Push Against Your Limits

Creativity, like leadership, requires us to stretch. To be at our most creative we must grow. Since we are surrounded by limitations, that can cause some discomfort. Which boundaries should we cross? Which lines are mental and which are metal?

How do we create without getting hurt (or worse, hurting?)

I'm not sure. Maybe that's the wrong question. Maybe the question is -- what limits should we ignore today? What limits should we buck against and stretch?

If a limit is telling you that you are NOT creative -- ignore it.
If a limit is telling you that you cannot grow -- defy it.
If a limit is telling you that the world doesn't need your creativity -- laugh it off.

The world needs you. The world needs your creativity. The world needs you at your creative best.

The creative life pushes against limits.

Keep pushing.

-- doug smith

Cartoon: Blue Collar Crazy (1976)

My idea of humor in 1976. These are some tough job requirements. Job interviews have always been tough.

Sketch: Balancing Topper

Not much more than a doodle but it brings me joy and seemed brilliant in 1976. Now, I'm not so sure, but I can still smile.

Cartoon: A short treatise on existence

I created this oddity in 1976, in the middle of a disappearing relationship, working a series of very odd jobs including security guard, bartender, and parking lot attendant. Saved for posterity because I'm just too self-absorbed not to, I guess.

You May Not Need Every Tool

Do you have a lot of tools?

I don't. I had a nice collection inherited from my dad (I call them a collection because I collected them but when they were his he actually USED them) until they were destroyed in a fire.

Now, an apartment dweller, I have few tools. I still don't use all of them -- but I know how.

When we are solving problems we have many tools. The temptation is to use them all. It's oddly satisfying to bring out tool after tool. Satisfying, but sometimes inefficient. Simplicity - elegant simplicity is often best.

Use the tools that work, and leave the rest for another time.

It isn't always necessary to overwhelm a problem in order to solve it.

Sometimes the solution is right there in from of you and in need of only one tool. Dialogue. Talk about it and see what happens. You might just solve that problem faster than you expected.

-- doug smith

This entry comes from one of my other blogs: High Performance Leadership and also appears on Centered Problem Solving. I copied it here, just because...

Collage: Corner Office

Corner Office by doug smith

Collage: Corner Office, (c) 2007 douglas brent smith

Drawing: Where To Begin?

(c) 2006, douglas brent smith

from Creative Play, p.203,  Douglas Brent Smith, (c) 2006

Collage: It's In The Water

It's In The Water

From Creative Play, by Douglas Brent Smith

Collage: Discovering Another Garden

Discovering Another Garden

Collage, created March 2006 by Doug Smith
(c) 2006 Douglas Brent Smith

Collage: Bizarre Box of Treasures - Cover Detail

Poem: off again

did i ever tell you
that any of that
                mattered
or that
       holding out hope
is what i do best?

with your barely open gates
closing and
your once flirtatious musing
silenced you
look at me
          differently and
see another friend
                  ending
this dance
          again
ending this
          dance
again
          But,

didn't you tell me that

you don't dance?

-- doug smith

Photo: Wedgwood Office

FRL Office in Longmont