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Flex Your Creative Muscle Headlines
Pay attention
Riding the growth cycle
Put the MOJO in to your business
Creativity leads to innovation
Creativity: not just the domain of arty, advertising types
Flex Your Creative Muscle
Put the MOJO in to your business
Monday, 04 June 2007
Want to be more creative? Here’s a helpful tool you can consciously bring into your day-to-day routine.
We call it ‘Use your MOJO’ (your MOtivational JOlt). It’s simple. All you need to do is use your five senses to awaken and enrich your brain. You’re using them anyway; just probably not as a way to enhance your creativity.
The creative genius Leonardo Da Vinci engaged in a rigorous regime of exercises to develop his sensory skills.
Why? Because all the senses have an important role to play in your thinking, both directly and indirectly. The brain takes in information through your five senses and helps you form an understanding of yourself and the world you live in – your reality.
Traditionally there are five senses referred to as VAKOG – visual (see), auditory (hear), kinaesthetic (touch/movement), olfactory (smell) and gustatory (taste). If you can see dead people then you have a refined sixth sense and need to give Bruce Willis a call.
Heightened sensory acuity not only involves developing skills in sensing external information, it also includes refining the same sense internally.
For example, there is Visual Internal, the images you see inside your head, and External - the images you see with your eyes.
Auditory Internal are sounds and dialogue you hear inside your head and External, the sounds and dialogue you hear with your ears. Kinaesthetic Internal is how you feel inside your body while external is how you physically move in space.
To bring this theory to life consider what images can you put around your work environment to keep you inspired.
Put something meaningful on your screensaver, in your wallet or above your computer so that when you need a lift it’s right there for you.
Do you have an image that you can conjure up in your imagination at will that gets you on top of your game? How about certain music? Smell is your oldest and considered to be the most powerful sense when it comes to affecting the brain. Oils, fragrances, flowers and perfumes are ways to refresh and positively stimulate you. Basil, lemon and rosemary in particular are oils that invigorate the mind and body.
Ever walked past a bakery and instantly felt hungry? Or smelt coffee and then had a cup even if you didn’t want or need one moments before?
This MOJO tool is known as creating anchors for you to use when needed, and is used in the world of hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming and top sports performance.
Sarah Ulmer listens to particular music before each race, Daniel Carter visualizes the ball going through the goal posts before each kick and excellent presenters run through their presentation and see it going well before they get on stage.
Everything that gets created in the material world must be created in the thought world first. The chair you’re sitting on, your mobile phone, even the printing press was just an idea at one time.
Developing your sensory acuity means you’re developing your perception ability, which greatly improves your creativity and decision-making skills.
The key to using this tool is to experiment and see what works for you.
Do something different and use it a few times to help you look at the world around you with fresh eyes and enjoy a boost in your creativity.
• Wade Jackson is a director of Improv Solutions Ltd based in Auckland
