One fine day, I hope we all are. So by all means, go pinch an ostrich or two.
But for now, right here, that would be me:

Karl Raats, production date 1971, Libra, ENFP, married to An, two daughters, Robin and Sam, restless soul and once repremanded by my French teacher who said I “would never stay so childishly enthousiastic, optimistic & rebelious.” And she was right: I’m getting better and better at it!
> My LinkedIn public profile

What is 'Pinching the Ostrich'?

PtO is a personal, yet very public 5-year journey along a number of challenges, fears and a fair amount of assumptions about myself and others. It’s a 24/7 ongoing search for the rightfull place creativity could have in our lives. It isn’t based on any particular definition of creativity. It is aimed at exploring the conditions under which creativity has a fighting chance. Creativity’s 5 P’s:

Positivity
is about spotting and acting on opportunities where others see but limitations,
with a “yes, and” mindset at the heart of everything you do.

Playfulness
is the mindset and set of skills that allows you to relate the seemingly unrelated.
It’s the willingness to make mistakes without losing enthusiasm.
Playfully juggling ideas without necessarily accepting them.

Passion
is about finding and fostering intrinsic motivation.
Feeding the insatiable need to understand and the relentless search for knowledge and experience.

Perseverance
is the proverbial 99% perspiration that completes that 1% inspiration.
It’s plain and simple hard work. To take that one step, you couldn’t see yourself take yesterday.

Persuasion
gets the message out and gets people to share a little stretch of the journey with you.
That one step taken together that just might be the tiping point in everything you try to accomplish.

“Pinching the Ostrich” aspires to make these 5 P’s come to live so that you, me, them, everybody, everybody may enjoy the benefits of unchained/unchaining creativity.

How to 'Pinch the Ostrich'

By acting on the believe that creativity can make us “Learn anything”, help me “Overcome anything”, allow me to “Connect to anyone”, let me “Create my reality”, and “Inspire anyone”. Hence, the 2 university degrees and 5 professional accreditations, the 10 personal fears overcome and 20 creative challenges met, all while shaping my own life and inviting 1.000.000 other people to pinch an ostrich or two themselves.

2009 Goals mindmap: The year of the Arts / 2009 results (coming up)
2010 Goals mindmap: The year of psychology / 2010 results (coming up)

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