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The New.

What will I do that’s new this month? This week?

In an attempt to someday be able to jam with Chris Thile (Probably not gonna happen), I started practicing mandolin this week. Every session I practice scales, new chords, simple songs, whatever I can do to familiarize myself with the the instrument. It’s a slow growth experience. I’m allowing myself some time to suck (because I do) but the experience has become less about being good and more about the act of doing something new and different.

Part of taking care of yourself creatively is breaking away from the norm. Doing something different. Introducing novel ideas (and a lot of them) is proven to be one of the contributing factors to Flow. Flow is the state of optimum performance for humans: The feeling of getting lost in your work. It happens to creatives, accountants, snowboarders, weightlifters… all across the board there is a commonality between us and this is the ability to get lost in our work. Flow.

By doing something new like reading a new book, practicing a new instrument or learning a new skill, we give our brain something to use to connect the old information in our brains to the new. This supplies us with new ideas because of the new connections we’ve made and that is the neurological definition of creativity. #science 😉

It doesn’t have to be groundbreaking. It doesn’t even have to be “creative” (i.e. drawing, writing, painting…) it just has to be new. Creativity’s biggest influencer is “The New.”

The New

Here are a few new things you can do this week:

Start a new show on Netflix (Breaking Bad #awesome, Friday Night Lights, The X-Files)
Read a new book (Fiction if you read mostly non-fiction, non-fiction if mostly fiction)
Pick up and intentionally practice an instrument (Don’t just play it. Practice. Look up tutorials or get a beginners book)
Work in a different place for the day (Collaborative workspace, coffee shop, park)
Go to a movie in the middle of the day

Whatever it is, just try to do something new this weekend and this month and see how/if it increases your creativity.

Happy Thursday, folks!

Question:

Have you ever experienced that feeling of getting lost in your work (Flow)?
What are some NEW things you’ve done that have made you ant to make stuff?

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