“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.” –Arthur C. Clarke
“You can’t solve a problem on the same level that it was created. You have to rise above it to the next level.” –Albert Einstein
“Innovation is seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.” –Dr. Albert, Szent- Györgyi
What does connection mean If we were to look in the dictionary? We would see something like Wikipedia’s version of the meaning:
“a relationship in which a person or thing is linked or associated with something else”.
“The connections between social attitudes and productivity”
I have run many businesses, it wasn’t until my 4th , that I realised that my previous successes were from my ability to be innovative.
I won an award for being innovative in my cosmetology business in the 1980s that gave me more confidence to further my innovation thinking.
Since that time I have investigated within myself, how I am innovative.
Even though in my previous blogs I have spoken about innovation, the importance of it, tips to become good at it., strategies to help with it. In this blog, I will outline 8 clear steps to my process of natural innovation.
My daily routines and rituals are the basis of my innovation. One of my rituals is more like a discipline. Taking time to be with myself whilst meditating. This is the time that I use to be with myself. It’s the most precious time of my day. This is where I allow myself to have a relationship with my past, my present, my future, my emotions, my spirit, my body and my ego.
There are thousands of meditation videos on YouTube and there are thousands of people teaching different modalities of meditation. I’m sharing one of my simple 10-minute meditations with you here.
- My first step to natural innovation is to meditate first thing in the morning and last thing at night.
- The second step is to be aware of my breathing at least six times during my day. Take time to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth.
- Third step is to choose one word to eliminate from your vocabulary every week. For example the simple word of “just” is the word I am putting my awareness on. When I say it I remind myself to repeat what I said without the word “just’. I know right… it’s a simple thing to do. It’s the simple things in living that add up to the big things in our lifestyle and the results that we dream of.
- Forth step is to practice listening to somebody new in your life every week without judging yourself or them, put your awareness on Being an equal human being with them.
- Fifth step is to catch my ideas on post-it notes that I carry in my handbag, and car and wallet. Our ideas will randomly float through your mind during the day and night. To catch them is to give ourselves further choices, to add to our dreams, to facilitate our next steps.
- Sixth step is to ask yourself questions rather than tell yourself statements.
- Seventh step is to become proactive at doing what you know you need to do always go about this from empathy rather than sympathy.
- Eighth step is to leave space in your life for a change. Stop being so busy, take time to see and feel opportunities. We are human beings, not human doings!
Each of the above 8 steps are important for us as human beings to evolve a connection to ourselves and other people.
Without these connections, we cannot reinvent ourselves or our businesses and more often than not we identify with what we do rather than who we are.
Our business activities crave for us to drive innovation for constant reinvention and creativity. Every human being is creative once we live from who we are rather than what we do.
You can read my full blog about what is innovation and why it is important to be good at it
So therefore I believe, there are three main tips or skills I have learned that I’d like you to take away from this piece.
First is – asking yourself questions. As much time as you spend ideating, try and ask the difficult questions as well as easy ones regarding the ideas you have collected to go through.
Second is – do not rush for answers. Take time to reflect upon your own thoughts and memories to come to conclusions.
And last – catch those ideas that stand out. Once you have found the answers you were looking for, sifting through ideas becomes easy.
Meditation is certainly a useful routine for me to build space for innovation. I give 9 more tips in my blog here:
Sending you love and big hugs.
Di
