Connected

Is it time for us to go back to being kids?  Not caring what others think, just going with the flow and living life freely.

Have you noticed that your brain sometimes gets in the way when trying to be creative? You may say to yourself, “What will people think”, “What will people say”, “That isn’t a good idea”, “Nobody will like that idea”, etc.  How do those words affect your creativity? Does it allow creativity to flow through you, or does it limit your ability to expand and think of other ideas?

Let’s turn back time and go back to when we were kids for a minute. While playing with blocks or Barbie’s or even playing outside in the dirt. Do you ever remember catching yourself saying, “What will my friends think?” What about, “My Mother will be mad if I put dirt on my shoes so I’m not going to bury my feet in the dirt”?  Did you ever say or think, “My sibling is going to think I’m dumb if I put this bigger than life person on top of this small structure of blocks”? 

Would you say a child’s thoughts are free of judgement?  What about as an adult, do you feel you’re free of judgement? So, when does judgement come into play? 

What if your child is playing with Lego’s and they built this small structure and wanted to put this heavy larger car on top of the smaller structure they built. You knew their heart would be broken when the structure fell from the weight. Let’s say you told the child, “Don’t put the car on the structure as it will fall and that will make you sad”. What if the child added in some reinforcement to the base of the structure that would hold up the car, but you couldn’t see it?  What if they placed the car on top and it did fall? What if then the kid creatively designed a similar structure that was even better and stronger that would hold up the heavier object?  Do you think they would learn anything from it falling or being strong enough to hold the car? What if…..?

What happens when you say those two simple words….What if? 

How many times have the words; you can’t…., I’ll be laughed at….., etc. ran through your head?

In the architectural industry, there are many guidelines and restrictions we deal with. One of them is time. What if time didn’t matter?  What if the Architect or designer were given the opportunity to be a kid and didn’t have the word time looming over their head.  What kind of output would you get?  What if the designer picked up a Lego set and designed the entire building out of Legos? Then within those movements, that creation, something was realized, and the building would function better if they turned it 45 degrees on the site.  Maybe the Architect even mocked up the sun angle with a flashlight.  What if by doing all that the building could save the developer millions of dollars, but the designer may not have discovered it because they were using Rino, Revit, or another program.  What if….

One way my firm has helped people get out of their head is with this exercise. We gather around a table, and someone will print out multiple copies of a building or interior space. Everyone at the table gets a printout, along with flimsy/trash paper (it’s a thin piece of paper that you can see through and draw on) which is placed over the image.  The timer is set to 30 seconds or a minute. We pick up our favorite drawing tool and start recreating the building or interior using the general form/shape of the image that’s below, which of course the person can deviate from if they want.  Each person decides what kind of additions or adjustments they want to make by sketching them out.  Once the timer goes off, we pass our sketch to the next person.  This goes on until your first sketch is back in front of you.  The time goes so fast that you have a hard time hearing the restrictive words in your head, but it can be challenging as the brain is persistent. The idea is to go with the flow and just create without holding yourself back from whatever comes to mind.

What if you didn’t put any limit on yourself like when you were a kid? What would or could the results be? Could the discovery be even better?

We are all creative beings, and yes even you! You don’t have to be in the creative industry to be a creative individual. There are people like Architects and designers that can come up with amazing spaces that we live in or experience, as well as many others in creative industries. That doesn’t mean they all create in the same way. You may be a teacher that is creative in how they teach their kids in their classroom. There are people in the financial business that are creative in their approach while working with their clients, or a truck driver figuring out the best way to stack items in their trailer. We are all creative in our own unique way.

Do you see yourself as a creator and expressing yourself to your full potential, or are you limiting yourself or others?

I’ll end this with one last question…..So if creativity is a part of every single person, would you say it’s an important part of us being human?