Creativity Demands The Occasional Shake Up
Whether it’s a new place or a new position, without different
experiences our creativity becomes stale. Trying new things forces us out of
our default settings.
Illini Staycation
I get a week every year where I get to travel to faraway
places and visit exotic locales. Strangely enough I always opt for the northern
half of Illinois. It’s neither faraway nor exotic, especially since I grew up
there. There doesn’t exist for me, a place in the world that I know better than
Illinois. Why keep going back to the same place of your childhood? Because a
still have friends and family in the area. The destination is only exciting when
you’re with people you know and love. Even so, maybe I
should try to visit a city or region Ive never been before. At least then I
could say I tried something different. Travel always loomed large in my post
college imagination.
But living in the same place for the last 18 years is a departure
from what I assumed I’d be doing after graduation. I lived abroad for a year in
China while teaching English. A difficult but worthwhile experince. Before that, I lived in Louisiana for 3 years
while serving in the Army. That’s not exactly the resume of a world traveler but it’s a good start. If nothing else, it suggests that I’m able
to live comfortably on my own in an area that I’m not familiar with.
This was my goal for
a long time, find a position with a company and travel. Any position would do. The
point was to travel and explore and appreciate. I felt like I had the right mix
of adventure and caution. We’ve all heard stories of young people with a sense
of startling naiveté while traveling. I assumed I could avoid trouble, but you
never really know. I had an embarrassing streak of naivete myself while living abroad. But blissfull ignorance will save you most of the time.
Good Enough for Government Work
As a former soldier I thought a federal government job would
be perfect, especially one where I’d get to live in an embassy or a consulate. I
couldn’t crack Uncle Sam's hiring code. After multiple attempts filling out applications
for the State Department, Defense Department and countless others, I finally
gave up. I won’t pretend I know exactly what these agencies are looking for. But
the competition was fierce and I’m not sure I would’ve liked being a bureaucrat,
or for that matter traveling. We associate taking trips with vacation. A
natural extension of that is having a job and taking a lot of trips. That's not the reality of work trips. It's a hard lesson that a lot of traveling salesmen
have learned. Sometimes we get the thing we asked for and it leaves us cold.
If you were ever a boss before you were ready, you’ll understand
the feeling. I felt this early in my military career.
The Army likes to do room checks for single soldiers at the
barracks. This always ticked me off. They would never go to a married family’s
house and make sure the beds were made correctly. Single soldiers had to live
by a different set of rules. We were much more likely to get in fights, break furniture
and have raucous parties on the weekends, so I get it. I had to check the rooms
of my crew mates on occasion. These were the people I partied with. You can’t
tell your buddy that he’s in trouble for a disorderly room when you were hanging
with him the night before. I wasn’t ready to be in charge of anything serious.
I didn’t like the feeling of being the boss anyway. Everyone turns on you. Like
Rodney Dangerfield, you get no respect.
Group Work Humility
But if it’s respect you’re after, it’s a longer road than
you might imagine. Being a boss of anything is delicate dance between finishing
tasks and managing workers. You can’t just blow people up “I told you never to
do that again!!” In the civilian world you can’t at least. Maybe it’s Ok in the
Army. But it’s important to be the boss of something at some point. Even if you’re
just the project leader on a short-term presentation. You’ll probably have at
least one group work class in college. I never liked group work. I always thought
it seemed inefficient. I like to work alone anyway. But do I like to work alone
because I don’t want to hear from certain members of the group? Often yes. Group
work forces you to consider other opinions. It forces cooperation. Whatever the
project or assignment is about, the group dynamic exists in the corporate world.
Get used to dealing with people you don’t like.
I didn’t want it, but I really needed it.
If you approach life with
an eager attitude and a willingness to learn, growth happens. When you’re put in
charge, take a breath and expect that half the people won’t agree with your method.
Learn to manage. Learn to listen. Learn to hold the line when the majority is
against you. Develop a philosophy of leadership, no matter how small the task.
The point is we all have default thinking that keeps us doing things the same
way. Like my visits to Illinois, I enjoy going because it’s the place I know
best. I like to work alone because I can set a pace that fits my schedule. Those
are my default factory settings. But stretching my interests and engaging in
new visits are upgrades to my thinking.
Conclusion
Learning a new language helped me adapt to a very different culture.
Living on a base in Louisiana showed me that discipline is the basis for
maturity. I started out talking about vacation travel. The idea being, new experiences
inform new ways of thinking. It feels like
something transitional is coming for me. No, I’m not taking a big vacation (I
don’t think) but I feel something in the air. Let’s call it a change. It could
be nothing, maybe my feelers are just wonky. They haven’t been cleaned in a
while. But I could use some new experiences. Life is a little stale right now.
