Change of Scenery – Nate Turner

 

On one holiday weekend a year, our family takes the weekend away. We all pile in the car and head out of town. We settle into our temporary home for the weekend. I love those weekends.

Whether it’s a cabin in the mountains or a condo on the beach, I feel like I am loose from the distractions of everyday life, and my creative juices begin to flow. Most of the time, I am just there for a weekend away, but my mind starts creating…generating new ideas.

Most of us need time away, but it is more than just the time. It’s also about the location. There is something about a change of scenery that causes us to become more creative. Here are three major changes that happen when we get away.

Change of Pace

One huge benefit of changing scenery is the change of pace. If you live a busy life, sometimes you need to get away to a slower pace to become more creative. The usual hustle squeezes your creative potential. The crunch for time leaves you with little space to be creative. Getting away creates the physical and mental change of pace needed to jump start your creativity.

If you live at a slower pace, on the other hand, your change of scenery might need to be a hotel in the city. You need somewhere with a faster pace to pick up your creative pace. A change of pace pushes you out of your routine and into a more creative posture.

Change of Mindset

This may seem a bit abstract, but you have different mindsets for different parts of your life. You have a home mindset, a work mindset, a sitting in traffic mindset…many different mindsets. You also have a vacation mindset. Many times, when you change your scenery, you end up switching mindsets. You think differently than you would think at home or at work or (thankfully) in traffic.

Some of your best creative thinking happens when you switch out of your typical mindsets. You think outside of your usual boxes. Your brain begins to ignite different thinking pathways. This different thinking produces different ideas. The change of scenery flips a mindset switch that opens you up to more creative avenues of thinking.

Change of Focus

Sometimes you focus too much. Have you ever been pressed for an idea that just won’t come? Of course you have. We all have those moments where we are so intent on creating that we actually inhibit our own ability to be creative. You need a change of scenery that gives you unstructured time. Time to sit back and drink a cup of coffee. Time to lay in a hammock and rest. Time to just be still. You will be surprised how the lack of focus can produce a surge of creative potential.

Sometimes you focus too little. You may be so busy that you just don’t have time to focus on that one thing that needs to get done. Or worse, it gets so little of your attention that it loses quality. You need to get away to give it the attention it deserves. You need a change of scenery so that you are able to put all your creative energy into that project.

 

I’ve got two questions for you:
Where do you need to get away?
What project needs you to get away?