Tag / creativity

by Ricardo Sanchez

Allowing yourself to try something new

For years, my favorite drink of choice in the mornings and the evenings has been coffee. But occasionally, enjoy a hot cup of tea, specifically chamomile tea. That is the only tea that I would drink.

A few days ago, as I was about to start organizing some of my photos after dinner, I decided to get a cup of tea. To my surprise, the chamomile tea was gone, nada. And for the first time, I decided to try one of the many other teas we have at home. I felt brave, walked to the pantry, and grabbed some black tea. It was wonderful. A few days later, we were still out of chamomile tea, and I again picked a different tea, masala chai. It was even better than the simple black tea.

While taking advantage of different tea flavors is unimportant, this simple activity made me wonder how many other things I have missed for not wanting to try new things. I consider myself open-minded and a person who seeks new experiences, but I could be more of an explorer when it comes to daily life and work.

I noticed that when I’m home, I often eat the same things, watch the same stuff, spend time the same way, etc. When traveling, I often try new things, spend my time out and about, and work is often better. My experience while at home is what we usually call a routine. A routine in itself is not a bad thing. Having a routine helps me stay focused, productive, and happy. But adding some variety to it helps sparks creativity and even happiness.

You can have a routine and still try a new approach to working or spending your day. My goal is not to stay in my comfort zone, at least not in the areas where I want to experience and learn more. It all starts with small decisions, a different tea flavor, a different approach to a problem at work, reading a book on a topic I wouldn’t choose before, etc. Exposing yourself to new things can expand your world and perspective and make life, even the routine, more interesting.

We are still out of chamomile tea a week later, and it is okay.

by Ricardo Sanchez

Experiment, fail and spread your ideas

experimentswithpurposeFirst of all, stop being a people pleaser. When you try to please people around you, it makes it hard to try experiments, to take risks, and to embrace change.

Failing isn’t popular, and it is scary for many people. Some people are OK with failing fewer times, as if there is a right number of times to fail. The more you fail the more you learn. If you aren’t failing often, you aren’t taking enough risks and not trying enough experiments.

Fear is the biggest blocker of change. It is the main reason people don’t experiment enough. There is fear of failing and being ridiculed. We have been thought all of our lives that failing is what irresponsible people do. By experimenting and embracing failure, you are already ahead of most people. After enough failures you’ll learn what most people don’t and eventually, you’ll find the successes that most people won’t.

Experiment, fail, and do it all with purpose. The best way to experiment is when you do it with purpose and when you measure the results. An experiment cannot be successful if you fail and then ignore what didn’t work. A successful experiment has to prove something, then you find out what worked and what didn’t and start again.

Experiment, connect, disturb, inspire, and keep learning. That’s the only way you can truly learn and spread your ideas.

by Ricardo Sanchez

3 Key steps to learn anything

Get Started:

  • Be curious
    • You want to learn about photography, coding, or how to play an instrument. You are curious about something and therefore you want to learn it. Being curious is indispensable to learn anything. If you force yourself to learn something or you feel pressured to do it, you’ll have a hard time learning. Remember school…?
  • Start doing
    • Start doing. Don’t worry about not having the right item or place to start doing and learn. For example, if you want to learn about photography and don’t have a good camera, then start with your phone. If you want to learn to play guitar start with a cheap guitar, don’t convince yourself you need to have the right equipment to make it happen. Start doing something rather than waiting for the right moment or equipment to do it.
  • Stay motivated
    • After you start doing and become better at it, it might be time for you to get some equipment, like a better camera for example. Once you start seeing some results and you outgrow your initial setup, place or equipment, then it isn’t a bad idea to invest a little more on it. Keep yourself inspired and don’t stop doing.

Continue reading →

by Ricardo Sanchez

Creativity is You

If you let the fear of the unknown stop you from even starting, you won’t start

Creativity is YOU. It is not an activity but what you bring to it when you give yourself permission to make mistakes and not be afraid of it.

Creativity is on everything. When you don’t feel like being creative or think there is no room for creativity with the task at hand think again. Creativity is not something you learn or something you can turn on and off. Creativity is something that happens when you start doing something. To trigger creativity you might want to try things without thinking too much about the end result. Also, having some sort of limitations and/or restrictions usually triggers some creativity. Continue reading →

by Ricardo Sanchez

You are not a robot

As babies, we learn everything by getting to know our surroundings. We listen, we touch, we taste, we smell and we watch. Then we start pushing ourselves to try out something new every minute, every hour and every day. We are restless and never stop, we keep trying over and over again. Our nature is to be curious and imaginative, and at the same time we are very sensitive. As babies we cry, we are loud, we laugh and we get mad… and as adults we are always trying hard to hide these feelings, as if it was a bad thing.

As we grow, we distract ourselves from our surroundings with the so-called entertainment industry, we spent endless hours watching TV, sports, movies, social networks, etc… without paying attention to our surroundings and all the incredible things about it. And do not get me wrong, it is OK to do all these things as long as you also spent time to look around, meet real people, reading, writing and trying out new things.

It is human nature to be curious and creative, and yet we as a society always find ways to make sure we teach our kids not to try new things in the name of good behavior and uniformity, this is wrong. We teach our kids that using a pen with colorful ink at school is wrong, we teach our kids that drawing an elephant with the unnatural shape and using different colors is wrong… and yet we ask ourselves why creativity and innovation is so hard to find these days… I wonder why.

As kids we try hard to learn what we want, we don’t see anything as impossible, our mind is full of adventure and our imagination is at a maximum at all times… until we start going to school and between some teachers and parents we start to hear that all those things we think and believe in are not possible, we hear that to be a good person we need to be reasonable, that we need to think realistically and put our feet on the floor, we are told we need to be realistic… why?!

A while ago one of my sons who is now 10 years old came to me with a Lego car he had built using pieces from different Lego models including a brand new set I had bought for him just hours ago… my first reaction was to get upset because he had not followed the instructions in the Lego manual, I remember  telling him that what he did was not right. How could he have mixed all these pieces to create something that was not in a Lego manual? I was completely blind to the fact that my son was doing what kids do, using his imagination to create something, without following any rules or instructions, just creating something that he liked. He was being creative. I soon realized my mistake, apologized and suggested him to continue building this car anyway he wanted, I told him how much I liked the idea of him creating something with Legos that did not look nothing like the models from which these pieces came from. He smiled.

In most schools our kids are taught to follow directions and to memorize things… they get used to an environment where uniformity is the rule and any sign of creativity is usually seemed as disruptive and it is discouraged rapidly.

That needs to change.

While at home, let kids use their imagination, let them be creative and try not to formalize the way they learn or interact, it is not easy but it is worth trying to offer them a better chance at not loosing their creativity and imagination as they transition into adulthood.

This is something you can also try achieving at work, everybody talks about innovation and creativity, and at the same time most companies don’t have an open mind about new services, products or internal procedures… innovation is something that can only be achieved by taking some risks and accepting change. It is very discouraging to work in environments where everything and everybody looks and acts in the same way or very similar. A place where showing personality and individualism is not allowed or it is discouraged by Human Resources departments usually in the name of wanting to have a “professional” environment.

Be different, be creative, be you. You are not a Robot.