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Kickstart Creativity

50 Prompted Cards to Spark Inspiration

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Bust through creative blocks and ignite innovative problem-solving with this toolkit for creative experimentation featuring 50 prompt cards.

What if finding inspiration was merely a matter of gazing through a different lens or trying out a new tool? Kickstart Creativity is a deck of 50 cards—each with a creative exercise—designed to prompt unexpected ways of thinking.

At the start of a personal challenge or work project, draw three cards from this deck and reflect on how the spread relates to your current situation. Choose an action card to learn a new skill, a perspective card to see the world in a novel way, and an intention card to influence more meaningful and mindful choices.

Kickstart Creativity can be used by individuals or by groups of teachers, students, co-workers, and other collaborators as an antidote to creative block. With insights from trailblazing rule-breakers and cultural philosophies from bygone eras, Kickstart Creativity will shift your attention away from the pressure of productivity and toward the path to creative freedom.
Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, PhD, is a writer and professor who studies storytelling, creativity, contemplation, and wonder. She is the author of Nautilus Award winner Afoot and Lighthearted: A Journal for Mindful Walking and Kickstart Creativity: 50 Prompted Cards to Spark Inspiration. A lifelong Episcopalian, she has spent the last twenty years as a lay leader of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel at Vanderbilt University. Bonnie is professor of English and director of the honors program at Belmont University, and she lives in Nashville with her family. View titles by Bonnie Smith Whitehouse
KICKSTART CREATIVITY IS FOR YOU IF YOU’RE PREPARED TO:

TRUST THE CREATIVE PROCESS. Ideas need time to grow and develop. When you set your dreams and endeavors aside to incubate, it may not seem like any creative movement is happening. But while you ponder a new concept or intention, you’ll find that new insights reveal themselves in unexpected moments.

PURSUE DISRUPTION. Despite what legend and lore has led so many of us to believe, the creative process is not really all that mysterious. Getting stuck or needing a spark of inspiration is all part of the deal. Take a disruptive (a productive!) break with Kickstart Creativity.

PROCEED ONWARD! One of the best-kept secrets for creatives and problem solvers is what Einstein called combinatory play, the act of opening up one mental channel by dabbling in a completely different activity; for example, Einstein would play the violin when he got stuck on a math problem. By using these cards to take imaginative leaps forward and to connect dissimilar dots, Kickstart Creativity gives you specific strategies for moving toward your visions, hopes, and dreams. Especially in this wild, wooly, and sometimes cruel world, all human beings deserve a little time and space to explore their creative potential. If we want to create a better future for ourselves and for generations yet to come, we need all imaginations engaged and all hands on deck.

BE OPEN. BE DETERMINED. BE FEARLESS.

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About

Bust through creative blocks and ignite innovative problem-solving with this toolkit for creative experimentation featuring 50 prompt cards.

What if finding inspiration was merely a matter of gazing through a different lens or trying out a new tool? Kickstart Creativity is a deck of 50 cards—each with a creative exercise—designed to prompt unexpected ways of thinking.

At the start of a personal challenge or work project, draw three cards from this deck and reflect on how the spread relates to your current situation. Choose an action card to learn a new skill, a perspective card to see the world in a novel way, and an intention card to influence more meaningful and mindful choices.

Kickstart Creativity can be used by individuals or by groups of teachers, students, co-workers, and other collaborators as an antidote to creative block. With insights from trailblazing rule-breakers and cultural philosophies from bygone eras, Kickstart Creativity will shift your attention away from the pressure of productivity and toward the path to creative freedom.

Author

Bonnie Smith Whitehouse, PhD, is a writer and professor who studies storytelling, creativity, contemplation, and wonder. She is the author of Nautilus Award winner Afoot and Lighthearted: A Journal for Mindful Walking and Kickstart Creativity: 50 Prompted Cards to Spark Inspiration. A lifelong Episcopalian, she has spent the last twenty years as a lay leader of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Chapel at Vanderbilt University. Bonnie is professor of English and director of the honors program at Belmont University, and she lives in Nashville with her family. View titles by Bonnie Smith Whitehouse

Excerpt

KICKSTART CREATIVITY IS FOR YOU IF YOU’RE PREPARED TO:

TRUST THE CREATIVE PROCESS. Ideas need time to grow and develop. When you set your dreams and endeavors aside to incubate, it may not seem like any creative movement is happening. But while you ponder a new concept or intention, you’ll find that new insights reveal themselves in unexpected moments.

PURSUE DISRUPTION. Despite what legend and lore has led so many of us to believe, the creative process is not really all that mysterious. Getting stuck or needing a spark of inspiration is all part of the deal. Take a disruptive (a productive!) break with Kickstart Creativity.

PROCEED ONWARD! One of the best-kept secrets for creatives and problem solvers is what Einstein called combinatory play, the act of opening up one mental channel by dabbling in a completely different activity; for example, Einstein would play the violin when he got stuck on a math problem. By using these cards to take imaginative leaps forward and to connect dissimilar dots, Kickstart Creativity gives you specific strategies for moving toward your visions, hopes, and dreams. Especially in this wild, wooly, and sometimes cruel world, all human beings deserve a little time and space to explore their creative potential. If we want to create a better future for ourselves and for generations yet to come, we need all imaginations engaged and all hands on deck.

BE OPEN. BE DETERMINED. BE FEARLESS.

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