Ideas are so precious, the heart of all innovation.
From Stonehenge to the moon landing, the Mona Lisa to the mobile phone…
They all start with creative thinking.
On my personal, rather more humble level…
My books, lecture courses, talks, even blog posts like this, they all start with an idea.
Which had me wondering, and carrying out one of my (strange, but potentially useful) experiments:
The big question: Is there an ideal food to help catalyse creativity?
Well, prepare yourself for an equally big answer…
I think I may have found it.
First of all, I decided on the meal to be the subject of my research.
Which of course led straight to breakfast.
There are so many sayings about the importance of that first dining of the day.
And quite right too.
Morning is my peak creativity time, and so a fine breakfast is indispensable to fuel the brain.
I normally eat some fruit first: apples, pears, plums, nectarines.
Then, a little later, a bowl of natural yoghurt and granola.
That combination seems to work well in terms of giving me energy and sparking a few ideas from the old grey matter.
But, particularly as I’ve been away quite a lot over the summer, I thought it was time to try something different.
I’ve sampled various breakfast breads, cereals, fruits, even a few traditional English fried foods…
But none seemed to make a noticeable difference to my creativity.
Until! Last week and my latest trip.
So, with all due fanfare…
Let me introduce you to the true creative breakfast.
If you’re struggling to make it out, there’s poached egg, avocado, spinach, mushrooms, tomato, and potatoes.
There’s even some salad garnish, as though the thing needed it.
So, why am I praising this particular breakfast in the highest?
Because, around half an hour after having delightedly eaten it…
I had an idea for a new book, a new lecture course, a new audio learning talk, some refinements to my existing teaching, a breakthrough about a different way of explaining part of my Compelling Communication Skills course…
Plus some other pleasing ideas about leisure activities and plans for the last months of this year, not to mention the next.
In brief, nothing less than a joyous creative supernova.
Of course, the ideal food to stimulate your mind might not be the same as mine.
And this was a highly unscientific experiment, with that storm of creativity possibly just being a coincidence.
But! I can certainly recommend trying the breakfast above.
And if it doesn’t have quite the same impressive results for you as it did for me…
You can have a very enjoyable time, experimenting with exactly what foods work best as your personal creative catalyst!
