Ten Ways to Routinely Break Your Routines – And to do it Vividly
- Hold a conversation with a new person everyday. Expand your world beyond people similar to you. Talk to people from other countries, other cultures or just try talking to the maintenance and cleaning people, the mailroom staff. You’ll learn about ways of life and outlooks on life that are incredibly different from your own.
- Avoid wasting time. You have far too little. Don’t watch television. Yeah, I know, you mostly watch the history and science channels. People tell me that all the time. Turn it off and go do something else. Anything else.
- Waste time. Relaxation frees the subconscious to connect the blocks of your Experiences and Knowledge. When you free your mind your subconscious has more power to bring in random thoughts or connect items that are not necessarily related to each other. Just don’t waste your time watching TV.
- Use your lunch, not just for lunch with friends or to run errands. Go to museums, new restaurants, new parks, try new foods. So many people waste this time (this writer could certainly do better) working at their desks or going to the same restaurant with the same people and eating the same food. New friends, foods and activities are Vivid.
- Read books from the Dummies series on subjects you have no use for. Even better, read children’s books; they’re faster. There are millions of subjects you could expose yourself to with a few minutes each day. I have had a refresher course in fundamental science and history by helping my children study for tests. I have accompanied the kids on school field trips. I learned a lot, saw my children interact with their friends, and even took the opportunity to scare the little boys in my daughter’s class right at the critical age when they seem to be developing an interest in the girls. That’s Vivid learning plus Vivid fatherhood!
- Play with Legos and Tinker Toys and Lincoln Logs. The building challenges, the creation of something quickly and easily is both a puzzle solving exercise and builds visualization skills. In addition, anything that triggers childhood memories is good. If you’re currently under a lot of stress it might be best not to let your spouse see you at this one.
- Create a piece of art and enter it into an art exhibit or write a short story and try to get it published. My guess, call it an educated guess, is that most of my readers can not even take this suggestion seriously. You have “No talent, time, tools, techniques, yada yada yada.” So I am going to approach this from a different angle — Idea developers need a thick skin along with a combination of tenacity and courage. This is a great exercise for working that tenacity and courage. So how about taking some of that tenacity and courage and give art a try? Carry a camera with you and capture some interesting scenes. Try drawing or writing just a few pages. See what you get.
- Expose yourself to a wide variety of music (I draw the line at disco however and no amount of creative inspiration will cause me to cross that line). Thanks to the internet you can now listen to anything you can imagine and more. Search for Native American songs, popular or folk Indian music, and if you normally listen to American Pop then it’s time to try some jazz and classical.
- Change your schedule: If you normally arrive at work at 8 a.m. try 9 a.m. and 7 a.m. You’ll see your world differently, you’ll sense different emotions in the people you meet and hear different sounds. Try getting up with the sun and going outside to listen to the birds and feel the early morning breeze. It’s wonderful.
- Ask questions then question the answers. Question everything. Dig deeper into the initial answer and you’ll learn more. Challenge the answer and you’ll inspire new ways to think about the question.
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