Allright. Let’s buckle up

1. Think about music or art, design you don’t like. The firmer the dislike the better.
2. Go to Youtube, Vimeo, etc. and find your deeply disliked music or find that horrible object on google.
3. Take a couple of deep breathes. Close your eyes and listen with your Alien Superhero ears as if this is the most precious beautiful sound you’ve ever heard. Or sit down and study the object as if it’s the first time you’ve ever seen something that incredibly graceful.
4. Take a couple of minutes to digest. What did you hear? Wat did you see? How do you feel?
5. Write in your Workbook.

This lesson will be extra tough if you are a Creative Soul with strong opinions. And even more horrible if you have sensitive ears and eyes.

Here’s why.

I love music. Not like some murmuring sound in the background. But I truly, utterly, passionately love music.
But with Loving certain kinds of music, comes Hating other kinds of music.

I hate the Bolera by Ravel. Can’t stand it.

And I know e-ve-ry-body loves it. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. But I realized something. These likes and dislikes grow stronger when you grow older. A couple of weeks I listened to the radio in my car and the radio guy announced. “Next comes Herman van Veen who sing the Erlkoning by Schubert“.

Immediately all kind of red hot warning signs came up.

I give you a sneak peek of my brain:

1. “Oh fuck. it’s Herman van Veen.” (he is a famous and well loved Dutch singer. I hate his voice…) “He’s going to kill Schubert. What’s he doing on my classical radio station?”
2. “Turn off the radio, do it now. Now… NOW….before it’s too late.”
3. “Pfeeew, just in time…”
4. “Okay… but he’s a really good musician… What if he’s not killing Schubert?”
5. “Let’s find out and listen to him.”
6. ……..”wow“…..
7. “Shit Herman van Veen makes me cry.”
8. “I sooo have to use this experience for the Creative Superhero Toolkit.”

And here we are. I almost missed this beautiful musical experience because of my own silly prejudice.

And as Creative Superheroes – open to all kind experiences out there – we don’t want that to happen. We want to broaden our horizons, and see if we can stretch our opinions. We can use our likes and dislikes to research ourselves.

Looking at likes and dislikes is a great way to learn more about yourself. It also is a great way to understand people. If you are an entrepreneur, or work with people, it’s extra important to get what makes them tick.

The same goes for art, design. Maybe you hate every piece of furniture in IKEA. Maybe there are flowers you think are incredibly ugly. Go find them and look at them. Really study them.

The video is a recording of “I Hate Music“, from the 5 Kids Songs By Leonard Bernstein. It’s an amateur recording but look at the passion!

I Hate Music

I hate music but I like to sing
La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la
But that’s not music
Not what I call music, no sir

Music is a lot of men and a lot of tails
Making lots of noise like a lot of females
Music is a lot of folks in a big dark hall
Where they really don’t want to be at all
With a lot of chairs and a lot of heirs
And a lot of furs and diamonds

Music is silly
I hate music but I like to sing
La, la, la, la, la

– Leonard Bernstein