Last week I struggled with an article, bemoaning my inability to form coherent sentences and my complete lack of inspiration. When I explained the situation to my boyfriend, who happens to be a cook, he said:
There are two things a great chef does: first, he doesn’t try to make a bad meal better by adding ingredients; he starts fresh. Second, when he cooks, it is with love.
I usually just roll my eyes when he talks about food, but this time I was just blown away by the truth of these principles. What is more, they helped me write a great article. I thought, they must apply to all kinds of other things!
So let’s see what chefs do that could help you, too.
Make sushi egg 400 times
Jiro Ono, the world’s greatest sushi chef, teaches his apprentices to persevere. To become a first-rate chef, one needs to undergo ten years of training, but not everyone makes it. One chap made egg sushi 400 times, and when he finally got Jiro’s approval, he cried for joy.
When you achieve something, you‘re rewarded with dopamine. The longer you work towards a goal, the bigger the reward is. But the mind tends to get impatient if it doesn’t get it right away, which makes motivation hard to sustain. Your job is to make sure that your brain is bathing in dopamine daily. Christopher Bergland (athlete and coach) suggests a few ways to do that:
- Play games. Winning a game or solving a puzzle opens the dopamine floodgates. Next time your friends mention something about wasting time, you can quote this article. Meanwhile, I’ll be doing my Sudoku.
- Believe and expect the best. Strong belief in something changes the entire climate of the brain. When a patient takes a placebo pill, it works like the real thing. Positive expectation strengthens that effect. Both work together to make sure you never run out of dopamine.
- Celebrate victory. There is nothing wrong with congratulating yourself when you achieve something. To enable the free flow of dopamine, you need to be your own cheerleader. If you ignore even just a small victory, you won’t be rewarded and the will to persevere will dissipate.
Whether you’re making sushi or a website or an origami elephant, these methods work. Celebrate every fold of the paper, every sizzle of the fish, and every well-positioned drop down window. Take a break and invite your friends to a round of X-Box. Believe it will work and it will.
Put creativity at the center
Chef Ferran Adrià is unparalled in creativity and innovation in the food industry. He takes a classic dish and turns it into art.
Paul Bennett, Chief Creative Officer of IDEO says:
Adrià sees food as a piece of narrative. Creativity is often at the edge of jobs but elBulli puts creativity at the centre of the business.
Creativity benefits business. Recently, 1500 startup founders took a survey and selected creativity as ‘most crucial factor for future success’. What is more, creativity can help solve most business challenges.
It is fueled by inspiration, which is also hard to sustain. Creative blocks are the worst. You feel stuck, thinking up excuses not to do your work, admitting defeat before you’ve even started. Good news is, inspiration is a state of mind, which means it can be helped. Three processes illustrate that.
- Working memory is when your brain collects and sorts out data.
It takes up a lot of brain power throughout the day, and when your brain is finally free to run wild at night, you just want to go to sleep.
This doesn’t stop Lady GaGa from sketching though.
I was lying in bed and I had an idea for an outfit. I just made myself get up and sketch it real fast then went back to sleep. I think it’s when you say ‘I’m too tired I have to go to bed’ is when creativity stops coming. If God calls you, pick up the damn phone.
According to research, the alternative to tossing and turning in bed, fighting creative urges is consuming alcohol. Don’t make it a habit or anything, but a beer or two will jumpstart your creativity.
2. Neuroplasticity is your brain’s ability to form new connections.
When you learn, it literally rearranges itself to accommodate new information and link it to existing one. Accelerating this process makes it more likely to come up with new ideas. Gregg Fraley suggests:
Reading widely provides more dots to connect. There is some science to this; one can make more conceptual blends if one has more to blend. And, concept blending, new connections, are where innovation comes from.
3. Wakeful relaxation is associated with alpha waves.
Inspiration doesn’t happen when you’re most active (beta). Rather, it waits until your brain is relaxed, like when you’re bored. A recent study found a strong correlation between daydreaming and creativity, for example.
And sometimes you need a little help. Chef Adrià finds inspiration in hardware stores and food markers. Writers find it on Medium and Readwave, designers on carbonmade and behance, photographers at 500px and 365project, and innovators go to TED. Finally, HitRECord is for everyone.
Art inspires creative thinking. Creative thinking inspires everything.
Including BeTweet, which is my very own creative take on Marketing for startups. It’s a good place for you to find some growth suggestions. ☺
Cook with passion
A great chef pours his heart into the food he prepares.
The best meals can transport you back or forward in time. Some say it’s because of painstaking mastery, but the great chef knows, it’s because he cooks with love. Look at this chef’s face and tell me he doesn’t love his job.
To quote Nobuyuki “Nobu” Matsuhisa:
Food is with the heart — you can’t do anything without passion.
The best piece of writing pours from the author’s soul. The best piece of technology is created by a passionate visionary. And the best advice comes from anyone who loves what they do.
Do you apply these recipes to your business? I sure hope so!
P.S. About a week ago, I heard the news about Biz Stone’s new Jelly app unlocking empathy. Immediately I thought, helping people could also boost motivation (according to my calculations). See how.
