What was your most recent creative thought? How did this thought arise in your head? Was it in the midst of a pressured brainstorming session or did it come about naturally in a quiet and private manner? People aren’t born creative. Although many of us like to think that creativity is a God given gift that only the talented few are lucky to posses, it’s not quite that simple. It is a personal ability that is developed over time based on daily habits and actions. Todd Henry in his book The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment 's Notice, makes a strong claim that creativity is just the same as any other skill because it requires consistent attention and must be able to be apart of our everyday lives in order to build upon it. Right from the beginning Henry makes it very clear that regardless of whether or not you work in a specifically creative field—such as art or design—you will face the need to be creative on a daily basis. Due to the nature of today’s fast-paced, 24/7 work environment, business professionals are expected to be brilliant on command. Even though all of this probably seems pretty clear and understandable to most using simple logic, it’s certainly not something that is apparent to everyone and the author works to prove that very point through this book. Todd Henry starts off the first portion of his book discussing what he has labeled as “The Challenges”, which are the demands of the creative process and the obstacles that prevent the creative process from occurring. He also talks about the challenges you face from working in a pressured environment of creating brilliance in a moment’s notice. From here, the rest of the book outlines the plan for “creative rhythm” in both work and personal life situations. Henry outlines this rhythm in the five parts: Focus, Relationships, Energy, Stimuli, and Hours (FRESH). This systematic approach identifies a series of methods to counteract the problems posed in The Challenges in order to maximize creativity and this section of the book is identified as “The Practices”. Whether you are a high ranking executive, new business owner, or even a stay-at-home mom, anyone should be able to find some value from adding structure to their day and this book provides a bundle of informative advice that can easily be applied to a creative idea or practice that is rich and meaningful. According to Henry, if you are responsible for solving problems, developing strategies, or even sifting through your own brain for new ideas, then you are considered a “creative”. “If you want to deliver the right idea at the right moment, you must begin the process far upstream from when you need that idea” (page 3, Todd Henry) What Henry means by this is that you go to work each day with the responsibility to come up with clever solutions that meet specific objectives and held to strict deadlines. If you are able to do all three of these than the chances are likely you will be able to hold onto your job and if you aren’t able to prove yourself worthy of this in the long run, then you should probably start looking elsewhere to work. Creatives must strive to be productive, highly inspiring, and fruitful in order to consistently produce stellar
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First off, I thought it was a rather easy read which made this process much more smooth and enjoyable than I had originally anticipated. My supervisor wanted to assign something to me that had to do with a broad concept that can be applied to an endless variety of people in different situations rather than a specific go to guide on the business of event planning and management. He thought that it would be much more effective for me to learn about a topic such as the creative mind that I can not only apply to the work I am doing for him, but to my everyday life as well. This read has definitely expanded my outlook on how I must structure myself for the entire length of my professional career. Although most of the ideas and arguments in this book come across as pretty obvious, it did require me to fully read and analyze Todd Henry’s book in order for me to truly understand the deeper meaning to why creative thinking is a crucial trait to posses in order to separate yourself from the rest of the
First off, I thought it was a rather easy read which made this process much more smooth and enjoyable than I had originally anticipated. My supervisor wanted to assign something to me that had to do with a broad concept that can be applied to an endless variety of people in different situations rather than a specific go to guide on the business of event planning and management. He thought that it would be much more effective for me to learn about a topic such as the creative mind that I can not only apply to the work I am doing for him, but to my everyday life as well. This read has definitely expanded my outlook on how I must structure myself for the entire length of my professional career. Although most of the ideas and arguments in this book come across as pretty obvious, it did require me to fully read and analyze Todd Henry’s book in order for me to truly understand the deeper meaning to why creative thinking is a crucial trait to posses in order to separate yourself from the rest of the