This week I decided to color outside of the lines.
I posted a new kind of video and per usual, my expectations were extremely low.
So imagine my surprise when it wound up with hundreds of thousands of views and a wiiiiide range of commentary.
For the first time maybe ever, the comments section was all over the place. Some passionately agreed (or disagreed) with me, others challenged me, made fun of me, and even requested a part 2.
It was so refreshing to try something DIFFERENT for once.
And the video concept “things I think will be the norm in the future” wasn’t taken from a trend either.
It just came to me as a sleepover idea last week during a long walk with friends.
What’s a sleepover idea?
One of my favorite parts of sleepovers with friends as a kid was asking, “what could we do now?” followed by…”what if…”
The question never stemmed from boredom. It didn’t come about due to a lack of creativity. In fact quite the opposite - it fueled infinite excitement around endless time and possibilities to do whatever we imagined.
And THAT’S the essence of a sleepover idea: it’s an idea that comes from, essentially, nothing. Meaning no briefs or deadlines, no problems that need to be solved “ASAP”. Just some time, a “what if” question, and your ability to remove constraints that you’ve been conditioned to believe as an adult.
The constraints can be the hardest part of a sleepover idea, because they feel like facts about who you are. For example “I’m just not a creative person” or “I’m not a numbers person”…everybody has their own version.
What I find amusing is that when we were of sleepover age, we were never so aware of our “constraints” that they prevented us from having sleepover ideas.
Since grade school, my personal constraints have always been what I believed to be true about creativity and boredom.
“Creativity” has multiple interpretations, depending on the context. But I grew up believing that “being creative” meant that you were good at executing art, i.e. drawing, painting, etc. so when I watched my peers effortlessly create in art class, I immediately resigned myself to other subjects.
I went on to believe that I wasn’t a creative person well into my career, until a colleague of mine wrote in a review that they “valued my creativity”. Uhh…me? Do they know that I don’t even know how to draw a human eye properly?!
You’ve also probably heard about the importance of boredom. Wah wah wah wah wah *Charlie Brown parent voice*
Personally speaking, the thought of being bored feels like fire ants crawling on me, but INSIDE my skin (only quick analogy I can think of, sorry!)
Boredom has always signaled apathy or a lack of curiosity. How could you be bored living in this day and age? There’s so much to do, learn, see, understand…why sit still?
But I’ve come to learn that all of this is just my own comfort zone in action. I used to believe that I wasn’t creative, and I’ve avoided being bored for so long that I didn’t realize both had become blockers for me in unlocking my own big picture thinking.
The sooner you can identify and work on releasing your own constraints, the closer you’ll be to having a sleepover idea.
How to prime yourself for sleepover ideas
Step #1
Just as it takes two to tango, it also takes more than one person to have a “sleepover”. So to give yourself the best opportunity for a sleepover idea, you need one other person. And no, AI is not a human, so it doesn’t count.
You also don’t have to have a literal sleepover (or you can!) but it’s ideal to make a very, very loose plan with another person no matter what, as the underlying joy of sleepovers are the lack of agenda.
These kinds of loose plans can include:
Making random phone calls to friends or family with no agenda or goal
Going for long walks with no designated path or end time determined
Putting a meeting on the calendar with a colleague for no reason other than to talk about random things
The goal is to go with the flow and not pigeonhole yourself into conversations or tasks that have to happen.
And this can be super hard, as much of what we do day to day are rooted in things that we HAVE to get done.
Step #2
The next step is to figure out your strengths, because it’s the natural lens you bring to every “what if” question.
I’m a massive proponent of CliftonStrengths (not spon!), which is how I was able to gain clarity around my actual strengths. Two of my top five strengths are Futuristic and Ideation, which explains why my sleepover idea turned into a video of predictions about the future.
But that’s my own version. If you go on a long walk with someone whose top strength is Relator they might come home with a plan to get their group of college friends all back in one room. Or an Achiever might take a “what if” answer and turn it into a tangible project in two days.
Part of why I adore those around me is that they empower me through my strengths, even though none of them have any idea of my “assigned” CliftonStrengths. They just know me well enough to understand where I thrive.
And THAT’S why Step #1 is another person. Their strengths take the “what if” and catapult it into a new direction yours might’ve never gone.
Step #3
Going back to step #1, remember that keeping it loose is the goal. So let’s say you decide to call a friend. You could get to talking and they say “I really wish that we could go on an adventure in Bali next year.”
“Oh yeah, why’s that?”
“Well because it’d be cool if…”
And then that’s the juicy moment where a sleepover idea comes in. You open the doors for imagination, brainstorms, and hypotheses to unfold. You notice when self-inflicted barriers come in and you go back to “what if” questions. You let your strengths (and theirs) run with it.
The only rule, and this is a very important one: you don’t get to decide what’s possible yet. So saying “OK but that would never work” is a sleepover idea killer. “What if it could/did?” is how you keep it going.
And there’s no end goal needed. You just want to create the best possible opportunity for ideas to come about.
Sleepover ideas are for everyone
My sleepover idea stemmed from a conversation with two friends during a walk that had no agenda - but my imagination and strengths got me to the final result.
Now people have formed opinions about something they wouldn’t have ever thought about - and some even want a part 2, which is just crazy to me.
So how are you going to get closer to a “what if” this week?