Tania Katan

#197: How to Turn the Mundane Into Novelty with Your Storytelling

#197: How to Turn the Mundane Into Novelty with Your Storytelling

Most of us have a job or boss to report to throughout each week, and more often than not this feels like more of a chore than an opportunity. But what if we all had the power within us to create opportunity in place of mundane?  Fortunately, the power of creative storytelling can take any situation out of a state of menial to meaningful.

Our guest, Tania Katan, author of Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life, shares her journey on how to smuggle creativity into even the most soul-sucking workplaces to inspire productivity. Her secret to making work and life fun is actually much easier than most think and it is something we are all capable of doing.

So, what is this secret recipe?

Creative storytelling.

In fact, this innate power is what helped Tania co-create the internationally viral women’s empowerment campaign #ItWasNeverADress, by reimaging and re-telling the story of the women’s bathroom sign.

And that’s the beauty of creative storytelling. It allows us to find extraordinary inspiration in those ordinary places where the best ideas, innovations, and magic reside. Allowing our minds, the ability to think creatively creates stories of passion and excitement and when we share these stories with others, we ignite collaboration.

And while many of us feel that we can’t be imaginative, this, in fact, is not true. We all start out as very imaginative creatures, it is a part of our DNA. So, how do you begin making magic from the mundane?

Practice using your imagination and make a ‘to-don’t list’, where you write down what is stopping you from pursuing what you what to achieve. ~ Tania Katan

Ask yourself, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Topics Discussed in this Episode

• “T-Shaped Skills”, deep knowledge/skills in one area and a broad base of general supporting knowledge/skills
• How agile methodology shares similarities to playwriting
• How walking increases creativity up to 60%
• How humans are born very imaginative creatures but we are taught to unlearn this over time

Resources & Links

• Creative Trespassing™
• Tania Katan’s Creative Trespassing: How to Put the Spark and Joy Back into Your Work and Life
• Tania’s Twitter 
• Tania’s Instagram 
• Tania’s Linkedin 
• “The Summer Day” by Mary Oliver 
• The Stanford study on walking and creativity 
• Noble Candy and Luis Medina 
• Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind 
• Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow
• Dr. George Land’s study of divergent thinking 
• Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

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