The Inward Journey To Innovation With Rebecca Victor

I’d like to welcome you in this episode. I’m curious out there, how many of you have been in a group or had been on a project? Whether by yourself or in a group where you’re attempting to come up with something innovative, something new and novel to bring to the marketplace, in business, or maybe to bring to whatever organization you’re a part of to introduce new concepts or to get people excited. You’re trying to innovate and create something new. You’ve been together. You’re working together. You’re feeling the pressure of a deadline. 

The harder you work, the farther away the answer is that you’re looking for. It’s almost as if what you’re seeking becomes more and more elusive, or if you’re a leader and you’ve got to cast this vision, as a CEO, you’re the one that cast that forward-thinking idea for the individuals in the company to come together, to work toward, to create that will prosper the company, the people who enjoy the product and the employees and all the contributors to the company. 

You’ve got to come up with these ideas and you’re at a loss. While you’re at a loss, you don’t quite know exactly what to do. You find that you work harder and harder and that age-old idea to put your nose to the grindstone to get it done. The harder you work, the more difficult it becomes to create or to find a solution or to come up with something unique and different. You can’t figure out why. You’ve got all these heads together doing this for yourself. It seems to go by you, it’s not there. It has a lot to do with the idea that when we focus like that so strongly on something, it’s almost as if we develop a tunnel–like vision about it. 

In that tunnel-like vision, instead of being able to see possibilities that are beyond that tunnel, everything gets locked into where you’re at, what you’re doing, and the fact that you’re stuck. This tunnel vision that you put forward, you can’t see what’s beyond the borders of that tunnel. You wonder how you’re going to get this done. You struggle with more hours. You seem like you can’t get it, but then you decide you’re going to go home for the night because there’s nothing else you can do. At 2:00 AM in the morning, pop up comes an idea, or you’re putting the kids to bed, reading a book and you laugh and you’re scratching your head as you’re walking down the hallway. All of a sudden, an idea pops in your head. 

You’re at the grocery store looking and you’re leaning on your cart as you’re waiting in line and zoning out. The next thing you know, up pops an idea. It pops up because that tunnel vision isn’t there anymore. You’ve created space to allow for a new concept, a new idea to come forth into your awareness. The gift of turning inward is a process that helps to stimulate new ideas, new concepts, because it takes you away from the focus on the external and ask you to turn it inward in a way of not turning inward on the issue, but letting it go and turning inward. Focusing on getting quiet or focusing on something that brings you joy or focusing on your breath or on the flame of a candle, or something. Rather than being observing what’s going on around you and being continually reminded that whatever you’re seeking hasn’t come yet or you start tunnel visioning again. You get in there and everything becomes more and more narrow. 

You don’t have access to the broader scope of ideas that are available to you. This art of turning inward helps to create an openness that enables you to have an awareness that you don’t have when you’ve got a tight rein on the struggle to get this thing done on the fight to get it done. There are inventors around the world who have learned the technique of letting go. One of those is that inward journey, getting quiet. Einstein, it was a big one for him. Einstein, whenever he was even on the Theory of Relativity, this is how that came up. The formula E = mc2 came up in that experience where he was in that process of trying to configure and discern what all this information was and how to apply it. I’m not a physicist, so I really can’t go into that except to know that in that creative process, he’s searching for an answer. 

No matter how many different ways he would ride a problem out, it’s the same thing. You begin to get tunnel vision. You begin to get that your vision narrows, so you’re not aware of anything outside of that scope of what you’re focusing on. He would meditate or he would get quiet. He would maybe not even call it meditation, get quiet, turn inward, focus on something else. Before he knew it, an idea would come up. It’s the same thing for Edison. Edison had a rocking chair he sat in. He’d sit in the rocking chair. He would hold this rock as he would get quiet and open his mind to new ideas and new thoughts and possibilities. There are a host of other creators that do this and business people. 

You’ll often find somebody in a position of a CEO who’s casting visions, who’s got to come up with that something new and different shut their door and not wanting to be disturbed. You come in and they might have their feet kicked up. You’re like, “What are you doing?” “I’m creating space for new ideas to enter into my awareness that won’t when I’m constantly focused on the to–do’s.” When we’re wanting to be innovative, whether as the creator of a product or as a leader casting a vision, part of the process requires us to let go of the intense focus on it. We can create enough space that allows concepts outside of what we have been considering to start coming into our awareness. 

It could be the quiet space, rocking in a chair, fishing. It could be going out and mowing your lawn or going for a walk in nature. It could be, if you have a company, going around and connecting with your employees, having a good laugh, finding out how they’re doing, what’s happening. You’re letting go and forgetting about resolving that situation at that time. You are focusing on something else. When you’re doing that, all of a sudden, it could that you go home and you decide that you’re going to cook something. You’re working with your significant other in the kitchen, cooking something, and you’re having fun. You’re getting creative. You get silly. In the course of getting silly, you turn and all of a sudden pops this thought, which is the thought that’s going to lead you to an idea that’s going to resolve the situation you’re trying to resolve. It’s amazing how it shows up for us when we make ourselves available to it. 

You may also have a way that you do it. You might have a specific process that you do that works for you every time. It is different for each of us. The key is for us to find the way that works for us, to understand that the creative process is a process of creating space. Space for new ideas to be breathed into being within our minds. Especially too as a leader, there’s nothing more intense when you got to start coming up with innovative concepts and ideas for your company. There’s that competition we’re trying to stay ahead of or in lockstep with your competition to provide things and the newest, the latest and greatest for people. How do you come up with that idea? You’ve got your team and they’re working hard and they’re hammering away, and nothing seems to be jelling.

Innovation: There is a wealth of information available to us through that internal guidance, that internal voice, and that internal sense of who we are.

The harder they try to get it together, the farther away they get. It’s like, “Go have a cup of coffee, watch a funny movie,” or anything, get quiet.

I will take a walk. I will do the dishes. I will fold some clothes. Go for a bike ride. There’s a lot of different things that as I get out and I get quiet within myself, I can turn and start engaging. Where I’m at in that present moment and be fully immersed in that present moment, and then all of a sudden, pops in another idea. If you are one who feels that you have to grab it by the tail and wring it, that’s a pretty big fight. It limits you to certain perspectives, ideas that exist within that tight frame of reference that you have created in your mind as the only way that you can get the information and the answers that you need. 

There is a wealth of information available to us through that internal guidance, that internal voice, that internal sense of who we are. If we give permission, it will delight us, provide new and evocative ways of engaging in a variety of different ways. One of the best gifts we give ourselves is to create that experience for ourselves, to allow ourselves to pause, walk away from it. We always think, “How can I go to bed at night if I haven’t resolved this?” If we let go of it and you go to bed, I guarantee that all of a sudden, at some point in the night, you could a pop up. You get down and write it down at the kitchen table for the next morning. You go into work, you’ve got it. 

Maybe you don’t wait until the morning, you get up and you work at home, you get it done and it’s done. You can get that out in the morning and you feel invigorated. You feel enlivened because this idea came through and it energized you. There’s so much available to us in this creative space that when we do allow ourselves to connect with it is exciting for me. All of a sudden, the ideas start flowing and it is fun. I have sat with people who expressed issues and struggles and they’re caught. I’m in that zone. It’s 1, 2, 3, 4. I’m like, “I never thought of this.” Here you go. Here’s some more, are you ready? 

It’s that creative download. It’s that awareness that when we are open to possibilities, they come. They can only come when we create the space to allow them to enter into our conscious awareness rather than focusing in such a structured way on arriving at a conclusion. If you are working on a project, if you are trying to lead, create and be innovative, create space for yourself. Give yourself some space away, give your team space away. Go play, do something that has nothing to do with what you’re trying to resolve. 

Put in your awareness that you want to arrive at or come up with the next innovative thing around whatever, or the conclusion to this that’s going to elevate the company or respond to this particular issue we’re having. Whatever it is, let it go and it’ll come back with new ideas for you. Some of you, I know that play with this. You trust it, you play with it. You’re creators. You’re what I call conscious creators. You’re intentionally creating. You felt it and it feels good. If you have it, play with it. Give yourself permission. 

What do you got to lose except a night of frustration or a day of frustration, trying to figure something out? Until you give yourself space, you won’t or you’ll come up with an idea that’s less than what you could have. 

That’s all I wanted to share. Our topic is that inward journey serves us in being innovative and creative whether we are creating a product or we are creating a vision for a company or for our own lives. Have a great day. With you, I celebrate you and your life. Make it a good one.