You are a lot more creative than you think

December 16, 2013 by 2 Comments

Wish you could be more creative? Well, you can. You can teach yourself how, and that is what this article is all about.

Creativity is about finding the expression that is original, aesthetic, and distinct which you can call your own. No matter how creative you are at this point, you can always become a lot more creative. Whether you get bored at your creative efforts or you’re excited about them, you can continue to improve in so many ways. Below are some helpful tips that can help you bring out the best – the most creative side – in you.

Don’t Believe the Myth That Creative People Are Geniuses

It is very easy to look at others and associate their creativity with their natural gifts. It’s true that some people are born with the propensity to be creative. But creativity can be learned, cultured, improved upon, and transformed into one’s distinct style. Penn State University professor of chemical engineering Darrell Velegol says:

“It’s a myth that only some people are born creative. In fact, all of us are born with creative ability. This ability can then be radically enhanced by learning a process for creativity, which we lay out in this course. Creativity can be learned – that’s the key.”

If others can be very creative, you can also be as creative as they are. You do not need to be a genius to be more creative. You only need to find your own unique language.

Be Courageous Enough to Try New Ideas

This has to do with your self-confidence. It’s easy to feel like you’re not going to do it well, just because you haven’t done it before. If you admire people who are creative in organizing events like parties and weddings, it can be a sign that you can do well at it also. Instead of thinking that you’ll not succeed, just take the plunge and give it a try.

READ ALSO: Give Yourself a Gold Star

Take the time to study what others are doing.  You can find ideas at places like http://www.getskills.com/ and http://www.lifehack.org/ and other websites dedicated to creativity. I even have a Pinterest Board dedicated to creativity: http://www.pinterest.com/amabaie/creativity/, which you can follow for ideas.

Pay attention to how they do what they do.  Compare different styles to see what they all have in common and what variations there are.  Don’t be shy to copy those things that are common to many, and to adapt aspects that vary from one person’s style to another’s.  And give some thought to what brand-new variations you might bring to the table.

Creativity - find new ways to look at old things
If you can find new ways to look at old things, you’ve discovered creativity.

You could very well unlock a geiser of creativity from inside, that you did not even know was lurking just below the surface.  You’ll never know until you try.

Get Close to People You Admire for Their Creativity

Creative people can help you get out the best in you. If you hang around people who seem bored, tired of life, and always complaining, you end up feeling like your energy level diminishes. But if you hang with people who are confident about their creativity, they communicate positive vibes that make you want to discover more of who you are and what you can do.

Yes, it’s true – you can tell a lot about somebody by the company he keeps, because that company shapes who you are.

Creative people can have a great influence on your creativity. Famous writers, singers, guitarists, painters, and others always experience the influence of a successful artist whose work they love.  Find yourself a muse or two, or at least some creative people to hang out with.

Work with What You Already Have

You do not need to invent something new or come up with a new style of doing things. Everyone is capable of doing something. You can be a single mom who can successfully juggle an online job, taking care of the kids and doing home chores, or you could be a writer with limited imagination and a huge wish list. The truth is that you have something to work on. You can discover new ways of honing your creative skills by rethinking your style or looking at those with similar skills.

Choose the Right Time to Test Your Creativity

The best time to test your creativity should be when your energy levels are high. You’ll find it very challenging thinking new ideas or trying new things when you’re bored or tired. Creativity takes mental energy. You should be able to identify the time of the day when your energy level is high. It is that time that you should try new things.

Capture your ideas. Make your own Idea Journal

Make your own repository for all of the things that interest and inspire you. It can also provides a safe environment to experiment and grow creatively. Ideas are fleeting. Be prepare when they arrive at your doorway. Unless you write them down, you will likely lose most of them.

Creativity has no limits. It can grow everyday with the right motivation and the desire to do things better. This means that you can discover own creativity each passing day as you immerse yourself in the reality of your life.

Feel like getting more creative? Eat, Pray, Love Author Elizabeth Gilbert speaks about her own fear of both failure and success, and how to overcome both to keep honing one’s creativity.






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Self-esteem Test

April 22, 2013 by 1 Comment

Take this free self-esteem test by Karl Perera to determine how strong is your self-image

This free quiz is extremely quick and simple, just answer TRUE or FALSE to each question (if you cannot answer 100% TRUE then answer FALSE):

self-esteem1. Other people are not better off or more fortunate than me

2. I accept myself as I am and am happy with myself

3. I enjoy socializing

4. I deserve love and respect

5. I feel valued and needed

6. I don’t need others to tell me I have done a good job

7. Being myself is important

8. I make friends easily

9. I can accept criticism without feeling put down

10. I admit my mistakes openly

11. I never hide my true feelings

12. I always speak up for myself and put my views across

13. I am a happy, carefree person

14. I don’t worry what others think of my views

15. I don’t need others’ approval to feel good

16. I don’t feel guilty about doing or saying what I want

Read also: How to Boost Your Self-esteem Quickly

TEST RESULTS:
Total number of TRUE answers you gave

15-16 You have a high level of self esteem!
12-14 Not bad, but room for you to improve.
8-11   Low self esteem – it’s holding you back.
Below 8 your esteem is drastically low.

Self-esteem is a key component in happiness and self-actualization – so much so that two of the habits in Climb Your Stairway to Heaven: the 9 habits of maximum happiness are devoted to self-esteem. This free self-esteem test is meant simply to give you an indication of what kind of improvement you might wish to make.

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Finding Your Way: Lessons from my childhood

September 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

When I was younger I used to think finding my way was something I was looking for. I would pay close attention to everything insight, because I didn’t want to miss a clue. As an adult I look back in amusement and remember how wise those thoughts truly were, beyond their surface.

Like most children, I believed nursery rhymes were important keys to living life. One of the things I felt to be important was to never step on a crack in the cement sidewalk. I fell for the saying, “if you step on a crack it may break your back.” I justified this by thinking it would help me stay healthy, so I could continue to find my way in life.

Often I would walk behind another person closely, so I could feel how it was to be in someone else’s shoes. I always heard it was important to know that, so I could understand the next person and we all know how important that is in finding our way.

But truly we all know the most important lessen to learn as we grow, is to believe in ourselves so we can learn to believe in others.



Deryo is a singer-songwriter and composer. His blog focuses on positive lessons from everyday life and the joys of music. You can read more at: http://www.deryo.com/blog or http://www.facebook.com/deryo.sho

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Singing Lessons Part II

April 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

In our last post, we pulled a lesson from Chantalyne’s opening number at the end-of-singing-lessons concert last week.

Part-way through, our younger daughter Lauralee sang “Si Dieux Existe” by Claude Dubois. Unlike our elder limelight-lover, Lauralee is shy of the spotlight. She has been dancing on stage for years, but always as part of a group. Singing on her own in front of a crowd? No thanks.

Really, no thanks. She did not even want to participate.

She loves to sing, usually half under her breath while playing with Barbie dolls. And she loves her singing lessons, but she had to be convinced to sing on a stage in front of strangers.

When she got up on stage, she was as nervous as most of the others, but once she started singing, she forgot the crowd and her angelic voice – yes, angelic as ever – came through with no nervousness or straining in it.

Yes, the lesson from this one is pretty predictable. If you overcome your fear, just do it anyway, you’ll be an angel. No, wait, that’s not quite the lesson. Face your fears and you will succeed. You can do it! Whatever your apprehensions, just do it anyway.

That’s the lesson.

(Sorry about the video – the camera was playing games, so we only have the second half of her performance recorded.)

Lyrics to Si Dieux Existe

Personne, il n’y a plus personne
Mon âme qui s’affole
En prenant son envol
Me laisse inanimé

Personne, j’ai besoin, j’ai personne
Mon être dégringole
Tous mes sens m’abandonnent
Je ne sais pas si j’ai peur
Je regarde d’en haut
Le corps de ton esprit
Nos visages à l’envers
Tout petit, tout petit

Refrain:
Si Dieu existe et qu’il t’aime
Comme tu aimes les oiseaux
Comme un fou, comme un ange
Tu peux marcher enfin sur les étoiles, aspiré
Comme un fou, comme un ange

Personne, il n’y a plus personne
Mon âme qui s’affole
En prenant son envol
Me laisse inanimé

Personne, j’ai besoin, j’ai personne
Mon être dégringole
Tous mes sens m’abandonnent
Je n’sais pas si j’ai peur
Tu regardes d’en haut
Le corps de ton Esprit
Nos visages à l’envers
Tout petit, tout petit

Refrain:
Si Dieu existe et qu’il t’aime
Comme tu aimes les oiseaux
Comme un fou, comme un ange
Tu peux marcher enfin sur les étoiles, aspiré
Comme un fou, comme un ange.

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What The Humble Baked Bean Tin Teaches Us About Goal Achievement!

May 19, 2011 by 8 Comments

A recent series I watched on TV followed a young British engineer as he traveled around the country on a longboat, celebrating Britain’s industrial heritage. One episode featured the humble tin of baked beans, and in this article I want to cover what this teaches us about goal achievement…

Guy Martin is an engineer and well known bike racer. Well known in bike racing circles that is, I confess I had never heard of him before watching his TV series.

In ‘The Boat That Guy Built’ on the BBC, he wanted to remind people of a 150 year period when British inventions and engineering helped to change the world, to drive the industrial revolution.

He traveled around on his barge, fitting it out using traditional techniques, and I was drawn in by the whole series. One episode featured him making baked beans on toast, so he went right back to the basics and history of the can, making it by hand. This is where the goal achievement lesson comes in…

The patent for the tin can was given in the early 1800s in Britain, and it wasn’t long before it had been sold on and developed, as a way of storing provisions for the army and navy. This was state of the art stuff at the time, rather like NASA inventing ideas for the space program.

Within a few years though, maybe a decade or so, the baked bean had moved from being a novelty food for the posh to a common ingredient, and the tin can had gone from being experimental to being part of everyday life.

It was taken for granted.

150 Years Later

This is all over 150 years ago now, but the lesson we can take today is still fresh…

While it’s possible that your goal may be groundbreaking, it’s more likely that it has been achieved before. Someone, somewhere, will take it for granted. Someone, somewhere, will have gone through the trial and error process and got to the end result.

Yes, it will be new for *you*, there will be learning and set backs, but you can make the journey far easier if you seek out the knowledge of others who have gone before.

You will also have an easier ride of it mentally if you imagine yourself in the position of those who take your goal for granted.

Developing an assurance that your goal will happen, helps to motivate you when you come to step that are wary or nervous about – you’ll be much more confident to take it when you know others have been there before.

So to sum up, the humble tin of baked beans can teach us about trial and error, and it can teach us about repositioning goals in our mind as taken for granted rather than experimental.

I loved Guy Martin’s show, and the next time you are struggling with a goal, open a cupboard and stare at a baked bean tin for some inspiration!

Gordon Bryan is a writer from the UK, who loves writing about goal achievement. Grab his free 8 Step Goal Achievement Formula at http://thegreatgordino.com/free-8-step-goal-achievement-formula

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The 3 “C’s” of Leading with Confidence

March 3, 2011 by 1 Comment

It is the rare human being who can maintain confidence 100% of the time. Even the best of leaders experience dips in confidence from time to time, from context to context and from situation to situation.

 

The key is building your ‘confidence’ muscles.

I believe confidence can be cross-contextual. By that I mean having success in one area of life can be used as a reference point from which we can borrow confidence while we build it in that new area of our personal or professional life.

To raise the bar on your confidence as a leader, I’d like you to offer you 3 concepts to focus that can provide a roadmap for creating higher levels of confidence in whatever endeavor you are embarking on, and especially in your role as a leader:

Certainty – Certainty is defined as the state of being free from doubt or reservation, destined, sure to happen, inevitable, bound to come. Certainty is how confidence is projected by leaders and it’s a skill that also has to be developed along with confidence. Certainty comes from experience and through developing your beliefs and values about yourself, your role as a leader, the world, your organization, the marketplace, etc. One of the key skills to nurture to develop your level of certainty is perspicacity or a keenness of mental perception and discernment, which helps in decision-making and problem solving.

Clarity – Many years ago I attended a workshop by Anthony Robbins and one of the most powerful things he said that day I’ll never forget. His message was “clarity is power.” I’ve learned over the years that is a very true statement. Without clarity its tough to see where you are going and a leader without clarity is not much of a leader.

There are many contexts a in which leader needs clarity, which can be overwhelming.  This is why I want to start at home by having you focus on key areas first to build your confidence and certainty as a leader:

• Your Leadership “Identity”
• Your Strengths
• Your Areas for Growth and Development
• Your Team Strengths and Talents

Capability – This is defined as having power and ability, being efficient and competent. And, there are six fundamental areas leaders need to not just be capable but must master:

• Influencing communication skills
• Visionary thinking
• Decision-making
• Problem-solving
• Delegation
• Emotional Mastery
__________________

This is a guest post by Skip Weisman, The Leadership & Workplace Communication Expert. He helps organizational leaders create high performing, positive work environments with teams of employees who communicate effectively, work successfully together in teams, and who love what they do as they contribute to their organization’s overall purpose. His company, Weisman Success Resources, Inc. is based in Poughkeepsie, NY. You may contact him directly with any questions, or for a complimentary Strategy Session at 845-463-3838 or e-mail to Skip@WeismanSuccesResources.com

This post was featured in the That Girl Is Funny.

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