REACH FOR IDEAS
The creative person realizes that his mind is an inexhaustible
storehouse. It can provide anything he earnestly
wants in life. But in order to draw from this storehouse, he
must constantly augment its stock of information, thoughts,
and wisdom. He reaches out for ideas. He respects the mind
of others — gives credit to their mental abilities. Everyone
has ideas — they're free — and many of them are excellent.
By first listening to ideas and then thinking them through
before judging them, the creative person avoids prejudice
and close-mindedness. This is the way he maintains a creative
"climate" around himself.
Ideas are like slippery fish. They seem to have a peculiar
knack of getting away from us. Because of this, the creative
person always has a pad and a pencil handy. When he gets
an idea, he writes it down. He knows that many people have
found their whole lives changed by a single great thought.
By capturing ideas immediately, he doesn't risk forgetting
them. [Note: a great way to save ideas easily is to Text-
Message them from your cell phone to your main email
account. You are rarely without your cell phone, and this
allows you to record your idea for later review and action.]
Having a sincere interest in people, our creative person
listens carefully when someone else is talking. He's intensely
observant, absorbing everything he sees and hears. He
behaves as if everyone he meets wears a sign that reads,
"My ideas and interest may offer the hidden key to your
next success." Thus, he makes it a point always to talk with
other people's interest in mind. And it pays off in a flood of
new ideas and information that would otherwise be lost to
him forever.
Widening his circle of friends and broadening his base of
knowledge are two more very effective techniques of the
creative person.
ANTICIPATE ACHIEVEMENT
The creative person anticipates achievement. She expects
to win. And the above-average production engendered by
this kind of attitude affects those around her in a positive
way. She's a plus-factor for all who know her.
Problems are challenges to creative minds. Without problems,
there would be little reason to think at all. She knows
it's a waste of time merely to worry about problems, so she
wisely invests the same time and energy in solving problems.
When the creative person gets an idea, she puts it through
a series of steps designed to improve it. She thinks in new
directions. She builds big ideas from little ones and new
ideas from old ones: associating ideas, combining them,
adapting, substituting, magnifying, minifying, rearranging
and reversing ideas.
BE CREATIVE FOR YOURSELF
Creative and productive people are not creative and productive
for the benefit of others. It's because they're driven
by the need to be creative and productive. They'd be creative
and productive if they lived on a deserted island with
no one benefiting or even aware of what they were doing.
They experience the joy of producing something. That others
benefit from it is fine, but only secondary.
This is a story of the painters who were before their
time. Renoir was laughed at and rejected not only by the
public but by his own fellow artists, yet he went right on
painting. Even Manet said to Monet, "Renoir has no talent
at all. You who are his friend should tell him kindly to
give up painting."
A group of artists who were rejected by the establishment
of their time formed their own association in self-defense.
Do you know who was in that group? They were Degas,
Pissaro, Monet, Cezanne, and Renoir. Five of the greatest
artists of all time, all doing what they believed in, in the
face of total rejection.
Renoir, in his later life, suffered terribly from rheumatism,
especially in his hands. He lived in constant pain. And
when Matisse visited the aging painter, he saw that every
stroke was causing renewed pain, and he asked, "Why do
you still have to work? Why continue to torture yourself?"
And then Renoir answered, "The pain passes, but the pleasure,
the creation of beauty, remains." One day when he was
78, finally quite famous and successful, he remarked, "I'm
still making progress." The next day he died.
This is the mark of the creative person ... still making
progress, still learning, still producing as long as he or she
lives, despite pain or problems of all kinds. Not producing
for the joy or satisfaction of others, but because he must.
Because it brings pleasure and satisfaction.
Learn more about Earl Nightingale and his all-time
bestselling programs The Strangest Secret and Lead the
Field.