The Accidental Creative: How to Be Brilliant at a Moment's Notice Paperback – August 27, 2013

New Age crap! Amazingly goes on page after page about drawing enery from the universe, blah-blah-blah.

The Kindle edition is more expensive than the hardcover from Amazon. I can get a new dead-tree paper version printed, packaged and shipped for less than the Kindle version. I will not buy anything else from this publisher or this author as long as they insist on gouging customers. I bought a used hardcover version to ensure the publisher & author got zilch for their attempt at gouging. Amazon needs to push back on publishers that want to gouge Kindle customers.

It all started one day, when Michael (from Central Europe) emailed me:

Dear Jason, I would also share with You one book, that I've recently read. It's Accidental Creative" by Todd Henry. I don't know, if you have read it. If You haven't, I guarantee You, that this book is really worth it. I've found Your and Todd's book very complementing each other. I've mailed to Todd Henry about Your book, and Todd have told me, that He hasn't been aware of existence of Your book.

I've been surprised, that two authors simultaneously wrote such synergistic books while they didn't know each other.

So, if You haven't know that book, please consider to read it. This book is Really worth every money.

Well, here I am to share that I did read it, and it really IS worth every penny. Let me share a few of my favorite quotes:

"Anyone can improve his ability to generate good ideas consistently if willing to be a little more purposeful in how to approach the creative process."

Habits.
Routines.
Repeated actions.

Years ago, it was when I was being mentored by David Allen (*originator of Getting Things Done) I put myself through a self-learning course called, The Artist's Way. The book by Julia Cameron taught me the value of writing my "morning pages." For 12 weeks, 7 days a week, every morning, I hand-wrote 3 pages of thoughts, ideas, sentences, lists, whatever I could do to fill those pages.

In his book, Todd writes: "Total freedom is false freedom. True freedom has healthy boundaries."

It was simply fantastic having a daily goal with clear boundaries (more on this later in this review) of how to engage purposefully. If you're ready for another level of creativity, get Julia's book and go through this process yourself: The Morning Pages

"...if you're responsible for solving problems, developing strategies or otherwise straining your brain for new ideas, I'm going to call you a creative..."

Look, this one line isn't for everyone; but, for those of us who HAVE attached ourselves to a problem, this line is fantastic. Perhaps the most important aspect here is to recognize/realize/redefine the world "PROBLEM" as a way to identify, define, experiment with and assess the areas of focus we attach ourselves to. I've attached myself to sharing the importance of brainstorming, mindmapping or writing your own Ideal Days. My wife Jodi is attached to helping women in business build their professional networks. What are YOU looking to solve?

"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations." Orson Welles

Talk about a mind-bender, this one is amazing! If you stop and read that line one more time, it's apparent that boundaries ARE freeing. I know, I know it sounds counter-intuitive, but without a schedule, without a flag to march toward, without a difference to make, all the information that comes our way does so "willy-nilly." Just for a week, try this out:

Get up, and for the first 15 minutes of your morning make a LONG list of the kind of information you've seen, you hope to see, and you plan to see that's going to get you closer to one goal - in your personal OR professional life. (I did this while on a vacation in Colorado, it was simply amazing as each day my lists got longer and longer. Oh, and at the END of several days, I realized that information WAS coming in from different sources! Totally cool...)

Well, Mr. Todd Henry, you have given us all something to think about. Being "creative" I now know is no accident. But we've got to program our minds, our routines and our opportunities to be ready - always be ready - for that creativity to show up.

I recently completed the book "The Accidental Creative" by Todd Henry. It is not a self-help book; at least, that is what I am telling myself to feel better about loving it so much. But it kind of is a self-help book for those with creative pursuits, specifically in the advertising business. The author has a background in advertising agency business and it felt like he was talking directly to me and only me, the experiences and stories were so dead on. And, I am a not a "creative;" but I do work at an ad agency, only in account management.

I have recently taken on a mission to recreate the account management department at our agency to act, and be perceived by their peers, as more than notetakers and communications conduits between clients and creative teams. There are a lot of aspects to this shift, but one major piece is that the account managers have to think of themselves as creative and thereby contributors to that creative process and output. To quote the book:

"While a designer will solve a problem visually, a manager may solve it by developing a new process. But they're both using the same creative tools and wrestling with many of the same obstacles."

I have been doing a lot of work against this effort, mostly in the form of research and notes, without much implementation yet. I believe this book can explain to my team how important their creativity is, that they are all creative, and they just need the right attitude, approach and plan to be creative in their contributions to the agency, their teams and their lives. To that end, I am going to ask everyone on my team to read this book.

The book starts by walking through the hinderances to creativity, especially those in an ad agency. Then, it takes the reader through recommendations for overcoming those obstacles. I am not going to outline them for you here, you have to read the book. Some of the recommendations seems so obvious, but none of us our doing them, making the time to even attempt to do them or thinking twice about skipping over the obvious steps to creativity just to check something else off our to-do list. Other recommendations are easy to accomplish, it is just a matter of setting out to do them and getting them on the calendar.

So, why is this book my new "life guide"? "The Accidental Creative" it also about leadership, team work, time management and life happiness. To quote the book again:

"It is more and more difficult in today's world to segment your life into buckets like 'work,' 'home,' 'relationships,' hobbies,' and so on. Every area of your life affects every other, and a lack of engagement in one area will quickly infect the rest. As you implement these practices, you will find that your newfound creative energy will infiltrate not just your work life, but other areas of your life as well. A rising tide raises all boats."

This book is a definite recommend.