Creative Ways To Kill Stress
Do you ever feel like
work is a jigsaw puzzle? Where you don't have the picture on the box? Where
some of the pieces are missing? I know this happened to me once when I was
tossed into a new role without being given the correct training to go with the
role. I found it rather stressful to say the least. To be truthful I was suffering stress at work and at home.
I guess it was all piling up on me and I had a major heart attack and nearly died. Luckily I got to
the hospital just in time to receive life saving treatment. The doctors and nurses were all keeping poker faced
when they saw my ECG results. I knew something was up though when they were crashing the bed I was on into the doorway
very hard while trying to get me to another area before giving me a clot busting injection. As it was a Friday and
they had managed to stablise me I had to wait four days before they gave me and angiogram as well as a stent.
Stress can happen to any of us for hundreds of other reasons. It is important to look at ways to stop or slow
stress from happening before it gets on top of us. Instil creative techniques will
deliver you a skill-set that will help you to raise your abilities so you can become a doer whatever gets thrown at
you at work and at home. Start learning creative techniques early as they take a little time to master and deliver the desired results.
Learned Creativity
Skills can help at these times as you will have access to a range of more
comprehensive productivity and problem-solving techniques. Most importantly,
these skills have been purposely designed to deliver efficiency levels which are normally out of our reach. For this reason proven creative
skills are highly valued by all employers.
Professor Julius
Sumner Miller said "Understanding is
a far cry from mere knowing. Knowing is superficial ─ understanding demands
penetration by the intellect". Real in-depth understanding is one
of the keys to being creative. Keep an open mind and have the willingness to
dig a little deeper to go from Knowing to Understanding. This
has far-reaching ramifications in our lives. It places an extra tax on our base
skills such as: observation, active listening, open mindedness, being proactive
and thinking creatively. The value of simple ideas may go unnoticed without a
deeper investigation. Most great breakthroughs start out life as a very small
simple idea that is grown over time into an idea of considerable value.
Only by taking a
deeper look at these simple ideas will the value be discovered. When I say a
deeper look I mean that by developing stronger skills
in observation, active listening, open mindedness, being proactive, thinking
creatively we are much more likely to see the value when it appears. These
skills will act like a magnifying glass to highlight
ideas that hold great value but look extremely simple, basic, dull, boring and
trivial. That is why they are often overlooked. Don't forget that most great breakthroughs start out life as
a very small simple idea that is grown over time into an idea of considerable
value.
Airbnb co-founders used the super simple idea of interviewing
accommodation hosts to find out what they needed to run their business better.
As an excuse to do the interview they made a free offer to the hosts to have
quality photos taken of their accommodation and uploaded to the site. They did
this in person in the early days. By asking all hosts the same list of
questions the co-founders embraced a core creative thinking technique. LOOK FOR
MORE THAN 1 RIGHT ANSWER. It revealed some awesome
ideas that they quickly implemented to improve the business. This was a simple
yet creative idea that worked tremendously well for Airbnb.
You
are not going to be able to develop these base skills of observation, active
listening, open mindedness, being proactive, thinking creatively overnight. Do
some research on how to improve each skill – even just keeping it front of mind
by writing it on a card will help improve the skill.
The idea of carrying a
card in your pocket is an example of how simpe ideas can be very effective and
of value. Keep an open mind be observant
listen carefully and take a proactive creative approach to your work over the
next week and see what a difference it makes.
There are a range of super simple creative thinking
techniques that when applied to your work will make things quicker and easier.
Some demand a little extra effort up front but will pay you back many fold later
on. I will be writing more about these techniques in later articles.
So, go ahead and try out the ideas I have mentioned
today to see the results for yourself. You will be developing a whole new
approach to your work that will amaze you how effective you can become.
I would love to get your help with research and
feedback!
Cheers
Eric Elsley
Creativity - Your Gateway To Working Smarter