You can learn business lessons from yoga class.
You can glean relationship guidance from cartoons.
You can soak in self-improvement advice from nature.
Sound like a stretch?
You’re right. It is.
But that’s the cornerstone of creative thinking.
Turning your everyday routines into peak experiences.
This process involves three steps:
1. You freeze the experience, extracting its essence.
2. You reflect it back, applying it to your own life.
3. You identify the source, pinpointing its purpose.
Let’s look at each component in greater detail…
STEP 1: FREEZE THE EXPERIENCE
That means registering the moment. All this fodder, these experiences surrounding you that you perceive through your personal filter, you must be able to F-R-E-E-Z-E. That means you see something, take a Mental Polaroid of it and then clothespin it onto your psyche for further evaluation.
That means investigation. Slowly, as the experience freezes, you view it from all angles. You walk 360 degrees around it. With an Elliot Stabler-like thumb on your chin, you investigate it. Ask it questions. Poke it a little. Tease it apart and gently untangle its essence. Rip its clothes off, strip it of every outer layer until its naked truth plops down on that imaginary interrogation chair, staring at you.
That means grasping the essence in an instant. You boil your ideas down quickly. This immediate distilling process means getting a firm grasp on anything you pay attention to, right away. Being able to say, “Oh, so THAT’s what that was.”
During this step, you ask some basic questions:
o What fundamental principles might be at work here?
o Now, what is THAT communicating?
o So, what does that tell me?
o So, what idea(s) does this give me?
o What can I translate out of this?
o Does this represent some reality I can recognize?
REMEMBER: The more you notice about an experience; the more you can do with it.
STEP 2: REFLECT BACK
That means scanning. Finding interest in anything. Seeing yourself in anything. Studying ordinary things intently; then unfolding and revealing the things most people wouldn’t think to capture. Plugging whatever you perceive into the equations of your theory of the universe. Asking yourself how it relates to you, why it’s interesting and how it’s an example or symbol of something that’s important to you.
That means looking beyond what you see. Seeing something FIRST, then going beyond it by asking lots of questions. Not only figuring out what it has to do with you; but also discovering what other ideas are its long lost third cousins. Then having an idea reunion. This enables you to embrace the lesson(s) right away. Without waiting for someone to tell you. Without waiting for the inherent trueness to hit you a year later. Without having to look too deep or too long.
So, since you’ve already identified the fundamental principles at work within the experience, this next set of questions will help you apply those basic principles to your own reality:
o What does this have to do with my life?
o How can I use this to evolve and transform my life?
o How can I use what I’m experiencing right now to grow?
o How does this fit into my theory of the universe?
o How can I use this in my life?
o How might I adapt all or part of that process to what I do?
o How can I use this idea, principle or technique to achieve my goals or solve my problems?
o Is there a method of thinking or a metaphor implied that I could adapt to my own ideas, life or business?
o How can I use this situation as an opportunity to learn something about and change myself for the better?
REMEMBER: Identify concepts that allow you to “breed” other ideas from those concepts, also known as movement value. Expand, grow, cook, stretch and shift your experience, allowing it to spawn creative offspring.
STEP 3: IDENTIFY THE SOURCE
That means owning your experiences. OK. You’ve engaged in intelligent refelction upon this experience. You’ve participated in an ongoing dialogue with yourself. You’ve (hopefully) answered some of the questions, written about them, chronicling life, thus making the experience LESS fleeting. Great job. You slowly own what just happened to you.
That means allows anything or anyone to mentor you. In her inspiring book, The Mentor’s Spirit, Marsha Sinetar explains, “You’re a concept researcher, searching each current and particle of existence for truth.” This is the final step. This is what you’re doing right now.
So, since you’ve already frozen the experience and extracted the fundamentals; reflected back and applied it to your own life, the ending element is to uncover WHY this experience has transpired. As yourself these questions:
o What did God say to me through this message?
o What is the message that the universe is giving me?
o What is this a test of?
o Where can I use this?
o How can I allow this to mentor me?
o What action should I take as a result of this message?
REMEMBER: There are no little things. Everything matters and everybody is somebody’s somebody.
– – –
Every single day, your environment gives you small nudges.
And you have a choice to either to let them pass you by, or turn them into peak experiences.
Freeze the experience.
Reflect it back.
Identify the source.
Become an expert at learning from your experiences.
After all, opportunity never stops knocking – only YOU stop listening.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What’s your secret to learning from your experiences?
LET ME SUGGEST THIS…
For the list called, “49 Ways to become an Idea Powerhouse,” send an email to me, and I’ll send you the list for free!
* * * *
Scott Ginsberg
That Guy with the Nametag
[email protected]
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