7 Quotes by Mark Forster

Many articles and books on creativity encourage us to 'think out of the box' and get rid of all the restrictions on our thinking. The trouble with this advice is that it is almost entirely wrong. It is very difficult to be creative when 'anything goes' and you have no limitations, because it is the limitations that actually encourage creativity.

Remember the motto: ‘Work hard, play hard.’ Regard your personal time as just as important as your work time and give as much attention to planning it as you do to planning your work. What are you working for if you don’t have a personal life?

In spite of what many teachers of ‘creative thinking’ say, the best way to be creative is not to try to think without limits but to very carefully define what those limits should be.

A closed list is a way of applying limits to our work in order to increase our efficiency.

Many articles and books on creativity encourage us to ‘think out of the box’ and get rid of all the restrictions on our thinking. The trouble with this advice is that it is almost entirely wrong. It is very difficult to be creative when ‘anything goes’ and you have no limitations, because it is the limitations that actually encourage creativity.

We therefore tend to rely on willpower alone. This never works because the ideal sequence above is opposed by a stronger and more primitive one: Stimulus – Reaction. Without the right structures to keep it under control, Stimulus – Reaction will always tend to overwhelm Thought – Decision – Action.

A clear vision is as much about what you are not going to do as it is about what you are going to do.