Card #67 – ”Loosen Up”

Card #67 – ”Loosen Up” from the Creative Whack Pack

Available on the iOS App Store and as a physical deck of cards

Some people are so closely married to their ideas that they put them up on a pedestal.

It’s difficult to be creative if you have too much ego tied up in an idea.

Therefore, step back, loosen up and remember Laroff’s Credo:

“It’s not so important to be serious as it is to be serious about the important things.

“The monkey has an expression of seriousness that would do credit to any great scholar.

“But the monkey is serious because he itches.”

— What can you take less seriously?

— Think of an important standard you use to measure ideas. What would happen if you temporarily loosened that standard?

Tip: Laugh at it.

Where do you find a dog with no legs? Where you left him!

What’s worse than finding a worm in your apple? Finding half a worm!

What’s the difference between a dancer and a duck? One is quick on her legs, and the other goes “quack” on her eggs!

Humor is a lot of fun. But that’s not all! There’s a close relationship between the “ha-ha” of humor and the “Aha!” of discovery. If you can laugh at a problem or situation, perhaps you’ll overturn a few assumptions and come up with some fresh ideas.

That’s because the mental strategies underlying humor — combining different ideas, asking unusual “what if” questions”, and parodying the rules — are congruent with effective problem-solving techniques.

As the physicist Niels Bohr once put it: “Some things are so serious that you have to laugh at them.”

— What can you make
light of in your current situation?

— What do you find to be particularly amusing?

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