way to apply practice to parts of writing (and thinking) you have rarely practiced before. The goal is to get your creative mind to push limits, stretch its imagination and to give it a game to play.
To have an open and expanded mind that is capable of using objects, sounds, movements, etc., and turn them into something solid and applicable is exactly what the most successful creators do. So why not start with the basics – Creative Writing. You might just realize that there are some life lessons to be learned from the writing exercises.
1. Newspaper Headline: I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of reading all the negativity in the newspaper. Old Zig Ziglar always said that the reason foreigners can come to America and become millionaires within a year is that they can’t read all the negativity in the newspaper. For this challenge, write your own headline article for the newspaper and share what you think is important enough for all to know. Lesson: Make sure the positive is what remains on the front page. Focus on the good, the happy, the love and remember to share it with everyone. Put all of the negativity in the obituary section.
2. Oddvertisement: You have seen great advertisements that may have even gotten you to buy something, but you have also seen terrible ads that feel like a continuous prod in the ribs. Advertisements are only fun when you see an advertisement for something odd. That’s why I call it an Oddvertisement. Open up your pantry or closet and dig for something in the far back that never gets used. Now it’s time to sell it. Write an oddvertisement that is creative and encouraging enough for someone to consider buying it. Lesson: Anyone can make a sale, but only the creative make a living off of it. There is always a different way to look at things, you just have to have the right mindset.
3. MadLib Promotion: While MadLibs are extremely fun. The joy can be even more fruitful when you are the one who created the MadLib for someone else to complete. Lesson: Challenge others by giving them the authority to choose what word goes in a certain spot.
4. Word Of The Day Stories: Dictionary.com has a Word of The Day every day. For a beginner writer, try freewriting and using the words from the last seven days. For a more expert writer, create a story using all of last months words. To take it a step further, you can even start your story by using the time and setting of the actual month that you are using the new words from. Lesson: Time really does go by quickly, yet it’s still possible to learn something new everyday and apply it to your life.
5. Improv Writing: Improv, Improv Character Building, Improv-ing Writing SkillsLesson: People-observation skills and the ability to make a correct judgement can be critical in some situations. In others, it’s necessary to keep an open mind about a person since truly, you don’t know where they come from, what they are thinking or where they want to go in life.
6. Who’s Quote Is It Anyway?: Have a list of famous quotes you absolutely love? Create a story that implements them word by word, as the theme, or by using your own derivative of the meaning. Give the quote an all new definition and background. Who knows, if you switch it up enough, you just might be quoted for it. Lesson:Emulating The Successful Through Quotes.
7. Poetry Walk Or Meditation. While walking and becoming aware of all that is around you, carry a journal and write down notes and ideas to create a poem from. Lesson: Living in the moment and remaining aware.
8. Connect-The-Sentences: Either pull random sentences from different books or use sentences you have recently heard someone say. Make three columns and in the first and third, write down the sentences that you gathered. The middle column is for you to write your own sentence that can connect the first and third sentences. The more challenging you want it, the more columns you can add, making every other column blank. Lesson: To achieve anything in life from where you are, you have to create a bridge. There is never skipping steps. You can’t just skip the middle column of this writing game or skip the work you need to do to get to where you want to be in life. It’s also great to realize that you can make the bridge as interesting and be as creative as possible.
9. Word Jump. While freewriting, start every sentence with the word that you blindly land your finger on in a book or newspaper. Lesson: You never know what’s going to pop up in your life to knock you off track. Are you creative enough to adapt and overcome?
10.Guest Post: Instead of getting a guest to write a blog post for you, you write it. Open up the post like you normally would on a subject of your choice (preferably controversial, but it doesn’t need to be). Then introduce your guest that will be writing a post on the subject (Create an alias for yourself). Now begin writing from a different perspective, as the guest blogger. Lesson: Getting different perspectives.
11.Word Play: Write a poem with word play… wait, weight, waste, waist, hole, whole. Lesson: Simply just fun!
12.I Write Dead People: Open up a newspaper to the Obituary section and write a story about how a person died. Lesson: Makes you happy to be alive doesn’t it? Life’s too short to not be creative.
13. Telephone Book Tale: Open to a random page of your yellow book, placing your finger on a part of the page and using what is written in that ad, put it in your story. Did your finger lie on a Muffler shop? Has there been a recent murder there? Was all that was left at the scene a piece of paper and the phone number which has been disconnected? Big yellow phone books don’t do any good unless you can write a story from them. Lesson: Nothing is ever as it seems.
14. Where Do You WANT To See Yourself In 5 Years?: Simple as that. Write every detail, every dream come true, every aspect of the life you want. Get crazy with it! So many people will ask you this throughout your life. Create an answer that will blow them away.
Stay Positive & Then Follow Through To Make That 5th Year Come True
“Change itself is neither good nor bad, but knowledge is always useful” says Christopher Paolini. What better knowledge to have than to know what you want from life? What you want today, tomorrow, a week from now, a month, a year, 20 years, 50 years, and the rest of your life.
I have about eight pages of goals, some scribbled on sticky notes, others on notepads, legal paper, college ruled, and printer paper. If I had better handwriting and artistic abilities, I would even make a poster board listing all my goals with pictures. There are times that I am more passionate about thinking of new goals than I am accomplishing them. Quite simply, I am fascinated with the concept of goals. Justifiably I have to make a post for New Years Resolutions.
Ever since I read “The Four-Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferriss, I continuously notice how cheap it really is to go on the vacations I want to go on. A one way ticket to Paris, an apartment, oil painting lessons, food, and a french language class for two weeks can cost less than 5,000 dollars. It may not seem cheap to you now, but I have to call you out on something… I know something you have done. It’s something I have done and everyone else in the world. You imagined winning the lottery…
Most of the time you win one million dollars. Do you realize that 10,000 dollars out of a million is 1% of your winnings? Now you’re going to have to trust my college education and a bit of deep common sense when I say that in your life time you will make an average of 2-6 million dollars (tax included). The point is, if you really wanted to take that two-week trip to Paris, you could VERY easily do it. Why is it in the “if I won the lottery” category. Put it on your New Life’s Resolutions list for 2012.
After I had written goals for today, 30 days, the year, five years I looked back at them and asked myself “where’s the fun?” All I wrote was about getting money, gaining more muscle mass, rising to success, publishing my book, finding a job I love, etc. Basically, the same goals as anyone else — to get what we want when we want it. Every page or two I may find a goal to take a trip somewhere but when I read it I even thought “Ha, only if I won the lottery”. I decided I needed an attitude adjustment so I challenged myself to write 110 goals..
110 goals without limitations, no false “reality”, and without the help of the lottery. Can we accept our fate for a moment, if you are reading this blog post, than I can guarantee you are going to be financially victorious. You are going to rise to success, earn a larger income than 6 digits and the job is going to be something you love. It’s who you are and who I am.. so why are we writing goals that we all know we will carry out?
I am going to admit, the first 20 goals I was skimping. It is as hard as you can imagine to think and write what you want out of life without any monetary boundaries. Nearing the half way mark it got even harder… I had to start detailing my goals like “go to a pepper tasting event in Chile and not get the runs”.
This year, forget writing new years resolutions on new years eve and start writing New Life’s Resolutions today.
I am more than happy to give you the 110 Life Goals Challenge. As I said before, everyone knows you are going to be a hit and happily make enough money to do whatever you want… so instead of making goals you know you will accomplish, go crazy and write Out-Of-The-Box Goals!
Jim McClearahew is not an average “Jim”. You can tell he is battling his nearly schizophrenic impulses. Or maybe he is just checking out the woman that decided to eat at Subway instead of McDonalds. For me, I have to question Jim’s motives as I retrace his line of sight back to him, I finally notice that he has a purse with him. Glancing back at the woman ordering at Subway, it’s quite clear that of all people, Jim would be the last to ever get a chance with that woman. Obviously the purse is not hers. I conclude that the purse in question, is actually a man-purse. This leads me to believe that Jim is in a deep philosophical analysis of his sexuality. It becomes clear to me that he is staring at the woman in an attempt to discover why he does not find her exceedingly attractive.
As I let him continue contemplating his life without the fear of him matching my gaze, I begin to observe his clothes and notice that his shirt is not buttoned on the top two buttons. He must be Italian. The shirt which has no Italian vibes to it must have been given to him by his recently deceased aunt who was Irish and lived in the suburbs of New York.
Continuing to observe him I notice that he is wearing Crocs. You are going to have to trust me that I would not make this up since you cannot see it in the picture. Despite my deep efforts to continue teaching you (the reader) a lesson, I can’t fathom looking at his Crocs a moment longer. I apologize if you are one who wears them, but don’t let that stop you from learning the lesson from this.
WOW
If you know anything about the show “Who’s Line Is It Anyway” than you know that it is all Improv — everything is made up on the spot. No rehearsing, no memorizing lines, purely provided to the audience the moment the idea enters the brain. Heres a definition of improv if you are sadly unfamiliar with this incredibly hilarious show.
Now you know about Improv and whether you realized it or not, you know how to use Improv to build characters. Whether you are in an improv group like me, or love to write (also like me), then being able to create characters for your skits and written works is extremely important. Let’s jump back to Jim.
I don’t know him if you didn’t catch that. I was just enjoying some Sbarro at the food court with my journal and while I was eating I picked out a person that was sitting alone. Did I do an alright job at building a short character background of him? Looking at the picture again, I have to point out that the little boy to his left in the red shirt is pointing and laughing at him for wearing crocs.
Next time you catch a snag in your writing or acting skills, go to a place similar to a food court where a lot of people go. It is best to go to a place that the majority of people are sitting down since you will have to study them for a little while. Bring a notebook and a pen and start creating background stories of people. You will quickly find that with enough practice you will start creating back ground stories for people as you walk down the street, or drive past someone in a car. I have always hated asking the question “I wonder what they do for a living”. Now I love asking myself the question, because I can always make up an answer.
Stay Positive and Focus On Improv-ment
Garth E. Beyer
LOOKING FOR A WINNER
I know you have what it takes, but does everyone else? Take a picture of someone in a similar setting like the one above and create a background story of them. Send it to me and I will choose the winner. The winner will get a full on creative writing/creative acting/creative life interview with me and have their submission posted with the interview on my blog and other social media outlets.
Guidelines:
No longer than one page long, double-spaced.
Refrain from using vulgar language, readers are confronted with enough conflict on a day-to-day basis
Shame on you if you use real names, unless of course their name is hilarious like Jacob Tinkletime.
Really enjoy it, this is supposed to be a fun and creative exercise. Do NOT make it complicated for write with forced effort.
This is an ongoing process, you can submit once each month. I will be choosing a new winner at the end of each month.
