Genius is 99 Percent Inspiration

The celebrated inventor Thomas Edison is well known for his statement: “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” While I believe that hard work is essential to a life of real success and fulfilment, I think that being filled with a deep sense of inspiration and commitment to making a difference in the world is an even more important attribute.

All of the great geniuses of the world were inspired and driven by their desire to enrich the lives of others. When you study their lives, you will discover that this desire became almost an obsession for most of them. It consumed them and occupied every cell of their minds. Edison was inspired to manifest the visions he saw on the picture screen of his imagination into reality. Jonas Salk, who discovered the polio vaccine, was inspired to help others from suffering from this dreaded affliction. And Marie Curie, the great Nobel Prize-winning scientist, was inspired to serve humanity through her discovery of radium. As Woodrow Wilson said, “You are not here to merely make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

How inspired are you in your own life? Do you jump out of bed on Monday mornings or do you simply lie there with a sense of emptiness flooding through your body? If your level of inspiration is lower than you know it should be, read a good self-help book or listen to a motivating audiocassette program. Attend a public lecture by someone you admire or spend a few hours studying the biography of one of your heroes. Start spending time with people who are passionate about what they are doing in their lives and dedicated to making the best out of life. With a healthy dose of inspiration, you will quickly raise your life to a whole new plane of living.

[From Life Lessons from the Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma]

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Creativity is an Expression of Mental Health

Vincent Ryan Ruggiero in his book The Art of Thinking writes that one common image of the creative person is reinforced by a number of low-budget horror films. That image depicts a wild-eyed mad scientist, shuffling nervously around a laboratory (pronounced lab-or-a-try in an ominous tone of voice), rubbing hands together evilly and drooling. Many people really believe the image: They view creative person and lunatic as near synonyms.  Vincent says that they are – wrong!

In the following passage, Harold H. Anderson summaries a leading psychological view concerning the relative sanity of creative people. (Endorsers include such respected thinkers as Erick Fromm, Rollo May, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, P.J. Guilford, and Ernest Hilgard).

“The consensus of these authors is that creativity is an expression of a mentally or psychologically healthy person, that creativity is associated with wholeness, unity, honesty, integrity, personal involvement, enthusiasm, high motivation, and action.

There is also agreement that neurosis either accompanies or causes a degraded quality of one’s creativity. For neurotic persons and persons with other forms of mental disease [who are, at the same time, creative] such assumptions as the following are offered: that these persons are creative in spite of their disease; that they are producing below the achievements they would show without the disease; that they are on the downgrade, or that they are pseudo creative, that is, they may have brilliant original ideas which, because of the neurosis, they do not communicate.”

In summary: Creativity is the expression of mental health. Rejoices!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Read Widely like Google Search, Read Purposefully like Playing Archery

“Reading remains an unsurpassed vehicle for

the transmission of interesting new ideas and perspectives”

(Steven Johnson, TED Talks)

During my school time, there were three things that I hate in the world most: English language, writing and reading. Now strangely as it sound (and thankfully), I love all of them. I figure it out that if I want to grow I must challenge myself, keep pushing and do what I initially hate doing because I know that it is worth my investment, energy and time. Each and every one of us has the potential to grow. It's just a matter of practice and doing it regularly. In this way, we train ourselves to be more useful and – creative.

So now I love reading. One of the ways you can be more creative is by reading on a very wide range of subjects. Not just any reading will do, though. Blog posts, short articles, magazines, websites, newspapers and the like are all a fun diversion and beneficial, but they simply won’t turn on your creative juices as effective as the way good selective books will. “The reading which counts,” said Leon Gutterman, “is the reading which, in making a man think, stirs and exercises and polishes the edge of his mind.”

Let me give you an advice: you can learn anything, but you can’t read everything. So pick your subjects with a sense of purpose. For example, one of my goals this year is to write a book on creativity, so I should stuff my brain more by focus reading on the subject of creativity, innovations, ideas, arts, inventions, history and biographies/autobiographies of creative minds. Of course, insights and inspirations may come from other sources too. That’s for sure. So read widely (like Google search) and read purposefully (like playing archery). Randomly and focus reading. Both. 

Here are why reading can boost your creativity: Reading will:

§  Stimulate, nourish and broaden your mind (stagnant thinking is dangerous)

§  Help you to think out of the box (look at the things from a different perspective)

§  Add knowledge that can be used to spark ideas

§  Develop your vocabulary (especially for creative writings)

§  Enhance concentration and discipline (focus, focus, focus)

§  Sharpen language and communication skills (boring people are generally non-readers)

§  Helps you to think and gain more ideas from others

§  Improve your imagination (better than watching movies!)

§  Release your stress level and help you to relax

§  Build self-esteem, positive thinking and confidence (except when you read ghost stories)

§  Put you in the range of highly effective people all over the world (most successful people are readers)

§  Ignite your passion to read more. Reading is fun once you get into the habit (Fun = creative state).

§  Reading books, especially, will change your life!

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” (Victor Hugo)

So, read widely like Google search and read purposefully like playing archery.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Characteristics of a Creative Person #5: Stay Flexible at All Times

“The creative person is flexible – he is able to change as the situation changes,

to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress.

He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are”

(Frank Goble)

New ideas sometimes need to change direction, shape, size and composition along their developmental path. None of that upsets the creative person. Although it’s more convenient for new ideas to work perfectly the moment they’re conceived, that rarely happens. A creative person will nurse a new idea along and make whatever investment in it that’s required.

Part of remaining flexible is the willingness to abandon an idea if it proves unworthy of further development. Forcing a square peg through a round hole for the sake of pride is not the kind of attitude you’ll find in a truly creative person. Creative people don’t think in terms of failure, but in terms of learning from every experience. To the creative person a failed idea represents knowledge gained.

Creative people stay flexible at all times

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

*I recommend you to read Danny Cox and John Hoover’s Seize the Day (Book-mart Press, 1994), “Step Two: Developing Strengths” page 77-118.