Mind Gym (30 page)

Try it yourself with these sets of words:

   
•   Wrench, dove, artichoke

   
•   Monkey, door, world atlas

Mental freewheeling, or generating random “could be” connections and ideas, is similar to the mind-set jazz musicians use when they perform solos. Stand-up comedians also use this tool a lot, because it provides for hilarious scenarios. In fact, this is the foundation of improv comedy. To be effective, you need to let your mind go on an adventure where you have an objective and a starting point but the destination remains unknown.

Free association is a bit like connecting apparently unrelated words (or films), except you have only one word to start with and no final destination in mind. You start with that one word and use it to generate ideas related to whatever you want to think about creatively (your objective). Because there isn’t a predetermined end point, you can let your mind explore in all sorts of different directions, and if you get stuck or bored, you can go back to the original word or stimulant and start over.

All this sounds great and creative, but how does it relate to your everyday life? Here is an example of using free association to help with a real challenge. A “spark” used in this instance is a random word.

One of your best friends runs a small local theatre. The plays are fantastic, but he’s not getting enough business and the company is facing closure. In desperation, your friend asks if you would set some time aside and help him come up with some original ideas to promote the theatre. Being the good friend you are, you agree (in return for two free tickets and a backstage pass).

You would first likely come up with traditional ideas, such as your friend appearing on television and radio, getting press coverage and reviews, and telling all his friends about it. But you decide to look at things in a different way, by using something from one of the plays to kick-start your thoughts. You pluck three numbers out of your head—127, 16, and 6—which will represent a page number, a line number, and a word number. You then turn to the script the cast is currently rehearsing and discover the corresponding word is “out.” That’s kind of a vague word, which might make this process seem difficult. But try connecting the word “out” to your objective. What does “out” remind you of, and how could that have anything to do with marketing the theatre? One thought is that “out” makes you think of exits, so you could stand by the exits of stadiums or other theatres and distribute flyers. What about “outside” or “out in the open”—why not have an open-air performance in order to generate interest? This gets you thinking of the U.S. Open golf tournament and maybe a competition at the end of a performance of the play in which audience members could win tickets to the event. Then, you might think of outpatients—maybe your friend’s theatre company could perform five-minute sketches in a local hospital waiting room, where people are bored and want to be entertained, and then hand out flyers afterward.

As you can see, you very quickly moved away from conventional to truly innovative ideas by free-associating from your original word. You also managed to remove your internal filters—any thoughts, concerns, or preconceptions that may hinder your creative thinking. At no point did you evaluate any of these thoughts or worry about whether they would be effective. You can evaluate them later. For now, you let your creative juices flow and came up with a fresh selection of new solutions.

There are a number of different triggers besides words that you can use to get your mind free-associating. Since we all associate with the world in different ways, you will find some triggers more helpful than others. The only way to discover which work best for you is to give them all a try. Here are some of them:

Noises can be a great stimulus for new ideas. While considering sound, however, it is best to avoid music, because you may already have mental connections to certain songs, music types, or bands. Ideally choose sounds that aren’t immediately recognizable. For each sound, listen to it, spend a minute writing down every idea that comes to mind, and then think about how the sound relates to your objective.

For example, let’s say your objective is to come up with a surprise present for your partner’s birthday, and the sound trigger makes you think of a train speeding along the tracks. Putting aside obvious thoughts you might have, such as tickets for a train ride, let your mind wander further. One idea you might come up with is a choo-choo train, which then reminds you of chewing food, which then makes you recall the caramels your partner loved from that fancy food store.

Using visual images can also help you break down your traditional patterns of thinking. If the image you choose to trigger your free association is slightly abstract, your mind will wander in many more directions. This is because the less specific and more abstract the trigger, the more likely you are to think conceptually, as well as practically, and come up with something original. Again, look at the image and, for one minute, write down as many ideas as you can, then sift through them for the most appropriate idea. You might also try playing music while looking; combining stimuli has been shown to help creative problem solving. Say there’s a crack in the sidewalk outside your home. It may not look like anything at first glance, but when you free-associate with the shape of the crack, ideas flood your mind. The shape almost resembles a triangle. The triangle reminds you of the album cover of Pink Floyd’s
The Dark Side of the Moon
. The moon reminds you of cheese, and you recall driving past the new wine and cheese shop downtown. What a great birthday treat.

This is a process of using letters to kick-start your ideas. Select a random handful of Scrabble tiles, or letters written on scraps of paper, and spread them out on a table in front of you. Then, rather than trying to form complete words, use the letters to make sounds or parts of words (for example, the letters might form the first or last portion of a word). Build on these to develop some ideas.

The letters
s, t
, and
a
could make you think of stamps, stamina, stacks, stands, stanza, and stampede. The letters
b, e
, and
e
could make you think of beer, beetles, beeping, and honey bees. The letters
g, n
, and
i
(reversed to
i, n, g
) could make you think of skiing, surfing, flirting, working, biking, drinking, and shopping.

Like sound and vision, objects can be used to help break patterns. They also have the advantage of adding a tactile (touch) dimension to creativity. Hold and feel the chosen object in your hands. Use simple things like rubber balls, paper clips, and sandwich bags.

Another sense you can draw on is your sense of smell. Choose a particular scent, be it eucalyptus, orange, or whatever, and think of not only ideas but also memories the scent evokes. This may lead you to a train of thought you hadn’t previously considered. Try smelling simple things, like celery, and complicated things, like whiskey. Close your eyes and let the aroma lead your mind.

If you get stuck or come to a standstill at any point during your free association, don’t worry. Try the same problem using a different word. Alternatively, use sounds, objects, or pictures. If you do use sounds, slightly abstract ones work best, because different people respond to them in very different ways. Remember, patience is also a virtue in creativity. If you think you are going to generate award-winning ideas every time you think creatively, you are going to be disappointed. And if you’re generating great ideas every time you think creatively, you’re probably not thinking creatively often enough.

When it comes to thinking creatively, you can have your cake and eat it too if you use the three tools in this chapter. One type of thinking doesn’t preclude the other; in fact, it can help it. One tool may give you very different results from another. Your best results will arrive when you combine everything into one massive creative exploration.

GIVE YOUR MIND A WORKOUT

1. Consider a goal or problem you are facing at the moment. Describe your objective as either a “how” question or a statement. For example, a question would be “How can we decorate our living room?” An objective would be “To generate ideas for decorating our living room.” Objectives become unhelpful if either they are too specific or they can be answered with a yes or a no (for example, “Should we decorate the living room?”).

2. What are the attributes of your objective? If you are considering what the attributes are for the objective of decorating the living room, “lawn chairs” would not be an attribute but an item within an attribute (furniture).

3. Select the best attributes—anything from the most interesting to what makes the most sense given your objective. (For your first try, probably start with three or four attributes.)

4. Brainstorm items within each attribute. Work through one attribute at a time, coming up with as many ideas as possible.

1. Choose another objective that you want to consider creatively. For example, “Ideas for throwing a great party” or “Easy ways to move to a new house.” Very complex, controversial, or overly simple objectives, such as “Finding ways to create world peace” or “How should I eat this carrot?” should probably be left alone, at least for now.

2. Write down some of your traditional ideas. Writing down some of these first gets them out of the way (and there may be an excellent idea in there), but it also gives you something to compare with later.

3. Now look at the problem again using some random input. Try to generate ideas that link the word to your objective.

4. See what you can come up with using random words (such as “bird,” “frying pan,” or “bounce”), random sounds (such as thunder or a car alarm), a picture from a magazine, or a random smell (such as cinnamon).

D
aydreaming and watching the world pass by are not normally considered the best methods of getting ahead in life. Nevertheless, one person who was often found staring into space was Albert Einstein. Yes, this was when he got his best ideas.

Many other great thinkers are at their most creative when they aren’t really “working” at all. Why is this? Because when you escape your conscious train of thought, you can tap into your unconscious mind. This chapter shows you how to do it. But be warned. Tapping into your subconscious isn’t for everyone. It’s risky. It may well feel uncomfortable. The outcome is uncertain, and for most of us, it’s definitely very different from how we normally go about thinking creatively.

But it’s also a fantastic way of generating new ideas and coming up with the sort of creative leaps you are unlikely to make if you stick with conscious thinking.

In his book
Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind
, cognitive psychologist Guy Claxton describes three different modes of thinking.
¹

The first mode is your wits—the almost instinctual part of your brain that is constantly aware, even when you’re not paying attention. Have you ever noticed how you are able to navigate a busy shopping center or airport without having to think about it? You adjust your stride, pace, and direction according to the movements of hundreds of people around you without thinking. Of course, the moment you start thinking about what you’re doing, you can’t seem to stop bumping into people. Wits are also responsible for jamming on the brakes if someone pulls out in front of you in a car. There’s no time to think and then react; you react first and then think afterward about what happened.

The second mode of thinking is your intelligent conscious. This is where you actively problem-solve. How can you get to work in the least amount of time? Where should you go on vacation? How do you organize the process of your current work project? The intelligent conscious is interested in solving the problem. It’s literal and explicit thinking—in which explaining and coming up with solutions are more important than simply observing. The intelligent conscious is where you spend most of your thinking time; it is what you have been trained to use in school and at work. In Guy Claxton’s book, he describes this type of thinking as the “hare-brain” mode. It’s quick, decisive, and focused.

The third form of thinking is your intelligent unconscious. The intelligent unconscious is more interested in the problem than necessarily finding a solution. It tends to be imaginative and playful—meandering around a particular topic or issue to get to an answer. Intelligent unconscious is more useful when you’re dealing with complicated or tough issues, in which attempting to solve the problem directly creates frustration and little else. This third mode of thinking Claxton calls the “tortoise mind.” Basically, this means that rather than hurrying to try to solve an issue, you mull it over and ruminate on it.

It is here, in the third mode, according to Claxton, that your most creative ideas occur.

Your education and work have trained you to execute the intelligent conscious mode very well. But the unconscious methods of problem solving are typically ignored. In school, you learned how to solve problems logically, whether it was figuring out a math question or completing a comprehension test. Speed and showing how you worked out a problem were appreciated. However, a more playful and meandering approach (in particular, daydreaming) was discouraged.

Imagine you told your colleagues at work that you were going to spend the day sitting under a tree in the park thinking, and you were going to take the whole team with you to do the same. Then imagine, when you got back to the office, you freely admitted that you didn’t come up with any useful ideas the whole day.