Jumpstarting Creativity in Covid
Yes, we are all miserable during COVID. Unless, of course, you’re part of the 1 percent, safe and sound and celebrating the high life on a 150-foot yacht in the middle of nowhere. But for the rest of us, we’re stuck. Out of work. Unsure of the future on every level.
Right now, it’s about doing anything you can do to survive. . .literally survive during COVID whether it’s rooming with friends, as many of my friends are doing, or moving to more affordable quarters in another town or state or country. Still, we find ourselves wherever we land.
Those of you who follow me know that reinvention runs through my veins. I’ve been reinventing myself my whole Baby Boomer life. That’s how I know now is the right time for reinvention—when there is urgency to craft a plan.
How do you start? Take stock of your skills. If you need a tune up there are plenty of online courses being offered, many free, to help you upgrade your technical, language, or writing skills—anything and everything. I am offering free virtual Communication Quickies coaching (info@commcorestrategy.com) to anyone who needs to upgrade their communication skills.
To get your brain more flexible in this time of suffocating fear, I have been urging my clients to watch movies that are light years away from reality-based thinking. I find that, somehow, visiting another planet or another country virtually stimulates our imagination and shakes out our lethargy to allow light to once again enter our souls. You’re most likely home anyway. Reboot your creativity.
If your brain is feeling sluggish, travel to Norway. Yes, you heard me correctly. For me, I’ve fallen in love with two wacky streaming Netflix comedies that both take place in Norway.
Norsemen is Vikings meets The Office and Monty Python. It’s completely idiotic and that’s the point. In one episode, the Vikings return from their killing and plundering to find a member of their community building an amphitheater to “bring some culture to the community.” You can’t help but find yourself giggling with delight. And when you do, magically, you become more relaxed—even for a brief time—which gives you the brain space you need to begin thinking of ways you could turn your life upside down in a positive way.
Lillehammer is by the producers of Norsemen and also shot in Norway. The star is Steven Van Zandt (from The Sopranos), who is a creator, writer, and producer of the series. This one is like The Mob meets I Love Lucy. Lillehammer focuses on a former New York-based gangster named Frank "The Fixer" Tagliano, who’s trying to start a new life in isolated Lillehammer, Norway, after entering the Federal Witness Protection Program as Giovanni "Johnny" Henriksen. That’s the set up, but nowhere near does it describe the high jinx that awaits.
Frank, now known as Johnny, knocks up a young lady, but he, having a heart of gold, stands by her to support both her and the twins. In one episode, after a robust discussion, the girlfriend, Sigrid hops on a bus to Oslo, leaving the babies and their double stroller in the hands of the gang on the way to shoot out. As the gang is storming down the road their guns cocked looking for the person of interest, Johnny yells back to his sidekicks, “Whose on diaper patrol?” That silliness, the mashup of Giovanni’s killer mentality with parental protectiveness, is priceless.
After I watched that episode, I carried the warmth of the laughter with me to bed and to sleep. I found that upon waking the next morning, I had a brain full of ideas for my business.
So, my creative jumpstart prescription for you is to find a light and enjoyable show that’s so totally removed from your reality. It will take you out of that place of constantly worrying and overthinking about what the future may hold. Once you clear your brain of all that clutter, you will, even temporarily, create the brain space you truly need to focus on what comes next and find ways to make effective changes toward it.
Get more tips about getting out of your own way in Your Self Sabotage Survival Guide by Karen Berg: https://tinyurl.com/y786t4ax