Choices we make today will determine creative possibilities we’ll encounter going forward. Not that we always need specific goals to direct our creative juices. Sheer delight that creativity offers is enough.
Let’s say we start our day with fresh coffee aromas, serotonin spikes a sense of well being in response, and a warm muffin tops off our shot at winning on another day. Energized by a good sleep, creativity stoked, we’re set for adventures people only dream of attaining. Life is good. Or is it?
Unless we learn the art and science of making healthy choices, we’ll rarely hit or sustain our top targets.
Has bedlam ever hits your path? Wait! Hit is far too mild an action word here to describe the interruptions and counter-plans that attack many of us. Life smacks us down like the roadrunner flattens the rabbit who’s roaring along in the opposite direction. Did you know that stressed brains rely more on ruts and default us back to old habits? Maybe we’ve experienced electronic overload, or perhaps we’re part of the 75% of workers who claim to dislike their jobs.
Emails bing, twitter pings, phones ring – each clamoring for our attention at the same time. All before we rev up the brain’s engines, to avoid over-sized demands jammed into our far-too-full schedule, and choose bite sized pieces we can manage. Add to that, the relentless interruptions slapping us around, and we’re sure to surge even higher levels of cortisol that shut down creativity and rob our ability to choose the best paths forward.
Get the picture? Simply put, our brains come with equipment to guide better choices for far more. Research shows how to rewire our brain past the ruts of hectic routines, for the kind of choices that spark innovation and adds new feet to our best beliefs.
Take a deep breath first, and consider a few natural chemicals that prepare our brain for finer choices. Then we are ready to rewrite creativity into our day, yes, even when all around us, distracts, diminishes or overwhelms.
Let’s say we start our day with a two footed question to rejuvenate curiosity. What question would ratchet up creative choices for all that could be ours today?
As we sip coffee list a few top targets for the day, on a small index card. Number each to sequence its priority, and slip the list into a pocket. Choices listed in order of their significance are a bit like outsourcing our working memory, which is why healthy choices free our neuron pathways for creative delight that follows. Would you agree that a few briefly stated selections can erase the frantic fog that clouds too many choices? Without clear priorities we waste time, caught in swirling eddies beside refreshing rivers we long to enter?
We may only complete top priorities, but we’ll enjoy the calm that comes from knowing we can list unmet priorities onto the next day’s targets. Sure, some items will still be there in a week, thereby showing they are not as significant as once thought. We choose to clear spaces for creativity, simply by drawing on our full mix of multiple intelligences, in ways that complete those few top targets with renewed zest.
Luckily, each time we choose well, our brain literally rewires itself for more clarity on another day. Watch out to avoid the perils of perfectionism though. A brain on perfect is usually a brain stressed and preparing to procrastinate.
Just as multi-tasking bottlenecks the brain, so clear choices open spigots of creativity. We reboot our dendrite brain cells, when we choose to act on these 25 dynamic facts that rejuvenate our brain. What choice could we make for today that would unleash more of that creative person we’d like others to see in us?
Created by Ellen Weber, Brain Based Tasks for Growth Mindset
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