“One can begin to reshape the landscape with a single flower.”
- Mr. Spock (Star Track)
It can be very interesting to play around with notion of travel when it comes to our creative projects and goals.
In my personal experience, what sometimes happens is that we have too many options or too many choices that we need to make, and that can keep us stuck in one place; no matter is it writing, creative problem or something else. It simply fuels our indecisiveness and we continue prolonging to tackle problem with some serious determination.
Today, I will suggest some simple exercises that might help you move forward in right direction or bring clarity when it comes to problem solving.
First exercise: Time travel. That is one of the greatest desires of humans: time travel. As a kid and a great fan of Star trek series, whenever was happening something I didn’t like I would pretend I’m teleporting myself to different world and time. But looking at it from a scientific point of view, time as a parameter was invented by humans in order to give meaning to natural quality of impermanence. Eminent scientists, such as Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne are allured with the possibility of time travel and continue to debate about it in their most recent works.
So why not play around with this notion by ourselves?
Imagine you were in a different time period, maybe 10, 100 or 500 years ago and how then would you deal with the problem? You don’t have your computer, phone, car or even electricity at your disposal, just met your basic needs. How would you approach your problem with fewer resources at hand? Or, you can go in future and imagine you have everything you need to achieve your creative goals, and more. In 10 years or 200 years ahead, how your situation would be different?
Second exercise: Space travel. Stage your situation in completely different geographical (or even planetary) location where conditions are completely opposite. Different climate, different culture and different societal values influence life: how that would impact your creativity, realization of your creative goals? It’s interesting where our imagination can take us and how that can raise some additional points of view – just thinking about the problem differently conditions new ideas to come forth. In this way, you are giving yourself opportunity to experience your creativity in an unexplored manner. You can write a poem about it, or a short story. The point is to stir up inspiration that just might lies dormant and is waiting for some initial idea to trigger an avalanche of creativity.
The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn’t a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.
All night there isn’t a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.
My heart is warm with friends I make,
And better friends I’ll not be knowing;
Yet there isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
No matter where it’s going.
Edna St. Vincent Millay