Babies and toddlers are bubbling masses of genius, but most people never see it. Here’s how an adult can recapture some of that lost creativity and develop new and exciting ideas for life.
My little 18 month old niece knocked me right in the head with the massive Lego for the 3rd time. I wasn’t upset or irritated, instead I was inspired by her creativity. She had in hand one giraffe shaped Lego and another Hippo shaped one. By the instructions, the child was supposed to lock each animal Lego into a green oasis.
My niece quickly grew bored with that and instead tried coming up with something new to do with the colorful blocks. She put the giraffe in her mouth… I assume it wasn’t tasty because that didn’t last long. She threw the hippo as far as she could and then picked up an L shaped Lego.
It was then time to try to combine the giraffe and the other Lego. This worked ok for a second or two. The L-shaped part carefully balanced on the giraffe’s head and then tottered off.
“hmmm.” she seemed to say as she picked up the L-shaped Lego again.
Finally, she decided the combination she liked best was to bop me in the head with the L-shaped Lego and then the giraffe. This activity seemed quite the thrill to her. A wide grin revealed she loved hitting Uncle Brad in the head with Legos – perhaps she loved it just a little too much.
I get such a kick out of young children and their natural creativity. They aren’t afraid to try new combinations. They aren’t afraid to taste new things. They aren’t wary of cause and effect. In fact, the world is their laboratory where they experiment with all sorts of recipes.
However, you put a few years on the kid and that sense of experimentation and creativity wanes. We begin to fear failing, falling and looking stupid. Although that child inside might be screaming out for more play, more creativity, it’s easier to just ignore it.
The problem with ignoring our childlike wonder is ideas and creativity become scarce resources. The safe status quo becomes our new friend.
When is the last time you tasted something new? How about played with childhood toys or games? Have you finger-painted lately? Or tried standing on your head?
To embrace the creative genius of childhood is to become a magnet for extraordinary ideas. But to get there, we have to ignore the fears we’ve developed as adults and get back to that sense of wonder and play.
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Great post Brad. I think we can understand so much more about ‘learning’ by watching toddlers.
It’s especially interesting for how quickly they pick things up without even trying.
Matthew
http://www.InspirationToAchieve.com
Indeed. Children are good on making novel combinations. They can combine, and recombine something into different combinations no matter how incongruent or unusual :-p They are curious about many things. It’s a good idea trying to imitate that traits. Yet,it’s not easy, yah
Brad, your innocence and childlike appreciation of others is wonderful.
Its interesting and a little odd you mentioned standing on your head in this column because I have a client who is taking a yoga class for the first time and a little over a week ago, was lamenting that she didn’t think she would ever be able to do a headstand. My assistant and I encouraged her to take it a step at a time and keep trying. I have practiced yoga since I was 19 and the headstand is not too difficult if you learn the foundation of it first. As you get stronger, your balance improves, along with your confidence in your own abilities. A little like running your own business, I think.
Anyway, she came in this morning all smiles and announced that she had indeed, done her first headstand this morning!
Thanks for encouraging all of us to try new things. Life is good.
Hi Brad, that’s a pretty good article to remind us that’s it’s ok to experiment. I think too many of us ignore hunches we get from within telling us to try something different.
There might be a bit of initial failure but once overcomed we’re much the better.
I actually don’t even believe in failure, I just see it as a learning experience which we can grow from.