Remember having a snow day? Or a teachers conference day? Unexpectedly, you got the news, "No school today!" Oh boy! The world of possibilities was open to more than sitting at your desk listening to the sound of chalk scraping along the blackboard, as birds chirped outside. Time to do a Snoopy Dance!
According to a recent psychology study, performed by researchers, Darya Zabelina and Michael Robinson of North Dakota State University, adults who imagined a day off and imagined doing boring things, like chores or catching up on sleep, were less creative at solving a problem than those who let their 7 year old self imagine a day off from school to go play in the park with their bestest friends, or take a walk on the beach alone, or go find the biggest lollipops they could find!
So, if you need a boost to your creativity, lighten up and take a little time to think like a kid again. Play hookey in your imagination for a while and see if it brings a new spirit of adventure to the rest of your day.
It is really important to bring a bit of spontanaetity to your to do list every day, and to remember that your free time can be free time! You may not need a nap to catch up on sleep as much as you need an opportunity to explore and play!
And here's the kicker, as a grown up with more resources and skills at the ready, you have more power to make things happen than you did as a kid. Open up to larger possibilities, and let your imagination go a little wild.
Furthermore, once you have given yourself the freedom to imagine a whole day off to ride on the back of an elephant, you might find that you don't actually need that much time or the whole enchilada to act on the idea in a way that would still be completely fun and satisfying. What's more, to go from imagination to action to do this, you will already be starting to think more creatively. Maybe at lunch time, you could go for a walk at the zoo and watch the elephants watch you.
The new experience and the fun of actually following through to do it then feeds back into the rest of what you do in your day. Later, chores like washing the dishes after supper, can become more fun if you are thinking about the elephant swishing his trunk around as you spray the soap from the plates. Tapping into your childlike creativity generates a cascade effect that will keep your other tasks flowing, too.
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Copyright @ 2012, Catherine E. White, permission is granted for this article to be redistributed and shared with others in its entirety as long as links and attribution are maintained. Catherine E. White is president of Llamagraphics, Inc., developer of Life Balance™ software for Mac OS X, Windows, and iPhone. Life Balance provides a structure for your goals, projects and tasks that is priority driven, so you can to make better decisions about how to use your discretionary time. To learn more, please visit http://www.llamagraphics.com/
