Too many Michael Jackson Videos too select just one... but I did:
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Creativity
from DLM:
Are you ever at work and the task that you're handling just flows and gets done without much effort? It's almost as if your brain and creativity just explode and you slice through the task with ease. That feeling, the flow, is an awesome feeling but how often do you have it? Wouldn't it be great if you could somehow bottle that feeling and release it when you need it most? Easier said than done.
There are probably a lot of variables that go into achieving this feeling and like most things, they are totally different for everyone. However, with a little thought, most of us can most likely identify a handful of things that help promote their inner creativity. Here are 11 tips I've found to work. If you have other steps or rituals, let us know!
Unique Ways To Access Your Natural Creativity
Posted: 06 May 2010 09:00 AM PDT
Are you ever at work and the task that you're handling just flows and gets done without much effort? It's almost as if your brain and creativity just explode and you slice through the task with ease. That feeling, the flow, is an awesome feeling but how often do you have it? Wouldn't it be great if you could somehow bottle that feeling and release it when you need it most? Easier said than done.
There are probably a lot of variables that go into achieving this feeling and like most things, they are totally different for everyone. However, with a little thought, most of us can most likely identify a handful of things that help promote their inner creativity. Here are 11 tips I've found to work. If you have other steps or rituals, let us know!
- The Medium
Are you using the right medium to communicate your work and message? Your medium is the outlet that you communicate with. This can be a nurse, writer, speaker, artist, etc. Maybe you have the message right but it's not being shared through the right medium. This happens to lots of super creative people who find themselves in jobs they don't like with lots of restrictions. Creativity knows no limits. Try a new outlet and see if your creativity improves. - Admit It Will Be Terrible
Just go ahead and start writing. Know before you begin that this will be the worst thing you have ever created; it's then impossible to be disappointed. More often than not, as you get moving, creative ideas will come to you and it is nowhere near as bad as you first pictured. Sometimes you just need to have the courage to take that first step towards creating what you desire. - Quota
Say to yourself "I will work on this for 1 hour" or "I will write a minimum of 500 words before standing up". We can't always be creative but every single one of us can make ourselves work on something for a set period of time as short as one hour. - Just Start
Start creating whatever is in your mind; writer's block is often overcome this way. If you sit there for 30 minutes and nothing is coming, you're not going to get anything. Get up and do something that you love. Go for a walk, calm and center yourself, play with your kids, meditate. There is always a way. As I read in a fortune cookie once, "Many a bad move is made by standing still". Those 30 minutes have at least been spent moving towards creating rather than stagnating doing nothing. - Singing and Dancing
Whenever I feel like I'm in a creative rut I sing or dance. Take some time to just totally let yourself go. Put on a song that you love and sing and dance to it and you'll get yourself out of all those negative thought patterns and in a really positive place. Really let yourself go. One way to get to a new level is to sing louder than you ever have done before. It leaves you feeling amazing and creativity just flows after that. WARNING: You might want to vacuum your house while singing this loud. It saves other people's ears and is super productive too! - Go For A Walk
I find that your best ideas come will come to you when your mind is still. When you're too deep into a project struggling to get creative, it makes sense to have a mental reboot every 30-60 minutes. Just go for a walk. Get some fresh air into your lungs and a change of scenery. - Take A Day Off
Creativity comes in ebbs and flows. Some days you might just be so uptight and tense that you need to take the day off. It's not unproductive because rest is essential to gear yourself up for the days when you really exert yourself. If you have the opportunity spend time with friends, family or doing something you love just for the sake of it. You'll come back to it tomorrow with a fresh mind and fresh ideas. - Time Mastery
Do you sometimes find it tough to get creative because you feel like you just don't have enough hours in the day? I get it all the time. Truly deep creative thoughts don't usually come to you within the first 30 minutes of creating something, they come as you dive deeper into it after spending at least one hour there. It's tough to get that deep without the time.
What would benefit you is to set aside a few hours to become a master of your time. Batch similar tasks all in one, start reducing pointless internet browsing, etc. Then you'll be able to experience deep creative flow once again. - Watch A Baby
I see babies as naturally creative. They know no limits and no fears. Watch a baby for a while and see how they just do things. They are totally focused in this moment, not at all held prisoner by their past. Imitate their aliveness by spending time with them and you will find beautiful ideas flowing through you that you never thought you could access before. This leads me to the next tip ... - Be In The Moment
Being in the moment is without question the best thing you can do for creativity. If you are thinking about the past, you are limited by it. By being here and present you have access to all the precious gifts that you have now. This is a process of concentrating the mind and the best way for this is through meditation.
You hear meditation defined a lot of ways but it is really just concentrating, which is concentrating your mind on this moment. Practice concentrating 100% on reading this article until the end or the feeling of the keys you are typing. Life is a meditation practice and opportunities are everywhere. The creative benefits can only really be experienced, they're fantastic that's all I can say. It's a whole new level of living. - Spend time With Nature Daily
Sometimes, we spend too much time indoors between the four walls of our homes and at our desk and lose touch with our natural roots. Long spells in natural environments refresh the spirit. Nature is the ultimate creative inspiration. Have you ever looked out across a still river or up at the skies on a dark night and just been awe-struck? They're the beautiful experiences that life is made of. Doing this will invigorate your spirit, body and mind so they are all fresh and aligned towards creativity once again.
 | Written on 5/6/2010 by Richard Shelmerdine. Richard writes passionately about his love of spirituality and self improvement over at RichardShelmerdine.com. | Photo Credit: Mirza R |
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tech Tuesday Tip
Earlier this month, I was noticing my computer was getting a little sluggish so on a rainy day I finally decided to do some clean up.
I started by getting rid of programs that I no longer used. Some were programs I thought I might use, but haven't, others were ones that I no longer needed.
This can be a dangerous task if you don't know what you are doing. You can accidentally turn your computer into a paperweight.
So, if you want to do this, proceed with caution and at your own risk. I did not remove any programs that were pre-installed with my computer and I did not uninstall any programs that I was unfamiliar with.
I also am a HUGE believer in freeware and shareware, so most of the programs I removed, I could reinstall from their websites in the future if I wanted to use them again.
As a matter of fact, I removed completely a couple of programs so that I do fresh installs of the most current versions of the programs.
Windows Add/Remove Program interface is limited so I used the Revo Uninstaller which you can get here: http://download.cnet.com/Revo-Uninstaller/3000-2096_4-10687648.html
Monday, June 21, 2010
Fort Wayne Site-of-the-Day
Click on Pic
By the way, I am always open for suggestions for this daily feature.
Send them to Scott (at) ScLoHo.net
By the way, I am always open for suggestions for this daily feature.
Send them to Scott (at) ScLoHo.net
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Balance
I find myself doing several things at once. Well, not really.
I find myself working on several things at the same time, but time is relative. I might be working on a commercial for a client, looking for something online and drinking my morning caffeine.
Studies show that certain types of multi-tasking can be less productive than single tasking but in this current workplace, there is usually more than one thing going on.
Take a look at this from the DLM Blog last week:
As somebody with ADHD and an attention span of about 2 hours, I’m forced to continually understand my own productivity habits. As I study those habits, I realize more and more why the people of the world waste so much time.
In my Jack Bauer Guide to getting Shi#$# Done, I wrote extensively about the power of implementing time constraints. But, that’s just the beginning. How you choose to spend your time and what actions you chose to focus on will ultimately determine the impact of you have.
Sniper Rifles and Machine Guns
If you ever watch anybody in any tv show or movie, the sniper always seemed to accomplish his or her goal in one shot, while the people shooting machine guns seem to get caught up in a whole world of nonsense that results in nothing but a big mess. In many ways, our own attempts to be productive are similar. The worst thing I think we do is that we try to do too many things. I’ve become a strong believer in the idea of quality over quantity and when it comes to the actions you take, I think many of the same principles apply. I may not work 14 hours a day (not even close), but I make sure during the time I’m working I focus on only the activities that will have a high impact.
High Impact Activities
I find myself working on several things at the same time, but time is relative. I might be working on a commercial for a client, looking for something online and drinking my morning caffeine.
Studies show that certain types of multi-tasking can be less productive than single tasking but in this current workplace, there is usually more than one thing going on.
Take a look at this from the DLM Blog last week:
Choose to Spend Time on High Impact Activities
Posted: 12 Jun 2010 08:50 AM PDT
As somebody with ADHD and an attention span of about 2 hours, I’m forced to continually understand my own productivity habits. As I study those habits, I realize more and more why the people of the world waste so much time.
In my Jack Bauer Guide to getting Shi#$# Done, I wrote extensively about the power of implementing time constraints. But, that’s just the beginning. How you choose to spend your time and what actions you chose to focus on will ultimately determine the impact of you have.
Sniper Rifles and Machine Guns
If you ever watch anybody in any tv show or movie, the sniper always seemed to accomplish his or her goal in one shot, while the people shooting machine guns seem to get caught up in a whole world of nonsense that results in nothing but a big mess. In many ways, our own attempts to be productive are similar. The worst thing I think we do is that we try to do too many things. I’ve become a strong believer in the idea of quality over quantity and when it comes to the actions you take, I think many of the same principles apply. I may not work 14 hours a day (not even close), but I make sure during the time I’m working I focus on only the activities that will have a high impact.
High Impact Activities
- Writing: In the context of blogging, the highest impact activity that you can spend your time on is writing. If you are an early stage blogger you should be writing and submitting as many guest posts as possible since that will have more impact than publishing posts on your new blog which nobody is currently reading. Even if you have been around for a while writing is one of the activities that will have the highest impact.
- Brainstorming/Mind Mapping: Some of you might question this one, but done the right way brainstorming and mind mapping can be extremely high impact. An hour brainstorming or mind mapping session could give you a month’s worth of content and in an upcoming post I’ll actually share my mind map of new blog post ideas with you.
- Reading: I believe that reading can be an extremely high impact activity depending on what you are reading. I’ve recently been spending time going through Dave Navarro’s Launch Coach library and reading his mini-courses and actually going through the worksheets is something that can have a very strong impact almost immediately. It’s highly likely that you often come up with an idea for a post while reading another person’s blog and if you use something like Evernote and keep reminders of blog post ideas you can significantly increase the impact of your reading.
- Networking and One True Friend: Networking events are an interesting place to test the productivity principles I’m talking about here. There are many people who will go to a networking event with the goal of talking to as many people as possible and getting as many business cards as possible. In my mind that’s a complete waste of time because you don’t give any value to the people you are meeting. I usually aim for one true friend or one genuine connection. I never concern myself with how this person can help me because it’s really not important. Genuinely connecting with them will ultimately have a much stronger impact in the long term.
- Insights vs. Hours: Last week sometime a good friend of mine was here and during our bike ride we were discussing the way I’ve setup my life. In this strange hybrid blend of entrepreneurship and a “real job”, one of the things I realized is that I get paid for insights more than hours. This is largely the reason I don’t even bother with hourly projects anymore because it’s not an efficient use of time. One insight that makes a big difference is worth way more than countless hours spent on pointless nonsense that doesn’t have an impact.
- Email: I’m at the point now where I’m beginning to think I could get away with checking email once a day. Email is one of the biggest time sucks. In many ways those of who have to check email constantly seem to have created a false sense of urgency. I’ve had a habit of checking my email the second I get out of the water on the days when I’ve been out for a long time, and there’s never once been any sort of crisis that requires my immediate attention. The truth is if I checked email once a day, then I think I would be all good.
- Facebook/Twitter: As a social media marketer and blogger I do think that Facebook and Twitter play an important role in everything I do. I even wrote about how to use them when I talked about the ways you to build relationships with bloggers online. But, if you don’t use them strategically, they can be a real time suck. It’s really easy to get distracted by something that is completely irrelevant to what you are doing especially when people share links that grab our attention almost immediately. If we batched our time on these sites I think we’d be in much better shape and get much more done.
- To Do Lists: I create to do lists but I try to keep them small. Have you ever spent so much time creating your to-do list that you didn’t have time to actually do anything on the list? Seems ridiculous doesn’t it? Talk about a low impact activity. If you are into to-do lists, I would say limit your activity to the 5 things that will have the biggest impact today.
 | Written on 6/12/2010 by Srinivas Rao. Srinivas is an avid surfer/personal development blogger at The Skool of Life. He's also the co-founder and host of BlogcastFM, a podcast for bloggers. | Photo Credit: Simone Artibani |
The Best Gift for Fathers Day
This first picture is from 10 years ago.
I'm at the point of life, where if I were to die now, I'd have a smile on my face.
Sort of a morbid thought, and I plan on living for another 25 years or so, God willing.
I recall thinking as a young Dad 20 years ago that all I wanted from my kids was that they would grow up to be self sufficient.
I wanted them to be able to make good choices regarding the way they spent their lives. That includes money, time, relationships and their spiritual side.
And everyone of them has had rough patches, but I glad for those times too. They are stronger because of those struggles.
15 years ago, I went through a divorce and had no idea what would come next. My parents stayed together for a lifetime as did many of their peers.
A few years later I remarried as did my first wife, and despite the occasional struggles that occur when divorced couples raise their kids, we've done pretty good compared to the horror stories I've heard.
And I have to give credit to our spouses, and on my side my wife's ex-husband. We all get along because we have decided to pick our battles.
There's also the step-parenting issues. I'm grateful to my wife for being a great step-mom and my ex-wife's husband for being a great step-dad.
Overall, I would say that my kids and step-kids have not lost any parents through the divorces and remarriages, they actually gained more adults who love them, care about them and look out for them.
Saturday night was a family reunion of sorts. My oldest daughter Rachael who lives in Fort Wayne, and her fiance Brandon; my son Josh and his fiance Madeline who live mostly in Richmond, Indiana; my other daughter Tiffany who lives in Indianapolis wanted to gather for dessert at Henrys in downtown Fort Wayne around 7:30.
So Kathy and I got there early, had a couple salads along with shrimp, scallops and sushi from their ala carte seafood bar and around 7:30 the rest arrived. We stayed for nearly 3 hours!
At one point I commented to Tiffany how happy I was see everything going on at the table and the lives represented.
Afterward I mentioned to Kathy that times like we had Saturday night will come to an end in a couple of years due to babies being born and we won't be able to have family gatherings at 21 and older establishments!
That will usher in a new era with lots of little ones and the brood gets even bigger! I've had a bit of grandparenting practice as my stepson Ian has an 11 year old, a 2 year old and a third one on the way.
By the way, I refer to Ian and his sister Abby as step-kids out of respect for their Dad. Ian was living on his own before Kathy and I married and Abby has been under our roof since she was 12. Abby is currently between her junior and senior year of college and left Friday to go to Chicago for the weekend, but left a message on our chalkboard-door when I got home Friday night.
And in a few hours Rachael and I will get together for lunch at ribfest. In the meantime, here's a picture from last night as we went for a walk after dinner at Henrys.
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