In 1998, an article on the front page of the Sunday business section of the largest daily paper in Denver began, “TC North was standing in the shower Monday when a potent idea began to germinate.” Reading it, I felt humiliated — a rookie mistake letting a reporter know I originally had the thoughts in the shower.

But now over a decade later, I am not really embarrassed by such things. So here’s what happened in the shower today. But first, some background …

I’d been preparing to give a workshop. I’d created the content and slides, but the engaging stories and participative exercises just weren’t coming to me. The morning before the workshop, I got up early, checked emails and did some follow-up tasks. I was feeling more relaxed than I had in a week or so. But the program was the next day.

I got in the shower and my mind drifted to the first point I would make in my presentation. All of a sudden, a great story came to mind! I was so excited that I jumped out of the shower, dripped all over the bathroom, wrote my thoughts and got back in the shower. At least I had one good story now. Then, as I thought of my second main point, another story popped into my head. So I again jumped out of the shower, the water was now pooling on the bathroom floor, wrote the story and got back into the shower. Now I had two excellent stories, I was excited! Then it happened again, for my third point and fourth point. By the fifth time this happened, water covered the bathroom floor and the ceiling below was now in danger of having a stream run through it; but, during my shower, I came up with all the creative aspects of the presentation. Wahoo!

What’s the moral of the story? It could be to always turn off your shower when writing down creative thoughts, because I ran out of hot water and flooded the floor. Or it could be that:

Creativity is often spawned by a quiet mind
- united with a challenge.

Dr. TC North

P.S.  I’d love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment below.