Do you remember those magical times in your childhood when you could lose yourself in your imagination? You could become anything and anyone, and life was full of infinite possibilities and exciting potential. Logic didn’t get in the way, blocking your sense of freedom and joy. And if life was miserable, you could escape from it all through the creative, imaginative world you made for yourself.

It’s no accident that as children we practice all sorts of situations and personas, trying them on for size and preparing ourselves in a safe and harmless way for whatever life might have in store for us. And that free-thinking, creative imagination is more than just a trial run at real life. It’s an invaluable tool when it comes to the resilience and creativity needed to solve life’s problems as they arise, and it’s a huge aid in remaining positive and avoiding or combating depression and negative patterns of thought.

But as we become adults, most of us let “reality” put us in straight-jackets. We let our thinking get into a rut, and allow our beliefs to become fixed and inflexible. If we’re lucky, we’ll find some kind of outlet, through our work or hobbies that will let us flex our creative muscles. But for many of us, those muscles are allowed to become stiff and unused, which in turn leaves us feeling stale and quite possibly bored with our humdrum existence.

So why not decide, today, to try to reawaken that creativity? It’s time to dust it off, stretch those wings, and access the light-hearted joy that comes from remembering that anything’s possible. The tips below can help to re-ignite your creative thinking, or can be consciously used to try to help you come up with new and different solutions to problems you may be “stuck” in. They’re all designed to get your creative unconscious mind firing, to help you think a little differently and have some fun. So take your pick, or if you’re feeling bold, why not try them all, and see how this rediscovered, creative “you” feels!

1. Allocate one day each week for a month as “taste something new” day, and commit to trying something you’ve never eaten before. It could be as simple as buying and tasting a new kind of fruit, or if you enjoy cooking, seek out new recipes you’d like to try. Or try out that new restaurant that just opened. Whether you like what you try or not doesn’t matter. Simply opening yourself up to new experiences helps you to feel less in a rut.

2. Think of a person you really admire. Someone you think is creative, exciting, strong and positive. They should have many attributes you aspire to. They can be a real person or a fictional character. Jot down on a piece of paper what it is that you admire so much about this person. In what ways do you wish you were like them? Now think of a problem you have, or a situation you’re not sure how to handle, and think to yourself, “If I were that person, with the resources I have available, what would I do about this?”

3. Take a familiar photograph, painting or image of any kind and turn it upside down. Spend a few minutes studying it from this new perspective. What details, shapes, patterns or thoughts do you notice that you never noticed before?

4. Think of a traditional fairy tale that you heard as a child, a story that you’re so familiar with that you know it thoroughly. Now pick either the antagonist (the “baddie”) or one of the minor characters (e.g. one of the seven dwarves), and think about or preferably write down how the same story might look from that character’s point of view. You might even want to change the ending of the story completely so your new protagonist is the one the wins out in the end, or just take that character and make a whole new story focussing on them… let your imagination run riot!

5. Take a problem or situation you have to think about, and imagine you are a child, about 6 years old. Children’s thinking can be refreshingly straightforward. What would a child say about this problem? Try to get into the simple, “why not?” frame of mind of a young child. We often overlook obvious, simple solutions and over-complicate our thinking.

6. Give something creative a go. When was the last time you drew something? Painted? Danced? Sang? Played an instrument? Acted? Made something from modelling clay? Carved something in wood? Knitted, embroidered or sewed? Took artistic photographs? Sign up to some evening classes, or get some good books out of the library and allocate an hour or two of your time once a week to rediscovering some creative pursuits.

7. Do you meditate? Regular meditation can be surprisingly effective in relaxing us and getting both halves of our brain (the creative and the logical parts) working in harmony with each other. Perhaps you’ve often thought about meditating but don’t think you’ve got the time? What if I said that just 5 minutes a day is all you need to get started? You can begin with a classic awareness meditation. Just close your eyes, and begin to notice your breathing. Notice how the air when you breathe in is cool and dry at the back of your nose and throat, but when you breathe out it’s warm and soft. Just continue to focus on your breath coming in and out, until you begin to feel yourself relax a little. Then just spend a few minutes noticing where your awareness takes you. You should feel calm and relaxed after just a few minutes of this, and doing this exercise regularly simply oils the wheels of your relaxed, creative mind, keeping it ready for use

8. Pick an image which includes people or a landscape. Look closely at the details in the image. Then imagine stepping into the image and exploring it. Who does your imagination decide these people are? Why are they doing what they’re doing? What are they thinking? Where does that path lead to? What is on the other side of that gate, door, river, etc. Allow yourself to roam free inside that photograph or image, and see what your unconscious comes up with.

9. Creative visualisation, a form of self hypnosis, can be used to tap in to your inner creativity. Get yourself really relaxed, then imagine yourself in a beautiful, natural place… exactly where is entirely up to you and your creative unconscious. Use all your senses to really feel yourself there. Somewhere in this place is a buried chest. Enjoy exploring your inner landscape until you find the buried chest. Inside the chest will be a gift, which symbolises a solution or an idea for the problem you set yourself (writers can use this to overcome a difficulty with plotting). Sit down and examine the gift in great detail, before coming back to the room, opening your eyes, then writing down all the ideas that come to you about what this gift could symbolise.

10. Try silence… the power of silence is very profound. We often run away from silence because in silence we only have our own thoughts for company, which can sometimes be quite a frightening prospect! But silence creates the space for truly creative thinking. Try sitting somewhere quiet – as quiet as possible – with no access to phones, tv, books, music or any other form of stimulus or distraction. Set a timer for one hour, and try to remain in silence with just your own thoughts for the full hour. If you haven’t done this before, it’s quite a challenge! At the end of the hour, grab a pen and paper and write down any significant thoughts that came up during that hour, or even just your thoughts on spending an hour in silence!

So there you go – plenty of ways to make space for the amazing, creative thoughts we can all have if we allow ourselves. Enjoy!

Donna Lee is a hypnotherapist with years of experience in helping people to empower themselves. She is the author of many hypnosis downloads (including one on creativity), which you can find over at HypnoShop.com. They have a large number of hypnotherapy sessions covering a wide range of topics.

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Maintaining a blog full-time can be a bit stressful, and this stress can sometimes have a restricting effect on your writing. There’s the pressure to produce top content every time you write; there’s the pressure of appealing to your audience; there’s the pressure of always having an opinion or keeping up with industry news.

So, what better way to build up your ability to continue writing every day than to do writing exercises every day! Here are a few ideas for exercises; some of them might not directly relate to what you blog about, but you’d be surprised how simply engaging in the act of writing about anything can be enough to help you write about something later on. If you have more ideas, please feel free to add them in the comments section below.

Dream Journal

One exercise you can follow daily is to keep a dream journal. As soon as you awaken in the morning, spend a few minutes writing about whatever dreams you had last night. Do not try ot make sense of them; simply try to describe them or narrate them as best you can. This writing act will be helpful for clearing your head in the morning, especially if you have to get some serious writing done later in the day. Who knows? Maybe one of those entries could turn into a longer essay in a few weeks when you reread the journal.

Google Image Prompt

Another thing you can try is to keyword search in Google the most popular phrase of the day, or a phrase or word that you cannot get out of your head. Then click on the ‘images’ tab and look at the first image that comes up. You have to write a short story under 1,000 words about or inspired by that image!

Five Minute Blind Write

I like this exercise a lot because it allows me to be messy. Open up your word processor, set your cooking timer to five minutes, and turn off your computer screen. If you have a laptop, cover up the monitor with a thick piece of paper. You have five minutes to write nonstop about whatever. Your fingers must not stop moving, no matter what, even if you’re typing one word over and over again. The idea of this exercise is to dump ever single idea from your brain into a document. Think of it as a way to both clean out your brain and also gather a bunch of ideas for later use.

Comment Box Essay

This exercise is a bit more focused than the others in that it requires you to go to one of your favorite blogs, read the feature article, and write a comment in the comment thread. But, you’re not allowed to post the comment. Instead, you must copy and paste it into your own blog and turn it into a feature length post in response to the original post at the other blog. The idea here is that by changing the context of your writing from the limited field of a comment box, you can find new ways of approaching an issue. Be sure to link back to the original post in order to further enhance the discussion.

Sticky Note Memory

This could be a very fun exercise because it forces you to write an entire story on a tiny sticky note. In fact, it’s sort of the same thing as Esquire‘s Napkin Project. Sticky notes are supposed to be used as reminders, as notes to ourselves that we have something to take care of. But what if you used it to tell a story about a cherish memory? Your own sticky note project could be a daily exercise that requires you to catalogue one memory from your past each day. This self-reflection could help you both become a better, more self-aware person while also giving you ideas for personal essays to write in the future.

Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com.

The number of great posts here about the importance of reading the classics to improve oneself made me think that I should share with your some of my favorite motivational quotes by some of my favorite classical authors. If the classics can help us educate ourselves, then their authors, many of whom have struggled and persevered in the writing of these massive cultural books, can certainly help us motivate ourselves.

Here is a selection of five quotations from my quotebook; I often turn to many of these quotes when I find myself in the midst of an enormous challenge or when my spirits flag on some of the more stressful days. I hope they can be of some use to you.

“I was working on a proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back in.” –Oscar Wilde

This quote by the famous playwright Oscar Wilde motivates me to constantly pay close attention to the details of all aspects of my life, especially my writing and blogging. At first glance, the quotation speaks to the frustrating nature of writing; however, I believe it also shows that without being extremely motivated, one could never have the patience to succeed in the face of so many annoying, seemingly trivial details. However, ultimately, those details are just as important in life as the overall flow of things.

“I admit that twice two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, twice two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.” –Fyodor Dostoyevsky

I very much enjoy this quotation because it reminds me that creativity can be a great motivational agent. All too often we remained trapped in the status quo; we don’t think to look for the pleasures that can come from imagination and the unknown. Dostoyevsky reminds me here to look for and thrive on the unexpected, to be charmed by things I cannot control or that seem impossible. By seeking impossibility, I can overcome my own limits.

“Life is a luminous halo, a semi-transparent envelope surrounding us from the beginning.” –Virginia Woolf

I love this quote because it speaks to how delicate and beautiful life can be. This quote motivates me to constantly enjoy the envelope of my life, to ‘stop and smell the roses,’ so to speak. Woolf was well know for her writing about the passage of time, how it often can speed incessantly forward or slow to a near stop as we pass through each life’s experience. This quotation reminds me that, regardless of how quickly or slowly each moment passes me by, it is a beautiful thing and I must appreciate it.

“Why not seize the pleasure at once? How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation?” –Jane Austen

Many times I have failed to take advantage of a wonderful opportunity because I delayed in order to make sure I had carefully evaluated all of my options. Such evaluation is a good thing, usually, unless it takes the form of subconscious procrastination. Austen encourages us to seize the moment of our happiness. First we must learn to recognize that opportunity, and then we must act. I still struggle with this to this day; however, I have gotten better as time has passed.

“It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger for them.” –George Eliot

Finally, this quotation by Eliot keeps me dreaming and yearning for good in my life. This desire motivates me to do everything I can to achieve my goals and to succeed. Without this desire, I would remain stagnant and anxious. But, because I have something to look forward to each day I wake up, I am an active person who feels confident that I’m actively living a better live.

–

This guest post is contributed by Kitty Holman, who writes on the topics of nursing colleges.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: kitty.holman20@gmail.com.

Creativity is a lot like oil. Society needs it in ever increasing amounts, yet as time progresses it seems to be quickly diminishing. No matter who you are, or what you do, you need creativity. Many people, such as bloggers and artists, rely on creativity every day. However, few people know how to really channel creativity. In this article I’m going to show you how to be creative whenever you want.

1. Creativity is a state of mind

Creativity isn’t some mysterious phenomenon that only happens every once in awhile. It’s a state of mind. Many people report that their creativity comes and goes, sometimes leaving for months at a time. This is because they only reach the state of mind responsible for creativity once every couple of months.

Rather than relying on luck, why not take conscious control of this process? It’s possible to train yourself to achieve that state whenever you’d like.

2. Consciously manifest the creative state

I’ve found that my ability to be creative is directly correlated to the peace of mind and focus that I have in any given situation. Removing stress and distraction is key to channeling the creative state. Here are some of the things you should do when you really want to be creative:

• Clear your mind and focus on what you want to create.
• Eliminate as many distractions as possible
• Create an atmosphere conducive to creativity
• Feed yourself positive thoughts about what you are doing
• Imagine the end result and let your subconscious do the real work

For example, I wanted this article to deliver a lot of value so I knew I had to be creative in how I went about writing it. Before starting, I closed my door and lit a candle. I then did a little meditation and relaxation. I visualized this article as being worthy of being read by many different people.

When I finally sat down at my computer, I felt a lot of positive energy surrounding what I was about to do. It was as if the words and sentences created themselves. I had channeled the creative state. This makes any creative endeavor you work on a breeze.

3. Love what you’re doing

If you find that you can’t be creative with what you’re doing, look at your thoughts and emotions. Are you feeling resentment or negativity? Do you have an attitude of “just getting it done?” Does it seem like it takes tremendous amounts of thought to create anything at all?

If any of these are true for you, there’s a good chance you aren’t enjoying what you’re doing. When I’m really into my activity, everything will be fun and flowing. It may be that you’re just over thinking what you’re doing or being a perfectionist. If that’s true, then go to #2 and clear your mind and really get into things.

On the other hand, you may already know that your heart just isn’t in it. Maybe you’re doing it for the money, or because your boss told you to. If that’s the case, you have to decide if inner inauthenticity and stress is worth whatever benefit you’ll eventually be given. More often than not, the best thing to do is to find something else you really love and work on that.

I hope this article helps you. After realizing creativity is merely a state of mind, you can learn to channel it. And of course the most important rule is, love what you do! Now go create!

Fred Tracy runs a personal development website where he blogs about insights and experiences designed to give you a better life. He also performs a lot of growth experiments on himself and isn’t above being a lab rat for his audience. You can find him on twitter and facebook as well.

GETTING yourself stuck in a creative rut can completely halt your productivity and hold you back. In my day-to-day, it’s difficult to write about things like credit cards and debt in an engaging way without at least a little creativity.

When you find yourself struggling to think of something new and innovative, consider these words from 10 great thinkers.

1. “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

- Scott Adams (American cartoonist)

Allowing yourself to make mistakes, without fear of failure, can be liberating for your creativity. This kind of anxiety keeps you from expressing your opinions and ideas, so get rid of it.

2. “Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do things.”

- Ray Bradbury (American sci-fi novelist)

Tying in nicely with the first quote, the ability to relinquish your fear of failure puts you in a position where you can simply pour every thought and idea out of your head. Don’t keep your bad ideas to yourself; let them out as they may develop into something better. Don’t second-guess your creative ideas, give them a fair shot.

3. “The air is full of ideas. They are knocking you in the head all the time. You only have to know what you want, then forget it, and go about your business. Suddenly, the idea will come through. It was there all the time.”

- Henry Ford (American industrialist)

Sometimes, ideas need to occur to you naturally. Sitting down and trying to come up with an idea can be counter-productive, so by busying yourself you may be just as likely to be struck by inspiration.

4. No chaos, no creation. Evidence: the kitchen at mealtime.
- Mason Cooley (American aphorist)

If you want to make an omelette, you have to break some eggs. The comparison to cookery is the perfect example of how creativity can be messy. You may have to tear up and throw away old ideas and practices to come up with something new.

5. “What’s the most resilient parasite? An idea. A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules.

- Christopher Nolan (via Dom Cobb in the 2010 movie: Inception)

A good idea should take root and be self perpetuating. Allowing an idea to take hold and develop organically is important.

6. “And on the seventh day he rested.”

-  Book of Genesis, the Bible

Creationists believe that after six days of creating the heavens and the Earth, God had a day to rest. Taking a break is important for creativity, because working solidly will stress you out and stifle your creativity.

7. “Speed is absolutely key to creativity. The more time it takes to create something, the less likely you are to create something.”

- Patrick Stump (American musician)

Ideas are fleeting; make sure you capture them as soon as they strike. Carrying a notepad and pen or some sort of camera or audio recorder is the best way to lock down your ideas.

8. “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”

- Charles Mingus (American jazz musician and Civil Rights activist)

The best ideas are often so simple everyone wonders why they hadn’t thought of them first. Think of things in their most basic forms, and eliminate the parts you don’t need.

9. “A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on.”

- John F. Kennedy (American President)

Romanticize your ideas – believe that one great idea can change the world, and there is no reason that idea can’t be one of yours.

10. “Creativity is contagious, pass it on”

- Albert Einstein (German theoretical physicist)

Surround yourself with other creatives, sharing ideas breeds new ways of thinking and presents alternative points of view on the same subject.

Author Bio: Mark Hooson writes for Moneysupermarket.com about money-saving, consumer issues and personal finance.

Feeling burnt out or lacking creative ideas?

This article is especially for all you writers, artists, business owners or anyone looking for some new ways to get their creativity flowing.

Here are 15 ways to give your creativity a jump start:

Write Your Ideas Down

Get into the habit of writing your ideas down as soon as you get them. This way you train your brain to keep coming up with ideas, and as soon as you get them you write them down.

When they are written down you don’t have to worry about remembering them and this allows more room for new ideas to form in your mind.

Relax

Good ideas and creativity usually do not appear under stress. When you are relaxed and rejuvenated, creative ideas usually come rather naturally.

Take a walk on the beach, take a nap, go and play some sport or do whatever it is that relaxes you so that your brain can be more creative when you get back to work.

Have No Expectations

Similar to living with no stress, but specifically no stress from the outcome.

When you create with love and passion and no expectation of the outcome, the chances are much greater that you will create something remarkable!

Be Easy On Yourself

Stop criticizing yourself and stop being so harsh for yourself. Accept yourself the way you are and do things to the best of your ability.

You are enough and you are creative. Don’t let self-limiting beliefs block out your creativity! Remove the barriers and the ideas will begin to flow.

Read

Reading stimulates the mind. The more you read, the more you open your mind up to new ways of thinking and thus the more creative you will become.

I know that reading can be a bore, especially if you have to force yourself to do it. Just start small.

Choose a book on a topic that you like (it can even be about your favorite sport or artist) and spend 30 minutes before you go to bed reading that book. This way you can read 1-2 new books every month without it being a lot of effort, and it will definitely contribute to you being more creative.

Listen to Mozart

Albert Einstein said he owes his creativity to listening to Mozart pieces. Certain songs and compositions allow the brain to be more creative and function better.

Albert Einstein did not know why this was the case, but he found Mozart compositions to help his thinking.

In the present age the concept of music enhancing your thinking has been scientifically researched and proven. Certain frequencies have a positive effect on increasing your brain’s performance and creativity. Today they are known as Binaural Beats and Isochronic Tones.

Basically, scientists have engineered sound-files (I canít really call them songs) with researched frequencies that have proven to increase brain performance. Simply buy purchasing some of these tracks and listening to them with stereo headphones, you can already notice an effect on your thinking and creativity.

Meditate

There are certain techniques that allow your mind to find peace and that allow you to silence all the hundreds of thoughts that constantly run through your mind all day.

When you achieve this inner calm, it has all sorts of benefits like being more creative and having better ideas.

Exercise

The effects of exercise and physical movement on the mind and creativity have been studied for centuries.

There is no doubt that you feel much better after exercise. This is because after you exercise, endorphins (feel-good hormones) are released into your bloodstream.

Ask For Help

Don’t be scared to ask someone for help or for their opinion. The input from a friend or stranger could be enough to jump-start a whole series of ideas and new creativity.

Expand Your Horizons

Do something you have never ever done before in your life. Go sky-diving or bungee-jumping. Sign up for hip-hop classes.

The experience of it may be enough to boost your creativity tenfold and give you many new ideas.

Eat Blueberries

Blueberries are said to be the richest in anti-oxidants and good for your brain an thinking abilities. Eat a handful a day, and even if you donít get extra creativity, enjoy the taste and the health benefits.

Stop Doing Drugs

I’m talking about sugars, processed foods, alcohol, caffeine and cigarettes.
(I shouldn’t have to tell you not to do hard drugs!)

Not only will your health benefit, but you will feel much more energetic. The chances are huge that you will find all sorts of new inspiration that comes with your new energy levels once you start eating healthy and stop consuming junk.

Do Puzzles

Puzzles stimulate your brain to look at a problem from different angles. The easier you are able to open up your mind to new ideas and new approaches, the more likely it will be that you become more creative.

Make Music
I personally like playing piano. It is relaxing and it allows me to experiment with new tones, melodies and ideas. Often while playing an instrument and making music I get very creative ideas for my own projects.

If you’ve never played an instrument, why not start with something simple like piano, guitar or the drums?

Practice

Practice makes perfect.

Yeah it’s cliche, but it’s true. Do you want to be a great writer? Then write ever single day, even if it’s just about your dog.

Do you want to be a good designer? Then design something new every day, even if it’s just a logo for your favorite food.

Diggy shares his experience about self improvement at his blog Upgrade Reality

Diggy also created a cool course that will teach you how to cook easy healthy dinner recipes in 10 minutes or less.

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You never know when you may be the lucky recipient of an inspirational moment, something that causes you to take pause and think and really appreciate what you have and the incredible resilience of fellow human beings.

Last night I went with my wife to a local hole-in-the-wall pizza parlor where we heard rumor live jazz was going to be played. As our neighborhood is sadly lacking in after-hours-entertainment of this type, we showed up early and got a good seat, close to the action but not so close that you had to shout to be heard. It was a small place, probably seating about 50 people max so the setting was very intimate so we were just a few feet away from the live performers.

Within twenty minutes, the first musician climbed the stage with saxophone in hand. He did a wonderful job playing two soulful songs with the background provided by a drummer, keyboard, and bass player. He finished his second song, accepted his light applause, and returned to his table where a well deserved adult beverage awaited him.

We learned that this was how the evening was going to progress with numerous musicians of all ages and proficiencies stepping up to play a few songs and then making way for the next performer. There was a small whiteboard on a stand and whoever wanted to play just signed up, with ages ranging from what looked like about 20 to what was definitely at least 65. What fun – we were in store for some talent-filled times over the next two hours.

Enjoying our pizza, I observed the other members of the audience as they filtered in to find a seat. A pair of twins took a table next to us, an older gentleman sat at the nearby bar air-drumming along with the music, and students from the local college joined the growing ranks. I noticed a man who came in on a pair of crutches, struggling a bit to navigate the narrow path between booths and tables, but with a big smile on his face. He sat down with the twins and listened to the trombone performer currently wailing on stage. The young brass player finished his first song, took a breath, and started his second and final rendition.

About this time, I noticed the man on crutches working his way up to his feet and then carefully to the booth in front of us. I was rocking out to the jazz and assumed he just wanted to get a little closer to the action. I saw him raise a small suitcase from the floor and carefully place it on the table top. He opened it and took out a mouthpiece that was to fit on the end of the saxophone stored within. Holding it carefully while balanced on the end of the seat, he adjusted the reed and wetted it and fiddled with it, preparing for his performance.

The trombone player finished, took a bow, and headed back to his seat. The man with the crutches carefully rose with his saxophone suspended around his neck. With one crutch on his left side, he started forward, his free hand moving from chair to chair to keep him stable. The stage was about 10 feet away but it took him a few minutes to manage the distance. He was offered a chair to sit on but turned it down, instead leaning against the booth closest to the stage. Once situated, he turned to his right to face the audience and share a brief smile. The song to play was agreed upon and with a one and a two and a three, they began. And he was good. Not just good, but GOOD! Crisp, clean notes rolled from his instrument, tight harmonies with the others on stage, smooth transitions, just pure sweet music. I may have imagined it, but I swear he had a smile on his face while he was playing. He finished his first song and was heartily applauded by the audience and his fellow musicians. A quick breath and he started in on his second song which was equally as beautiful. Inside of me, I felt a pride for what he had done and admiration for what it must have taken to get here.

How difficult must it have been to focus on playing such beautiful music when at any moment you might slip from your perch and end up on the floor?

How much effort and commitment and never-say-die attitude did it take to get that good despite his physical challenges?

How much faith in himself was needed just to participate and excel amidst a group of generally younger, universally talented, and physically fit fellow musicians?

You never know where you will find inspiration. You never know when someone’s strength may become your strength. And you never know just what you might find at your local pizza parlor on an average-every-day week night.

Inspiration is everywhere if you just tune in to hear it. Now that’s music to my ears…

David Bernard is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain. He is the founder of the blog Love Being Retired.

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The more we stress about our problems, the bigger they get.

Sometimes the best thing to do is let go of our problems.  Not to give up, but to let up – and make some “space.”

Yesterday I took the afternoon off.  Even though it was during the week I decided to go on a date with my wife.  No blackberries, hand held devices or computers.  No email.  Just the two of us hanging out for the afternoon; just like we used to when we first met.

It was such a great afternoon.  I forgot about all my problems.  I forgot about all my concerns and I forgot about my work.   That evening, 8 or so hours later I solved two of my biggest problems… one of which didn’t require any work on my part.  The other one came to me as a new idea.

How did I do it?  What’s my secret?

Here are the three steps to think more clearly and creatively:

Step 1: Think on Paper (30 Minutes)

There is a quote from one of the Rich Dad’s from the popular book Rich Dad, Poor Dad Book.  It goes,  ”Always think on paper.”

I’ve always loved this quote and lived this.  I have a white board in my office where I do all of my thinking.  I draw and doodle; I connect the dots.  I look to see how things flow together.  I cut and paste.  I use words and text to mold my ideas and explore my problems.

Once I’ve emptied my head I’m then ready to…

2. Mastermind (1 hour)

The phrase “two heads are better than one” is an understatement.  Masterminding is when you have two or more people brainstorming and working together to come up with new solutions to problems.  It’s also a great tool for generating new ideas.

My business partner and I have these mastermind sessions quite often.  We use these sessions to brainstorm ideas and bounce new concepts off each other. Before we start our mastermind sessions, we normally ask ourselves these 4 questions:

What is this meeting about?

What are we trying to achieve?

What are the challenges we want to overcome?

How will this help us? Our clients? Our business?

These are great questions to ask yourself when masterminding.  Just let the ideas flow and you’ll be surprised at how crazy and remarkable the solutions will be.

The last step is to…

3. Take a Mini-Vacation (2-6 hours)

Take a what?  Yes, a mini-vacation.

Decompress and disconnect.  This has helped me solve my biggest problems with the least amount of effort.

You’ve got to give your subconscious breathing room.  It’s part of letting go and trusting in yourself.  My best ideas are not the ones I get during a mastermind session or when I’m writing them out.  They come 2-48 hours after I’ve done my deep thinking or had a really good masterminding session.

So the trick is to be patient; to let go and relax.  The more relaxed you are the better.  That’s why I suggest taking a min-vacation; taking a nap, go for a walk in nature or socialize with friends.  Just give yourself a break.  The ideas will come.

Think clearly and more creatively by following these 3 steps.  You’ll be glad you did.

Steve is the creator of Freedom Education: Manifesting Your Desires Download Steve’s 7 Secrets of Rapid Transformation.

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Image courtesy of Paul Weber

“I need money to survive.”

Wrong.

This is a survival mentality and a self-fulfilling prophecy. To the extent you believe this, you therefore become more and more desperate for money. You lose all sense of morality, character, and purpose because survival trumps all these things.

It’s a downward spiral.

As you become desperate for money, you begin to focus all your energy on money. You focus on the fact that you do not have enough money. And you are the boss of your thoughts. Your subconscious screens and scans possible circumstances to bring into your circle of life, to prove your premise, and make your belief come true.
Because you think there is not enough money, you begin to chase it and it begins to run away. You are so desperate for money crumbs, you eat seed, do not plant or invest anything for later, and you begin to consume your tail once the seed is gone. This focus on daily survival keeps you right there, in survival mode, because you bring to pass what you focus on most.

Life becomes all about survival, and its hard and cold and jaded. There is no joy or purpose or beauty. Only money can satiate our ever-growing need to survive, not thrive.

SOLUTION: Live your life and your purpose. The truth is you will not die without money. But you will die inside without a will to live. You will die inside as you live someone else’s dreams. Use your will to live for joyful living, to sustain your purpose and cre- ate independence from money, so that you are not a slave to money.

Instead become a servant to your dreams and true purpose. Invest in yourself and in your dreams. This will cause you to stop focusing on the fear that you do not have enough money. Money and resources that arrive on your scene will be invested fruitfully and therefore will support who you truly are. It may take longer and will not necessarily be in the form of small weekly stipends, but your needs will be met.

You have invested all of your life in someone else’s dreams. You have been trained from Kindergarten all the way through college to be in the workforce for someone else’s dreams. Therefore expect to in- vest a few years in your own life purpose and dreams before you begin to see a payoff!

Deborah S Nelson is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain and the founder of Author Your Dreams Publishing

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To make money or to create Abundance, what’s the difference? Seems like a minor distinction, doesn’t it?

On the surface it is. However, after exploring the subject of abundance in depth, I woke up this morning with an epiphany.

Trying to deliberately make money, doesn’t work.

Correction. It works enough to fool us into thinking we can deliberately make money, but as it turns out; we are only chasing it. It teases us into thinking that “making money” is an actual skill. On a certain level that’s true, but only if you have the printing press to print it!

Here’s the problem. Once we start chasing money, it runs away, doesn’t it? We get into a cycle of thinking we need money, we want money, money will make us rich, we deserve money, money rescues us from poverty, jail, and debt, money will scare the wolves and the vultures away.

And that’s all true. But that is not the mindset we need to “attract true wealth to us.” That is not using “The Law of Attraction, but instead is the very mindset that chases the money away! Yet I find myself so instantly there. Often. And then I remember.

If we truly desire to be wealthy, and that is a noble desire, and yet it still seems “out of range,” let’s recall the distinction between “making money,” and Creating Abundance.

I admire the writing of Wallace D Wattles, author of The Science of Getting Rich. He teaches the difference between the competitive mindset and the creative mindset.

The competitive mindset makes the assumption that there is not enough, ever.
The creative mindset makes the assumption there is an infinite amount of whatever is needed when it’s needed, forever. Wattles calls it “the thinking stuff.”

This explains the unhappy millionaire because he’s not yet a billionaire—he is in the competitive mindset. This explains all of us chasing the money that runs away from us.

Do we fail to spot our true wealth, for chasing the money that laughs and chides us? Do we race ourselves exhausted right past our riches? Definitely.

We need only click the remote from the “competitive station” where plots and programs are all about chasing money, fighting wolves and beating off pecking vultures stealing it from you; to the creative network of inspirational thinking stuff where true and lasting, infinite abundance abounds forever.

Stop competing and stop chasing. Change from the competitive station to the creative network—and leave it on the channel where lasting wealth and true abundance abound!

Deborah S Nelson is a guest blogger for PickTheBrain and the founder of Author Your Dreams Publishing

Don’t Forget To Follow PickTheBrain on Twitter!
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