Creative Thinking Challenge Week 1 - How To Not Lose Motivation

Welcome To The First Week Of The Creative Thinking Challenge

We're looking forward to spending the next 52 weeks together with you, where every week we'll Gainstorm a new problem or idea.

Why are we even doing a 52 week Creative Thinking Challenge? Well there's two reasons - one's for me, and one's for you!

I'd love for you to find your Creative Vision/Imagination muscles! Every week we spend together we're going to be 'pushing' this, and you'll have tasks to do that will exercise these muscles.

For me ... 52 weeks is a big challenge because I've never done this before! I've never made a video each week - let alone for 52 weeks in a row. But I'm excited to do it, and this is the reason why I 'cheated' on our first Gainstorm 'draw a subject out of the hat,' and hand-picked "How To Not Lose Motivation." 

WHAT KIND OF THINKER ARE YOU?

Do you ever think about how you think? Do you ever think consciously about how you approach solving problems, and coming up with new ideas?

I like to think of this process as a maze. Imagine that any time you need to think about something, you're entering a maze - and getting to the center of the maze is where you'll find your answer.

Here's what a lot of people tend to do (and I was definitely guilty of this before I learned the process of Gainstorming). 

They know they need to solve the problem, so they start heading into the maze, they get a little closer to the center, and then they start thinking more about the problem instead of heading toward their solution (the center). So they just stay in a perpetual not getting into the center pattern, never discovering the real solution to their problem. 

Then another person might be pretty good at getting quickly towards the center of the maze, but something happens - they get closer to their goal and they give up, or they give up thinking about it. Which results in sliding back out of the maze away from the goal.

In my personal life in the past, I wouldn't even enter the maze. I'd just lie awake at night, running the problem around and around in my head. And do the same thing the next night, and the next...

When you follow the process of Gainstorming, you cut a straight line through the maze to solving your problem, or coming up with your new idea. 

The reason this happens (and it seems a little crazy this is even possible, but I've been part of over 500 Gainstorm sessions now - and it works), is that Gainstorming causes you focus on the FUTURE first - not on the problem. 

When you focus on the future FIRST and you can see and describe what that future looks like - everything changes. This is what you are about to learn how to do. :)