Motivate Me to Be Successful

"To think about your life is to create it. You have to take ownership of where you are right now and know where you want to go before you can get there. Keep collecting evidence for your success. You can believe it, and you can be it."
~ Ali Vincent

« Who or what are your blockers to success | Main | Why there is no such thing as overnight success and how you too can create the illusion »
Sunday
Jul312016

You were born to create and why it doesn't always happen

Do what you love is one of the mantras of the self help industry. Do what you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life. That may be true but you do need to pay the bills. But there is an element of truth in the concept - it's not that you need to do what you love, it's more you need to love what you do. Do everything with love and you will create beauty all around you.

It may be you were born to create the most beautiful computer code or the best cup cakes in your home town. You may be the best window cleaner or pavement sweeper, or you may be the best person someone has spoken to this week.

However, for most of us, our passion and our jobs lie somewhere apart. But that's OK as long as you make time to do whatever it is you love to do. However, I would like to challenge you to think about making your "hobby" or as I prefer to call it - your PASSION - your "job" or the thing that brings you money and / or other rewards to you at some point in the not too distant future. We can all be faked out by the phrase "sometime in the future" but who knows how long we have each been given.

Part-time if necessary, until such time as you can say goodbye to your "day" job and let your passion take over.  

Now I could tell you how to go about that - but that is not what today's email is all about. Today I would like to talk to you about how to find out what your creative streak is - assuming you haven't found it yet. And to challenge a few of you who think they know what that is, with a - "are you sure?" After all it does not hurt to take another look.

So how do you find where your creative streak lies?

There are many ways to do this:

  1. Check your hobbies - what do you do when you have time?
  2. What do you think about - apart from the usual, kids, spouse, jobs, work, bills etc?
  3. What is on your dream goal list or your dream board?
  4. What do you wish you had time to do?
  5. What did you use to do as a child?
  6. What do you write about in your journals?
  7. When you talk about owning your own business what does it look like? Smell like? What can you see, hear, feel?
  8. When you go for a walk to do your mental filing - what do you think about most often? What do I mean by "mental filing"? This is what I call a walking meditation - it allows you to put into perspective, dump or archive the day's activities and trivia. I like to do my mental filing at night and I feel out of sorts if I don't get at least half an hour of down time to do so. Tonight my mental filing occured when I walked to the shops to choose the ingredients for tonights dinner. (I should also have taken a list as I forgot half of what I was supposed to get - but you get that). But my planning time, my creative time comes in my morning walks, usually around 6am. I have found numerous business ideas, ideas for issues for this ezine, and other books and articles I write. If I can persuade you to do ANYTHING it is to get into the habit of 2 walks a day - preferably without anyone else as all you will do is talk - and to let your mind wander. Evening to file, morning to create. 30 minutes twice a day for you.
  9. Ditch the technology for a while every day. We are so connected we can be forgiven we are not hard wired into the network. Turn it off, leave it at home and walk without distractions - and I mean, no phones, no music, no nothing.... But in addition to the walking I have been talking about, I need you to think about finding a couple of things. Pens, pencils, paper and blank books. If you are stuck - doodle ... write down as many answers to a problem as you can think of, then once you have thought about them from your perspective, look at the issue as if you were giving a friend some advice. Journals - use them to record your dreams, business ideas, poems, book outlines or whatever it is you are thinking about. Write them down, let them out of your mind and into the real world. Some of them you may think are totally ridiculous - so what, some may end up being the perfect solution to whatever "problem" you are facing and some may be that million dollar business idea.
  10. Play. Yes I did say play. Play with the kids or the grandkids, or your siblings. Whatever - do you remember how carefree kids at play can be? No - then you definitely need to remember how to play. Go the park, play on the swings, release the stress and negativity we carry with us like a badge of honor
  11. Spend some time in art gallery's, libraries, fabric stores, bookshops, museums. Walk through and let the visual into your cluttered thought filled mind.
  12. Read a book. One thing I forgot I enjoyed was reading a couple of pages of a book just before turning out the light and going to sleep. However, be careful of your choice as I have made the mistake of choosing a book that a) I could not stop after just a couple of pages and b) scared the living daylights out of me.
  13. Watch a movie - preferably on DVD - television bothers me as there are usually too many ads to the TV program, but a movie is a good way to relax and allow your creative mind a chance to come out of hiding.
  14. If it's possible for you - go outside at night, somewhere where you will be safe, spread a blanket and lie down.... wide screen at its natural best.... I have (IMO) one of the best night skies around - why? Because there is little or no light pollution where I am. Count the stars, grab your partner and get them involved in this one.... you'd be surprised at the bad backs this one creates - no I meant conversations.
  15. Take a regular holiday - get away from the "normal" stuff and fill our minds with new things to see and do

Whatever you do today, do it with joy and do it with creativity.