To start off with this reflection on innovative habits, I thought back to when we were introduced to these ideas earlier in the semester. I remember when I first read the assigned readings on some of these ideas such as embracing ambiguity and failing forward, I felt some internal pushback/judgment on the ideas. I felt this sudden response coming from inside me that felt threatened by the ideas or wanted to reject them as being “duh, that’s obvious” or trying to find some flaw in the idea that made it not resonate with me or my life. BUT– I made sure to hear out these inner thoughts that immediately sprang up and to challenge them. The result? Lots of growth. Rather than just hearing these concepts as a bunch of phrases I have heard, I know have a much better grasp on the meaning and depth that these ideas include, and how they really can be incorporated into my own life and shape me into a more innovative person.
In my life this semester, I have been more mindful during my daily walks by incorporating child’s eye and hyper observation. Previously, I find that I am often in sort of a “blinders on” trance walking to class where I can miss things that I would otherwise pick up when I am in an observant state. One benefit I have felt from this exercise is the passing of time- I feel like rushed and that I have more power over my time and thoughts, if that makes any sense. By taking these short spans of time between class to break free of other thoughts and to notice my surroundings, I have been able to relax more, focus on how I am feeling, and get into that curious and observant state where I can try to look at my surroundings with a fresh eye- I have noticed many things not only on campus but in my home town and neighborhood by doing this! During this time in particular, embracing ambiguity has been more applicable than usual in my life. Rather than being afraid of the unknown, I have “embraced it” by taking control of the things I can control (the meals I make, the schedule and routine I follow, my room and some of the home environment, etc), and to go with the flow and listen and join conversations about what’s happening rather than wasting energy simply worrying. This has allowed me to continue with my life despite all the new bumps and kinks we are all experiencing.
I have learned much about myself with respect to these habits– I want to focus on, in particular, is creative confidence. While I sometimes find myself feeling shy or uncertain in my life and sometimes in the classroom, I have always believed in my creativeness inside myself. But, while I knew I was creative, I lacked the creative confidence to use that to create things of and on my own and to further explore what I can do and just…do. I have also learned that I make assumptions about myself a lot without realizing it! I always assumed that I knew myself, but for example when we did this last design project, some of these assumptions proved wrong, for example if I like to follow a routine vs not, and what atmospheres I work best in.
One of these habits that comes most naturally to me is embracing ambiguity. Another one is being hyper-observant, which I have found myself to be at times, or more observant than others I know at times because I do like to take breaks to clear my head and walk around just for the purpose of walking around and seeing. But, going back to embracing ambiguity, I think that this is a habit that can definitely be strengthened by doing, and I’ve been faced with many unknowns/events where I did not know how it was going to end when I was younger, so I think that I became accustomed to understanding to accept it as best as I can and to find a way to make good and embrace the unknown rather than be afraid of it.
One habit that I want to work on the most is failing forward because this strongly applies to my life as a college student who is experiencing many things for the first time ever and is beginning to enter and find a path in the professional world. Relating back to what I said at first (how I would find something to challenge or disagree with), I felt some internal pushback due to the very strong statements made by the author of the article. BUT, I realized that there were so many great points, and I completely agree that failing forward is essential to make progress and move forward in life. Our failure resumes were an essential activity as part of the module, and I actually found the failure resumes of my peers to be helpful because they classified things as failures that I completely slipped my mind or I didn’t think counted as a failure when I made mine (ex. can’t back the car out of the garage without hitting something). By knowing to not be afraid of failure, I can go ahead and put myself out there, knowing that failure is not necessarily a setback, but simply a step to fail ahead and make more progress and learn from those experiences. I know that as I continue to interview and take part in my internship this summer, I will experience some sort of failure (which I realize now can encompass a broad range of things, failures don’t just have to be the big things like failing an interview). In fact, I know feel that I do not want to not experience failure. If everything goes right, how will we learn as much? While success is indeed important and I am definitely not preoccupied with failure by any means, i just think this idea of using failure to move forward and understand that our reaction to failure is important to how we pick ourselves up afterwards is really important to our success and growth in life.
One interesting thing I have noticed is how we are all such different people, and creative people can have different strengths and habits that have come naturally to them or they have really worked on to strengthen and incorporate into their lives. I have gotten really inspired to be more confident in showcasing my work and trying to make things using my creativity from an older MIDE major friend who has already graduated. I think that by having people to look up to or get inspired by will absolutely help me grow, and by continuing to practice these habits (and new ways to do so) is essential as well. I think that building an innovative character takes time and effort, and a lot can be drawn from inspiration and others. I was watching a youtube the other day with my friend (she had a video on how she became an entrepreneur and created her own brand after working a corporate job for a while), and it got the both of us really inspired to get creative and actually create things (taking pictures, making mood boards, learning how to code and design a website, etc). I will continue to try new things, and to not assume things about myself as best as I can (such as “I won’t enjoy that, or that won’t work for me, or I won’t be good at that so I should try this instead”). I also plan to work together with my other creative friends to continue to get inspired and build an innovative character through projects together and hopefully some trips and activities together this summer. I also found that listening to certain podcasts has been a great activity. I listened to one from the founder of Birchbox on how she created the company, and I thought this was very interesting, and you could see how innovative her ideas and the business model really was at the time (samples used to be free, throwaway things, now people PAY to get birchbox samples to try products out in smaller sizes, changing the way that consumers and beauty companies think about samples).
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