101 Activities For Teaching Creativity And Problem Solving

42. Imaginary Mentor

Background

Did you ever have a secret friend to whom you told all your problems? Do you have an

inner voice that helps you solve problems? Are they out to get you?

If you answered yes to all three questions, you may want to obtain professional coun-

seling! If you answered yes to the first two questions, you may want to delay treatment.

Apparently, many people listen to an inner voice for guidance. For instance, General Dou-

glas MacArthur supposedly conjured up his hero-father for advice on military strategy.

The poet Milton called his inner guide “Celestial Patroness” and described how she

helped him compose his writings.

I’m not suggesting that we all have a little person living inside us. Instead, I believe

we all have subconscious motives, impulses, feelings, and images. All this material has

tremendous potential as a vast, untapped reservoir of creativity.

The problem is that we can’t always access our subconscious on demand. We have no

set of commands or buttons to push to enter our subconscious minds. Instead, we have to

enter them more indirectly. One way to access our subconscious thoughts is to create a

personal, internal mentor.

Objectives

• To help participants generate as many creative ideas as possible


• To help participants learn how to use the activities to generate ideas

Participants

Small groups of four to seven people each

Materials, Supplies, and Equipment

• For each group: markers, two flip charts, and masking tape for posting flip-chart
  sheets


• For each participant: one sheet each of three different colors of sticking dots
  (^1 ⁄ 2 ” diameter) and one pad of 4 x 6 Post-it®Notes

Free Association Activities: “Blue Skies” 193

101 Activities for Teaching Creativity and Problem Solving.Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley &

Sons, Inc. Reproduced by permission of Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley. http://www.pfeiffer.com

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