Recently, I was lucky enough to attend (and speak at, total humble brag moment!) the Victorian Creative State Summit. Our hostess opened the summit with a bit of a theme for the following few days, a challenge if you will… It was inspired by the wise words of the same man who wrote famous lyrics about a cold, cold, child. The one and only, Vanilla Ice.
Our hostess encouraged us that whilst being immersed with some of the world’s best creative thinkers and innovators to STOP. COLLABORATE. AND LISTEN. And I put the same challenge out to you for the next few weeks…
STOP
Take time to stop that sometimes mind-numbing routine of eat, sleep, rave (work), repeat. Interrupt the flow of your life to think creatively about what you do and how you do it. Or even more daringly, WHY you do it. Whether it’s about your work, personal life or that side hustle your heart keeps reminding you to start, I bet it will be improved and/or gain momentum when you pop a little time aside to STOP and think about it creatively.
COLLABORATE
One of my focuses this year was to personify the phrase “collaboration, not competition”. We truly are better together, and the more diverse the people whom you collaborate with, the stronger your ideas will be. Truly. So ask yourself, “who in my world, sector or community can I collaborate with?” How can you strengthen and inspire each other and be inspired by sharing ideas and resources? You never lose when you choose collaboration over competition or segregation.
LISTEN
So often when we are busy, hustling or just consumed with our own world we find ourselves talking about, well, to put it bluntly, ourselves. All the time. The problem with this is that by isolating conversions to telling people simply about ourselves, we get no smarter, we get no new or inspired ideas, and we miss out on having a break from ourselves by jumping into the warmth that comes from immersing ourselves into someone else’s world for a few minutes. So make sure when you’re out and about next that you’re listening, REALLY listening. I promise you won’t ever regret it.
Shoot me a DM on insta at @kimelisecooper or @thishotmessau and let me know how you went with the “STOP. COLLABORATE AND LISTEN” challenge over the next two weeks! I’d LOVE to know!
All my love,
Kim xx
