When are you most creative? When does your mind open up and allow you to be most creative?

When you were a kid you were very creative. Somewhere along the way you lost it. If not before, you certainly lost it in law school, where you were taught to take great notes, turn it into an outline and then memorize it for your final exam or Bar exam.

Creativity is not something that all of a sudden reappears. You actually have to go out and find it.

As part of getting back in the groove after my hip replacement surgery, I like to walk. I walked recently in the beautiful 70 degree weather on a late afternoon in Dallas. I purposely did not listen to music. I walked with no iPhone and ear buds. During my walk my mind was totally free. There was nothing distracting me. I came up with the idea for this blog post and two others.

During my walk, I thought about when am I most creative:

  • While working out – Somehow my mind is free.
  • When I visit a different culture like Europe, Mexico, Quebec and even parts of Hawaii – Somehow I notice things I do not normally notice in my own familiar surroundings. If you are a regular reader you know I like to get away from tourists. See my posts on Sayulita and San Miguel in Mexico and my post on sitting at the bar watching the PGA tournament in Killarney, Ireland. We also like to rent houses so we feel we are living in the community. One of our favorite rental houses is this one at Kohala Ranch on the Island of Hawaii. When we stay at this house we regularly go to the Waimea Farmer’s Market.
  • When I listen or read business books – I get ideas I had not thought of before. When I read those books on my iPad, I highlight what I want to study further.
  • When my eyes are closed waiting for an airplane to take off – Again somehow, my mind is open and not distracted.

When are you most creative?

P.S. I created my own little travel guide Going to Hawaii 2. Check it out if you are planning a trip there.