Six Words for April 17, 2008

Creative Action. Creative Action. Creative Action.

On television, creativity, and adventure

I was watching the debate between Obama and Clinton tonight and saw ads for upcoming television episodes: "This Thursday on Grey's Anatomy..." followed by references to past and upcoming fictional drama.

So many people are invested in these shows. They wait for the writers to dictate their emotions, to dream up their adventures and script their happy endings. When such passion awaits your passivity at the end of the day, it's much easier to live the life of the American consumer.

But what if we turned off the TV? What if we had to create our own stories? What if the only drama and comedy and adventure that we felt were for real, created and pursued by us, in the real world around us? What if sitting on the couch was the least interesting part of our day?

Oh what a world it would be. And I'd like to build it. I'm not very good yet at creating adventure, at coming up with the situations that we need for fulfillment, that will replace TV. But I know some people who are. Let's make that happen. Let's create our own lives. Let's live adventurously. Let's be the show. And let's invite everyone to join the cast.

Sometimes when opportunity knocks it leaves a flaming bag of... well, you know

Have you ever wondered how some people consistently come up with great ideas? I think it's this: They allow themselves to consider more opportunities than the rest of us.

Ideas are opportunities - they are something to be believed and acted upon, or not. Let me give an example: One idea that I just came up with right now is claiming that I own a passing comet and selling its mineral rights to a greedy despot. Is it a good idea? Probably not. But it is an opportunity. I can do it, or not.

Ideas are just cleverly arranged strings of facts. And most facts, when strung together, are not coherent. So most ideas will not be great. And since ideas are opportunities, many opportunities are not to be taken. And so most of us, after coming up with a bunch of bad opportunities just stop thinking up new ideas.

I think those people who always have the next great idea let themselves consider many more opportunities than we do. Let me lay out a challenge for you. Pick a topic, something like: business, travel, the weekend, or maybe start with something as simple as dinner. Put a piece of paper on your desk and write out a bunch of ideas for that topic.

For instance, if you chose dinner you might write: cook chicken, go to Applebees, leftovers, etc. Now make yourself consider more options: French food, picnic, sushi... in Tokyo. Each one is an opportunity, and many might be bad opportunities. But you're never going to find the great ones until you get through the bad ones.

Once you've had a good (and creative!) dinner, move on to some bigger things. Let the opportunity abound!

(By the way, I decided not to do that comet thing.)