How to Develop Creative Vision

To create anything you must first envision it. I like to say it this way: you must see it to create it. A common word we use to explain vision is imagination. Nothing comes to fruition without imagination. Stephen Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, states that, “Everything is created twice.” You first envision and create it within you then you fabricate and create it without.

We all have two pairs of eyes – our outer pair and an inner pair. Our outer pair is held down by limitations and boundaries. They feed us with the helpful but limited information to go about our everyday life. With your inner pair, sight has no boundary. You can see and be wherever you want to see and be. You can be in a village on the outskirts of Zungeru and yet travel in your mind to the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong, or the Eiffel tower of Paris. You can experience the snow peak of Mount Kilimanjaro while living in a valley near Lokoja!

So, to create you must first see your boundless creation!

In addition, it isn’t simply enough to see it. You must be able to see it clearly. You must be able to define it in your mind. A blur is not enough. The blueprint in your mind must be specific and clear cut. Below is an excerpt from the autobiography of one of the greatest inventors of his generation, Nikola Telsa, which explains my thought:

“… I observed to my delight that I could visualise with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind. Thus I have been led unconsciously to evolve what I consider a new method of materialising inventive concepts and ideas, which is radically opposite to the purely experimental and is in my opinion ever so much more expeditious and efficient.

"The moment one constructs a device to carry into practice a crude idea, he finds himself unavoidably engrossed with the details of the apparatus. As he goes on improving and reconstructing, his force of concentration diminishes and he loses sight of the great underlying principle. Results may be obtained, but always at the sacrifice of quality. My method is different. I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. I even note if it is out of balance. There is no difference whatever; the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it. In twenty years there has not been a single exception. Why should it be otherwise?”

Nikola Telsa went on to visualize and invent the Alternating Current, electric bulbs, discovered X-rays, Radio, Remote Control, Electric Motor, Robotics, Laser, Wireless Communications and Limitless Free Energy. 

In Your Image

Have you considered the question, “What is creativity?” What does it mean to create something that hasn’t been there before? What makes creative people creative? Can you and I be creative? Without considering such probing questions it will be noteworthy to realize that everything that we have around us was created by someone – the chairs, the hall, the microphone, the sound system, your mobile devices – everything!

MADE IN YOUR IMAGE

The underlying principle to the best of creativity is in creating something in your own image. The best creation that will ever come from you must have your image and carry your own life within it. The great writer, Chinua Achebe, wrote Things Fall Apart when he was 26 years old. This is what he had to say about it:

“I was conscripted by the story, and I was writing it at all times – whenever there was an opening. It felt like a sentence, an imprisonment of creativity. I worked on my writing mostly at night. I was seized by the story and I found myself totally ensconced in it. It was almost like living a parallel realm, a dual existence not in any negative sense but in the way a hand has two surfaces, united in purpose but very different in tone, appearance, character, and structure.”

Things Fall Apart has so far sold over 10 million copies worldwide in addition to being translated into various foreign languages and turned into a movie series. Your perfect creation must have not just your signature but your image and life.

10 Powerful Quotes from the Last One Year

I felt I should take some quotes from articles I really enjoyed reading from the last one year. All the quotes are from my writings in this blog. Enjoy reading:

1. To make progress you must be on your own unique path. You must be pursuing a predetermined goal and taking premeditated actions toward it. Progress is intentional. It does not come on you but you work and walk toward it. Culled from: Are You making Progress in a Rat Race?

2. You may find yourself deadlocked and immobile but for as long as you know you are on the right path, your success is simply a matter of time. Also, even though you may be in the same situation you were months earlier, you know that as long as time has passed you are not on the same spot. Culled from: Immobile Progress

3. To educate and develop my mind I needed to read books related to the fields I wanted to be outstanding ... if you want to be the best manufacturer of furniture in your city, your library should be filled with books on types of wood, wood finishing, business and factory ethics, etc., and not books on motivational public speaking. Culled from: Intentional Education

4. Two things stop folks from living their dreams. 1: The fear of the untested. We often allow the darkness of fear to envelop our hearts. 2: The gruesome voice of sameness that speaks through your mental airwaves telling you, “You are not ready,” and, “It isn’t time.” You must change the dial and listen rather to the sweet melodious rhythm which says, “Now is the right time for your salvation.” Culled from: Swimming on Land?

5. A parasitic person will gain from you but in return harm you. In essence it is what he gains from you that destroy you. Culled from: Associations (Types)

6. To be a leader you must have a mandate – a clearly defined and outlined assignment – that keeps you on course. Without this you are simply on a lonely stroll and, if unfortunately you have a portfolio, wasting peoples precious time. Culled from: Here is Your Assignment

7. If you would produce great results, irrespective of the environment you are in, you must learn to concentrate in chaos. Your perfect environment will never be so you must learn to do your stuff anyway and do it well. Culled from: The Perfect Success Journey

8. In your success journey it is important to keep trying and not stop even when it seems you are at the end of your game. You should develop the attitude that says to daunting situations, “I will rise again!” Culled from: It's Never Too Late to RE-start

9. If you have identified an unhealthy habit stop it now. Not next year. Not next month. Not next week. Not later today. All these lie in your future and the only time you really have is this moment here and now. Culled from: Kill or be Killed

10. Why sit in our conditions and die? Why sit in poverty and die? Why sit in confusion and die? Why sit in ignorance and die? Nothing moves until you move. Nature responds to movement and never to inaction. If you remain the way you are things will remain the way they are. Culled from: The Power of Movement

Learning How to Learn (VII): Interaction

Barely a few years ago boys and girls in Africa didn’t have specific individual ages. Rather, they were in groups, cults, and peers. So a boy's age and maturity isn’t measured by when he was born but by which age group he belongs to. In addition, initiation into higher social platforms is done in a collective way together with other members of the same group or peer.

In as much as this concept sounds archaic and possibly ineffective to us today, a careful search as to why it was done in the first place will reveal some astonishing things about how we learn. Children were grouped in peers and cults so they could learn by interaction. In some of these groups what they had weren’t “teachers” (from a narrow meaning of the word) but guides and counsellors. So, they learned to hunt together, farm together, dance together and get married together. As time went by these groups develop such strong bonds that they’ll willingly die protecting each other than live without the other.

Our present-day classes are designed in a way that narrowly imitates this method of peering but we contradict the goal of grouping by encouraging and enforcing individualism within the group. 
If you will learn effectively, I propose you form groups with people of like minds. Interact with one another, advice each other, complement weaknesses and sharpen strengths. In my book, Do it Like Kids, I suggested 5 unifying factors that ensure groups and teams work effectively. Here is a summary:

1. The unifying factor of harmonizing skills: members of a team should complement each other in skill. If you have everybody in a group having just one skill, know that you have no team at all. There is practically no way such a group can effectively provide excellent service at all times. When children form teams, team players take up roles that they feel they can best fit into. They don’t all take up the same role because it makes play boring.

2. The unifying factor of shared purpose: Every team must have a single reason why it is doing what it is doing. Every member of the team must share that ideal reason. This is the purpose of the team. Myles Monroe in his famous quote said, “If the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable.” In line with that I say if the purpose of a team is not known and shared by the team players, abuse is inevitable.

3. The unifying factor of performance goals: A goal is an aim, something someone wants to achieve in a specified period. In view of this, a performance goal is a goal that specifies the performance required of a team. If this is lacking, progress cannot be measured and if progress is not measured, there is no way the team can say if it is successful or not. So every team needs to set goals to help move it forward. Here are some ways to set performance goals-

-         Write them down in clear terms

-         Set a time frame

-         Make a list of everything the team will have to do

-         Plan

-         Review often

4.  The unifying factor of approach: the approach taken to achieve the performance goals is as important as setting the goal in the first place. If you know where you are going, then you immediately become restricted in the number of roads that will lead you there.

5. The unifying factor of mutual accountability: who is responsible? Whose fault is it? Who is to give account? These are questions all groups have to answer at one point or the other and therein lie where many groups fall short of being teams. Note this; in a team, nobody is accountable, everybody is. It is nobody’s fault; everybody is at fault. Nobody is responsible, it is everyone’s responsibility. The moment this is missed, the cords that bind team play are broken. 

Learning How to Learn (VI): Physical Exercises

Have you ever wondered why there are always sports facilities in good schools? These aren’t placed there just for the fun of it. Schools have sports facilities because educators have realized that physical activities in form of sports, jogging, or even walking helps learning. Every good school has a sports program where they develop the physical aspect of their learners. This is important because as you participate in physical activities new brain cells are born in your brain and this helps in learning.

I recently developed a habit of jogging for the first 30 minutes of my day. I do this 6 times every week and I now find it very difficult not to get off my bed and hit the street jogging. In doing this I have benefitted in interesting ways. First, I realized that it reverses any stress I feel in the morning. I was accustomed to waking up tired and stressed out. It was usual to hear me say, “I am tired,” first thing in the morning. When I jog I feel much stronger and the energy takes me through the day.

Second, I realized that it helped me to process information faster. While jogging I am able to steady my mind on a thought and keep it there until I have the answers I seek.

Third, I listen to audio books while jogging. This means that I multitask and use the opportunity to learn from books that would have taken me a longer period of time to cover. The moment I realised this secret to learning, I make sure I don’t leave my room without an audio book in my phone.