Inspiration: Think Again With Speaker Chris Barez-Brown
My overview of Chris Barez-Brown's talk at Inspiration and why he stood out the most for me as a student.
Although each speaker was uniquely inspiring; my favourite had to be Chris Barez-Brown from Upping Your Elvis; mainly due to the fact that I’m a student and I felt his presentation inspired me the most as it could relate to anyone, not just for people in full-time work but also for someone like me who is still studying and working.
The slides were the most minimal, but his talk one of the most energetic. His ideas didn’t need explanatory slides as they were based on basic human understandings (like your best ideas often come to you in the shower or in bed).
He told us that feedback and doing things a bit differently after a first attempt can help you develop your ideas. He used a practical exercise involving everyone constructing a paper aeroplane (which was thoroughly enjoyable as I was the youngest person at the event). We then all gave it a test run, in which most of the planes couldn’t even fly (including mine, which is poor on my behalf bearing in mind I’ve just finished school). However, he pointed out that despite your first plane being poorly constructed, that the process of trying again and finding ways of building it so it can fly better, is a key substance to further developing/evolving your ideas.
The focus during his talk was that ideas don’t particularly come from sitting at your desk thinking very hard; but actually ideas come from your subconscious, which can be developed and accessible through physical activity and actually doing things, which allows you to broaden your knowledge and to really feel an experience. For example the more things you do and feel, leads to more knowledge/ideas entering your mind (your subconscious), ultimately meaning when you do have the opportunity to have a little think, those things you’ve felt and experienced will spring to mind and strengthen your creativity, which is key for big ideas.
Lastly he noted that when thinking of ideas in your mind, that you must not be afraid to voice them. Most of the ideas I think of are total nonsense, but that one idea that perhaps I’m too scared to share could be the total opposite. Chris pointed out that it’s the human mind set to always protect ourselves from danger and also perhaps from being laughed at or worried about what people might think of you, but it’s important that we must somehow overcome that mentality and not be afraid to express our ideas.
Overall, Chris’ presentation offered me more than just inspiration but confidence to express my ideas and to get more involved in things that are perhaps out of my comfort zone.
Read an article by Chris on the Huffington Post