Aha! 10 Ways to Free Your Creative Spirit and Find Your Great Ideas

by Jordan Ayan, Rick Benzel

"Aha! is a joyful, upbeat survey of ideas for enhancing creativity. Jordan Ayan's enthusiasm is hard to resist, and every reader will find personally suitable strategies. Aha! is an inspiring yet practical guidebook for freeing the creative spirit."
--Betty Edwards, author of Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

"A delightful romp through the rich and complicated field of creativity. Ayan's Aha! is bound to make the reader's thinking more interesting and original."
--Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, ph.d., author of the Psychology of Optimal Experience

"The future belongs to those who create it. Jordan Ayan's exceptional book will show you how to create yours by providing the keys to unlock your great ideas."
--Daniel Burrus, author of Technotrends and a leading technology forecaster

Behind every successful venture, there's a great idea. If you haven't found your great idea yet, or if you've always thought you "just weren't the creative type,"  Jordan Ayan's accessible and entertaining book will give you the confidence to listen to your own creative spirit and to find the breakthrough you've been waiting for. Based on the notion that creativity is a life skill that must be continually cultivated, Ayan offers ten strategies for finding and harnessing inspiration--wherever and whenever it occurs. His mini workshops will show you how travel, reading, the arts, new technology, journaling, and more can form the basic building blocks of a more creative and rewarding life.

Genres: Self Help, Art, Design, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1996

Reviews

[June Milner]

Good ideas overall. Since book was written in 1997, the references to technology in later chapters are dated

[Helynne]

This book is so full of various kinds of ideas to spark creativity that I found it a bit much to try to read it from cover to cover. It works better as a reference manual that one can pick up from time to time when one needs a creative boost for a particular kind of project. Being bombarded with all of these ideas—and there are many ideas and suggestions in each of the 10 chapters—is just too much stimulation. For example, I loved the chapter called “Take Up the Arts,” with its emphasis on how to use music to spark one’s inspiration and to get one’s goals out of a rut and into a flow. Among may other ways to galvanize creativity, author Jordan Ayan touts playing or learning to play a musical instrument. I was sufficiently inspired after reading that chapter to sit down at the piano and try a Ravel piece I had been wanting to learn, but mostly ignoring. (No, I didn’t play it very well, but that’s not the point. The idea is to vitalize and fire up a part of the brain that doesn’t get used in one’s usual routine). Ayan’s premise is that there are four fundamental elements of the creative spirit, a building block that he calls C.O.R.E.—which stands for Creativity, Openess, Risk, and Energy. He also provides ideas and exercises to encourage waves of serendipidy and synchronicity to quicken one’s plans and goals. Each chapter is followed by a list of books for further reading in the certain areas of stimulus—connecting with people, designing an enriching environment in which to work, using travel , play, reading, arts, technology, etc., to dynamize one’s productivity. The last three chapters entitled “PowerThink Your Challenges,” “Release Your Alterconscious,” and “Connect with Your Creative Soul” merit deeper perusal as they describe such techniques as dreamwork, meditation, rituals and various approaches to spirituality to arouse one’s imagination and inspiration. Great resource to keep on hand!

[Jessy]

i need this kind of book. greaattt info =]

[Ami]

Skimmed. Entirely not worth an actual read, but there are bibliographies at the end of each chapter, pointing you to potentially better books.

[Jen]

Some great insight and really useful (and fun) exercises to get the creative juices flowing.

[Leo Dei]

Love this book! Great & easy exercises to get the creativity flowing.

[Keena]

Some sections were more useful than others. The technology chapter was written in 1997 after all! But I did find the power-thinking chapter very useful for job-related creativity.

[Sarah]

Some parts are useable and self reflective, other parts are boring and skippable.