My Pi-spective on the Creative Mindset

(A pi-spective is where you write about something using only 314 words)

This pi-spective is written for the Reeds Spring Middle School Artists and Designers.

Check out the Reeds Spring Mission Statement, which puts many in the corporate world to shame with their focus on being clear and succinct.
Reeds Spring students and teachers achieve their potential by:

1.Critically analyzing information.
2.Creating new knowledge collaboratively
3.Communicating what they have learned

Here's the pi-spective:

A mindset is a habit of mind formed by previous experience. Creativity is a way of seeing the world as it emerges around you. A creative mindset is a choice about how much of the future you bring into your habit of mind.

Look for ways of doing the same things in a different way and avoid doing too much of what you know. Make the most of your experiences because they're not happening to anyone else. You're the only witness to what's going on in your life.

Being creative means making something important happen. We become alive when we give life to something. But creativity isn't easy. Someone always objects to the new: you've changed their world without asking. Only worry when no one says anything.

Creativity and practicality don't get along so don't put them together. Innovation emerges from passion and creativity is personal innovation. Creativity follows what is interesting to you. Find that and follow it. It leads to the new.

If you find yourself in a place where there is an established way of doing things then that's precisely the place to do things differently. Creativity is not just about art, it's about life. It belongs everywhere. Like life, creativity isn't something you do every now and then. Creativity is about taking part in your own life, so why be half-hearted?

Creativity is about what is fascinating. We are drawn to describe the fascinating. This leads us to build skill. We can focus on skill so much that we lose sight of the fascinating. If all we have is skill, then we have nothing. And watch out for goals: they're achievable but creativity is about never finishing.

Enjoy your accidents. When we build something, we also give it the chance to fall over. Life is accidental. When we perfect things we remove the accidental. Be enthusiastic about your worst work.