12 Good entertainment powers imagination
Our imagination is a crucial asset to either enhance or block our creativity. This works because our imagination is what creates images in our minds depicting either positive or negative thoughts, ideas, notions, concepts, memories, experiences and such. The entertainment that we engage in will directly influence how positive or negative our imaginations will be influenced. Because of this relationship, I have found that some forms of entertainment will suppress our creative abilities and some will enhance them. But I am also sure that this may be different for each of us, i.e. what forms of entertainment enhances one person’s creativity may be very different for another person. The trick is to figure out what kinds of entertainment enhances your creativity and what suppresses it.
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The following types of entertainment inspire my creativity:
- Listening to popular classical music.
- Reading novels or viewing movies about stories of protagonists overcoming challenging obstacles.
- Reading or viewing documentaries about inspiring stories of overcoming challenges.
- Viewing TED Talks — presentations about great ideas and/or innovations.
- Playing games that present challenges and interesting opportunities to be innovative in overcoming them.
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The following types of entertainment depress my creativity:
- Listening to music that just sounds like noise to me.
- Reading novels, playing video games or viewing movies about stories that are violent, horror, and/or pornographic in nature. eg. I don’t get why zombies and vampires stories are so popular.
- Viewing videos that don’t have any substances that just seem to be about people doing silly things.
- All forms of gambling because they are designed to both hook you into spending time playing as well as helping you lose your money.
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Some of the forms listed in my second list can have the effect of filling our minds with so many negative and even disturbing images that our positive and creative nature can be severely repressed.
I think there are many things in our world that are interesting, but do they really provide any value to us?
I believe a simple cost/benefit analysis can help you make better choices in selecting your entertainment. Consider the true costs of engaging in one entertainment event, this would include the dollar cost as well as the time consumed. Next, compare the cost against the benefits you derived from the experience. Do the benefits outweigh the costs? If the costs outweighed the benefits then why would you repeat that investment of your time and resources?
You will find that it is pretty easy to identify the costs of entertainment by adding the cost of purchasing the admission, book, movie or game, to the number of hours you spent engaged. That is after you decided what your time is worth to you. You can do this by considering how much you get paid per hour for your job since you are actually selling your time to your employer at an hourly rate, right?
This could be applied to attending a sporting event, a movie, reading a novel, playing a video game, attending a music concert or any other forms of entertainment.
Watch the following video presentations about spoken word poetry and their power of influencing others and your imagination.
Sarah Kay: If I should have a daughter … https://youtu.be/0snNB1yS3IE
The real challenge is to put a dollar value on the benefit of the entertainment you engage in. You may engage in entertainment to relax, recharge or socialize, which all have a value that may be difficult to quantify. Consider how much value you could create from enhancing your creative abilities to generate great ideas for innovations in your work from inspiring entertainment. Other valuable benefits come from broadening your knowledge of useful things and motivating you to be more positive, courageous in making better choices.
Challenge 1:
- Name five movies that you found really inspiring.
- Name five movies that you found a waste of time.
- What is your favourite three movies? Are they found in your first or second list? Why?
What forms of entertainment do you typically engage in? Do you receive more benefit from these events than what they cost you?
Is avoiding boredom by itself a valuable benefit to you?
Challenge 2:
Pick at least three different forms of entertainment that you normally invest your time and money in. Do a cost/benefit analysis on your investment for each of these forms. Consider if these forms of entertainment are helping you to be more or less creative. Share your conclusions with a friend and ask them to give you honest feedback. Ask them what forms of entertainment they find valuable.
