I was listening to Chase Jarvis, photographer and CEO of CreativeLive.com, on The Tim Ferriss Show. He spoke about intuition. He said, “Our memories and our emotions, all of those things, that’s the equivalent of RAM. We take in like a billion pieces of data a minute or a second or something like that. And we only make use of a very small amount. And the way I do think about this is the equivalent of RAM in the computer like what’s right there on the surface or just below the surface that we can recall. And this theory about intuition is that while we are recording these billions of data points throughout our entire life moment to moment, that we do actually have an archive of those in our body, in the cells of our body. And that intuition is sort of the parsing, what it is called when you refactor, you go back and look at data that’s already there, but you put it through a different process. And to me, this process is intuition.” Continue reading
Tag: Chase Jarvis
In his classic book Meditations, Marcus Aurelius, emperor of the Roman Empire, who at the time of writing was one of the most powerful men in the world, shares so many invaluable lessons. Even though he never planned on publishing it. It was his own private journal to remind himself how to live life.
He writes, “It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”
We care more about their opinion than our own. Powerful.
The story in our head. Our mindset. This is everything.
Photographer Chase Jarvis said, “As soon as you realize that the quality of your thoughts equals the quality of your life, all that remains is taking daily, persistent action to improve your mindset. Accept this responsibility, master this skill, and the rest will take care of itself.”
Things go wrong. People judge us. We don’t get the job, the house, the vacation, the healthy diagnosis.
But how do we react? With anger, unhappiness, terror, or anxiety? Or do we accept it and move on? Take positive action? Learn and grow?
As Chuck Palahniuk wrote in Fight Club, “It’s only after we’ve lost everything, that we’re free to do anything.”
We’re free to do anything.
Marcus Aurelius wrote, “Keep in mind how fast things pass by and are gone – those that are now, and those to come. Existence flows past us like a river; the “what” is in constant flux, the “why” has a thousand variations. Nothing is stable, not even what’s right here. The infinity of past and future gapes before us – a chasm whose depths we cannot see.”
We cannot see the depths. So why worry? If we put down that weight, we are free to do anything. And the peace we feel can never be taken from us.
Photographer Chase Jarvis shared a video recently with some exciting news. He said that the oldest university in the world, Oxford, which has been teaching students for almost 1,000 years, has partnered with Chase and his Creative Live online education program. Oxford is now offering this program to all 24,000 students studying there, not just those in the arts.
Chase talks about how literacy used to be for the elite, for royals and the clergy. Then the printing press arrived and it was democratized. Anyone could learn to read and reading set you free. It changed the world.
Now, Chase says, creativity is the new literacy. Whether you are in engineering, medicine, management, finance or anything in between, everyone does a better job when they colour outside the lines.
The fact that a university like Oxford sees the value creativity brings to critical thinking and problem solving is a big deal.
Creativity allows you to create the life you want or change the life you have. What you do with your time, how you move your body, what you cook for yourself or your loved ones, what you read, the stories you share, the music you listen to or create.
As author Annie Dillard said, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
How can you inject creativity into your day? What creative solution can you find for your closet, your schedule, your pantry, your vacation, your weekend, your life?
As Sir Ken Robinson, author and education advisor, said, “Creativity is putting your imagination to work, and it’s produced the most extraordinary results in human culture.”
How can we harness our imagination and create the results the world needs? Think outside the box and add action to your ideas. You never know what you might create next.