Think Different: Preparing the Mind for Creative Thinking
A bowl is most useful when it is empty
When you hear the word Polymath, Da Vinci comes to mind and a diverse skillset.
Before you start building the skillset, have a system to learn, store, and create using those skills. Do the legwork for cognitive development.
Focus cognitive development into 3 pillars:
Growth Mindset: viewing setbacks and failures as opportunities for growth.
Emotional Intelligence: helps develop better relationships and open-mindedness for learning.
Problem-Solving Skills: practicing what you learn using different techniques such as mind mapping to solve problems.
Building a growth mindset & emotional intelligence requires reframing what happens from failures to learning opportunities.
Embrace challenges. View them as opportunities to learn and grow. As you make mistakes, build empathy and practice active listening to better understand the perspectives of others.
If you’re interested in reading more on Growth Mindsets, Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success is a good place to start.
By Fortifying the 3 pillars develops a foundation for you to install 3 modes of Thinking: Lateral, Divergent, and Convergent. These modes provide a system for approaching ideas and problems from different perspectives.
Convergent Thinking: seeing the facts point to one solution.
Divergent Thinking: one idea applied in many areas.
Lateral Thinking: staying in the same lane but take different POV.
Each are valuable on their own, and they work best together. For more types of thinking modes, see the article below.
Five Types of Creative Thinking
medium.com/@adamjorlen/five-types-of-creative-thinking-3f734a427f7c
Examples:
An example of using the 3 modes of thinking when choosing a Career:
Convergent Thinking:
Ask: “What skills/interests do you have now & what career do they point to?
Divergent Thinking:
Ask: “What skills/interests do you have now & what fields do they apply to?”
Lateral Thinking:
Ask: “What careers are there & what am I not seeing? What assumptions am I making?”
An example to study is Apple:
Apple is a company defined by the motto “Think Different”. Their products revolutionized personal computing & defined the 21st century. The brand exudes novelty, prestige, and uniqueness.