Screw highly effective people. Here are the habits of highly creative people.

So as I mentioned in my previous post, on the whole scientific evidence suggests that there are activities that a person can regularly engage in to become more creative. That's right, there's hope for all of us (even pre-meds and accountants). Although myth would have us believe that "creativity emerges from the unconscious in a sudden burst of insight", the truth is that it is mostly the product of "concious, persistent, hard work". Interesting, right?

There are 8 identifiable habits of creative people, that fit into the nifty acronym EQUATION.

Experimenting: No need for explanation (insert obvious joke about exploring sexuality here)

Questioning: Great innovations have resulted from people asking great questions. Someone once must have asked, "What if I could have the comfort of a blanket, that won't slip and slide, and my hands won't get trapped inside?". And voila, the Snuggie was invented.

Unplugging: Stepping back and taking time away from your ideas to refresh before going back and tackling them again.

Associating: Connecting seemingly disparate or unrelated things to create solutions or ideas.

Teaming: Normally most of us think of group assignments as a total waste of time. But believe it or not, our professors are on to something. Working in teams and fostering the group creative process correctly has resulted in Pixar consistently producing critically and financially successful movies time after time.

Improvising: I mean come on, there was a whole TV series about it called MacGyver. Oddly enough, the creator of the show made up the concept for it on the spot, after his originally idea for a show wasn't warmly received by network execs.

Observing: Get a notebook. Go somewhere unfamiliar. Creep on people. There's a guy named Paco Underhill who's famous for studying people's actions in retail settings. He now makes boatloads of money consulting stores on how to maximize revenue based on the stores layout.

Networking: No, nerds reading this who like LAN parties should not be celebrating. This means the real kind, the kind that actually involves talking to other people. Don't just exchange business cards, exchange ideas.

AND SO, with this blog, I intend to engage in all 8 of these activities, and record my exploits. Of course, some of them activities might be harder than others, but HEY, those should make for some pretty zany entries.

On top of that, I'm also going to use this blog to record ideas I have. There's definitely going to be a "Stupid Idea" series, where I put my ideas for new products/making money on blast for the world to see, even if they aren't feasible. And if I ever feel moved to draw something, go take pictures, write a poem or a short story, those will most likely be put up here as well.

I'm embracing the fact that not all creative ideas are good ideas. That's totally fine. THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CREATIVE PEOPLE ARE THE ONES WHO GENERATE THE MOST IDEAS. Einstein wrote hundreds of papers, Edison got a lot of patents, and Doug Horn will say and think thousands of stupid things that will end up in this blog.

I really think it'd make for a sweet reality show if a bunch of people were thrown in a house, and then had to survive through a simulated natural disaster.

See, there's one stupid idea taken care of.

So that's it for now...all 2 people reading this. My next entry is going to cover the 10-year theory, and also provide a baseline for where my creativity is at right now, then the fun can really get started.

(Ok, I really think I could sell the natural disaster show idea if all the contestants were also morbidly obese.)

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one stupid idea, a grad student, and too much free time.

I hope those of you who I've tricked into reading this can get the gist of what this blog will be recording from the title I've selected. For some inexplicable reason, I have this thing for titles that tell the audience exactly what they're in for. Snakes on a Plane for example. Or Piranhas 3D. Or Hot Tub Time Machine. I know, all classic pieces of American cinema, and the quality of this blog will most likely be reflected by these footsteps in which I am intending to follow. Self-deprecation aside, I chose "crawl" not because it was a mode of locomotion that alliterated with creativity, but because that's how I see the journey. They say to truly produce a genuinely brilliant creative idea, you need at least 10 years of experience in that field. Well, day 1, let's do it to it. However, to get things started, I think there are a few pertinent questions that I should answer to kind of give an idea of how this came about and what my mission is exactly.

What motivated this quest? I'm currently taking a class called Creative Thinking and Leading the Creative Organization. Day one hits, and the first thing we learn is that even though we're programmed to believe there's some creativity gene that we're all just, shazam, born with, it's not true. In fact, most scientific evidence shows that there are certain practices a person can regularly engage in to become more creative. And thusly, I want to dabble in these activities in the hopes that I become a more creative person.

So why a blog? I recognize on a daily basis I subject way too many people to my thoughts and opinions without even intending to (seriously friends, I know my voice carries at this point. I just go with it, so should you. Stop pointing it out.) It's not about readers, it's about having a way to hold myself accountable. If I'm going to do a blog, I don't want to half-ass it, and as a result I'm actually going to get out and do these things so I have stuff to write about. If I start slacking, I'll definitely get the feeling of someone haunting me with a constant glare of disapproval. I know it's weird, but it works for me. Also that person I imagine haunting me will most likely be Ronald Reagan.

Are you doing this for school? Actually, no. It's not required for the class, and honestly I don't really intend on telling my professor about my little side project until the end of the course...or at all depending on how much progress I make on it. But as some of you clever and literate people might have figured out from the title, I am doing this for entirely self-serving reasons. I firmly believe that creative thinkers make the best business people. I want to go into business, kick ass and take names, and in the end make lots of Benjamins along the way. Oh, plus creative people are inherently more interesting, and let's face it, anything I can do to up the amount of attention I get in the future is definitely a priority.

So what next? Well my next two blog entries are going to be slightly less (I guess?) interesting. I need to whip one up to talk about what these creativity enhancing activities are, how I'm going to implement them, and what I'll be posting here. The next one will kind of talk about my baseline (where I'm at now) and if there are any metrics for success I can use.

Consider this my Julie & Julia. My little project that I'm taking up because I have way too much time. Here's hoping for a book deal. I'm pretty sure a movie deal is out of the question, until I get a sexy love interest *hint*. Anyways, if you've made it this far, as much as I want to use this to record, I also promise to try to be funny, entertaining, and even a little bit informative (I'm sure I might even break some copyright or IP laws along the way in trying to do so). And maybe, just maybe, my contributions to the Internet can go beyond those few messages I managed to get posted on textsfromlastnight.com.