Start Your Toolbox!

One of the excellent books that I used for years in my classroom was, "The Thinker's Toolbox" by Pamela Thornburg and David Thornburg. I believe strongly that if you want to be creative then the most important thing you need to do is say, "Darn I'm Creative". After that the rest is learning techniques and strategies. Once you have given yourself permission to be creative, a switch starts being turned. It's not an off on switch but more of a rheostat. I've often wondered why we call those things dimmers and not brighteners. After you have practised strategies and techniques for a while you can gain the ability to crank up the creativity or to turn it down when it's not appropriate. More later on when it may not be appropriate.
In The Thinker's Toolbox they talk about gathering a number of techniques or tools that can be used to generate a larger numbers of ideas and possible solutions to our challenges and problems. Creativity seldom shows up in a vacuum. For those who would like to be less vacuous, explore. Oops that was the last book. ( see earlier posts )
As you acquire new tools and techniques it is necessary to practise with them so take each of these tools and look for ways to use it to solve a situation in your real life. Please share any of your experiences with the rest of us. We can learn vicariously!!

Eliminate


In our busy, complicated lives, things can often get too complicated, too messy, too much and what we need to do is eliminate many of the unnecessary distractions and time wasters. When faced with decision making we must often get rid of what doesn't matter. Sometimes by eliminating the impossible, what we have left is the possible.

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Here's a practice situation. It's March Break. You are ready! You have been compiling a list of great activities for yourself or for your family. You have generated a list of 86 fun, exciting activities. You can't do them all. How would you go about eliminating some of these activities?
Please share with us one or more of the techniques you might use to pare this prodigous list down to something more manageable.