Sep 26 2016

STOP “WISHING”!

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Advertising,Age & Aging,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Change,Communication,Corporate Management,Creative Thinking,Delegation,Entrepreneurship,Experience,Family Business,Gestalt Therapy,Goals,Good Health,Innovation,INTERNET Marketing,Leadership,Listening,Marketing,Mental Health,Motivation,Objectives/Strategies/Tactics,Observations,People Management,Personal Growth,Productivity,Public Relations,Reality,Retailing,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Strategies,Stress Management

WISHING FOR CREATIVITY?

creativity-hands

Take this lesson from farmers:

Stop wishing and start cultivating!

  • If you truly seek or expect creativity (or crops)  to flourish—plan your objectives, strategies, and tactics… dig the soil, get rid of the rocks, add nutrients, plant seeds, provide water, allow for sunshine, and get rid of energy-draining weeds.

    farm

  • If of course you prefer fantasyland, go right ahead. But for your own wellbeing and those who live and work with you, don’t waste time looking for shortcuts, and don’t waste energy under some false pretense that you dwell in reality.

  • So, okay, you ARE serious about wanting to be more creative, and/or wanting to find more creative souls to support your quest, here are some tips I guarantee will kickstart your creative juices, or the talents of those to whom you delegate. And age is not a factor.

  • Study and practice stress management so your emotions, body and mind are better prepared to free up and stimulate creative deeds and thoughts that already exist. You may think you or someone else has no real creative skills, but the truth is that the talent IS there; it just may not have been productively stimulated. Learn how to use deep breathing to untangle your creative spirit.

  • deep-breath-dog

    Dismiss trivial, unimportant problems. Farmers don’t bother with stray pebbles. Stop torturing your mind. Simply learn to say to yourself: “Oh, well…” and then move on, when small things don’t go your way. Expectations, remember, breed disappointment.

  • Do things differently. If you wash your left side first when you shower, switch over to wash your right side first. Take a different road to work than you normally do, even if it means getting up a few minutes earlier. Notice what you see along the way. Force yourself out of bed one morning and watch the sun rise. Serious!

  • Take creativity trips and make creativity visits… fair grounds, animated movies, art and sculpture museums, a symphony instead of “Top 40,” a crafts show, daycare center or kindergarten, experimental theatre, an animal shelter, flower gardens, zoo, waterfalls, caverns, rivers, lakes, the ocean, a walk in the woods… ANY AND ALL with your eyes and ears and nose and tongue and fingertips alert to what’s new and different.study-people

  • OBSERVE people. Sit with a notebook in Grand Central or Union Station, or a sidewalk café, a high school or college sporting event you wouldn’t normally visit, a graveyard or cemetery, ask for a tour of your local fire department, or—if you’re really brave and have a strong stomach—a local jail. Visit a manufacturing plant… and observe and listen and absorb new images and thoughts and ideas.

  • Keep a journal for 3 weeks. Date each entry. Heading for left-hand page: “WHAT HAPPENED” and for facing right-hand page: “HOW I FELT.” Among other things, this helps improve your ability to separate fact from opinion. Can’t think of what to write? Then draw something. Spit on the page. Do SOMEthing each day!

  • All this is for openers. And completely up to you. But if you want more, let me know.

 

If you stumble and fall, get up.

Brush yourself off.

Think about what happened.

Adjust the process or steps you took.

Then do it again!

After all, your new found channels of

creativity could be birthing the next

“Nationwide is on your side” or “Got Milk?”

# # #

 

hal@businessworks.US

STRATEGY/ CONTENT/ CONNECTION

931.854.0474 Coaching for Higher Branding Impact

Business Development/ National-Awards/ Record Client Sales

Personal & Professional Growth/ Creative Entrepreneurial Thinking

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Nov 16 2011

BIZ ALPHABET SERIES…”W”

Published by under "Here & Now" Focus,Attitude,Best Practices,BRANDING,Business Growth,Business Life,Choosing Behavior,Contacts/Networking,Decision Making,Goals,Innovation,Leadership,Life Plans,Lifestyle,Management,Motivation,Objectives,Objectives/Strategies/Tactics,Observations,Personal Growth,Productivity,Professional Practices,Reality,Sales,Sales Process,Self-Confidence,Self-Esteem,Small Business,Strategic Planning,Tactics,Writing

Welcome to the world’s first SMALL BIZ Alphabet Series of blog posts!

“W”…WISHING

 

WISHING may make it so in Peter Pan or The Wizard of Oz, but it’s a death knell in small business. Like hoping and dreaming, wishing accomplishes nothing. As entrepreneurs, the sooner we face reality and anchor ourselves in the present here-and-now moment for as many passing moments of every day as we possibly can, the sooner we will achieve success.

                             

~~~~~~~

No need to take my word for this sweeping rhetoric. It’s been proven endlessly over the ages by every successful, big-name entrepreneur who ever lived — from Thomas Edison, Henry Ford,  and Dale Carnegie, to Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, and Mary Kay Ashe.

So if this is such common knowledge, why doesn’t every entrepreneur succeed? Part of the answer is in the title of this blog post. We are taught from childhood to wish upon a star, that if we find a container on the beach and rub it, a genie will appear and grant three wishes, and so on.

Why do I bring this to our attention now, as we reach the end of the alphabet? Because besides that tonight, we landed on “W,” we are also on the cusp of the greatest annual “wishfest” in American history.

The whole thing starts the day after Thanksgiving and typically continues until Christmas when the dried out and “wishable” Thanksgiving turkey wishbone is ready to be or has already been snapped, and is likely to be replaced by a fresh new Christmas turkey wishbone.

Besides every greeting card filled with best holiday wishes, the season itself brings with it even more wishing as we see lottery ticket sales zoom and letters to Santa abound with children’s wishlists. And then, there’s New Year’s resolutions and wishes… success, success, success!

We certainly have ample opportunities for legitimatized, formal, and official wishing, but… alas!… WE are entrepreneurs, and we know far better than any corporate counterparts or government flunkies that wishing is a colossal waste of time and energy… not praying, mind you, but wishes! We all need all the prayer we can muster.

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t have goals. In fact, if we are truly to succeed, goal-setting needs to be an essential and ongoing activity. And real goals –as opposed to fantasized missions– must adhere to four essential criteria, or they are not real goals, and not likely even achievable.

Ongoing? Yes, since –as you may have just discovered by clicking on the last word link above– one of the four essential goal-setting criteria is flexibility, the idea of ongoing goal-setting should be apparent. They need to be adjusted, re-adjusted, and upgraded to reflect the following truism:

Time and events cause changes in

  purpose, passion, and resources.

(Aspiring political candidates should also take note!)

                                                                                    

Do you write down your goals and write down your revised and upgraded goals and carry a copy of the latest version on your person every day? Do you go to sleep and wake up with them in your face every day? Do you keep them private except from others who:

  • You trust
  • You know have their own goals
  • You know will provide you with positive, reinforcing, encouragement on your pursuits

Stop wishing and start taking positive steps to make things happen. Begin in reality with written goals.

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US 

Open  Minds  Open  Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

 Make today a GREAT day for someone!

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