12 Rules for Life #12 Pat a Cat When You Encounter One on the Street (Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Set aside some time to talk and to think about the illness or other crisis and how it should be managed every day. Do not talk or think about it otherwise. If you do not limit its effect, you will become exhausted, and everything will spiral into the ground. This is not helpful. Conserve your strength. You’re in a war, not a battle, and a war is composed of many battles. You must stay functional through all of them. When worries associated with the crisis arise at other times, remind yourself that you will think them through, during the scheduled period”

(Jordan Peterson)

This final rule is mainly autobiographical and Peterson tells us about tragedy and pain. When tragic things are in front of us and we’re powerless, we must keep our eyes open for those little things that make life worthwhile. The title of this chapter inspired from the author’s experience of observing a local stray cat and watching it adapt to its surroundings in a harsh environment. “

When you feel that your life is crewed up there is a way to make it easier to handle until you make it back on your feet. That is to shorten your “temporal horizon.” Stop thinking about what’s going to happen in the next months. Think about what and how you can improve today’s day or maybe just the next hours. Shrink the time frame until you can eventually handle the rest of it and this is how you adjust to devastation. It’s very important to not give up even in the worst situations, even if you’re at a place you’d rather not be, always try to look for what’s meaningful and worthwhile. “When you are going for a walk and your head is spinning a cat will show up and if you pay attention to it then you will get a reminder for just fifteen seconds that the wonder of Being might make up for the ineradicable suffering that accompanies it,” wrote Peterson, “Pet a cat when you encounter one on the street.”

Keep Your Eyes on What’s Meaningful and Worthwhile.

How to Be Innovative #1 Take A Break from Information Overload

The day-to-day pressures of life mean that we often do not have time to ponder new ideas. Since the invention of the Gutenberg Printing Press, we have been producing more books and information than an average human being could ever read in their lifetime. The beauty, and irony, of Gutenberg’s invention was the ability to produce a mass amount of books at extremely low cost. This resulted in the unfamiliar dilemma of having a wide choice of books to read, and the beginning of what is now called information overload.

Today we have computers, iPhones, iPads, Kindles and Podcasts that feed us with gigabytes of information at even lower cost. We are bombarded with advertising, entertainment, news, music, WhatsApp messages, phone calls… the list goes on. Unfortunately, much of the information we receive is of little value. We are increasingly being driven by technology – we have to answer that e-mails, constantly check our messages during dinner, even in toilet. In 2016, Malaysians spent 4 hours 38 minutes on PC/tablet, 3 hours 37 minutes on smartphone, and 2 hours 9 minutes on internet TV (such as YouTube) per day. In one week, on average Malaysians spent 1,519 minutes or 25 hours 32 minutes on mobile phone online! 56% is using for social media apps and 43% is for watching videos online*.

                                                   

Facebook and WhatsApp are the main sources of information overload for young people especially. They can be useful tools for sharing information, but when taken to the extreme, they can become a colossal waste of time. While the printing press helped make books easily available, the Internet has caused an exponential growth in information. With this information overload, how can we think?

To function effectively, the brain needs time and space to process the tsunami of stimulus it receives. The first step is to evaluate your day. How much time do you spend responding, interacting and reacting to technology – be it e-mail, smartphone, TV or online game? You may be surprised at how much technology has come to rule your life. It’s time to re-evaluate how you live, decide what is important to you and re-establish control over your life. Technology is good, but let you the one who control it, not the other way round. Giving yourself time and space to think is fundamental to becoming more innovative and creative.  

Practical Suggestions:

§Give yourself sometime to think. Take an hour off and sit in the park or take a long walk and do nothing – you will be surprised at the ideas that come to you.

§  Set aside a day or half a day a week to switch off (or in Aeroplane mode) all electronic communication. This will be hard at first but keep at it. Use the time to do something you enjoy. Something physical is better.

§  Take time to delete junk mails and pictures received from WhatsApp that is not important to you.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

*Source: https://lavaprotocols.com/2016/03/14/mobile-malaysia-usage-infographic/)

How to Nurture Your Child to Be Creative #4 Don't Help Too Much

It is important to balance the need to teach with the need sometimes to step back and let children simply get on with what they are doing. There are times when they do need to be taught a technical skill so they can broaden their skills and try new things, for example, how to use safety scissors to cut paper. But the key crime of parents in stifling creativity is to step in and interfere when it is not necessary.

You might feel frustrated that your child can’t quite get the hang of painting in separate colours yet and insists on mixing all the paints into the same sludgy brown shade. But aside from the fact that is it their picture and not yours, they learn from mixing up those colours; that blue + yellow = green; green + red = brown, even if the end of the experimental splattering is the inevitable mossy brown smudge all over the page.

Children need to experiment. And sometimes when they do it ‘wrong,’ they come up with things that are surprising, delightful and truly inventive. Do you know? Chips, Frisbees and Post-It notes were created as the result of ‘mistakes.’ Sometimes getting things wrong can lead to brilliant inventions. So, don’t help your child too much.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Don't Rush, Savour Life

“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us and we see nothing but sand;

the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone”

(George Eliot)

The guiding axiom of modern life is that more is better. But we pay a heavy price for placing quantity above quality. Activities, no matter how potentially enjoyable they are, bring us no pleasure if we are constantly on the run, racing from one thing to the next. Even the most delicious food in the world can give me no enjoyment if I devour it as fast as I can. To be a good wine drinker, for example, I cannot sip the entire glass in one gulp; to fully enjoy the richness of the drink, I smell, I taste, I savour, I take my time. To become good at life, to enjoy the richness that life has to offer, I sometimes need to slow down, to take my time.

The first step to truly see the potential of my vocations and ministries, the richness in the world and the beauty in our life, to love and appreciate people around me, is to – slow down. Can you slow down just a little and, rather than rush through life, savour its treasures and gifts? (Life is hard you know, don’t make it harder. Speeding is not necessary winning. Slow down).

Don’t rush through life,
Savour life

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

2. In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed by C. Honore (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2005)

Paradox of Creative People: Atomic Bomb and Lazy Chair

“Creative people have a great deal of physical energy,

 but they’re also often quiet and at rest”

(Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, psychologist and author of Creativity)

Creative people are characterized by the fact that they have both abundant energy and a great need for relaxation. They are able to work hard and at long hours (sometime they forget to eat!). They also have a great focus and concentration on the subject they are engaging in. They have these invisible signage on their forehead: “Do not disturb”; “Man at work”; “I’m on fire!” Because of that kind of activities – thinking, working and focusing – they need massive energy. And where they get that huge amount of energy? From within. Like atomic bomb, a small seed of purpose mixed with passion they can produce extraordinary energy!

But on the other hand, they are also often quiet and at rest. My grandpa is a creative person. He is full of energy even though he is at his near eighties. His hobby, now become his career, is to make parang (a type of knife). He will wake up early in the morning, doing his craft until late afternoon with high energy level. And on the evening he would drink his beer or just smoke a cigarette, resting quietly enjoying the sunset or simply watching TV – and sometime fall asleep. Just like that. I often saw him sitting alone and just reflecting the day. Like sitting on a lazy chair, creative people also enjoy moments of idleness and lazy day.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Steve Jobs said "Creativity is Just Connecting Things"

Picture: Credits to Hugh MacLeod & Vitor Bellote  

“You cannot force creativity to happen—every creative person can attest to that.

But the essence of creativity is making connections and solving puzzles”

(Nancy C. Andreasen, Neuroscientist)

Creativity is connecting things. In other word, making connections where none existed before is what creativity is all about. The world is our field. Thus, there are practically unlimited possible connections that can be made. We are making connections all the time as part of our learning process. For example, a lot of things happen when I’m doing one thing and I’m not thinking about what my mind is doing. I’m either watching movie, I’m reading a book, eating my lunch and then – I make a connection. It may have nothing to do with what I am doing, but somehow or other I see something or hear something or do something, and it pops that connection together. People use to say, millions saw the apple fall, but Newton asked, ‘why?’

“Creativity is just connecting things,” Steve Jobs, late CEO of Apple told Wired magazine. “When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people… Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven’t had very diverse experiences. So they don’t have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem.”

Jobs told a story when he took calligraphy in college, a course with no practical applications to his life then. But after he came back later he used his knowledge and skills to added Macintoch, the first computer with beautiful typeface, fonts, and calligraphy. The dots were connected. Creativity is connecting things. Can be few years from now, can be months from now, can be in a minute later. So how to connect the dots? Here are my suggestions (at least, these are the things that I do myself):

§  Carry a notebook and keep track of everything – especially in the toilet (sometime I just write ideas on tissue!)

§  Read to add more knowledge. Logically, the more knowledge you have, the more connection you can make.

§  Play or try to experience more things in life. Most of the time, connections just happen when you least expected it.

§  Review the last sermons or scratch or whatever notes you had wrote before. Recalling and reminding are the best way to spark creative connections.

§  Try observation skill. Just look around you and try to make connections between things which may show similarity or maybe totally unrelated.

Don’t just stare the ceiling, make connections.

Don’t just read and play, make connections.

Don’t just eat and sleeping, make connections.

Maybe just relax, and there is a connection!

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Listen to Jason Mraz (or if You Prefer, Classical Music)

“When I sit down to write a song,

I really want the message of healing to thrive and transcend all ages”

(Jason Mraz)

Are you stuck of idea? Are you feeling overwhelmed and having a mental block? Do you feel the least bit creative? Then it’s time to get your creative juices flowing by listening to music. There are so many different things you can do such as take a walk, read a book or magazine, watch TV or movie, chat or talk to a friend. But let me focus on something that Albert Einstein loved to do – listen to music. When I read about Einstein I noticed that he listened to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Einstein have good taste of music after all.

The Mozart Effect by Howard Wright, author of 100 Great Innovation Ideas (Marshall Cavendish Business, 2012)

A Study conducted by a French researcher, Dr. Alfred A. Tomatis, and published in his 1991 book Pourquoi Mozart? found that listening to Mozart promoted healing and the development of the brain. Another study in 1993 by Shaw Rauscher, found that listening to Mozart helped with ‘spatial intelligence’ although it also showed that the enhancing effect of the music was only temporary. Although there are differing views on the benefits of classical and other types of music, the sheer act of sitting down and listening is enough to provide you with the time and space to think. If the music helps to stimulate ideas, it’s even better.

But probably you don’t like classical music. Listening to Mozart probably not you. I understand. At first I don’t like it either. Maybe you like to listen to rock music or traditional music or jazz or pop, whatever music that inspires and motivates you. Music has different effects on different people, so don’t think you have to cultivate a love for classical music just because I suggests you so. For me, Mozart is fine but I prefer Jason Mraz more. He wrote songs that have souls, great soothing voice, meaningful and heart-piercing lyrics. Mraz blend with his guitar so well that you can rely on the quality of his music either from studio recordings or live on stage. Most important of all, listen to Jason Mraz can be relaxing and therapeutic and help to clearing my mind of clutter. I can better concentrate and stimulate ideas (But I always end up sing along, whatever).

Listen to Mozart. Listen to Jason Mraz. Listen to music that will inspire you. Find your own music that suite you (btw, solitude is fine too). Find music that helps get you in that creative space, stick with it and listen to it over and over whenever you need to be in a creative frame of mind. This is important: Once you find the music that inspires and sparks your creativity, keep listening to it whenever you want ideas to flow. Say politely ‘Excuse me,’ grab that headphones and turn on the music!

Listen to music.
Listen to be in a creative frame of mind.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Take a Sit, Drink Starbuck Coffee and Observe People

Pic from: jolingyeoh.blogspot.com, thanks!

“One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that

no one else has bothered to look at. This simple process of focusing on things that are

normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity” (Edward de Bono)

Off day. After work. Free time. With a cup of hot Starbuck coffee or simply bring one from home. Find a place to sit. At the mall, food court, the street, football field, in front of the church with pen and paper. This one is fun – people watching can be very interesting! Try this: set aside some time to hang out alone at a nearby park (or anywhere public as I mention above) and observe those around you. Pay attention to how they walk and talk, what they're saying and wearing, and how they interact with others. This is fun.

As you observe them, begin to write down different details. Pay attention to your senses and write about things you see, hear, feel and smell. Don't spend too much time thinking hard, just write or take notice whatever comes to your mind. This practice can help you improve your observation skills. It also helps you learn to focus and be mindful of what's going on around you. When you practise this and begin to write it down or pay attention to what comes to your mind, you'll start using those creative thinking brain muscles that need to be exercised.

If you want to nurture your creativity, be mindful and observant. Too often we go through life missing many of the details, but if you make it a point to notice what’s happening around you, you’ll soon find many creative ways to use what you learn in your writing, artwork, or other creative endeavours. I practise and use this observation skill to help me to bring home the Bible lessons to my hearers by translating the ancient Scripture into daily life, to generate ideas for blogs and to improve my alertness of what’s around me (I can be so absorb in my own world sometime).

Do people watching with a cup of coffee or tea, whatever you prefer

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Take More Time Offline

“Oh, it's sunny outside. I better update my Facebook status

for all of my friends that don't have windows” (Unknown)

Most of life is offline. Eating food and watching movies. Sleeping and bathing. Drinking coffee and reading books. All these daily activities are crucial for developing our creativity. I’m not telling you to stop online but asking you to spend more significant time offline. For me, I don’t check Facebook and email all the time (with exceptions). I try to limit my Facebook and social media time to one hour or less per day, and check e-mail once or twice daily except on Sunday (sometime I simply don’t check for few days!). I know a lot of bosses demands that their employees check email all weekend, but thanks God my boss is cool (so far).

You see, if you take more time offline, you can have more time to do something else. You will have more time to read book or magazine, more space to interact with people personally, you can take a break and pause from the desire to always online, you can observe – nature and people – around you, smell the flower, more time to play and exercise, etc. All these are human way of getting more creative. I think Marilyn Monroe says it well, “Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever.” And – you will fail too, in relationship, business, project, games. Remember, human being makes mistake and failure, and failure is an essential aspect of creativity.

Take more time offline, be human again.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

The Art of Hearing Creatively

Average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling,

eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness,

inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking”

(Leonardo da Vinci)

We love to talk and are often too busy thinking about what we’re going to say next, or too desperate to get our own voices heard. We forget to stop and listen to what the other person is saying. Basically, in general, we lost the art of listening to God, to our inner voices, to one another, to nature and everything around us. We “listens without hearing.” Therefore, to unleash our creativity, we need to learn to listen and really hearing what’s being said, taking it in, paying attention and thinking about it. Ideas is all around us.

Wily W.Walnut, creative coach, writes, “If you can learn to really listen to the sounds of people's voices, the way in which they say things, you will deduce things that others miss.” In the same way, like people’s voices, if we listen carefully to the music that we adore, nature and sounds around us, we may hear things that people might often ignored. When we listen, we open doors for many ideas to flow. The practise of listening will gives birth to some potential avenues for ideas interaction and for the development of new ideas. Listening, I think, is the cornerstone of creative activity.

Do you know how I come out with ideas and motivations to write this blog? One of it is through listening. Literally, I listen to audiobooks or audio talks every day. I listen to music, stories, sermons, talks, seminars and conferences such as Talks at Google, TED Talks, The RSA, Big Think, Ideas at The House, etc. Sometime I simply ‘steals’ people’s ideas during conversations, modified it and come out with new and better ideas.  “I like to listen,” explained Ernest Hemingway, “I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” Maybe you can try these “hearing” exercises to increase your creativity. Remember, ideas is all around you.

§  First, detox your hearing! Turn off or go off from your gadgets and just breathe. Be silent. Refresh your ears every day.

§  Pause in the midst of your daily life and just listen. Just become aware of all the different sounds that you can hear. Sort through the sound and identify as many unique sounds as you can.

§  Really sit down with headphones and listen to your favourite audio lessons or songs. For example, if you hear a song, don't sing along. Just listen. Try to hear the sounds in the track as purely as possible. Let them be. Let them emerge as they wish to and you just follow along.

§  Expand your musical tastes. Varied your music genre. Try to enjoy Beethoven and Jason Mraz.

§  Go online. Download free audiobooks, sermons, and talks and plug your earphone. Listen and learn.

§  Buy yourself a cup of coffee or peanuts and listen to people talking and chatting. You can do this in the mall, public park, sidewalk or on the street. And if you dare, you may want to spark a conversation with strangers. Listen to what they say.

§  Go out into nature. Listen. Let it teach you.

Listen and really hearing. Idea is all around you.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How-To Generate Ideas #11: Be in a Conductive Environment

 

“We have very few inferior people in the world.

We have lots of inferior environments.

Try to enrich your environment” (Frank Lloyd Wright)

I wondered why I and my friends were more active, expressive and creative in the school football field or in the canteen or even behind the school corridors or during co-curricular activities than in the classroom. I know now. It’s the environment and the atmosphere that makes the difference (also partly because there was no teacher to control us).

Too serious and nonconductive environment can hinder creativity. Having fun during work or class however allows us to be more relaxed – and thus open our mind to get inspired with great ideas. A stressful or depressing environment doesn’t give us the mood to think of new ideas or doing thing differently.

Can we transfer the more relaxed atmosphere outdoors into the workplace or classroom? If can, then do it. If can’t, why not? In our office we have whiteboard to communicate, television to watch the latest news, DVD player for entertainment and video studies, boiler to make coffee, sofa to rest and take a nap, a set of carrom and playing card to play, a room to pray, a mini library for inspiration and reference, three floor stairs enough for exercise, fairly nice scenery outside office (or just look at the sky).

This kind of environment is healthy and natural. I don’t feel like I’m in the office, it feels like I’m in the playground. Good conductive environment and atmosphere gives birth to good ideas. “Try to enrich your environment.”

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How-To Generate Ideas #5: Create Your Quiet Space

The space probably not a practical idea for quiet space for most of us. Find your space near by.

“Ideas come when you have a great desire to find them” (RA)

It's hard to come up with great ideas when your mind is crowded with everyday thoughts and concerns. Always in the crowd and busying yourself with stuffs will soon jam your mind for great ideas. You need quiet space. It will help you clear your mind of daily business or ministry and stress. Maybe your room would be nice. Some even have their own home office. What about your house garden. In the car! Any place that is quiet and relaxing (for you), however small or large – you deserve a space.

Take your laptop, some notebooks, books, fragrance candle or a cactus, whatever that you find stimulating. Personally, a notebook, small-sized Bible, and Mozart symphonies (If in office, I placed Albert Einstein’s quote frame picture: “Imagination is more important than knowledge” on my table) – are essential for me. Decorate your own space. Whatever it takes, create your space. Find it or make it. Commit to one or at least two hours every week. I assured you, you’ll find new ideas flowing.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)