creative maverick

“What’s your favourite animal?” people would ask me when I was a child. It’s one of those questions you get asked a lot as a child (and never again as an adult). I would say “Penguin”.

Not dog, cat, lion, tiger, horse. I picked the animal that seemed furthest from my suburban home in the Midlands. My pet was also not a dog or a cat but a tortoise. Several tortoises in fact.

Looking back in my self-critical moments, I thought that I must have been trying to be “different for the sake of it” (and that apparently this is a bad thing). But in fact creative mavericks and Scanners thrive on innovation; our minds rush to the edges - the edges of what’s considered normal, what’s socially acceptable, what is established thinking and technique. Because it’s at the edges that the new things are happening, things are changing, new discoveries are being made.

As the set representing established thinking and accepted practices slowly expands, we rush to the edges where something is just being uncovered, created or included so that we can see it, enjoy it, add to it.

Standing at the edges, everything on the inside looks old, dull, done.

We’re looking outwards to see what’s coming next, where the sun is just coming up for the first time. For me it’s in psychotherapy, coaching, writing, humour, business, marketing, working styles, web 2.0, technology, user interface, pituitary treatment, healthcare, happiness.

Which edge do you rush to?