The Context
As long you as observations to make, as long as you can see things and let them register against your template, and as long as you’re able to take impressions and compare them with the old ones, you will always have material. You can’t run out of ideas as long as you keep getting new information and you can keep processing it. And so, what creativity requires is a continuity of concern, an intense awareness of one’s active inner life, a sensitivity to the external world, and an unbearable frustration to express the combination of the two in some creative way.
The Tool
Awareness Plan
AWARENESS PLAN -- A metacognitive procedure or mental recipe for perceiving and thinking about the environment around you, a lens for interacting with the world
Find a metacognitive procedure or mental recipe for perceiving and thinking about the environment around you. A lens for interacting with the world. A plugin for the human operating system. For example: What if you saw everything as edible? What if you dreamed up alternative interpretations for the events you noticed? What if you hypothesized people’s potential relationships with each other? What if you imagined past and future reincarnations of every object you encountered? Those are awareness plans. The simple idea of choosing an awareness plan helped me realize that with the right lens, the right posture and the right filter, inspiration can actually seek you out.
The Rest
By training your brain to be on the lookout for anything in any interaction that has potential, creative blocks will become quaint relics of the past. What's your favorite awareness plan?
The Benefits
Live live where works gets done over over
Help inspiration seek you out
Training your brain to notice opportunities
Less pressure to sustain originality