For many of us, the turn of the year is a time to take stock and look ahead. It's the time to set new goals and resolutions, and you probably have already done this. In that spirit, allow me to pose seven creative questions that connect you to your essential genius core and core capabilities to set you up for success as a creative leader in 2024.
1. What core beliefs drive you forward in 2024?
When listening to the hugely negative news flow these days, it's easy to get dragged down in anxiety: doubts, worries, and fears about the future. Interestingly, most people fail to realise that the average state of human living conditions has never been better than in our current age.
Fortunately, creative leaders know better than to become frozen into inaction by the challenges of a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) world that SUCCS (i.e., is characterised by speed, uncertainty, complexity, change, and surprises). Grounded in an unshakable core belief, they courageously take action on their plans and move forward on their strategic roadmap in the spirit of the German philosopher and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: "Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid."
2. Who are you? What is the essential core of your being?
Creative leaders understand they must stay true to themselves and be original to create original ideas and value propositions. As Goethe put it: "To create something, you must be something." So, who are you? Answer this question honestly, then follow the advice of the American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson: "Insist on yourself; be original."
3. How can you approach the new year with a beginner's mind?
"It's wonderful to have a beginner's mind," noted Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The world is full of wonders and unlimited possibilities for a young child. There are so many exciting new things to learn and experience. My third question invites you to reconnect to and embrace your inner child.
Why? The world is changing exponentially at an accelerating pace, so adopting a "beginner's mind" in the new year helps you to playfully open up to the opportunities and challenges of the Sixth Wave of technological progress that will drive economic prosperity in the coming two decades. So, what will you learn and embrace anew in 2024?
4. What do you really love doing? And why does this matter?
"You've got to find what you love," Steve Jobs suggested on another occasion. My fourth question forces us to take a deep, possibly uncomfortable look at how we use our productive time. In essence, it probes whether we work primarily for the money a job pays us or if we are deeply passionate about our occupation and have a deeper reason for doing it. (You may notice that this connects with and builds on my second creative question).
5. How can you get fresh creative inspiration in 2024?
"Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions," noted Albert Einstein. It's safe and comfy to stay within the familiar tunnel of our expertise and the confines of our conventional ways of thinking. But creative leaders know how to inspire breakthrough creativity: By venturing out of their expert tunnel to collect fresh dots that their imaginative minds can then connect to their creative challenges. After all, as Steve Jobs stated: "Creativity is just connecting things."
6. How can you get out of your comfort zone in 2024?
"All growth starts at the end of your comfort zone," the American life coach Tony Robbins once said. Creative leaders realise that we're at a turning point where a new technological wave will dramatically change the ways we work and live in the coming years.
Knowing that growth happens outside our comfort zones, they think about new action routines that can help them to up their physical and mental prowess and shape up for a brave new world full of new opportunities for the brave at heart. At the same time, they also think about mindful routines that calm their minds in hectic times.
7. How can you induce more creative flow into your life?
Professional athletes perform best when they're "in the zone". Musicians play in sync when they "feel the groove". Likewise, many creative leaders know this state of optimal experience when they are "in flow" and their creative juices flow.
In his book about the topic, the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi explains: "The happiest people spend much time in a state of flow -- the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."
In these moments when we're in the zone, we can easily, effortlessly and enjoyably perform at our best and open our creative channels up for receiving a breakthrough idea for an essential creative challenge that we've pursued for some time. So, how can we bring more flow into our lives in 2024?
Dr Detlef Reis is the founding director and chief ideator of Thinkergy Limited (www.Thinkergy.com), the Innovation Company in Asia. He is also an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Baptist University, and an innovation adviser at the Institute for Knowledge & Innovation - Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA), Bangkok University. He can be reached at dr.d@thinkergy.com