Karim Vaes

Children are naturally creative, playful & experimental
Most of us have lost these abilities when gowing up. We’ve put the creative aspect away for only artists to use. Yet everyone should be the artist in it’s own line of work.

You may say that there is nothing creative about working in a regular business. But do you think that if there was no creativity within a business, that it could become innovative or differentiate itself within a given sector?

Within the zen teaching one often speaks of the “beginner’s mind” (or child’s mind). One who approaches life with a beginner’s mind is fresh, enthusiastic and open to a wide range of ideas. When one does not know what’s possible, one will be open to exploration/discovery. Unburdened by your fixed views/habits/…, one will see things more clearly.

A beginner will be more inclined to say “why not?”, rather than “that’s not the way it’s done”. Open en receptive is something that we’ve lost over the years. We tend to only follow the swim lanes we’ve grown accustomed to.

Approaching a task with the beginner’s mind, you will not be afraid of being wrong. The fear of doing something “wrong” has been pushed down our throats too much. It’s always about being more efficient, but not about more effective (/creative)…? Making mistakes is not the same as being creative, but one is bound to fall a few times before find something new.

• The big lie : Don’t tell yourself “I am not creative”. Sure you won’t be the next Da Vinci, but he wasn’t too good in your field of expertise too!
• Be A Pirate : Arrrr!! Be careless, reckless! It’s important to be free, free like children are. You just need to be reminded from time to time.
• Do not force it : Slow down for once… Your creative mind will be energized during your idling times. Ever had that situation that you couldn’t pin down a certain task. You stepped away from it for a while, came back, and found it almost instantly. We’re obsessed with getting things done, but we should realize that our mind needs to be recharged too.
• Enthusiasm : Without enthusiasm, there is no creativity! Where would love, passion, imagination, spirit, … be without enthusiasm. Do what you love, love what you do!

Reference
Presentation Zen