Create Change in your life

Good new creative thoughts will rarely come to you when your mind is busy re-living your day at work, the conversation you had last week with your sister or thinking about what may or may not happen when you visit the dentist next week. New thoughts can only really come when you mind is still and not actually thinking about anything, it is only when your mind is free from all thought that can you begin to develop new ideas or strategies.

So how do you still your mind? Here is a technique I have come across for doing this:

This ultimately is a technique to take the focus away from yourself. It is useful for when you are busy thinking about this or that and when you need to silence the mind.

Step 1. First focus on a feeling in your body, it could be the feeling of your toe in your shoe, the shirt on your skin or your hand resting on your leg.

Step 2. Next listen to the sounds you can hear around you, what can you hear close by, what is the dominate sound, once you have the dominant sound listen carefully for other sounds further away in the distance. Don’t forget to keep focusing on the feeling (step 1).

Step 3. Finally wherever you are outdoors or indoors focus on something, it could be a cup in the room, a poster, a bit of dirt on a window or a cloud in the sky. Once you have something in view keep focused, you will have to readjust your focus onto something different after a few seconds (5-15), otherwise your mind can get distracted.

Now this technique involves focusing on all 3 things (sound, feeling, vision) at the same time, when done correctly your mind should become free from all thought. To start with it will not happen for very long but with practice it can become a very useful technique for times when you need to relax and free your mind from the stresses of everyday living. After a few seconds your mind will start to focus on something, when it does start the process again.

I am no expert in this technique and it will take some time before you can do it for longer than a few seconds. Try it and see how you get on.

admin New Ideas (creative thinking) change your life, living in the now, This moment

Exercise 1

Think of a problem that you currently have.

Now find a random picture, either a photo or a picture in a magazine.

Look at the picture. Write down random words related to the picture. What do you see, objects, people, colors etc?

Now relate those words to your current problem, see what new ideas you can come up with in relation to the problem

What new ideas have emerged?

Exercise 2

OK so you have a problem and you need to generate some new ideas, ask yourself ‘how’ questions in relation to your problem?

How can I …?
How do I ….?

For example:

How can I come up with an idea for a business?
How do I go about coming up with a new idea for a business?

admin New Ideas (creative thinking) creative thinking, New ideas

Here is a simple exercise you can use when you are looking to come up with a new idea or for a solution to an existing problem.

• Write a headline of the problem or opportunity you currently have.

• Go for a walk and wait for something to attract your attention. Look at it in great detail. Listen to the voice in your ear and see what it begins to suggest in terms of ideas and concepts or new images about the problem. Make some notes.

• Write down your detailed observations. What are some suggested or beginning thoughts?

• Write down the outcome of this and any further ideas you have.

admin New Ideas (creative thinking) creative thinking, New ideas

Are you creative?

… Creative? Me?

Are you a person who simply does not believe they are creative? Well I have some news for you, everybody is creative, don’t believe me. OK have you ever done any of the following?

1. Have you ever recounted to friends something strange or amusing that happened to you or someone you know?

2. Have you ever mixed and matched colors and fabrics to wear?

3. Have you ever chosen flowers for a bouquet?

4. Have you ever thrown ingredients together for a dish or soup?

5. Have you ever changed the design of a garden or room at home?

6. Have you ever contrived an excuse why you can’t go somewhere or do something?

7. Have you ever day dreamed?

8. Have you ever had sexual fantasies?

9. Have you ever doodled?

10. Have you ever gazed at a cloud and saw faces or pictures in the patterns?

11. Have you ever explained something to a child?

12. Have you ever wondered how things might be different if you had taken a different career path?

13. Have you ever imagined what you would do if you won the national lottery?

14. Have you ever questioned the usual way something is done and put forward an alternative?

15. Are you alive?

Still not convinced? … Trust me, you ARE creative, everyone is.

admin New Ideas (creative thinking) creative thinking, New ideas

Ten steps to confidence

1. Calmness - no matter what happens I accept and respond appropriately.

2. Openness - There will always be something to learn and so I keep this awareness when facing situations and in interactions with other people. There is no failure only feedback.

3. Nurturing - Within the word confidence is ‘confide’ - I confide in myself, I talk and counsel myself. I look after my inner world of thoughts and feelings with care and attention.

4. Faith - Everything that is happening to me is for my own progress. I move through life knowing that whatever happens I will be able to face it and move forward.

5. Introspective - I keep looking inside and changing my thoughts and attitudes which are not helpful to my personal development. This stops me looking at others and wanting them to change, which is impossible and takes up a lot of energy.

6. Dedicated - To my own self-progress. I want to move forward and realize my potential but never at the expense of others. Even when the road seems steep, I never give up.

7. Enthusiastic - I awaken with the thought - ‘It’s a brand new day and it’s up to me to make it a great day’. No one else can do this for me but if I make the effort to be ‘great’, the whole universe will be there to help me.

8. Noble - I never try to increase my sense of self-worth by putting someone else higher or lower than me. Everyone is special and unique. I play my own unique part the best I can and encourage others to play theirs the best they can.

9. Creative - I go deep inside myself to the place of pure creativity allowing new ideas and inspirations to emerge.

10. Energize - I take time out to energize myself. I use my time wisely setting aside adequate time for self-reflection and quiet time to empower myself with positive thoughts. I connect with my true inner nature and the qualities needed to support me moving forward in life.

Created by Margaret Baron

admin Confidence Self-confidence

Always keep on going!

Remember just as every tree starts out as a seed, any ideas or plans you have will initially be just like that seed, the difference is that the seed will never get discouraged and neither should you.

• Every business started out with no customers

• Every marathon runner started running a few hundred metres at first

• Every eBay power seller started with one feedback

• Every actor looked a fool and made mistakes in the beginning

• Every great sportsman has been beaten many times

• Every great painting was once just a single brush stroke

• Every blog starts out with no posts or comments

• Every website started out with no visitors

• Nobody was born with business skills they can be learned

• Every musician started out sounding bad and out of tune

• Every great guitarist started out learning the basics

In the beginning whenever you start anything new in life the main point to remember is to not get discouraged and to always keep on going.

admin Inspirational Inspirational, inspire

I’m not talking about being in the woods and not knowing your way out, although it could be used as an analogy. What I mean here is don’t ever be without a roadmap of where it is you are going or where you want to get to. If you don’t have that then you are lost and when you’re lost it is very easy to drift or become a drifter, and the unfortunate thing about drifting is that it almost always leads to a place called nowhere.

It is always important to be focused on what you want, but if you are not yet sure of what that is then it is just as important to be focused on something, even if it is not for the long term.

And it may be that you will never ever know what you want to do with your life, this is OK, there are probably many interesting people that never knew what they wanted to do with their lives. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have focus in your life.

For example, say you don’t want to work for somebody else but you know you want to get rich, then always stay focused on the ‘getting rich’ part. And don’t dwell on the fact that you are not focused on working for somebody else.

Another problem with ‘being lost’ is thinking too much, which in itself can be like walking in a maze, going around in circles and never finding the exit.

I am very guilty of this, and take it from me, it really is no fun at all, especially when you add some extra negativity into the mix.

There are ways to think that can lead to creativity and new ideas, there is also a way of thinking that can lead to very dark alleys and huge roadblocks, which is the kind of thinking I am talking about here, a type of thinking that is best avoided.

If you do start to think too much, a good thing to do is to start focusing on things that you do have in your life. We almost always have more than we know in our lives, even if we think sometimes that we don’t and occasionally get lost in our own thoughts.

But getting back to being lost, you should always know what you want, even if it is an extra $200 a month to help with the bills, reminding yourself of this will always be better than saying ‘I don’t know what I want’.

If you have an idea of something you want to do in the short term but perhaps not in the long term, stick with it, being focused in the short term will probably stimulate more ideas than admitting you are lost and don’t know what to do.

I am not sure if you can wander aimlessly through life and just sort of hope that an idea will fall on your lap and that your life will suddenly all fall into place. It is just a hunch I have but I don’t believe life works like that, or perhaps that it even should.

If you want new ideas then you have to think new ideas, if thinking what you have been hasn’t got you what you wanted up until now then that is something you need to change.

When you have an idea of something to do, it is best to follow your instincts and go with it. Even if it is not what you want to be doing in 5 years, it may well shed light on something that you would like to be doing in the future.

If you start to become passionate about doing something and follow it through, then this act alone may bring along its own rewards.

“It sometimes seems that intense desire creates not only its own opportunities but its own talents.”

If you are lost in your life and not sure what you want then something will always be better than nothing. Chose something and focus on it fully, don’t do it half hearted. Ask yourself what it is you want to happen from your new activity set some goals and outcomes, say for instance ‘in 3 months I want to have this’ or ‘in 6 months I want to have that’, and make sure you get it. Don’t stop until you achieve it.

Get involved in something, don’t be a drifter who is just letting life pass them by, go out, get busy, be somebody and start making something happen for yourself.

admin Inspirational Inspirational, inspire

Possibilities

When faced with uncertainty, it is sometimes looked upon as a negative to not know what you want, when people arrive at a crossroads in their lives, being unclear about what to do normally brings with it introspection and self doubt and more than likely a little concern about what the future will bring. But perhaps another way to look at this critical junction, is that it is a point in time when you have many potential avenues available to you that were not there before.

“At the point of uncertainty you are open to all possibilities.”

A time when instead of having no clue about what to do and consequently feeling apprehension about it, it becomes a time to look at a much bigger picture, a picture filled with numerous opportunities some of which you may never of considered before and probably would never consider if you were to stay on your current path. It is at these crossroads that anything is possible in your life. At these moments in your life you should not limit your choices but rather embrace all potential future scenarios as options for yourself.

Just because you don’t know what you want to do or are unsure what direction you want to take doesn’t automatically mean that it is something to feel bad about (or feel frustrated over).

When you arrive at a turning point in your life it is important you explore all options, it is not something trivial to be put to one side and re-evaluated at a later time. It is your life and it is important to spend time with any ideas or motives that you may have to do something different.

You have the potential of being anything you want. In today’s society there are more prospects than ever before to create a life for yourself that is truly unique to you. Today you can redefine you and your life in ways that 50 years ago were unheard of.

Technological advancements in our everyday lives and in terms of understanding the human mind provide us with ample opportunities to create change in our lives.

When you are uncertain about the road to travel down, remind yourself that your life is unique and that there is no correct path that works for everybody. We are all different and everybody faces difficult decisions about which direction to take at some point in their life. Just because you are faced with choices wherever you are or however old you are doesn’t matter, all that matters is that you see your situation in a positive light and investigate all options available.

Our choices provide us with a glimpse of ourselves standing in new surroundings; they are a chance for us to see ourselves in the future. They are a blueprint for what may be possible for us, a life that is not yet realized and what previously could not be foreseen.

Stories not yet told, experiences not yet fulfilled.

Do you ever look around and wonder what happened? We all realize hindsight is a beautiful thing but sometimes we lack the foresight to ever come up with new ideas.

The thing is there are new ideas all around, tomorrow something could be invented that will change the lives of people everywhere. Somebody once said years ago, that everything that needs to be invented has already been invented … Not quite.

Opportunities are everywhere around you, all you need to do is open your eyes. Instead of seeing nothing but roadblocks and barriers to stop you from getting what you want, be hopeful about the future and understand that any decision you make has potential to take you on a new journey in life.

There is a place for you in this world, a place for you to be the best you can be. When you find that person in you (who is aligned on all levels), one who is congruent with his / her values and skills in life, and who is doing what they really want in life, then nothing will stop you, your will and desire to succeed will be too strong for any obstacle.

admin Featured, Inspirational Inspirational, inspire

Can you occasionally be found procrastinating? What even is procrastinating? Well it is basically putting things off, being lazy (in so many words), not doing what you should be doing, finding excuses to do what you know needs to be done and instead doing nothing. I am guilty of this. If you do find yourself delaying activities or chores or anything productive for that matter, it pays to actually spend some time to look at what exactly is going on inside your head, i.e. the pictures you are making, the voices you are hearing and the feelings you are getting just prior to the activity or task that you need to be doing (it may even be just getting up in the morning). Some people may get a voice that says ‘You should go and do the dishes’, which often prompts the immediate response of ‘I don’t want to’, which leads to inaction, as nobody likes being told what to do, even if it is a conversation in your own head.

Other people may get an image or play a video of the activity, which may also prompt a negative response. For example a movie of yourself filling out your tax return (or some other equally tedious activity) is unlikely to fill you a rush of excitement to go and start the activity. One way to combat the ‘You should go and do such and such’ is with a softer ‘it will be nice when the activity is completed’ or ‘it will be useful to have this activity finished’.

This will then lead you to think about the activity when it is done, which should provide more motivation for you. Alternatively if an image or video of the task being done doesn’t fill you with motivation, then perhaps you could change it to a video of the task completed, and see how much more motivated you become. Think of the task as finished instead of the process of actually doing the task (especially if it is a mundane activity such as doing the dishes).

Everybody’s motivation strategy will be different and what works for one person may not necessarily work for somebody else. It is best to learn what goes on in your own mind, and if it is not producing the results you want, then change it.

admin Goal Setting / Motivation motivate, motivational

When you make a decision to do something in life, the very act of making the decision can actually instill confidence in you that may not have been there before. It is a bit like when you bet on a horse, before you place the bet you are still unsure as to whether the horse will win, you hope it will win, but you aren’t really sure. However after you place the bet all of a sudden you become confident that the horse will win, you suddenly have faith in a horse that just moments before you weren’t sure about. You now totally believe the horse will win, you have placed your money and your confidence in the horse has grown.

With indecision comes fear and uncertainty, as you hesitate to make a decision, the process itself becomes harder as you constantly way up the pro’s and con’s of each choice available to you. You start to become unsure of what action to take which then breeds familiar cries of ‘I don’t know what to do’, or ‘I can’t decide’.

Once you make a decision these anxieties disappear, replaced instead by confidence. The uncertainty that was there previously has now been substituted with assurance that everything will work out.

A bit like a do or die situation, it’s like ‘OK i have made this decision, this is what I am going to do, so I might as well give it my best shot and give it everything I have’, fear and insecurity will only hinder any chance of this working out. An extra dash of boldness almost always follows any decision you make in your life, especially an important one that is about to bring change to your current circumstances or some other aspect of your life.

Once the fear has gone and the decision has been made you become clear on what you need to do and that is what you start focusing on. The hardest part sometimes is actually making the decision in the first place. How many times have you heard people say they can’t decide what to do?

There is little point in thinking about the other options you had when you have already made up your mind about something, the hard part has already been done. You don’t think about what a holiday to Greece might be like when you are on a plane to Italy. Instead you are thinking about all the activities you are going to do in Italy to make it a great holiday.

There is little point in wondering what might have been with previous decisions you have made in your life, or if you should of taken this path or that path. Seldom does this produce anything other than negative emotions such as regret, anger, depression. It leads to ‘what if…’, or ‘if only’ kind of thinking.

With decision comes commitment, you have made the decision and now you are committed to making it happen, making sure everything works out. Along with the commitment comes confidence. Confidence in yourself that you made the right decision and confidence in your abilities to make sure it happens.

So when you finally make that decision, (whatever it may be) just think of betting money on a horse, at first you weren’t sure that it was going to win, but now you have placed your bet, you become that little bit more certain that something good will happen.

admin Changing direction Changing direction