Connect the Dots

We covered  preparing yourself for creativity last week but maybe we jumped the gun.  We should have defined it first.  

I heard once that creativity is connecting the dots that others can’t.  I’m not sure if I totally agree.  That tells me maybe things already exist and we just put them together.  But then again, stuff does already exist, right?  I mean inventions are really just a different combination of what is already here on Earth (or in space these days).  

New Stuff

We all like new stuff.  It’s great to get  different wardrobe or an updated electronic device.  When I was growing up, a new video game cartridge was amazing.  Today, it’s probably a new download.  Either way, new is generally considered better.  

They say necessity is the mother of invention.  To me, it doesn’t matter if it was necessary or not, inventions are fascinating.  I’m so interested in new things that I even enjoy seeing other people get new things that are appropriate for them.

My friend’s daughter is a great tennis player and I greatly respect the sport.  However, I am not a tennis player.  I couldn’t hit a ground stroke to save my life.  But, when he bought her a new racket, I was very interested.  I asked him about the technology and even looked some things up on the Internet (what a great tool).  

There is a reason why one of our core values at Initiate Impact is modernity.  We want to be on the cutting edge of positive impact and the way you do that is being on the “general cutting edge.”

It’s safe to say that new may not always be better, but it’s often interesting.  

Creation

I will not attempt to start a discussion about intelligent design yet there is something interesting to me about all of what we have available to us in life.  I tend to believe that we have everything we could possibly need but also love finding new ways to put things together (as described above).  Therefore, I love connecting the dots.

Maybe I’m not as opposed to the sentence I mentioned earlier as I made it seem.  Creating really is rearranging what is already there.

With everything above being said, we need to do as much rearranging as needed to maximize our creativity for impact.

Last week, E-Impact 115 gave you the tools to prepare for creativity (rearranging stuff).  Now, let’s get to work.

Finding the Dots

Looking for creativity is hard.

How can you connect the dots if you don’t know where they are?

This is a key step that is often skipped in an attempt to create.  I suppose it’s related to immediate gratification.  See E-Impact 56.

The simple way to find the dots is to look for them - not so fast.  Where do you look?  With whom do you look?

The simple way is not that simple (although simpler than the complicated way).

I don’t think you can ever truly pinpoint the perfect place to “find creativity” or the perfect person to “be creative” with.  In fact, I think the very purpose of creativity is to step outside of the norm.  It doesn’t mean take massive risks and avoid anything known.  It means maintaining what you know while challenging yourself to know more - to be curious.  

Finding creativity is hard.  There, I said it!  

My challenging ways of previous entries continues.  I feel like The Impactmaker Movement is primed for massive action and so we’ll keep pushing.  

You have to complicate your life to find what you want.  Challenge yourself to look in places you aren’t normally and challenge yourself to communicate with people whom you wouldn’t normally.  Do this because you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, but you know you’ll find some new things when you’re outside of your typical environment.

So that was the simple way…now on to the complicated one.

In many ways, creativity is hard to define. But one thing I know is that it is easier to describe the less innovative it seems.  Keep this in mind in your “search”.

Don’t try to figure things out (I should point out that figuring things out is a great skill that you should practice, just not in this case).  Let things come to you.  If you are in unique environments, new things will come.  Learning and developing are clearly related but also distinctly different.  

Remember, Robert Riopel talk about “shelf help” on Speaking of Impact episode 88.  That sums up my thought on how much time we should spend on learning versus creating.  

Letting things come to you is complicated not because of the action you (don’t) have to take but by the responses you must give.  It’s somewhat passive but that can be a big challenge especially for you driven, motivated impactmakers.  

Way back on Speaking of Impact episode 11, Gregoire Narcisse taught us to get comfortable being uncomfortable.  I’m going to add to that.

Get comfortable that your discomfort is more than suggested for innovation.  It’s necessary.  

Innovation

Innovation can be defined as:

A new method, product, idea, etc.

What’s the difference between this and creativity?

I believe that creativity is less directed - in a good way.  One of the biggest mistakes a creator can make is to reach for too much innovation and skip simple creativity.  

Innovation is the process that you exert all of your energy towards when you’ve identified a specific issue and need a specific solution.  It can be executed in an endless amount of ways but cannot be substituted.  I suppose it’s kind of like a non-fungible token (NFT).  Last week’s Speaking of Impact episode 112 with Tobin Jones (the creator of the Superhero Grannies NFT project) explains NFTs well.  It can’t be duplicated.  Your innovation for one situation is incredibly valuable because it’s special to the relevant situation.  

Creativity is more like Bitcoin.  Did I just say that?  It’s fungible.  It can be duplicated (bitcoin has been duplicated 21 million, minus one, times) and used for something completely different.

The Dots

I used to love playing Connect Four.  It was a fun game and provided some necessary competition in my life.  Unfortunately, it got old.  There came a point that I could either beat someone in just a few moves or the game would likely end up a draw.  

Getting four pieces in a row was tough, until it wasn’t

Connect Four, like most games, has a limited board (or tower or whatever you call it).  You can only play your pieces in so many places.  There's a little creativity but it ends pretty fast.  

Picture an endless Connect Four board - one that had no limits.  Truthfully, games amongst experienced players would never end because you couldn’t be forced into a bad move.  For the purposes of this metaphor though, assume it works.  In reality, it does work for creativity though.

The world we have is a board game without limits.  There are dots everywhere and no one could ever count, no less connect them all.

This is why creativity exists whether you believe you can make something new or just rearrange what’s already there.

Connection

So there’s a bunch of opportunity.  Now what?

Your goal should be to experience as many dots as possible.  Don’t overwork yourself looking for them but put yourself in a enough situations where they’ll find you.  Then, connect the ones you can.

Be the first person to admit the dots you can’t connect.  In other words, be aware of your shortcomings and share them when appropriate.  It’s a good thing.  This makes the world spin.  There is absolutely someone out there who can fill your gaps.  And you absolutely fill the gaps of someone else.  

Ironically, acknowledging the connections you can’t make is what will highlight those that you can.

Just like many of the areas that E-Impact has covered, you must prioritize.  This could be in the moment when overstimulated by dots and ideas or it could be part of a more involved creative process.

Take the time to identify the connections you are adept at making and choose only to work on a maximum of three at a time.  It’s better to perfect one or two than to have stumbled through a bunch.  The best innovators identified specific connections they could make before setting out on a detailed innovation process to change an industry or the world.  

Make no mistake, you have the ability to produce world changing connections but you will fulfill your purpose if you don’t have a well-defined definition of said purpose.

Sharing the Dots

Here’s the bonus section of the week.  After all of that searching, waiting, connecting, creating, and innovating, there’s still something vital to the process left.  

You must share your stuff!

And here’s where people tend to misunderstand.  Sharing your resources doesn’t mean giving away your world changing idea or proprietary information.  You could argue that is a bad idea for  personal reasons and also for your innovation in general - so, don’t do that.

What you need to share is the dots that you’ve found (or that have found you).  Those dots are valuable and you are the mechanism for helping them find someone else.  Some of the greatest ideas I’ve had in my life have come from things that were such useful dots for other people.  

In conclusion, it’s true.  Creativity is connecting the dots others can’t.  

I believe it is more noble to provide someone with dots to connect than to connect one’s own dots.

Let that sink in and don’t throw away your thoughts.  Offer them to someone else who can make good use of them.  

Here’s a hint too:

Clearing your mind of useless (to you but not someone else to whom you give them) thoughts will allow you to connect the useful ones more easily.  The resulting innovation will be more impactful.

We’ve been given plenty of resources (dots) to have an amazing life here on Earth.  Everyone should have a part in mixing (connecting) them to make the world a better place.