Our lives, ideas and creativity are like gardens. They all require nurturing. Things don’t grow when planted and then left to their own. Healthy plants need fertilizer, and care. Removing weeds are critical to the good health of the garden. It takes a watchful eye and constant monitoring to avoid weeds from taking over. There needs to be constant removal of stuff that gets blown in from the air around us. A lot of time is spent on the feeding of ideas and inspiration, less on clearing out mental debris! How do we get rid of outdated thinking and expectations? Did we check recently on whether our dreams are relevant?
Here’s an experience I’d like to share. As a young professional, I was enamored by the achievement of a big corner office. That was success. I knew that those that arrived at that level had proven themselves to be leaders. I went about pursuing that dream. I would study the offices we would meet in with senior leaders. They all have the big wooden desk, deep carpet, nice chairs, and art on the wall. So, I noted that and went about working towards achieving that goal of being in an office like that as a result of achievement. One day I had arrived at that point in my career where I was entitled to the big corner office, with the nice desk, chairs and artwork. At first the office felt strange, I thought it was poorly organized and lacked feng shui that would be appropriate for me. I re arranged the office according to the guidelines of feng shui. It still wasn’t working for me. It was because the entire executive office wasn’t right for me. It wasn’t useful or functional the way I worked! When I got the opportunity, I obsoleted the furniture and went to a flexible office plan with rolling tables, white boards and a more functionally creative space. It became a design playground, much more useful and fun.
Unwittingly, I had pursued a dream and never questioned it along the way to see if it was still relevant.
My needs and desires had changed, and I hadn’t checked in on it. I blindly pursued a worn out dream.
Did anything change along the way to consider replacing earlier dreams with even better ones? How do our gardens grow? Watch them and update your aspirations as you go. Check in on yourself from time to time.
Hannes Seeberg is a very thoughtful designer from Estonia. He oozes creativity! He is an amazing thinker about strategy and innovation. We exchange ideas from time to time and stretch our mutual thinking. As he prepared for the birth of his daughter, he wondered about cleaning out old stuff that was in the way and he made the jump to innovation and exnovation. If innovation was about adding what’s new, then there should be a component of taking away and clearing out old stuff. This came from a brief journey he took into latin prefixes and suffixes. He found the prefix ‘ex’ as compared to ‘in’ when discussing innovation. He suggests we think about the title, Exnovation and what that means.
Exnovation according to him is about clearing out mental debris. It’s like cleaning a closet. Every once in awhile you need to throw away old clutter and baggage in order to allow room for new ideas and opportunities. This is like the beauty of Buddhist monks living a very basic life with minimal clutter. I can see the elegance in that but can’t bring myself to go there. My background is way too wrapped around the physical. Sometimes I hate that. So, clearing the brain and preconceived notions is very necessary in order to move on. If I can’t get there with my physical stuff, maybe I can be more diligent with the mind!
There’s an interesting story that I’d like to share.
Imagine I could have a talk with Leonardo da Vinci. I would ask him what a renaissance is. He would tell the following story;
You’re in a boat with all your life’s possessions. The boats is sinking. What do you do? You begin to throw things overboard. The boat is still sinking. More things go over the side. The boat continues to sink. Now you’re getting to things that really matter to you… and the boat continues to go down. Finally you’re down to the end of ‘stuff’ that is the most valued to you. The boat will sink unless you throw them over as well. They have to go. Everything. Leonardo would say, “Thats a renaissance!” So imagine those are our preconceived ideas in life. From time to time we need to clear out the mental baggage and start over. It’s also a Satori. The moment when all preconceived ideas are washed away and new coding begins. From there on, we create an entirely new reality. It’s fresh and exciting.
So, to get to a brand new place of thought, we need to clear all of our old baggage.
Another way of putting it was from one of my younger colleagues and friends, Frank Tyneski and this fits Florida very well. He said, “You keep putting chemicals in the pool over and over trying to balance the chemistry, and finally at times you just have to drain that sucker!”
Having a Satori is to enjoy the euphoric thrill of having your thinking go to a new place. All previous mental baggage has been cleared. For just a moment, we have an exciting aha experience. It comes with excitement and insight wiping away all previous mental code on a topic.
Nurturing is a key piece of creativity and innovation that is not discussed too often. It includes exnovation. Weed out the old stuff. It includes abductive reasoning; anticipating what’s next. Take what you have just completed and what you know, and have a clear view of what to do next. Nothing stands alone. Everything we do is on a continuum. Every solution breeds another pass at an opportunity. Then we return to a discovery phase all over again.
Hopefully we return or arrive at this place with all new vision. The process repeats itself. When I’m working on a project, I ask what’s next. Race car driving is like that. You look out ahead and down the road past the curve. You anticipate what is beyond what is in front of you. All of your braking ( getting rid of previous thinking ) and down shifting is done before the curve. When you hit the apex of the curve you should be in full throttle! What excitement and a rush to have the feel of all the acceleration working for you as you come out of the turn or changes in your life! You screw this up, you die. It’s the same with innovation. Knowing what’s beyond and nurturing it is very critical. Removing excess before all this happens gives you the room for what’s new. Exnovate then innovate!
Some guidelines.
From time to time get rid of old thinking. Move on. Refresh your goals.
Empty the pool from time to time. Clear out old mental baggage!
Watch out for what’s next.
Look beyond what is right in front of you.
Keep moving. It has been said that if you haven’t had a new idea recently, check your pulse, you might be dead.