Exploring Your Creative Genius: Episode 56
Last week’s episode focused on the four Creative Behaviors: Being Generous, Being Humble, Being Playful, and Being Enthusiastic in your pursuit of Beauty.
For this column I am going to dig a bit deeper into the topic of adult play. It’s not just for kids…adults who play live longer and more joyfully and that’s a great reward for having fun.
One way to bring a sense of play to your days is to execute a 30 Day Creative Action Program. You do one of two things once a day for a month; you either do something you do habitually in a new fashion or you do something you’ve never done before. Today I brush my teeth with my opposite hand. Tomorrow when I walk outside I come up with a new name for the first two items I see. It’s a great program for cultivating a bit of whimsy, and it’s great at building your creative capacity as you kick the status quo in the butt just a little bit each day.
Play helps us learn. I love the phrase “If you want to understand something new don’t study it, get used to it.” I take that to mean you should play with that new thing, dance with it, tease it, take it for a walk…then, when your play has cultivated a full understanding of what this new thing is all about, then study it.
Dr. Stuart Brown, the Director of The National Institute of Play, has identified 8 ‘play personalities’ that might help you find an entrance into becoming a more playful version of yourself.
- Collectors—my mom delighted in collecting coins, both US and foreign. She collected match books. She collected cocktail swizzle sticks. She had fun collecting them and telling us the stories they all carried with them.
- Competitor—you likely have already signed up for Rainbow soccer or wow, look out for you on a Chapel Hill Pickleball court. Yes, you compete. But you also have fun playing.
- Creator—your play is found in building, designing, constructing, writing, painting, even doodling. It’s fun, it’s active, and it’s joyful.
- Director—you have so much fun planning and hosting the best parties, wonderful events, and your joy comes from bringing together folks and helping them tap into their joy.
- Explorer—this is also one of my Creative Types. This might be one of the more open-ended activities, where you are making it up as you step out into the next adventure.
- Joker—I was a Bubba as a boy and my nieces and nephews grew up calling me Uncle Bubba; with such a clown name I was teed up to be funny, silly, and down right goofy to make them laugh…and what served them served me too.
- Kinesthete—you got to move, you got to move, then later, you got to move. You dance in the kitchen (I do), you go to yoga, you keep on your toes.
- Storyteller—once upon a time you realized that you could entertain and inform by telling stories. Some are true. Some you make up, some you make up in the moment you are telling them.
Bring a sense of play to your work and you learn faster, you bring a more creative perspective, and, yep, you have more fun.
“Exploring Your Creative Genius” takes an expansive view on what it means to be creative and entrepreneurial in an ongoing conversation led by Carl Nordgren — entrepreneur, novelist, and lifelong student with decades of experience growing his own creative capacity and assisting others to do the same in exciting new ways!
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