Feeling stuck?

Sometimes we get stuck. Our creativity seems to have disappeared, or we stay in job that's not working, a relationship that should be over, or we just keep banging our heads against the wall hoping that something will change but feeling the doom of no-way-out. 

This condition is what I call Imagination Constipation. Thankfully, there's a way out. And it's quite fun. 

Take a look at this talk I gave at the Gamification Summit, about how to use play to reignite your fluid capacity for seeing new solutions. The GSummit attracts over 500 HR and Marketing innovators from companies like Google, Home Depot, The Gap, LinkedIn, awesome start ups, and beyond to explore how games motivate and engage. If you want to learn more about gamification check out my friends at gamification.co. 

I'd love to know your thoughts! Please leave comments or write me - stella@woopaah.com. 

Best,

Stella

You can't flourish ALL the time

Everyday I pass a row of trees outside my building. These trees have been bare since I moved in. How do you tell a bare tree from a dead one? They kinda look the same. Recently I was looking up and noticed a leaf blowing in the wind. At first I thought it was a remnant - a lone and frail survivor. Then I looked closer and noticed it was green! It’s ALIVE it’s ALIVE!!! The tree was beginning to bloom. 

Isn’t so cool that something which seemed barren, dead, hopeless for so many months - meanwhile had all this magic brewing within? There’s no way you could see it from the outside. 

Our work, our relationships, our creativity, our lives - everything really, has its season, too. Sometimes you can’t tell but there’s a lot of work happening below the surface - beyond your awareness.

But unlike the weather, our ideas, our work, our relationships, our lives aren’t as predictable in their seasonality. So what do you do if you’re experiencing a hard winter:

1. Know that winter doesn’t last forever.
2. Remember that winter has a purpose - it’s a resting time preparing for blossoming.
3. Befriend your winter days - savor them while they last, find at least three things a day you can appreciate.

While we're all familiar with a metaphor of seasons, most recently science is also investigating the rythms of our lives in a emerging field called Chronobiology. "Chronobiology is the biology of time, or the study of internal biological clocks. Biological clocks are found at all levels in living organisms. They range from oscillations found in nerve cells on the millisecond scale to oscillations in minutes, hours, days, and years in a variety of organisms and tissues."   

Here’s to all of YOU - at ALL times. 

Much love, 

Stella

Ah, the Power of Improv!

In a city of millions, it comes as no surprise that New Yorkers are experts are remaining aloof and non-responsive – we simply turn up the volume on our headphones, burrowing deeper into our paperback, and do our very best to avoid eye contact.

But every once in a while we might stumble on a situation that forces us to sit up and take notice, to unplug and power down. Maybe it’s seeing hundreds of people in the subway who aren’t wearing pants… in January. Or perhaps you wandered into a Best Buy only to find that every single person in the store is wearing the standard staff uniform (khakis and a blue polo). The urge to take stock of your surroundings and to communicate with others involved in the same experience – even if it’s as simple as a shared smile or laugh – is irresistible. And this is precisely Charlie Todd’s goal. As the creator of Improv Everywhere, he started creating wildly funny, zany or offbeat scenarios in public places in New York in 2001. The enterprise has since become a global movement operating under the appropriate tagline “We Cause Scenes.”

Whether it be a silent dance party in a park or a re-enactment of the opening scene from Ghostbusters in the Reading Room of the New York Public Library, Todd and his team of volunteers put unsuspecting people in the improvisational line of fire. In devising these scenes, Improv Everywhere compels bystanders to burst out of their individual bubbles, take in their surroundings and interact with those around them. After all, if a gang of four men in yellow jumpsuits with vacuums strapped to their backs started chasing white-sheet-clad ghosts around while you were studying quietly in the library, even the most jaded New Yorker might be tempted to crack a smile, especially as library security guards stand there apparently dumbfounded.

Charlie Todd and his team of improv “agents” put into action many of the same guiding principles of WOOPAAH. Creativity, spontaneity and the unexpected are powerful tools for enacting change. They can (albeit unwittingly) bring together all kinds of people, breaking down the walls we build to keep others out and make the stimulus overload of our city more bearable. With humor and a wonderfully creative spirit, Todd reminds us that even though we are all different, shared experiences through play that encourage us to look outside of ourselves can help us connect with those around us on a fundamental level. And perhaps sharing a laugh with a stranger is the first step to beginning a dialogue and creating a greater sense of understanding and happiness amongst us all.