EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

For every problem, a solution for your magical mind to come up with. For every goal, a creative way for you to accomplish it. As Gene Wilder says, “Want to change the world, there’s nothing to it.”

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the Samantha Leith Show.

(singing)

Creativity. The use of imagination or original ideas to create something. Inventiveness. Thanks to Google and Oxford languages for that definition. So what does that actually mean for most of us in our real-world experience, and why is creativity important for us? This month on the Samantha Leith Show, we’re going to explore the wonderful world of imagination and come away with our youthful wonder reignited, hopefully. So let’s go. How can we be at the end of the month already when I still have so much to share?

Here are some things that will help you in your creative mind. Draw. Yep. Doodling is included. Exercise, daydream, be curious, take time for play, dress-ups included, and any mindfulness technique. Declutter. What the… Yep. A cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind people. Get amongst creative people and things. Document your life. Brainstorm. Keep a problem or ideas folder. Get in nature. Play music that inspires you. Laugh. Take up a creative hobby. Journal. Have sex, dance, dance, dance, or dance. Eat different cuisines. Honestly, this could be a hundred or more things long. The reality is to do things that make you feel good, inspire you, connect you with thought or challenge you. Do anything and everything that helps your self-knowledge. Do anything and everything that gives you a space for creativity. Who knows? Maybe you could be sitting in a cafe in Paris and come up with a great idea for ride share.

Oh, hang on. Uber already did that. Anyway. Now, I’m sure you’ve heard about left brain, right brain. Right brain. Creative, artistic, emotional, imaginative, nonverbal.

Left brain. Logical, linear, verbal, analytical, numerical. That’s a lot of ills. This one or the other thing is a myth. We actually need both sides of our brains. Yes, there are some functionalities that are more in one hemisphere and if you have a head injury or stroke or something, it will impact certain region and the corresponding functions like cognitional movement. But as we’ve discussed along so many episodes, we can work on improving these areas in our brain thanks to that whole new plasticity thing. Want to get better with languages? Study one. Want to improve physicality? Exercise.

Keeping our brains healthy helps all of it. From creativity to memory. Someone’s got to remind me I got to work on my memory because mine’s crap. So be mindful. You’re so [inaudible 00:03:36] of your brain. Eat well, exercise, sleep, use your mind.

Now, we don’t actually talk about rest and sleep enough. Seriously, I need eight hours and I can’t nap. I don’t function well without sleep in any area of my life. Yet I can’t seem to get that pep that other people do from naps. When I try, my mind wanders. The next thing you know I’m trying to solve world problems. Oh my gosh, look at that. The power of imagination. I’ve always thought, and I think I’ve said this before on the show, if they can think of a way to fake something in a movie, surely it’s just a matter of time before they can do it in real life. We’re like that. Everything is first of thought. Then it’s brought into reality. Our goals and our dreams are just that. You can’t dream big without tapping into your creativity. Goal setting needs our creativity. Think about it.

First, you need the dream or the goal. Then you need the steps to get there. Then you need to be able to deal with the obstacles along the way. And you have to be okay with failure in order to start. So in the worksheet for the month, there’s a section for your current goals. You can also download the goals worksheet on the freebie section at samanthaleith.com or search “goal” and watch any of the previous episodes on goal setting on the site.

That was a tongue twister, wasn’t it? I want you to find some time and space to do this. Take each goal and look at it with a new, more creative lens. Free write in the most descriptive way you possibly can about the goal. Use words that make you feel, see, smell that vision. Get it there. Experience it so it’s already happened. Now, if writing isn’t your thing, maybe you want to doodle your goal to life. Go for it. Whatever. Whatever floats your boat. Just please don’t do this electronically. There’s magic in connecting our hands and our brains to this work.

Then I want you to go back over the steps you need to take to achieve the goal. You may need to do some more research on this one and gather info from those that have done it before you. But please, don’t get lost in the details. It’s like a month there. If there’s a more creative step you could take, maybe you have a fitness goal, could you incorporate a belly dancing class? Maybe you want to learn a language, take a cooking class on that cuisine. And if it’s a promotion at work you’re after, could you do some really creative problem-solving in an area and then do a presentation and take that idea to management?

So I want you to think about all these things and I want you to walk away. Literally. Take a walk. Come back. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow more ideas may flow or you may see a solution to an idea that you’ve already had for that goal. Then I want you to do it. The goal, the fear. Do the work to get to the goal. Maybe you’ll need to assess and modify as you go, but that’s a part of the whole goal process and it’ll help, guess what, improve your creativity in every area. For every problem, a solution for your magical mind to come up with. For every goal, a creative way for you to accomplish it. As Gene Wilder says, “Want to change the world, there’s nothing to it.” There is so much we can take from these lyrics from Willie Wonka and what a magical world that was.

“Daddy, I want a number, number, and I want it now.” There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there. You’ll be free if you truly wish to be. It’s all there for us, inside us waiting to come out. We simply need to let it be. Let our creativity out to shine. A creative mind is a mind of opposites.

So remember this. You’re sensitive and joyful, conservative and rebellious, energetic and slow, yin and yang, playful yet determined, masculine and feminine, extroverted and introverted, realistic and imaginative, experienced and a novice. There’s no one way. Creativity is yours to have your way. For me, I think of Walt Disney and Steve Jobs as two of the most incredibly creative people for very different reasons. So when in a moment of doubt, I think I suck and don’t have a creative bone in my body, I not only wonder what they would think, I immerse myself in something of theirs and challenge myself to take risks needed to be my most creative self. Who could be your someone that you think of like that?

Finally, my friends. Don’t wait for creativity to hit you like a bolt of lightning because it may never happen. Create the time and space to practice and grow your creativity. Who knows what you may find?

I don’t know if this is true, but it’s a story I’ve totally created in my head, is that there was a chef one day and he is like cooking away, cooking away and he goes, “Oh shit. I dropped the salt in the caramel.”

Salted caramel.

I swear it. I’m sure it was just like… Because no one’s going to go, “I think if I put salt in it, it’s going to be better.” But as chefs throwing everything at everything they’re doing and going, “Oh. Oops. Oh, give that a go. Tastes good.”

And that’s the thing as well. What you forget is the people that you think are really creative, like you said you always consider me to be really creative and being creative every day. I’m creative every day, but there’s a lot of crap that comes out of my pencil sometimes. But I need to get through it and I have no expectation on myself sometimes. I just need to do it. So that’s the same with the chef. Cooking, cooking, cooking. Serendipity happens and that, you’ve allowed the creativity to happen.

What do I do every day? Look, at work, we have drinks on a Thursday and we try and make it a little bit more fun rather than just having drinks like, we’ll do a little place table setting, a charcuterie board. Whenever I bring friends together, that’s me trying to create an environment where everyone can talk about dumb shit, fun stuff, spill their guts. I don’t know. Being creative doesn’t have to be crafty, doesn’t have to be making stuff. Being creative can actually just also be a state of mind like creating situations for family and friends to come together.

Thank you very much for watching this show. Thank you very much. Thank you very, very, very much.

Yep. Creativity and action in an outro.

On a more serious note, please subscribe to the Samantha Leith Show, and this week, please do something wildly creative, share it on Instagram, and tag me @Samanthaleith and I’ll cheer you along. Now go. Be extraordinary, because I know you are.

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Produced by Rebecca Saunders and Pyrmont Studios

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Pure Imagination
Songwriters Anthony Newley / Leslie Bricusse
© Downtown Music Publishing, Taradam Music, Inc, Tratore, Universal Music Publishing Group

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Produced by Samantha Leith / Nathan Johnson
Vocals by Samantha Leith

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