By Guest Blogger, Kathy Pennell Cooperman of KC Leadership Consulting LLC
This time of year, I’m personally inspired by all the hype about “back to school”. I have fond memories of shopping for school supplies to start a brand new school year. My favorite memory about “back to school” was purchasing that 64-count, built-in sharpener Crayola crayons box. Just the thought of it makes me want to create something brand new.
How would you rate your own level of creativity in your current role . . . or even in life, overall? It’s easy to fall victim to the old “that’s not the way we do things around here” syndrome.
Test yourself on the following creativity quizzes (no peeking at the answers before giving it a try):
- Plant 10 trees in 5 rows with 4 trees per row.
- Use a dot to represent one tree
- The rows must be straight
- Brainstorm for one minute:
- Make a list of as many uses for a brick as you can think of.
Answer to quiz #1:
A 5-‐pointed star with dots at every point and every intersection.
Answer to quiz #2:
- How many did you get?
- Now go back and see if you had not only a large quantity of ideas but also a lot of different uses for the brick such as:
- Building a wall
- Art decoration
- A weapon
- Place in the tank of toilet to conserve water
- Weight-‐lifting
- Paper weight
- Door stop
- Crushed, use it for art supplies
- Etc., etc.
You’re close to a genius (slight hyperbole) if you listed a large number of ideas PLUS a variety of different uses (not all building, for example).
In the next week, challenge yourself to see things differently. A great book to learn more about thinking creatively is Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques. Have fun with it!
Author’s content used under license, © 2013 KC Leadership Consulting LLC
Click here to visit the portal for my book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life (Balboa Press 2013). Explore options to purchase the book online in softcover, hardcover and three digital formats, order an autographed softcover copy, read book reviews and sign up for my book insider club.
Click here to visit the portal for my weekly 60-minute Internet radio show on the VoiceAmerica EmPOWERment channel. Access recordings of all past episodes, browse descriptions of upcoming episodes, sign up for my radio insider club, explore guest testimonials and submit a proposal to appear as a guest on my show.
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About djwlifecoach
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities.
During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll.
My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world.
111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness.
Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled.
Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else.
I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do.
By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire.
My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework.
For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.