Tuesday, October 07, 2008

A Simple Secret to Being Creative.

I love creative but if you ask me what it is I am sure I'll come up with different answers, none of which are satisfactory.

But what I can do is tell you is what works for me.

The simple secret is that you must have basic limitations. That sounds confusing, but what happens if you don't have basic limits.

Let's have a look:

Write a story. Ooops. It to wide a subject, no limits.

Now if I tell you to write a story and it has to have the words: Sugar, tree and bear. Well you have a good start. (By the way this is a great creative exercise for writing).

If I tell you that it can't be more than one page long and that it has to have a magical scene, you now have creative limits.

Now you have a map, and it is up to you to be creative.

So the secret that you can apply to any circumstance, is to define what I call the limits. What you need is the mentality or should I say the attitude, and apply it to everything you see.

You are bound to come up with some pretty weird ideas, but the worst scenario is that you will have fun.

Finally, just a couple of extra tips.
- When writing or solving problems, as you play around with the secret, put the tip of your tongue against the back of your top front teeth. This helps both your brain hemispheres to work together.
- Challenge yourself to observe. Look about you and search for ordinary things you no longer notice. This by the way will also help you to quiet down your self talk.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Why Develop a Child's Imagination?

Children are imaginative. Watch them as they play with their toys, specially when they are by themselves.

The fascinating thing is that they haven't yet learned limits to what they can imagine. They aren't yet stopped by experience or being influenced by what others may think.

When parents motivate and celebrate their children's originality this strengthens them in ways that go beyond developing their creativity. It provides them with self assurance and fortifies self image, as well as increasing their resources and future problem solving skills.

Somewhere along the way many kids are stunted in their creative flow. This could be as a result of family environment or schooling - specially when they forced into accepted ways of doing things.

So playing with your kids and getting them to think of other ways of doing things and play acting will help them sustain and develop their creativity. A great way of doing this is by sharing with them creative activities - building blocks, playing with lego's, and perhaps my favorite, telling stories.

My kids love stories, real or invented. They love it when I share things I did as a child. Or when I tell them things they did.

We were recently on a very long road trip, and the games we came up with were great. The best, according to them, was a story we made up together. They came up with three words. Bat, duck billed platypus and night. Everybody pitched in and we ended the first part of the story four hours later.

As I watch them (all 5) I find that each in their own very different ways are very creative in problem solving. The use of their imagination is second nature to them.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Privacy Policy

PRIVACY POLICY FOR Imaginary Line

This privacy policy sets out how Imaginary Line uses and protects any information that you give “Imaginary Line” when you use this website.

“Imaginary Line” is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

“Imaginary Line” may change this policy from time to time by updating this page. You should check this page from time to time to ensure that you are happy with any changes. This policy is effective from March 2, 2009.

WHAT WE COLLECT

We may collect the following information:

Name, Email Address.

What we do with the information we gather

We require this information to understand your needs and provide you with a better service, and in particular for the following reasons:

Internal record keeping.

We may use the information to improve our products and services.

We may periodically send promotional email about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided.

From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail.

We may use the information to customize the website according to your interests.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect on line.

How we use cookies

A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer's hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyze data about web page traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

This site may carry interest based advertising for which Google or other third party vendors use cookies to serve advertisements on this site. Googles use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our visitors based on your visit to this site and other sites on the Internet.
You may opt out of the use of the DART cookie at any time by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at http://www.google.com/privacy_ads.html.

PERSONS UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE ARE EXCLUDED FROM THIS WEBSITE

This website is not lawfully accessible to persons under the age of 18 or who are otherwise covered by the provisions of the Child Online Privacy Act of 1998 (COPA). If you are under the age of 18 you must leave this site immediately. Fraudulent use of this website may make you subject to civil or criminal sanctions.

LINKS TO OTHER WEBSITES

Our website may contain links to enable you to visit other websites of interest easily. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We will not sell, distribute or lease your personal information to third parties unless we have your permission or are required by law. We may use your personal information to send you promotional information about third parties which we think you may find interesting if you tell us that you wish this to happen.

You may request details of personal information which we hold about you under the Data Protection Act 1998. A small fee will be payable.

If you believe that any information we are holding on you is incorrect or incomplete, please write to or email us as soon as possible, at the above address. We will promptly correct any information found to be incorrect.

QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, OR REPORT OF INCIDENTS

You may direct questions, comments or reports to: comment section of this blog.


REVISIONS TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY WITHOUT NOTICE

This Privacy Policy is dynamic. It will continually change. You may not assume that it remains the same and you agree to check the policy each time you visit the site for changes. Unless, in the sole opinion of the website, this policy changes so drastically as to suggest a posted notification on the site or via email, you will receive no notification of changes to this Privacy Policy nor, under any circumstances, does this site promise notification. Your continued use of this site always evidences your acceptance of the terms this Privacy Policy or any modifications.

LATEST UPDATE

This Privacy Policy was last updated on: April 6, 2009