Bird Houses

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert Einstein

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I had the opportunity to sit across the table from an inspiration yesterday. Someone who has sat down with Presidents. Someone who, even more impressive, still loves to sit down with children. Despite the history of who he knows, and who he has influenced, he is still very humble.

What stood out in the conversation was the unique way that he motivates one to let go of the past. Yes, if we do not educate ourselves on the history of the world, business, relationships and science we will be tempted to repeat our mistakes rather than learn from them.

At the same time we can become inert as we find comfort in our study of what has happened past the point of usefulness. We must be ready to embrace change, creatively adapt to where we are now.

I heard another man last week, who happens to be married to a congress woman say that he needed to take 2 minutes. The first minute was to admit that he had made a mistake. The second minute was to learn from that mistake. He protects that time from interruption and only gives that 2 minutes of his time for recovery and learning.

What is the point of all this. Simply... we (planners like myself) perhaps spend too much time regurgitating other people's ideas. We think that will protect us or enable us to solve the next problem we are faced with.

Because of this, we can be tempted to then spend way to much time trying to understand how our plans were not fulfilled perfectly.

Albert was likely surrounded by people who put their pride in what they could site from others ideas or creations. He was looking for new thoughts, creations and solutions.

Sadly, most of our nation can not be accused of reading too much. I am sure I could not either. But I am guilty of too much entertainment. TV, music, and movies likely rob our creativity to an even greater degree.

So, in keeping with doing nothing, I believe I will add time for doing unique creative projects.

We eat a lot of popsicles. It has been year's since I made a popsicle bird house. This maybe a fun place to start with stretching my creativity.