Rana Sayed
English 355:100R
Professor Nevius
September 24, 2014
Creative Thinking With A Traveling Mindset
In Alain de Botton’s essay, “On Habit” and Adam Gopnik essay, “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli” explain the way that individuals can think creatively and express their feelings and thoughts into newer meaning and in-depth ideas. They also explain the way that the human race are so engaged in technology and busyness that they are overlooking what really is important to them in their life. De Botton is worried that many people do not go beyond limitations and need to explore their surrounding more and appreciate what is going on around them. He urges people to use their ‘traveling mindset’ and try to approach their environments in a positive
When Alain de Botton, looked at his surrounding in an optimistic way he was able to see things differently that would allow him to set goals to enjoy environment. Alain de Botton, describes how he felt when he set goals to explore the streets he thought he knew and states, “I had imposed a grid of interests on the streets, which left no space for blond children and gravy adverts and paving stones and the colors of shop fronts and the expressions of businesspeople and pensioners” (de Botton 63). When Alain de Botton, imposed a set of goals to fulfill the elements and people he saw on the streets that were once a distraction to his means, no longer affected or distracted him. His mind was too focused on accomplishing the goals he imposed that it did not mind the distractions that were there because they were no longer a distraction. That is what traveling mindset is, setting goals to accomplish in any physical environment for enjoyment. As Alain de Botton describes his urban grid on the streets, Adam Gopnik recalls his remain dominant of ‘busyness’ and says, “Here two grids of business remain dominant: the nineteenth-century grid of streets corners and restaurants full of people, and come home to the late twentieth-century grid of faxes and e-mails and overwhelming incompleteness” (Gopnik 158). The behavior of viewing one’s surrounding in an optimistic way and setting goals and accomplishing them,