Excerpt from "Everyday Creativity"

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/everyday-creativity

You can simply get to know your personal problem-solving style—everybody shines at different stages of the process; understanding where you fit in gives you a big advantage. And perhaps most important is adjusting your overall attitude toward life—approach your experiences with an open mind and cultivate the belief that possibilities and solutions are always within reach, and you'll be equipped to handle any challenge with flair.

The first step to increasing your creativity quotient is believing you can. Even if no one has ever assigned the adjective "original" to anything you have ever done, you must acknowledge that you have inventive powers. Don't think about making something from nothing or exposing your deepest feelings—just acknowledge that you can solve problems better if you approach them with a different mind-set.

When psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied eminent people, he found that they held almost contradictory impulses and qualities within: a desire for solitude but also a need for social stimulation; superior knowledge on a subject but also a childlike naïveté. These qualities seemed to fuel their ability to come up with great ideas and their ability to execute them—quite a combination. Exploring the less-prominent parts of your personality could activate the same yin-yang nature found in creative geniuses. If you're usually a busy bee, slow down and explore your lazy side. If you're very girly, dress like a tomboy.

"People are convinced they need to become more disciplined, but when you are passionate, you don't need to cultivate discipline; it follows naturally."

Stumped? Get out the eraser board: Visual thinking can yield more initial ideas than written lists, says Markman. "It's often easier to sketch relationships between concepts than to describe them. You can use arrows and boxes to say things that would be difficult to put into words." And since many different areas of the brain are involved in vision, sketching essentially calls in more brainpower to fuel your abstract-thinking abilities.

Just because a solution is orthodox doesn't mean it's not excellent. Take one of the winning teams in Seelig's challenge to earn cash over a weekend with just $5 of seed money: The students were told to make as much as they could and to report back to the class on Monday in a quick presentation. A sharp observation of their college town yielded one team's plan to make reservations at popular restaurants and later sell them to hungry parties waiting in lines. The enterprise raked in $200. (And it's perfectly legal.)

One team generated much more—$650—by turning the problem inside out. "Their insight was that their most precious resource was their three-minute presentation time on Monday," Seelig reports. "They decided to sell it to a company that wanted to recruit the students in the class. The team created a three-minute 'commercial' for the company and showed it to the rest of the students during their allotted three minutes. They recognized that they had a fabulously valuable asset just waiting to be mined."

"Personal problems usually result from people having mismatched expectations of each other," says Robert Root-Bernstein. "Imagine yourself in the shoes of the person with whom you are having problems. Try to imagine why they respond to you the way they do. Look for patterns of behavior that solve or avoid the problem you are having. Playact the new behaviors in your mind, and try to select the best ones." The attitude shift alone, from "Oh God, we're fighting about this again?" to "What's a new way to handle this argument that keeps being replayed?," is in itself calming and therapeutic.

Creativity provides opportunities for self-actualization. "It makes you more resilient, more vividly in the moment, and, at the same time, more connected to the world," Richards says.


One Bright Day

Here are some tested tips for injecting powers ofinnovation into your routine.

Wake 'n' Write: Creativity guru Julia Cameron swears by free writing (no self-censoring) until you fill three pages. Get intrusive worries out and productive ideas flowing.

Relationship Shake-Up: Practice creative loving: If your partner annoys or upsets you, react the opposite way you usually do. You might be pleasantly surprised with the result.

Disrupt the Daily Grind: Jolt your brain out of automatic pilot by taking a new route to work.

Don't Compete, Collaborate: Team up with a coworker who has complementary skills: If you're a detail-oriented person, find a big-picture partner, or vice versa.

Daydream in Long Distance: Psychologically distant thoughts spur creativity. Think about designing a new product in Bali and your perceptual abilities will soar.

今晚的紐約很音樂

來到紐約,待在王希文家一整天
看他工作的紀律
我想 這就是所謂的passion

認識了茱利雅音樂學院畢業的Daphne
她的小提琴琴聲 好美

死亡

死亡 提醒我生命的短暫
短暫到我要快去做 我熱愛的事物
短暫到我要快去擁抱 我愛的人

Good words from HBR

From Harvard Business Review:
Why Business Leaders Should Act More like Artists
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/maeda/2009/12/why-business-leaders-should-ac.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-WEEKLY_HOTLIST-_-DEC_2009-_-HOTLIST1207


artists are much like the kind of geeks I grew up with at MIT — passionately focused on their work with little regard to their own physical or financial circumstance, and often more comfortable working as a lone constructor instead of as a collaborative player on a larger team. So when I observed RISD students exhibiting the classic "lone wolf" traits of this kind of "creative geek," my mental model was confirmed. But when I recently spoke with two RISD textile entrepreneurs in Chicago about this stereotype, my mind fortunately re-opened.

The three aha's I received from my conversation with partners Robert Segal and Alicia Rosauer were:

Artists constantly collaborate. The example given was the common occurrence of an exhibition with multiple artists showing together, or the so-called "group show." Even in the context of a solo show, the artist works with the gallery owner, the curator, the framers, the installers, the lighting person, the publicist to bring their vision to life. Every exhibition is a collaboration to the nth degree.
Artists are talented communicators. The whole point of a work of art is to communicate something — a thought, an idea, a feeling, a vision. More explicitly, the artist frequently gives a talk to explain the thought process behind the artwork. Engaging the audience in a meaningful, expansive dialogue is often critical to the exhibition's success.
Artists learn how to learn together. Perhaps the reason why artists collaborate and socialize so well is that they learn in the studio model — ten or more students in the same room for hours on end. Bonded together in a personal space of intimate self-expression, they come into their own through the familial ties of the studio setting. When interviewed recently about the differences in her education at Brown and at RISD, one student who is getting a dual degree from both institutions said, "At RISD there's a lot of learning from your peers. Brown (in the classes I've taken so far anyway) is about listening and note-taking in class."

It is the soul that matters

Focus on the character and image will automatically come after.
Concentrate on day-to-day discipline and success will come.

After reading Maria Sharapova's case, I realized that how little FAME plays and how strong character empowers.

最近兩天的random thoughts

Marketing yourself workshop
- start my career bank DNA: write down my stories to identify capabilities
- Functional resume: ex Understanding the right questions to ask, commercial outlook etc.

Today:
IR from operational level to strategic level
Email Serena for job-seeking opp.
What's my strength and weakness. Risk-seeking

PfizerWorks take-away:
1) Differentiate
2) Trust
3) Brand
4) Learn (Listening skills)
5) What's important to me in personal life?

如果明天是世界末日...

今晚的Mad Man到達最高潮
在美國和古巴即將開戰的不確定因素下
每個人都在尋找在last moment的位置
有些人找到自己最珍惜的東西-家庭
有些人對自己喜歡已久的人表白
有些人做出一輩子最瘋狂的決定,拋下一切

如果明天是世界末日
我會做出和今日同樣的決定嗎?
這真是個很好的check point!

我還是會選擇Leo, 一起度過last minute
我還是會選擇家人, 一起說著經歷過的美好
我還是會選擇我現在想要的工作- sales&marketing in art/advertising world
我還是會守著我跟龍幫,跟barcelona的Audrey, Yohei, Yohan, Christina一起開心的日子

嗯,這麼說起來, I am on the right track!

放鬆的專注

因為西恩生病
有了今晚的親子丼, 薑超多雞湯
以及靈性對談

聽完了西恩的經歷後
很奇妙地 我整個人經歷了久違的flow
認識了脈輪
認識了多年在身體裡流動的能量...

我相信 這一切的對話都是有原因的
我更相信 我來到Barcelona是為了遇見某些人, 找到某些人
我改變他們 他們改變我

實習日記

寫給IC的信 節錄
----------------------
現在我在魏導這邊 主要在企劃組幫忙
協助宣傳新電影的Blog (http://www.wretch.cc/blog/seediq1930)
企劃組組長是喻婷 她找了2個助理來幫他
而我就是support她的2個助理
平常企劃組不太跟劇組的人互動
我則是常常趁中午吃飯時找劇組的人亂聊
我覺得 魏導是個很有理想平易近人且很善良的人
因此他的團隊 人都很善良 願意分享他們的經驗 說故事給我聽

這個星期一 有機會和劇組的人到林口阿榮片廠試拍
除了充當演員外 幫忙大家搬東西喬服裝
也因此和莫那魯道的孫女 還有一位原住民藝術家 聊到他們在部落的生活
和同事們一起在大太陽下流汗 共同完成一件事情
中午捧著便當時 有機會和每個人互動聊天
是個很特別的經驗 我那天其實很開心 可以幫到他們 又不用待在辦公室盯電腦
我想 可以不斷做這種累死人曬太陽到中暑的事情(還只是試拍!) 一定是對這產業懷抱高度熱情的人才能堅持下去
我很敬佩!!!

前兩天碰到了小問題 我想我可能是太白目
也可能是搞不清楚狀況
比如說心想幫忙或提簡單的想法 會被打回來
ikea的贊助..流掉 (後來他們不找ikea了)
每周的企劃組工作會議 對我來說都是一種折磨
因為 我看到了主管和屬下互動的情形
雖然我不屬於誰管 但是每當看到他門的互動時 我都會忍不住幫下面的人多想想
然後胸口會有一股熱流 很想說些什麼 最後都忍住了(都快變成阿信了:p)

昨天坐公車回家時, 想通了
我是很幸運的
碰到很多人的幫忙 碰到好老闆 去念MBA 知道甚麼是work as a team
因為看到了這些 讓我知道怎麼樣去成為好的老闆 好的teammate
很多人其實是沒有這樣的機會去經歷這些

另一件想通的事是, 我想我在魏導那邊工作 就像你之前說的 可能有人不是很舒服
不過還好是很直接 真性情的 不是背後勾心鬥角 在江湖闖蕩的人還是爽快多了!
想通了這一點
我看到了我能做的 每天就開心上班
看到我的侷限 不能幫忙的地方就讓它過去
對我來說 是很寶貴的學習:-)

今天碰到志明哥 我和他自我介紹
除了不免俗例行地接招幾個 "為什麼要去西班牙念管理" 這類問題外
他和我提到了 曹興誠宣明智等人想要成立一個 文化創意產業創投基金
魏導現在名氣大 可能有與他們合作的機會
不知道細節如何 下次志明哥有時間我會再跟他多聊聊
如果這個創投基金可以募集成功 對台灣文創產業發展是個強心針

過了2個星期 我覺得 終究還是得回去屬於我的世界
總不能一直做助理的工作 影響力太"芝麻"了
對第二年的MBA生活 開始有了方向和期待啦
雖然你說對你不用禮貌 但我還是要謝謝你(之後我會多乾幾杯的!!!) 讓我來電影公司實習
碰到了很多真性情的夥伴們 也多認識了自己

For my dear Grandpa

2009年8月5日下午 爺爺悄悄地離開了
那是一個很平常的午後 一個很安靜的午睡
沒有病痛 沒有遺言 沒有掛念
我知道 爺爺很開心地 和奶奶約會去了

我們讓爺爺 穿上最帥的西裝 去見奶奶
我們讓爺爺 歌頌最美的佛經 去見奶奶
我們讓爺爺 帶著最多的祝福 去見奶奶

小時候 我最喜歡去住爺爺奶奶家
仗著自己是小孫子 爺爺奶奶總是會依著我 照顧我 讓我買喜歡的東西
我記得 每天早上 爺爺會問
“阿如子, 阿公帶妳去市場買東西好不好阿?”
我總是跟阿公手牽手
去花市買小盆栽 再繞去阿公最愛的古董店 東看西看......

每次回家 爺爺都會跟我說幾句日文
我想 說日文 會讓他想起小時候 想起和奶奶相識的歲月
每次離家 爺爺總是問我們什麼時候還會再回來
然後堅持一定要走到1樓大門口 和我們道別 看車子開得遠遠的才肯上樓

爺爺很早就在外打拼 那個年代的男人 總是把感情藏在心裡
對兒媳孫兒的情感 沒有像奶奶那樣地直接表達 但我總會在
爺爺給予爸爸叔伯襯杉, 給予媽媽嬸嬸珠寶鍊子, 給予兒孫玩具紅包 的表達裡
看到爺爺細膩的愛

某年爺爺生日 爸媽帶著合唱團的朋友們 為爺爺獻上一首歌
看著爺爺奶奶臉上的笑容和一點點不知所措的羞赧
我覺得 他們是全天下最可愛的couple :-)

去年離開台灣前 我跟爺爺說 我要去西班牙唸書了
爺爺跟我說 他知道西班牙喔 他曾經帶奶奶去過那兒 還去過歐洲其他國家
離家時 我擁抱了他 那是我長大後 第一次給他擁抱
那時的我並不知道 什麼時候還會再見到
愛吃甜食愛喝咖啡愛吃生魚片愛古董成癡的可愛爺爺

祝福爺爺和奶奶 在天堂約會愉快 有空來巴賽隆納度蜜月吧
這在我們這個年代很流行呢~

Love you,
阿如子
August 7, 2009

有智慧的話

"人喔......如果你有這種乞丐的行為, 別人就會一輩子把你當乞丐"

當魏導說著這句話時
我即使手腦在跟幾百張名片奮鬥 也忍不住抬起頭來看著他
這是我在果子電影這2個星期裡 聽到最有智慧的一句話

一娟上周末到蘭嶼 拜訪阿美族
希望可以從一些部落的長輩口中 多了解阿美族海上英雄的故事
她在訪問一位長輩後 長輩跟她說
"我還沒有吃飯, 你可不可以給我100元採訪費"

聽完這個故事後
我的想法是: 這樣跟別人討採訪費也太誇張了吧
而魏導給了幾秒的空白後, 說出了上述發人省思的感想

這讓我回想起宜家之前在她的個版提到

"同樣的一個人、同樣是舞蹈課，
有沒有自信心整個影響到上帝打多少燈給你"

自信, 關乎一個人看待自己的方式
我們怎樣看待自己 別人很自然地會以同樣的方式看待你
這是我從魏導身上 習得的重要課題