ML46 - How to be Prolific and Brilliant with The Accidental Creative Todd Henry

Todd Henry is a superstar successful author who, next month releases his 4th game changing book- Herding Tigers. His first book, The Accidental Creative, How to Be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice is this month’s (December 2017) Modern Leadership Book club deep dive and the reason I invited Todd to join us.

Todd is host of the Accidental Creative podcast and a self-proclaimed arms dealer for the creative revolution. He writes and speaks on creativity, productivity, and passion for work. So, basically, being brilliant.

Episode Summary: How to be Prolific and Brilliant with The Accidental Creative Todd Henry

Be prolific in life and work
Started with a podcast (the Accidental Creative Podcast is almost 12 years old)
Creativity is problem solving. If you solve problems, you are a creative
- Not just artists, but business owners, employees and entrepreneurs. You are ALL creatives
- Be mindful of how you structure life so you can be creative when it matters
- Even lawyers
We take our creativity for granted
- Because it is mysterious. It takes time to trace the genesis of an idea
- We cannot force creativity
Creativity is making connections- connecting dots
- And they solve problems
The problem is we are less than intentional about our problems, relationships, work etc.
Stimulate creativity through rituals
Snow-mageddon
- Little energy over time over maximum effort all at once- energy management
- Energy management can be more important than efficiency- they are different
- How you layer commitments
- Prune the vineyard- don’t let new fruit drain resources
  - A lot of mediocre or a little very good fruit
- Mediocrity is the result of energy drain
Psychic vampires- suck energy out of the room
- Are there people, projects, personal commitments that you need to prune from your life
Buckets of life- separate parts of our life
- You sit at the intersection of every decision in your life
- Be mindful of how every aspect of your life affects the other aspects
People don’t remember the project, they remember the process
When you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else
We are in an age of increasing awareness and decreasing understanding
Empathy takes time and sustained effort
Are we losing our sense of empathy?
Unplug and disconnect- take time to be unreachable- off the grid
We cannot process all the information we receive unless we step back and process- look for patterns