Posts Tagged ‘bold ideas’

Photo by Ori Bengal

Yesterday, I talked about the fact that I need to get into a more set routine. Today, I’m telling you to shake things up.

Maybe I should make up my mind.

Nah, I’d rather share some ways that I shake things up and get my creativity flowing:

1. Blast music and dance around my living room. yes, I actually do this. My hubby has come home many evenings to find me singing and dancing (and then he’s laughing).
2. Shut off all technology and hit the beach (one of the definite perks of being in So Cal)
3. People watch. Pretty much any Starbucks or corner bakery will suffice for great people watching.
4. Call a friend. Catch up on life and get your mind focused on anything but work.
5. Design something/write something just for fun. I get tired of writing and designing things I am supposed to. Sometimes I just want to play with photoshop and see what my crazy ideas create. (I’m considering creating a page on my blog dedicated to my random creations…what do you think?)
6. Spend an hour or so laughing at a few of my favorite nsfw sites (textsfromlastnight, fmylife, awkwardfamilyphotos, notalwaysright, passiveaggressivenotes and failblog
7. Stumbleupon. Keep clicking, you’ll find something awesome.

How do you shake it up?

We all run out of things to talk about. Or at least we all run out of good things to talk about. Day 11 of problogger’s challenge focuses on coming up with ideas for future blog posts. The task was to follow his three steps and create a web of ideas. Here is my task:

1. The Set Up – The set-up includes choosing your last 5 blogs posts and writing them down. I chose a couple different ones than my last 5 because some of them were not great ‘build on’ posts. Circle the titles so you have something that looks like this:
   
2. Extend Your Previous Posts – To extend the posts, write 2 topics that you could write about, expanding on the current topic. Maybe answer a question you left open, add more, or take it in a different direction. Now your idea chart might look like this:
   
3. Extend Further - Add a single off of the sub ideas of your original posts, expanding those ideas even further. Some will be easier than others, it doesn’t have to be an exact science. Now you have a web that looks something like this:
   
4. (my step, not his) Create drafts of posts - Take each title and create a new draft out of it, this way, when you log into your blog, you will see them sitting there. Add an idea, a thought or an article that would help prove your point as you can, pretty soon, the blog will develop itself.

This took me about 20 minutes and I have 20 new ideas for posts. Some are great and some will disappear, but that’s all it takes – a little brainstorming!

What are your ideas? Share your post chart!

Today is day 10 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Here is a quick recap of #1-#9:

1. Read in public

2. Quit your job

3. Contact someone you look up to

4. Do something you never thought you could

5. Disconnect

6. Don’t follow the crowd

7. Be nice

8. Ask questions

9. Let yourself be wrong

Bold Move #10: Stop reading and start doing!

Not to sound ungrateful to my readers, because I love each and every one of you, but stop reading (at least until tomorrow’s post ). Seriously, stop reading about being bold and GO DO SOMETHING BOLD.

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Today is day 9 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #9: Let yourself be wrong.

Think about it: If you are never wrong, you never have the opportunity to learn something. We all like being right, ask any of my friends, I don’t do ‘wrong’ well. But, I have learned more about business by being wrong than I ever have by being right. When I am wrong about something, it allows someone who knows more than me to teach me something. It is the same in all walks of life – from business to relationships. We can’t all be right all the time, it is a physical and mental impossibility. Let yourself be okay with being wrong and you’ll be amazed how much more you learn, and in turn, how much more often you can be right. The minute we stop learning, the minute we stop living.

Have you been wrong recently and had it teach you something amazing?

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Today is day 8 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #8: Ask questions…not for the answer but for the conversation that it creates.

Creativity is not a solo sport. If you were to lock yourself in a room and cut off all interaction, you would lose creative steam fairly quickly. You might get a few more things done in the beginning, without the distractions, but how long would it take before you couldn’t think of anything creative or new? Other people are what give us ideas. Things that happen in our lives inspire our writing and our ideas.

Today is about starting conversation. Find someone on twitter that interests you, and respond to something they ask. Ask a question on Facebook and see where the conversation goes.

People love to participate. People want to participate. So, give them the opportunity to participate.

Here is your opportunity to participate by answering today’s creative conversation: What makes a creative expert? What makes you stop and take notice of their ideas?

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Today is day 7 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #7: Be nice. Genuinely, honestly and truly nice.

This sounds like a very simple, and not-so-bold task, but it is often forgotten and has a larger influence than we often think. Creativity is driven by the interactions in our lives, so why not have those interactions be kind ones?

Rather than tell you a story about how someones kind attitude stirred my creativity, I want to hear your stories. Have you met someone that surprised you with niceness and made you think? Have you treated someone well, just because, and had it reward you? Feel free to share a name or keep it annonymous.

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Today is day 6 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #6: Don’t follow the crowd. There is nothing we have to do, nowhere you have to go and no path we all should take.

The best way to look at this is to think about some of the things you heard about college growing up: “You have to go to college”. “Without a degree you’ll never be successful”. “You need to join a corporate world, get the 401K, the benefits, work til we’re 55 and then retire”. “Starting your own business is a pipe-dream”.

Were they right? I don’t think so.

Growing up, I watched my mom build a Mary Kay business from the ground up and become a successful senior director – with only a high school degree. Good thing too, because I learned more from her about business than I did in any of my colleges classes. She taught me the power of networking and talking to people (face to face, imagine that!). I learned how to market a business (by actually giving people something that benefits them, not just a bunch of ad-speak). She showed me that hard work didn’t have to mean 9-5 (she usually worked before I was awake, when I was in school and after I went to bed, so she could be a mom too). Don’t get me wrong, college is great, and I absolutely loved my time at CSULB – it was a time to learn, mature and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. But, college isn’t for all of us. Some can’t afford it, and others just don’t fit into college curriculum. My mom couldn’t do the college thing because she had to work full-time to support herself from the day she graduated High School.  What was more impressive was the fact that she never used not going to college as an excuse. When business was hard, she never complained about not having a degree, she just worked harder. Not only did she prove college wasn’t necessary to be successful, she did it with class and self confidence. Now just barely 50 (sorry for revealing it mom), she has been happily retired for 5 years and is spending her time traveling the country with my dad and visiting me because that is what she wants to be doing.

My point? As my mom always reminded me, in business and in life, “If you think you can; you can. If you think you can’t; you’re right.”

What do you think? Is college a must? Share your thoughts and experiences.

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Today is day 5 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #5:

Disconnect. Turn off your computer, your blackberry/iphone/palm/etc, any method of people getting in touch with you and go outside. Many of us assume that we are the most creative when we are in our offices, our what we have determined to be our optimal creative environment. In reality, if you are always in the same environment, creativity begins to slow and we often will reach our breaking point. Taking some time without any interruptions and without our normal tech gadgets, we can often get our creativity flowing more smoothly.

Since I live in Orange County, I am lucky enough to have the beach nearby. Twice a month, I take a couple hours and turn off all lines of communication. My hubby and I take my Mustang and cruise up PCH to Laguna or down to San Clemente and walk around the beach. Usually we end up sitting somewhere, watching the waves and catching up on our days. During the week, things tend to get so busy that our time alone at the beach is the only time we get to clear our heads and actually talk. When I get home from the beach, I like to take out a notepad and just start writing down ideas for new blog posts or story lines for my book. There is something so natural and real about a pen and paper that we often loose with a computer and keyboard. Technology has improved our lives in many ways, but it is important to remember that it is not necessary for creativity – and can sometimes hinder your creative flow.

How often do you ‘disconnect’ and take a day away from technology? Does it help you to re-focus?

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Today is day 4 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #4:

Run a marathon. Learn to snowboard or ski. Sky dive. Go to racing school. Start your own business. Try defying gravity. Do something you didn’t think you ever could and prove yourself wrong.

My father has always been a stellar athlete. National Water Polo player, Pan American Water Polo champion, College Champion Coach, Northern California Racquetball Champion. But all that pales in comparison to when he decided to become an Ironman Triathlete. His history with water polo was before my time, but I will never forget the lessons that I learned about motivation and drive from his experience in the Ironman race, at 50 years old. I could tell you the stories of his training, the hours he spent to improve his abilities on the bike and in the run (the swim was easy for him, as we often think he is actually half fish…) and how that taught me drive and passion. But that wasn’t what did it. What taught me the lesson about doing something you never thought you could was the last mile of the race. For those of you who haven’t  seen the Ironman, the run is the last leg of the race, and the last couple miles are a straight stretch towards the finish line. My mother and I were waiting at the final mile mark, watching for him to come in. When he got to us, he was exhausted and looked like hell, but was still running and SMILING!  Better yet? He won the 45+ age group.

My dad has taught me many lessons in my life – but watching him at 50, running the last mile of a 140.6 mile athletic event and smiling changed how I looked at going for the ‘impossible’. He made me realize that the level of your creativity and happiness is only kept down by the limits you put on your life (including athletics). If you unlimit yourself, you will unlimit your creativity.

What do you want to do? What risk have you been waiting to take and why are you waiting?

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Today is day 3 of the “10 bold moves to stir up your creativity”.

Bold Move #3:

Do you have someone you look up to? Someone who has the career you admire, or that you want to know more about but are too scared to ask to meet? Go for it – call, email, dm, however you can – but take the chance. After all, they are just a person, one who was probably in your shoes not too long ago. It’s well known that Steve Jobs was a college dropout before he became the CEO and founder of Apple…

Recently I took the chance and contacted Chris Brogan, someone who I admire. He and I were going to be in Vegas for CES at the same time and I was hoping to attend a presentation of his but didn’t think I could get in. He did one better, he offered to meet me for coffee and talk with me. Not only did he take an hour out of his day to talk to me, but he invited me to Wordcamp to see his presentation that afternoon. Spending time talking with Chris not only made me realize what a normal guy he is, it also gave me a whole new perspective on blogging, social media and myself.

Who do you admire and want to meet? You’ll never get the chance until you say something…

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