Mag:OH:Zine for Stuck People

Photo Credit: Richard Chicoine iCopyright 2009

As Always, An Alphabetical "A"
Welcome to IdeA-Z, your mag-guide to strategies and creative solutions, break throughs for mind-boggling crunches and -guaranteed - finding the funny when you're stuck.
Each TUESDAY - your highest LEVERAGE day of the week (when you're most productive and alert!), IdeA-Z will showcase ways to get unstuck and unbogged. Let's just say, if you stay with me through to Z, your creative genius will be living with your creative muse. Now THAT's a partnership!
A = Alert
Being Alert is so obvious, you might not even notice when you're not. We'll cover the flip side - the Alpha State - where being oblivious becomes the strategy.
You might think that you see everything around you, all the time. Truth be told, you don't. Perception plays a huge role in how your brain connects old information to new, and ping pongs unrelated info in your thought channels. Your brain runs on limited energy (a 40 kw lightbulb's worth), so it tries to save energy by discarding ideas and knowledge as quickly as possible. Conscious Alertness increases your ability to perceive the world around you. Your thinking energy is focussed.
"Limited perception" is the number one reason that your creativity falls flat. Dis-Alert, Un-Alert, Non-Alert, Alert-less...lights on, no-one home...
Here's an example: take a really close look at the photo in this blog. Stare at it for a while. Notice anything unusual?
Hundreds of students walk through this University's stupendous building regularly. Do they see the reflections created to enhance the structure by the architect? Most don't... because their minds are tuned into other channels of thought. They take advantage of the "Function" of the buidling and miss the beauty - the "Form" - as it was originally imagined in the designer's own mind's eye.
Here's your "Creativity" homework assignment for today:
Go for a 10 minute walk. Outside. Stop by a leafy tree or kneel down on the grass. Find a spot - a 2x2 square - to stare at. As you look deeper and deeper, tiny details will emerge - life in the veins and the blades. It doesn't appear immediately. Or, try this: sit on a sidewalk. When is the last time you stopped to stare at an ant carrying a gigantic load?
You can apply the same method to solving a problem.

• Go beyond the surface information;
• challenge your perceptions about what's going on, and stop defending your own point of view.
• Look for the solutions from other directions. (What if you were the ant - what load would you be carrying - where? why? for how long?).
• The Alert State of mind brings you into the "now", and as you know, that's all you have: right?

Kids are Alert naturally. They pay attention to everything, don't they? They question, instead of relying on what they perceive to be true.
Link your childhood curiosity to your adult Alertness, and you'll find that your perceptions will expand. Solutions become more obvious...
Become A-LERT - we need more lerts!
See you next week for "ALPHA States"!
- Maggie
PS: Last week's photo: Yes, a Diner! Congrats to our Hawaiian winner.