Transcript excerpt of a Simon Sinek speaking segment about overcoming creative blocks by changing one’s environment and routines. Sinek argues creativity failures are often environmental, not personal, and recommends experimenting with new settings, routines, and social work-buddies to rekindle ideas (examples: moving countries, rearranging workspace, co-working with a friend).
Chapters
It was darkness that made me realize I had to make a change. And I think that's very common for people who are in dark spaces. You realize if I, you know, I'm at a fork in the road, I either have to affect change or I don't know how this plays out, but it's not good, you know, And I think a lot of people have faced that fork. I was very lucky. I had a friend there to hold space for me, which gave me courage. Goes back. Goes back again to friendship. But. But if we sort of take it something more, more recent, you know, for example, I didn't write anything during COVID And everybody's like, oh, did you use the time during COVID to write a book? And the answer is no, that's. I can't write that way. I need human interaction. And so it was. It was a creative, you know, sort of.
Cemetery for me. There was no big ideas, nothing worth writing about anyway.
And I don't believe in writer's block. I believe that you're in the wrong environment for creativity to happen. And so I think a lot of people, when they run out of ideas or they get stuck, they blame themselves. I don't. I blame my environment. Um, and so that's easy to change because it can't change me, but I can change my environment. Um, and so, for example, this year, I wasn't having any ideas, and I tried different things, and it wasn't working. And so I did. I took a risk and I moved to another country for 11 weeks. I moved to the UK for 11 weeks for no other reason than to shake things up and see what happens. And the ideas bubble. It's absolutely wonderful. So I'm a great believer in changing your routine, doing something different, putting your desk in a different. In a different way. You know, start inviting a friend over. I did. I've done this one as well. A friend who has. Is in a completely different line of business, who has nothing to do what I do, because, well, so many of us are working from home by ourselves. Find another friend who works from home by themselves, who might be in a completely different company, work together, and simply sit in a room together. It's amazing what happens. The ideas that flow and just having a work buddy, things like that, experiment with entirely new, different ways of working. Not all of them will work. And you find the one that works for you, and when that stops working, you try something new again.
