Daily Inspiration: “Set free your baby Einstein!”

“Set free your baby Einstein!” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Somewhere along the way, we lose our spontaneity, see our imagination diminish and our creativity chipped away.

Yet if we consciously fight to keep our creative 5 year old mind alive, we’ve got a very powerful tool. That’s because the ability to view the future with innocence and wonder can fuel our ability to deal with it in a manner that is not tarnished by cynicism.

The mind of a 5 year old Einstein must have been a wondrous thing – and you probably viewed the world at one time with an equally imaginative view! Then, age happened. Pessimism and doubt began to cloud your world view; the school of hard knocks turned you into a skeptic; you began to focus more on the negative aspect of what comes next rather than the opportunity it might present.

You got old.

That’s why as the world speeds up, you should always try to view the world through the eyes of a 5 year old – it will accelerate your imagination!

That’s the theme of my Insight 2020 post today:Leadership Strategies for the Era of Acceleration #11 – Accelerate Generational Creativity!

Why? My stage routine always includes a bit where I compare the attitudes and approaches that different generations have towards the future.

Boomers? They grew up with punch cards, COBOL, MSDOS. Technology was difficult, ugly, challenging, and caused nothing but problems. The future was a pathway to fear, not a door to be opened….

Today’s 20 year old? They’ve already seen multiple technologies come and go as fast as the seasons might change. Technology has never really been a barrier to overcome but a new tool to be tamed.

The result is that different generations approach the future with entirely different attitudes – what one sees as a challenge to be managed, the other sees as an opportunity to be pursued.

If your creativity is trapped in the mind of a old-timer, set it free! Figure out how to recapture your inner Einstein – and in particular, your ability to view the world of a 5 year old!

Set your imagination free, released from the shackles of the cynicism engineered by the destruction of time….