You don’t need to take control of every single aspect of your creativity. Make room for something unexpectedly awesome. Oftentimes, as creative people we love making decisions. We tend to be really competitive people, so we love pushing forward. While being competitive can be helpful, it also focuses us a bit too much on the path ahead of us. We get so focused on trying to win, that we end up missing the original ideas that would actually help us. The more competitive you are, the more you’ll focus on what’s directly ahead of you. You’ll make great progress, but only for as long as the ideas in front of you are what you happen to need, when you happen to need them. When the ideas directly in front of you no longer work, which at some point is inevitable, then you got a problem. 

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Laziness has an upside. Lazy people will look for shortcuts. Those shortcuts can save lots of time. Lazy people are also less likely to get caught-up in the rat race. The competitive person puts their head down and plows forward until they achieve victory. But in creativity, that’s rarely the best strategy. When we look at highly original ideas, we often see the unexpected. 

One discovery often leads to another. This is why a tiny, unexpected ideas can lead to something truly incredible. You’d be surprised at how many inventions began with an accidental discovery: bread, vinegar, the microwave oven, nutrasweet, photography, and even cellphones. You could trace any of these inventions back to some kind of unexpected discovery. Unexpected ideas have a great way of changing the entire direction of a project.

This is what it means to court serendipity. Leave yourself open to the unexpected. Don’t be so focused on getting to where you want to go that you ignore all the interesting ideas around you. From time to time, make it a point to create new experiences for yourself. This will open up possibilities in both your creative and personal life. 

As a creative person, you’ll be experiencing something new. Each new idea could be potentially useful. Remember that the problem you’re trying to solve might already be solved by another industry. The only way you’ll ever find out is by opening yourself up to new experiences. You don’t know where or when the creative inspiration will strike, but that’s the point. Your job isn’t to force a creative solution. Your job is to open yourself up to an unexpected solution by purposefully inviting diversity into your life. The hobby that you’ve never had time for might just hold the answer your looking for. Go to new places. Meet new people. Ask new questions. Explore all the fun possibilities that the world has been trying to offer you. Make room for something awesome. Make room for serendipity.

Kaizen Question: What is an experience that you had in the past that unexpectedly helped you with solving a problem? (go to the Kaizen Creativity Facebook Group to leave your answer)

I think for me, reading books on philosophy has profoundly influenced my creative process in ways I wasn’t expecting. I have no interest in becoming a philosopher, it’s just a topic that I enjoy learning about as a hobby. Yet over and over again, I find that things I’ve learned in philosophy have a huge influence on both what I create and how I go about creating it. 

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