10 Simple Ways to Honor Your Uniqueness

One message we hear from the time we are children is that it is better to give than receive. It is best to be humble. It is best to not shine a light on ourselves.

True, and not so true. We also need to recognize that until we honor ourselves with love and compassion that we will not be able to give fully to another, or shine the light on another nor will we truly understand humility.

These simply steps will take you on a path to honoring your uniqueness every day. Use them as a way to see how you are doing. Celebrate what is working, and choose to make adjustments where there is adjustment necessary.

1. Take time for quiet daily. Yes, there is much that needs to get done. Once you maintain a habit of being quiet either to contemplate, pray, meditate you will be amazed how much more efficiently you will perform your tasks, duties and projects.

2. Treat yourself with as much care, if not more, than you treat others. Love and nurture yourself as you love and nurture those around you OR as you would LIKE to nurture those around you. Once you master caring for yourself, caring for others will become effortless and spring from the heart instead of from duty.

3. Accept compliments from others with grace. Never, ever disrespect the person you are complimenting by disregarding or negating their compliment. Instead, accept it as you would a treasure box or a long awaited gift. Be grateful they can see something extra special about you!

4. Spend time investing in and cultivating close friendships. Incorporate friend building activities into your daily routine. Exercise with a friend, share meals together, keep in touch with a brief email or 10 minute daily phone call (and time the call and KEEP the appointment.)

5. Surround yourself with beauty. Honor your home by decorating as a way to express who you are at your core. If you are bold, use bold colors and accessories. Light scented candles, listen to music you love, use soaps that are lathery and smell great. Go for the multi sensory approach.

6. Give joyfully and receive with open arms. Recognize that giving and receiving are on the same continuum and not separate at all! Learning to give completely translates into receiving more than you could ever plan or expect to receive. The results take care of themselves.

7. Become a part of a larger community. This may mean a mastermind group or it may be a circle of friends or a book discussion group. Connect yourself with people who share your interests, goals and vision for the world. Synergy will empower you incredibly when you join in a community where you can equally give and receive on a very regular basis.

8. Mentor someone simply for the pleasure of observing and becoming involved in their growth. Invite someone who does not have the same level as skills as you do along for the ride with you. Listen to their input and see what you can create together. Chances are you will learn a lot from them (and vice versa!) creating both a Win/Win situation as well as learning about your own strengths and weaknesses in the process.

9. Live a purposeful, vision, values, cause oriented life. Recognize and embrace that you are creating your life as a masterful artist each and every day. You can choose each day whether you want to simply let life happen each day or if you want to create it fully. Choose the latter.

10. Love yourself with all your heart, soul, and strength without attachment to what you are achieving in your life today. Be compassionate and understanding while also standing firm in the knowledge that you are both incredibly unique and incredibly capable. When you can master this balance, being attached to your outcomes is not an issue because you will be achieving outcomes beyond your own imagination. You will be so magnetic you will wonder where YOU have been all this time! The answer? You are RIGHT there, ready and waiting to follow these simple principles. Live with Passion. Today.

Are You Living Your Career Dreams?

Inherent within the human spirit is the desire for fulfillment, a longing to carry out our creative aspirations by reaching new heights of accomplishment. Yet often the yearning can be suppressed by fear. Perhaps we aren't feeling good enough, smart enough or able enough to pursue and fulfill our dreams.

If you are contemplating a change in your career or wish to enhance your business to a higher level but are hesitant to make the transition, let me assure you that it is never too late to choose anew. As a matter of fact, many people change career directions several times throughout a lifetime and some don't even discover their true passions until much later in life. If you are not living your career dreams and have been putting them aside because you're terrified of trying something new, now is the time to take a stand.

Stepping Outside of your Comfort Zone
The one inevitable way you won't make your dreams a reality is by ignoring them. To bring them into actuality, one simply needs to step out and begin living them. There are no magical answers and no formulas prescribed with guarantees. There are only opportunities. You merely have to make a decision that you are going to do it and then follow through. Be assured though you'll be called upon to express boldness as well as a willingness to take chances but the key to reinventing yourself requires the willingness to step outside of your comfort zone. How else will you know what you're made of or what you're capable of, if you don't explore your potential?

Not long ago, I met with a young lady who requested my assistance with a career move. She had a good deal of web designing expertise as well as content writing experience within her background but she didn't know how to move forward. In spite of the fact that she was involved in a myriad of creative endeavors on a consistent basis, she was still recognized as the "Secretary" at her place of employment. Of course there's nothing wrong with being a Secretary but she was more interested in pursuing an independent creative career that required her to disconnect from the old identity. As a very talented young woman the only thing that was lacking was confidence in her ability to step into her new role. After our meeting, I helped her to redesign her bio/resume and encouraged her in a new direction. I'm happy to report that she's now living her career dreams.

Having the Courage
By having the courage to leave your comfort zone and doing what you feel is right despite your fears and uncertainties you will be demonstrating a commitment to yourself. Of course you'll have your moments and possibly doubt yourself at times, but remember nothing ventured nothing gained. It is highly recommend that you not allow fear to prevent you from living your career dreams but simply give yourself permission to do the very thing you've wanted to do all your life.

article source:http://www.creativityforlife.com/full_article.php?article_id=5

When Creativity Seems Like so Much Fluff and Nonsense

I'm going to explode what may be a common business paradigm - creativity isn't only for the marketing team. Creativity is for any department that wants better solutions to whatever they are working on. And obtaining better solutions to your problems is as practical as it gets.

The problem is that so many people are worried about being impractical, of coming up with silly ideas, being ridiculed by co-workers or having an idea that won't work that they won't look at any idea that seems the least bit different.

I have to tell you this - if you want better solutions to your problems, then you need to loosen up. Rememer the Swiss watchmakers who thought that their own invention, the digital watch, was just too impractical. They said, "Who would EVER want one of these?" Then the Japanese took the technology and captured a large segment of the watch market. My question is, "Who looked foolish then? The people who ran with the silly idea or the ones who thought digital technology too silly to use?"

According to business guru, Tom Peters, if you want to be truly innovative, you've got to be silly. I agree with him. When you are scared of being silly - or of other people thinking you are silly - then you shut down. You only come up with careful ideas.

And usually, careful ideas aren't the best ones.

You need to "let go," get silly and not worry about yourself and whether an idea is any good or not. It doesn't mean that your ideas can't have practical applications. But if you don't entertain what seem like silly or impractical ideas, then you are going to shut out those ideas that could revolutionize your business. Or change the way people look at the world.

Many years ago, it seemed silly to think of putting a man on the moon. How practical was that? But then a group of people started saying, "If we did it, what would we have to do first?" And one step at a time, they walked towards achieving their vision. To me, this is a perfect combination of vision, innovation, and perseverance.

If being silly is just too much for you then there is another side of creativity - one that you might feel more comfortable with. And that involves taking someone else's "leap" and then changing it to fit your needs. Think of it as small steps of creativity. This is what Alexander Graham Bell did with the telephone. What the Japanese did with the Swiss watchmaker's digital timepiece. And what Bill Gates did with DOS and Windows.

If this is something that "fits" you, then you have to prepare your mind. Reading is one key to doing this. Subscribe to magazines outside your field of expertise. Don't try to become an expert in these fields, just try to discover what interesting things are happening elsewhere. And as you read ask yourself, "Could this idea be relevant to my business?"

Another way to do this is to open the windows and let in some fresh ideas. Invite secretaries and janitors to marketing brainstorming sessions. Ask the marketing team to a finance meeting. Listen with "open" ears to what these outsiders have to say. After all, if Albert Einstein discussed one of his famous theories with his wife (he said it was as much his wife's contribution as his), then surely we can do this in our own organizations.

Finally, after coming up with creative ideas, make sure you implement them. Don't be like a certain organization (that will remain nameless). It rewarded people for coming up with the ideas but not for carrying them out. They had lots of ideas. But none of these great ideas made any money for the company because they just sat on the shelf.

Put your great ideas into practise. Design an implementation plan. Work out the bugs. Implement innovation. And that's about as practical as it comes!

article source:http://www.jvdcreativity.com/article8.htm

Self improvement and motivation

Everyone has a passion in life. Let's start there. What makes you look forward to another day? If you had the choice of what you would like to do most, what would that be? Once you have identified what the catalyst is that is the main driver in your life you can use this as a determinant to decide what you choose to do.

The person, who lives from one unhappy day to the next and performs daily tasks on rote merely to exist, can never achieve spiritual satisfaction. Doctors, teachers and religious workers who are totally dedicated to their calling are the most motivated of all. They have complete faith in the correctness and the goodness of their work. They are passionate about what they do. They are driven more by a set of principles. The greatest motivator is to do all day, every day what you love to do.

When you have achieved your desire to use your energy, your skills and your drive to do what you enjoy most, the likelihood of failure disappears from your considerations. You are so positive about life and your energy is so focused on what you enjoy that success is guaranteed. The virtuous cycle begins and one success leads on to the next. Even setbacks become of no consequence. In this positive state of mind they become motivators to overcome and so pave the way for the next positive developments. Once this state of mind is reached failures are only considered as corrugations on the road to success.

I loved my life in agriculture. I could work in the open and my children could grow up in the countryside. Life was tough and we rarely had much money but that did not seem to matter. A poultry enterprise that I had started had to be closed down when a major producer monopolized the markets. In spite of the losses we carried on and optimistically started a dairy enterprise which was a huge success. I have always had a passion for trading and investing in the stock market. I became a student of the markets and studied technical analysis because I loved the challenge. I find that I look forward to every day in the markets. Quite often my selections remain static, others lose and some rise spectacularly. It's all part of the exciting game of life. My goal is to make money in the markets but if I make a mistake I sell out quickly and try and find a winner. Losing money in the markets must be seen as part of the game of making money. Motivational satisfaction overcomes fears. I focus on winning, not the money.

In management I am often complimented on what my staff has achieved. My reply to this is that I have never motivated them to achieve anything. What I have done though is to have faith in their abilities to do the job. I have made sure that they receive recognition for their work and praise for a job well done. My faith in their abilities has provided the motivation for them to believe and motivate themselves.

Motivation is not an attribute that can be taught or enforced. Motivation is almost a spiritual belief in yourself and your ability to prevail despite any circumstances. It is the complete mobilization of all the senses, the skills, the mind and the spirit in a joyous union to accept every reverse on the road to the ultimate achievement.

Those who have climbed the highest mountains and lived through life threatening challenges know what motivation means. At the end of the road you still have faith.

Handling pain and disappointment

Disappointment can be compared to the little girl who was asked what a string bag was and she answered, "A lot of holes joined together with string." We can use the analogy that disappointment is a lot of disappointment joined together with some successes or we can say that success is a lot of success joined together with some disappointments!

Like happiness, disappointment exists in many forms and at many levels in the minds of the beholders. The difference is between those who view disappointments as failures and those people who regard them as learning steps on the way to success. One is used negatively as an excuse for failure while the other philosophy considers the disappointment as a positive lesson to learn from. The one attitude stands still and becomes part of the problem while the other attitude runs with the problem and makes it part of the solution by learning from the mistake.

Once again we can assume that therefore disappointment is a perception of a state of mind and not an absolute. One says, "I have a problem" and the other says, "I might have a solution." Once again we look to our society for creating the social stigma that connects any disappointment with failure. We are weaned on the attitude that we must only be winners and that losing is bad. The nation is in mourning and a bad mood if the national football team loses. Long term thinkers and winners never lose. They merely dust themselves off, learn not to allow that to happen again and look for the next opportunity.

The worst effect of disappointment repeated is that it results in the loss of self-confidence and even self-esteem. This can start that negative cycle of introspection creating an inability to act in making decisions. It's easy to act on discipline, enthusiasm, passion, goals, motivation and self-esteem relative to what happens when disappointments strike. Disappointment is probably the most difficult of all the emotions to handle as mistakes are so visible to see. People rarely give praise for nine good deeds done but rather to criticize the one lapse from grace.

Determination and an ability to act after the mistakes is essential. If you cannot leave the past mistakes behind you will be paralyzed. You will live in regret of the past instead of hope for the future. No one can help you with failure if you do not desire with all your heart and passionately want to escape from the confines of losing thinking.

Like the alcoholic, you must make the decision to escape from the prison of your affliction before others can help you. You must make up your mind that failure is only a perception of the mind and varies in the mind of the beholder. Start right now to think positively, learn from your failures and use the experience and wisdom gained along the way to pave your road to success.

article source:http://www.myselfmotivation.com/handling_disappointment.html