Writing

I appreciate all forms of creativity. It colud be singing, art, music, or just playing. It's why I love LEGO so much. Your imagination is the limit.

If you know me well, you'd know a person I hold in high regard is Sir Ken Robinson. The guy who thinks schools kill creativity. And I agree with him to the extent that I wish I came up with his ideas first.

Today I thought I'd talk about other areas of creativity that people wouldn't generally associate as being creative. The obvious one being writing.

Since sparking my interest in reading books again, I have also had a kindling to write. Hence this blog, while it started out as a form of easy to access journalism for my own benefit. I started to see the benefit of reading other peoples blogs and decided I wanted to share my thoughts rather than just keep them to myself.

As such, I have grown to appreciate writing as a creative outlet to myself, being a creative person. To promote further writing. I stumbled upon this blog with a brilliant idea. Write something, anything, in 60 seconds.

http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com

I have been writing my one minute brain farts on there for maybe just on a month, and have recently won an award for an idea I came up with under the guidelines of the topic of the day.

Here's what it looks like.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Today's Writing Prompt: Prescription

The pharmaceutical companies come up with such creative names for new medications. Dream up a new medication--its purpose (as realistic or outlandish as you want it to be) and its name.

One-Minute Writing of the Day:
Writer: Pipsqeek

Re-Lax.

The chill pill and constipation fixer-upperer.

Congratulations, pipsqeek! You may have a million-dollar idea there.... Feel free to put a One-Minute Writer WINNER! button on your blog!

Posted by C. Beth at 5:00 AM

I had in fact forgotten about the entry I submitted. Having been so busy setting up the music school, I have put a lot of things aside recently in order to get this business up and running so I can pay the rent for the place I've leased out.

It's funny, being an IT guy... or should I say, former IT guy.... People assumed I know it all about technology, but the whole concept of online marketing and networking with people is vague to me. Though I am learning. Yesterday I set up a Facebook page for Revolution Guitars, and instead... or more specifically, I got a personal page too.

Now I'm going to have ex-school mates contacting me and asking to meet up, even though we either never will, or it'll happen once. Or better still, existing mates who've all been talking about Facebook will now be able to include me in their conversation and jokes. To which I'll probably still not understand because I don't plan on being social on that particular time waster of a social network.

Now that I've gone waaaay off topic, I forget what I wanted to really talk about.... ah yes, writing. I think everyone should write. Even if you're not a writer. I think a diary is a healthy thing to have. If you're too manly to have a diary, you can have a journal. :)

Even if you're not creative. I've looked back at things I've written on a piece of paper in school that I found when moving house and thinking "Wow, how naive." But at some point you look at the note and wish you were back there.

I'll burst that bubble easy. All I have to do is think about the rest of my school life and it's easy for me to balk at the idea of wishing I was back there.

This entire journal entry is creativity itself. I'm putting a recollection of ideas, experiences and thoughts into a palletable order. I'm not a professional, but I try and write how I speak, rather than put on words that I never use in real life.

If you enjoy writing and can spare a minute, then maybe you should head over to http://oneminutewriter.blogspot.com and starting replying to topics that interest you.

If it's not fun, don't do it

I've always tried to adhere to the principle of if it's not fun, don't do it anymore. I come across people every day that aren't having fun. They're at work, they work, they take things seriously. And while there are serious aspects to work, say, with high voltage, or construction where lives are at risk. I don't want to say throw it all out the window and just have fun.

What I want to say is that having fun, even at work can change the way you not only perceive work but life too.

I saw this video the other day that I would like to share.

Isn't that fantastic?

Me being overweight, I'm conscious of taking the stairs vs taking a escalator. I always find the further car parking spot because I know I can get a spot and walk to the shop quicker than the person who's circling around the same area waiting for someone to leave.

I guess the real question is, do we really need to make it fun in order to do something, anything?

Well, we don't need to, but why not make something pleasurable?

Why not make everything you do, fun?

I try and make games out of everything I do. Mowing the lawn. I try and beat my best time (3 hrs 47 mins). And when I can't go any faster, I try and mow it better.

If you've been following my blog, you'll know that running my business isn't fun anymore either. So I'm changing that too. I'm radically altering what my business does, and at the same time heading into an industry I've always had a passion for.

Actually, it's not even a passion. It's just my way of life.

I've recently ordered this book: Element - Finding Passion Changes Everything. Which is a book by Sir Ken Robinson. If you don't know of him, he parades around the world taking about something I do have a passion for due to my terrible experiences in school. He talks about how education kills creativity. He talks about how schools aren't meant for us. It was an idea brought together to feed the industrial revolution.

Now, while no one is against education. What Ken is passionate about is changing education to help your children, not your great and great great grandfather's children.

I'm wavering off topic here, but Ken clearly has a passion to change education. Deep down we all have a passion for something. And I bet if it's not fun you wouldn't be doing it.

If you're stuck in a rut like me at the moment. Maybe look at what you enjoy doing best and seeing if you can fulfil yourself with what you love. Make your life fun again, like when you were a kid. Being a grown up doesn't mean you can't have fun anymore, at least that's what I tell myself.