Creativity Countdown!

In sixty weeks, I will turn sixty years old. I decided to mark this milestone by giving myself a weekly challenge that will stretch me in surprising ways over the coming months. The goal is to both define and redefine who I am by the time I celebrate my sixtieth birthday.

Why sixty? It turns out that in many parts of the world sixty is an incredibly meaningful birthday. The Chinese calendar, for example, is based on the zodiac, which has 12 signs and five natural elements: metal, fire, water, earth, and wood. When an individual reaches 60 years old, he or she has gone passed through all combinations of zodiac signs and natural elements. This is considered the full cycle of life, returning you to the beginning. At 60 we begin our life anew!

This important birthday is celebrated across Asia, including Korea, where the celebration is know as hwangap and in Japan, where the celebration is known as kanreki,. In Japan, for example, kanreki is celebrated by wearing a red hat and vest, since red is the color symbol for babies.

Sixty is also a very meaningful age for those of us living in the West. It is the time when we start talking about retiring, or “rewiring” ourselves for the next chapter of our lives. There is lots of research that proves that the things we do when we are younger deeply influence how we age. Our physical, emotional, and financial health depends on choices and actions that we begin years earlier. Sixty is, therefore, a great time to being thinking about life at 70, 80, 90, and even 100. In addition, in the past, before the advent of modern medicine, far fewer people reached the age of 60. As a result, this milestone is even more important now. It is an important opportunity to reflect on life, to celebrate all each of us has accomplished, and to seriously consider the future. It behooves us to decide how we will live out those extra years, and how do we make them as meaningful as possible.

This is just as relevant for someone who is 20, 30 and 40 as it is for someone who is 60. We always have the opportunity to define and redefine who we are. I look back over my life and I have organically redefined myself over and over again. By stepping back and looking at one’s life in decades, as opposed to days or weeks, you see very different patterns. Big changes – or pivots – take time to reveal themselves.

I’ve been teaching classes on creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship at Stanford University for the past 17 years, where I prepare students to tackle problems of all sizes. Now, I turn the tables and will apply these lessons to myself. The design brief would read:

How might I reinvent myself at 60 years old?

This project builds upon my prior books. What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 is essentially a letter to my son, Josh, as he went off to college, preparing him for life as an adult. inGenius and Insight Out both capture the concepts and approaches that I use to teach creativity and entrepreneurship at Stanford and around the world, allowing others to adopt them to their settings. This book requires me to apply the same principles and tools to myself. As with my students, the first step will be to unpack all the ways I can frame the problem. For example, how do I reinvent my career, relationships, my daily activities, my appearance, and even my definition of “myself.”

During the next 60 weeks, I will take on challenges that stretch me in many different directions, including doing things I’ve never done before, looking at my life in new ways, and reflecting on the process of getting older. I will generate some of the ideas for the projects and challenges, and will gather recommendations from others along the way. Taking a few hours, a few days, or even a few weeks, each project must require me to challenge assumptions, connect things in unlikely ways, and break some “rules” by looking at my life and my environment from a fresh perspective.

My goals are to reinforce the attitude that problems are opportunities for creative solutions, to expand my horizons, and to build a bigger toolbox of skills and interests. Along the way, I will reflect on each of the experiences, and on the process of growing older. For example, there will be short essays on the tradeoff between personal energy and focus, on being busy versus bored, and the role of pressure and resilience in our lives. I will augment my own musings with insights from others who have successfully navigated this path before.

I heartily invite others to join me on this journey. Whether you’re 20, 30, 60, or 90 there is always an opportunity for growth and renewal. I will begin with a list of projects for the first few weeks, knowing that they will morph and stretch as I get underway and receive ideas and feedback from others. Hopefully, a community will grow around this endeavor, leading some participants to collaborate on some of the weekly challenges.

As Mark Twain so wisely said, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than the ones you did… Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Let’s get started!

#birthday #creativity #challenge