Make every weekend a Creative Experience
Use Deliberate Creative Thinking for your ABC Weekends
Creative Thinking is a skill and deliberate act that you can apply to anything – even your romantic endeavours.
All you need to do is say “I want to be creative in the area of ________” and use one of many creative thinking tools to stimulate ideas.
Want to do something different with your loved ones? Need to bring some romance back into your relationship, or find way to keep the kids amused on the weekend.
Try following the ‘ABC Weekends’ approach. You take turns each week thinking of an inexpensive activity beginning with the letter of the alphabet.
Week 1 = A, Week 2 = B, Week 3 = C, etc.
Here are some examples:
A. Visit an Aquarium. Maybe a candlelit dinner in the Shark Tunnel surrounded by thousands of beautiful fish.
B. Bagels for Breakfast in Brunswick, a nice long Bath with lots of Bubbles (in the bath and to drink).
C. Catch a fish at an out of town fish-farm or small lake with the kids, while mum catches up with friends for Coffee
D. Drum your way through the Park. Get the kids together with some of their friends and form a small marching band while the parents have Drink by the BBQ.
E. You could Engineer Entertainment for Everyone to Enjoy at Esk
F. Go with the Flow – just get in the car and take a drive in the country to pick some Flowers.
G. Gym – sweat it out together with free passes at local gym
H. Humour – find a local comedy theatre and have a rib hurting laugh
I. Ignore the phone, email, Facebook and Twitter for the whole weekend and Ignite some sparks
J. Join a club that gets away on weekends each month – car club, model club, food club
K. Go fly a Kite – in a nice way of course! There are lots of parks around if you cannot get to a beach.
L. Laugh out loud as part of an early morning Laughter Club. Sure to start the day right
M. Movie night out or in depending on the movie.
N. Nonsense is fun, try it. Do something silly this weekend – not dangerous though.
O. Open house – invite all your family, friends and work colleagues around for a weekend Open House and see what happens
P. Picnic in the Park with Parents
Q. Quack – feed the ducks in the pond. Or see your local psychologist if this is starting to hurt.
R. Romantic rendezvous at a scenic spot
S. Singing in the rain. Get out into the bush and sing a happy song as you trek
T. Treasure Hunt – map out 10 things you need to find in a day
U. Get Underground – go visit a local mine museum, or if none is available get to the beach and mine for gold with the kids.
V. Valentine = Romantic gestures – Visit a Rose Garden
W. Go on a bush or beach walk.
X. Let your imagination run wild,but we don’t recommend Xeroxing your bum on the photocopier. Really we don’t.
Y. Have lunch watching the Yachts in the Harbour, if you can’t get on one yourself.
Z. This is an easy one – visit the Zoo of course!
This approach can be applied to lots of different things. For example, themes for the company or school weekly newsletters, or maybe something to spark ideas for your weekly focus on Creativity and Innovation.
The key is to give it a try and be deliberate with your creative thinking. And when you’ve gone through the first 26 weekends, start again for a full year of fun and creativity.
Good luck and have fun.
Bill and Jennifer
