A stream of ideas

Episode #7 of the course The random word doodle: boost your creativity and exercise your mind by Rich Armstrong

It’s crazy. We live in an era where the gray squishy thing in our skull plays a major role in all aspects of our lives—work, our personal lives, our decision-making, productivity, efficacy, and especially our creativity. And yet we do so little to help it out. In fact, we do things that make it worse.

We live in an idea-centric world, and sharpening our minds is a must. Not only does it help us do our work better and faster, it helps us in every area of our lives, allowing us to become invaluable assets wherever we are. It’s better for you and the rest of humanity when our creativity is flowing fast and free—the quantity and quality of work increases, our lives as a whole become more interesting, and we can begin to help others. My brain is often sore after doodling, yet my days are always better because of it.

When you stop creating and stop coming up with ideas, your stream of creativity dries up, and what’s left goes stale, festers, and rots. It’s no good. I like to view my daily random word doodles as the grand unclogging of the idea pipe each morning. I get the crap out. I start the machine. I make way for fresh ideas. I get closer to the brilliant idea waiting in the idea line among the average ideas.

So don’t be dismayed at the odd (and maybe frequent) bad idea or doodle that pops out onto the page. Rather, revel in the knowledge that you’re a step closer to better work, a better life, and a crazy cool day. And remember that some pipes need more than just a quick clean. Some brains are overweight and very lazy; they probably haven’t been used properly in years. It’s like going to gym—you can’t expect to be ripped with a toned and bronzed body after one day. Some things take time, and doodling daily will get you there! If you don’t push through the bad days, you may never get to the good days.

So with that in mind, choose a word to unclog your stinky stream of ideas and creativity:

1. Twit
2. Looby
3. Multilingual
4. Valine
5. Rundlet
6. Wilted
7. Andreaea
8. Tubocurarine
9. Italics
10. Subcutaneous

So today, make up a meaning for a word you don’t know and draw that. This approach is fun, and probably my best—it gets the lateral thinking part of the brain going.

Day 7 done. Dusted. Unblocked. Now share. And have a glorious, idea-centric day.

Recommended book

“The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles” by Steven Pressfield

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