Tea with McNair

• managing creativity

Ed Catmull speaks. Who? Watch, enjoy, learn. (If embedded video below does not play here...go HERE.)

• amazing grace

You say grace before meals. Alright. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and the pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing, and grace before I dip my pen in the ink.

~ G.K. Chesterton, Writer (1874-1936)

.{Remember to REST today }

• and dry cleaning

At age nine, when I was in the fourth grade, my mother taught me how to iron a shirt—a man's, "Oxford" dress shirt. I asked to be taught this valuable life skill. I use my ironing abilities to this day.

And I send most of my shirts to a dry cleaner.

But on nearly every road trip, the night before a speaking engagement—delivering a keynote to American College of Mortgage Attorneys, or First Bank of Louisiana, or Christian Camping pros—I re-iron one of those shirts. I've tried all the tricks, from all the in-flight magazines (pack laundry IN their plastic bags from the cleaners) but they still get wrinkled in transit.

My task of ironing out a few "travel wrinkles" is made so much easier because the shirt was "sent out" to be professionally laundered and pressed.

My friend, Susan, calls me "Mr. Dry Cleaning" because I have certain items in my wardrobe regularly cared for by professionals.

"Isn't that expensive, McNair."

"Compared to what?" The time it would take me to launder, iron, and hang all the shirts I wear is time I can better spend on activities at which I excel. It is worth it to have this piece of domesticity off my To Do list. Plus, we never "pay" ourselves for ironing. I do lots of laundry at home. I also cook, clean the kitchen, vacuum, but dry cleaning...I send out.

Each of us has areas of our lives that we need to delegate to others so we can spend those hours doing our best stuff—activities that feed our soul. If you're a mom and a writer, teach the family how to do their own laundry. Start with the easy stuff: t-shirts, socks, jeans, underwear (items that don't need ironing.) Tell them, "if you get this easy stuff right, I might teach you to iron a shirt."

While the gang at my local cleaners are giving TLC (and light starch) to my shirts, I may only be doodling in my sketchbook, editing my latest book manuscript, or evening power napping. Any of these activities is a better use of me.

What is the best, most effective and efficient use of your time? Who can you "enroll" to assist you with some of the domesticity and everyday errands in order for there to be more time for you to be YOU? Invite a college student who shares your interests to work for you, part time, picking up a few hours of loose ends each week. Along the way, you'll mentor them and you will get more of the real you into the world.

That's why, years ago when I didn't have "stuff" to sell at performances of my one-man play, THE FIFTH GOSPEL, I created t-shirts that read: McNair Wilson International Fan Club & Dry Cleaning. It was that same title I resurrected for my Facebook "fan page." So embarrassing a "fan page", but it was taking up to much time, daily, responding to "friend" requests on Facebook. A fan page anyone can join. Dry Cleaning reduces the pretentiousness.

As for getting an assistant. Do not fall into the trap of thinking Who would want to help me run errands? I thought that too, and then asked an art student friend if he'd like to help me - - "Yes!" He said in the middle of my question. "I thought you'd never ask." He did anything I asked. No errand too small or menial. Along the way I mentored him over breakfast at Oakland's Rockridge Cafe. 

I pushed him to pursue his passions. He did. He now owns his own restaurants—casually elegant and savory little places in Oakland, CA, called Noodle Theory. (Now a second location in San Francisco!) When you go, ask for Luis and tell him "McNair sent me." In fact, go for lunch...and take your assistant! (After dropping off your dry cleaning.)

• internatioanl fan club & dry cleaning

If you have not yet signed up for the FaceBook page: McNair Wilson International Fan Club & Dry Cleaning, do it now. Original content (weekly), blog links (as posted), travel & speaking schedule (up dates), new books/DVD /other media releases (and pre-release discounts) and more. Click the "pithy" Facebook link, at  left above, and tell a friend. Darn it, Chloe, tell ALL your friends. See you at the McClubhouse.

• a song for you

"I sing a song of myself, as others have done for me, but none have sung a song quite like this because this one is mine, and there will never be any like me."

    ~ Walt Whitman, "Leaves of Grass"

 And so it is for you as well, dear reader.

Have another sip of tea and feel the warmth of Mr. Whitman's words, and the warm embrace of your Creator who smiles each moment you are singing the song that is your life.

 

• the zepplin diner & other hits

" Sky high quality, down-to-earth prices."

They laughed when I said I was going to open a diner in that old Zeppelin that set down in my backyard. Ha!

"You're crazy!" They all said. Then they all showed up opening day for breakfast and our now-famous bottomless cup of Joe.

What's your "silly idea?"

I know, you can't tell me. "It's too embarrassing."

There's a wonderful true story about physicist Niels Bohr and his fellow scientists.

When a new colleague of Bohr's delivered an important speech to a group of their peers at the forefront of science, the speaker was curious as to how it was received by others in the scientific community.

“Do they think I’m crazy?“ The young scientist ask Bohr.

“We all agree that your idea is crazy.” Bohr told him. “What divides us is whether it is crazy enough.”

So are you crazy enough? The world is searching for the next goofy thought, hair-brained solution, and outrageous book idea.

"But what will people say?"

Why do we care? Aldus Huxley said, "The only thing worse than people talking about you is people not talking about you."

I say, give them something to talk about.

As I travel from the Beirut's Hamra district of Hawaii, when teaching my "7 Agreements of Brainstorming" to corporate and faith-based teams one of my favorite agreements is think WILD.  Not only is encouraging WILD ideas one of the most productive facets, it also encourages individuals to let fly their imaginations.

"I have a great imagination," you say. "But, McNair, I really am afraid of what others will think and say.

What they think? You will never know. They won't tell you. But if they do speak up, "You're crazy!" The only reply you should give is, "Thanks for noticing!" Be sincere and then press on to your next WILDER idea.

Like these (click to enlarge):

Be you. We need your craziness (individuality), your silliness (zest for life), your who-cares-what-people-think-or-say (boldness), to reinforce and encourage our desire to develop systems, and art, and books, and forms of worship, and employee reward programs, and new financial training for teens, and . . . 

   Just what are you hiding away in that little room of wonder and curiosity 
in your cranium command? In brainstorming session after brainstorming session I have seen one person's "I don't know if this would work, but what if we..." become just the spark that lead us to someone else's opening their crazy closet and  inspired other team members to think more boldly and WHAM—big idea.

I saw this happen just last week with a new client in the Houston area where we began what will be a three year design/build effort. Even though we didn't get down to brainstorming till 9:00 PM, the encouragement to say everything that comes to mind "and be wild" unleashed some serious crazy. We made a better, bolder, bigger start than I expected. And I always expect big stuff.

Just when you think you're designing a new summer camp, you find yourself on another planet, re-inventing...everything.

Worrying whether it will work, or if anyone will like it, or if you can afford to pull it off, are all excuses for killing your dreams. Worry is the dark side of imagination. Rather than employing your imagination to stop your curiosity (worry), enlist your imagination to soar to Planet Silly.

When asked about stretching the creative envelope, my friend David McFadzean—one of three creators of the landmark TV show Home Improvement—said, "Sometimes you have to go too far to find out where far enough is

Exactly.

Keep going. When you hear the creative envelop start to tear, go a bit further. 

Then come back to the Zeppelin Diner and tell me how to get to too far. (I'll be in the corner with a sketchbook and a cup of steaming Oolong. )

• great question

Anna wrote in the comments of a recent post a great question. Before you read her question and my answer, please read (or re-read) the original post HERE. Then come back and join the discussion. We'll have some more Oolong while we wait.

After reading great creative tip: No 346 (5.9.10), Anna asked:

Half way through reading your post, tears start to well in my eyes... An unusual response, I'm sure.

The vast amount of people that are alive and have lived before us with their own thoughts and ideas overwhelms me. How could any of us be truly unique and have something new or worthwhile to add to an abundant supply of already recorded thought? I have the hardest time valuing my own thoughts... even to the point where I question other people that value theirs. And I know it's wrong... I know that's a lie. A big lie that I fall hard for. Why? What's worse is that my husband, a huge fan of yours, dreams big dreams -- and I struggle to support him by valuing his visions. 

I also know the entirely huge brain that God has blessed me with. It's bubbling with thoughts and ideas, waiting for me to stop gagging it. Any thoughts on how to begin to value my self and my thoughts and ideas and dreams? Perhaps just letting them come out in a sketch journal is enough...

Dear Anna,

I ask that question at least once a day. REALLY!

You just start. It (the idea) cannot get better, grow, be improved upon until it exists.)

The waiter just delivered my latte. NOW I can stir it, fuss over it, add stuff to it, drink it half way and (when it is room temperature) get the waiter to add hot java, warm milk, Sweet-n-Low, and begin again.

That's why I suggest staring with a simple, CHEAP (to you) sketchbook. You must start. In a "nice" (more expensive-to-you) sketchbook you will think a thousand creative sparks (whims, notions, thoughts, fleeting images in a cafe...)  and only put a few "worthy-of-the-expensive-linen-pages" in your not-cheap-enough sketchbook.

You are correct, dear Anna, that thousands have lived before us. And yet, every day we humans create, invent, compose, solve, HATCH! more stuff that improves and enlightens our lives.

We were moving along quite nicely on Mr. Euclid's theories until young Mr. Einstein said, "Not zo fast!" (Quite literally)  "It zeems to me zat zere ees a bend in za universe." And life changed.

Think of the last twenty years...if you had asked me the same question in 1990 and I had said, "Let me get back to you. Should I email your laptop, text your cell, send an MP3 file to your iPad, or....you would not have had any idea what I was asking.

My reply:

The Creator has so much more for us to discover and create.

Just start. And keep starting

 

• shine

.

as seen on the cover of someone's mobile idea•book... 

...what's on your cover?

• doing the impossible

"Difficult takes a while.
   Impossible takes a little longer."

 ~ Walt Disney

• great creative tip: No 346

{ We've been discussing clearing out those rooms full of stuff—garages, "guest room", storage units, basements, attics, closets—and simplifying, more or less. } 

But there's one "room" that we have not dealt with, yet. It is a place that is full of valuable possessions we all have, but that we all seem to overlook. If we could just get in there and access all that stuff, grand creative projects could be planned, started, finished, and released for all to enjoy.

Instead we keep it locked up to be "worked on" at a later date. I'll get around to it...someday. Can't work on that now. Really don't have time.

If it is all shut away in that little room you are right about all those excuses. Today that changes. Today we go into that smallest room in our lives that contains some of our biggest dreams, hopes, and ideas.

This room is in our mind. We've kept it closed and locked for fear we might start and fail. Some fear of starting and SUCCEEDING! Really. Then what would you do?

If you are a regular visitor here to the TEA BLOG, you know I carry a sketchbook everywhere I go, everyday—even on late night trips to the grocery store. I have been carrying a sketchbook, sketch pad for much of my life.

Lots of the pages are filled with scribbled words: seminar notes, to do lists, words that later became books or magazine articles. And...there are lots of cartoons and other drawings.

 If I get a thought, an idea, a reaction to a sermon or seminar I'm listening to, I WRITE IT DOWN. I will NOT remember it.  

In  the front of every one of my 140 plus sketchbooks is the now-famous phrase, "Anything worth remembering is worth writing down." (Example from one of my sketchbooks, right. Click to enlarge.)

What's in that little room in your head that needs to get out? Putting it in a simple sketchpad gets into your life in a more active way. You'll run across it as you flip through the messy, exuberant, delight-full, color-full pages in your pad.

Once again I will suggest that if you are new to the valuable "habit" of carrying a "sketchbook", let your first one be a simple, not too big, inexpensive pad of unlined paper. (The little book in the photo on the left, below, looks like one of those nice, expensive Moleskine brand books from Italy. It is not. It is a far cheaper knock-off (by Hand•Book Journal Company), but also with thick, textured, "water-color" paper. I purchased it—on sale—at Hobby Lobby for about 30% of the cost of a similar Moleskine book. I do not own ANY Moleskine books.)

Buying tip: Get something that you will...

• Use fffffrequently (everyday)

• Carry everywhere—not just trips to your favorite coffee hut to sit and dream (but especially there)

• Not be afraid to scribble in, pant in, spill coffee, TEA, wine, milk, or anything on (often intentionally)

Buy your first one at Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby (great weekly specials, check Sunday paper and website for coupon), or your local drug store. Make the contents special, not the book. You can also find lots of good, cheap, basic doodling supplies (felt pens, portable watercolor sets, etc.) at Target and the rest.

Do not be afraid being messy, silly, incomplete...and do not tear out any pages. It is important to include the frustrated, half-finished, ugly, nothing' stuff. Remember this is replacing that dark little room in your head.

This is not a diary, though it will have a journal quality as you add to it daily and even paste into it the occasional movie ticket (with quickly scrawled review), paper chopstick wrapper, snapshot, postcard or other memento that might otherwise be tossed or lost.

No one but you needs to see this—your book, your choice.

{ As for the word sketchbook. Let's check the dictionary.}

sketch |ske ch |
noun
1. a rough or unfinished drawing or painting, often made to assist in making a more finished picture : a charcoal sketch.
• a brief written or spoken account or description of someone or something, giving only basic details : a biographical sketch of Ernest Hemingway.
• a rough or unfinished version of any creative work.

Tools Needed

• Small sketchbook with UN-lined paper (see "Buying Tip" above)

• Pencil, fountain pen, favorite scribbling & doodling devices

• Whatever you can think of, put it in the book, don't keep filling that storage room in your mind: scribble, doodle (penmanship and spelling do not matter.) This is your place to get ideas, thoughts, and projects out into the open.

Best time to start clearing you mind would be...ah...TODAY.