Simonds Media

It’s rare that you’ll see a well-rested, socially adjusted, and emotionally fulfilled individual publish rants to a blog or Twitter page. But if you take sleep, confidence, and satisfaction from the happiest of people you’ll quickly see sniveling, snapping beasts emerge.

They’re not evil. Just fatigued. Unfortunately, “I was tired” won’t fix the damage caused by unsightly outbursts. You can avoid many of their mistakes by putting the following into practice:

The gentleman in the photo above looks like he’d be a good mentor. “Here’s how you get perfectly windswept hair as you set up your shot while wearing a most excellent pair of socks.” He seems to say.

What does that have to do with mentorship?

Let’s say you are the person taking the above photo. The camera rests in your grasp with comforting weight. The sailboats in the distance are nearly ready for their race. You have just minutes to take a great photo but you can’t seem to get it.

Would you like to be more creative?

Does the arrogant demon inside you drool at the prospect of gestating ideas worth millions of dollars?

Stop trying to think outside the box and put your energy into making a bigger box.

Why? Because possibility drives creativity. Not the other way around.

For example, consider what the world would be like if no human had ever observed a living creature in flight. If there were no ducks, no flies, or any other flying creatures, flight would be outside the range of what a sane person would consider possible. Without the inspiration of possibility, creativity would never have the chance to take flight.

In the same way, if we have not identified a concept as a possibility, it is rare for us to step away from the cow paths of our minds and conjure up an entirely unexpected creative concept. As such,the best chance we have for creativity that might lead to something productive is to expand our grasp of many things to the fullest extent possible. Once you expand the box a bit, you will see creative ideas crop up in unexpected places. That is the joy of running oneself on a human brain. Relish it!

Creatures do fly, kites soar, and gliders steer with rudders like a paper boat. In 1903, the Wright brothers worked within the boundaries of what they thought possible and flew into the history. Without years of experience in fabrication and fine control mechanics, the Wright brothers could not have hoped to invent the three-axis control system that we continue to use in airplanes today.

Are you waiting for ideas to land lightly on your outspread palms or are you working to expand your world and understand more of the possibilities it has to offer?

A few ways to expand:

• Reach outside your circle – Pursue meaningful conversations with people who don’t run in the same circle as you. You’d be amazed at the things that come up over a cup of coffee between new friends!
• Build things constantly – You don’t have to build airplanes for it to count. The more  you build, the more experience you’ll have on hand when your perfect opportunity shows up.
• Network with builders – Make a point to foster relationships with individuals who have the technical capacity to turn ideas into working models. In the Wright brothers’ case, it was their bicycle shop mechanic who ended up making the engine for the first flight. In my experience, being in regular contact with web developers gives me a distinct edge when it comes to sensing the possibility of creating something useful.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

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