Aging and Creativity (3rd 3rd of your life)

Aging and Creativity (3rd 3rd of your life)

the following has been one of my most read BLOG among

all those I have written in the past 8 or 9 years.

Yes we all can be creative, produce creative results, products or ideas ALL of our Lives into our 70s, 80s, 90s and beyond.

Here are the slides from Bonnie and Alan's chat at the Athens-Clarke County Library this Thursday evening and some notes for further study or exploration 

To see the complete study this slide represents scan down this blog.

In 1980 I did a 3 months study searching for a MAGICAL NUMBER of TRAITS of HIGHLY CREATIVE People, much like Stephen Covey's study that produced his 7 Habits of Highly Successful People.  I finally chose 32 that were most commonly written about by experts in Creative Thinking and Creativity and have used them around the world with over 300,000 people, a few to many at a time in my audiences.  About 10 years ago I added an additional 20 traits from the work of Bonnie and I's greatest teacher, mentor and friend's 50 years of study: Dr. E. Paul Torrance to create a year long self-creative thinking-development program.

During our planning Bonnie I watched/listened to this excellent TEDx Women talk by Jane Fonda about living in our 3rd 3rd's of our lives.

We also found this excellent example of someone who found his writing voice in his 90s.

Bonnie found this excellent article about many people finding their VOICE, PASSION, ELEMENT, LOVE in their 3rd 3rd's of their lives.

An artist started her AS I AGE, I WILL chalkboard wall project a few years ago an it has spread around the world.  For much more info do a GOOGLE search for it and her.

Here is one example of an AS I AGE, I WILL wall in Nashville.

http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/davidson/2014/10/18/as-i-age-wall-debuts-in-downtown-nashville/17501689/

This is a sample graphic from a study on the development and use of Creative Thinking I did a couple years ago using the internet and the www and many social media with contacts, friends, followers from around the globe.

To learn more about the study scan down through this blog and click on the link to the complete report.

We played 2 minutes of Jane Fonda's excellent TED x Women presentation that is avail in full on YouTube.

Following Bonnie's explanation of this slide of John McCain when he was released after 5 years in the prison called Hanoi Hilton in the 70s I told a brief version of my own recent time in Jail and Prison in Abu Dhabi and how creative thinking and humor saved my life and sanity.

You can hear and or watch two lengths of the story at these links that are on YouTube and other locations on the www.

Here are links to two of the story versions I have told that are on YouTube/www.

here is an audible of a 8 to 10 minute story I told during the local RABBIT BOX story event held here in Athens each month.

https://www.mixcloud.com/rabbitbox/rb33-sink-or-swim-alan-black/

here is a video of a 25 minute version I told as a guest at the Georgia Chapter of the National Speakers Association that I was an active member of from 1988 to 2006

https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=NSMw5cBWaHE&video_referrer=watch

here is one of the charts from my study of a couple years ago

Are you Creative?  
How are you Creative?
How are you improving your Creativeness, Traits, Skills, Abilities?

to learn some more about the study go to

http://www.cre8ng.com/md/survey-2

52 Human Traits exercise

Here is the 52 traits survey we handed out in the very dark auditorium that most of you could not read even with glasses. I tried reading them out but found that tedious and changed to Plan E when that didn't work.

I have used this version or my original 32 trait version around the globe since 1980 when I did an independent study of what might be the traits of CREATIVE PEOPLE.

All 52 of these are traits of CREATIVE PEOPLE from mildly creative to HIGHLY creative.

One result I have discovered around the globe no matter what the audience mix was: age, gender, race, educational background, profession or occupation is that nearly every one marks at least 5.

Extremely Divergently Creative people sometimes will mark all 32 or 52.

One that most people avoid is

EXTREMELY CRITICAL

That is one trait I have bound consistent for 35 years in HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE in all fields of human endeavor.

They are CRITICAL

1. of themselves (potentially dangerous)

2. of their work (this is what drives them to learn and improve)

3. of the fields (especially during dull periods)

4. of people who are not really trying to use their skills (they are to help those people improve)

also HIGHLY CREATIVE PEOPLE tend to be ZEALOUS or ZEALOTS and the larger population may be impressed by their commitments, drives, passions but shy away from them as personal friends.

please visit my website at your convenience to learn about exercises you can do for 15 to 60 minutes a day that will increase, expand, deepen your creative thinking: traits, skills and abilities.

http://www.cre8ng.com/alans-cre8ng-challenges

Thank you again for attending our

BONNIE & ALAN SHOW