8 Simple Steps To A More Creative and Innovative You

It's a talent that everyone has, yet they think they don't. The power of innovation. If you've ever marveled at somebody's creative prowess, guess what, you can create and innovate too. It just takes time. Everyone is born creative. The box of crayons in kindergarten were not limited to those who possessed potential; because the truth is, everybody has potential. You know how long it took to learn to ride a bike or drive or to never commit the same mistake again? It's the same with innovation. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of time before this mind function comes easily when called. This article will teach you a few tips on how to bring innovation into your life. Don't listen to what other people say. Follow the beat of your own drum. Allowing for the input of other people will only bring cacophony to the music you are trying to make. If you have an original idea, don't waste your time and effort trying to make people understand. They won't. And the help you will probably get comes in the form of negative feedback. If all those geniuses listened to their peers, we would probably still be living in the middle ages. Spend time on it. I cannot stress that enough, although, please do not mistake this tip to tell you to quit your day job entirely. Do not. This involves some tricky time management but with a little discipline you'll be able to squeeze both in.  Exercise. Take a walk. Run a mile or two. Send all those endorphins coursing through your veins. Exercising certainly clears and relaxes your mind and allows for anything to pop up.  Record your dreams. Aren't some of them just the craziest things that your conscious mind would never have thought of? If you've had these dreams before, and I'm sure have, this only shows you the untapped innovative power you have lying within. So jot down those notes. Those dreams may just create an innovative spark in you. Find your own style. You can always tell a Van Gogh from a Matisse. You'll know Hemingway wrote something by the choice of words on the paper. So it is the same with you. People will appreciate your innovation more because it is uniquely yours and that no one else would have thought of what you were thinking. That will let people see how valuable an asset you are.  Don't hide behind nifty gadgets or tools. You don't need the most expensive set of paints to produce a masterpiece. The same way with writing. You don't need some expensive fountain pen and really smooth paper for a bestseller. In fact, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of the Harry Potter Series on bits of tissue. So what if you've got an expensive SLR camera if you're a crappy photographer? Who cares if you've got a blinging laptop if you can't write at all? The artist actually reduces the number of tools he has as he gets better at his craft: he knows what works and what doesn't.  Nothing will work without passion. What wakes you up in the mornings? What keeps the flame burning? What is the one thing that you'll die if you don't do? Sometimes people with talent are overtaken by the people who want it more. Think the hare and the tortoise. Ellen DeGeneres once said that if you're not doing something that you want to do, then you don't really want to do it. And that's true. Sometimes you just want something so bad you become a virtual unstoppable. And that is passion. Passion will keep you going.  Don't worry about inspiration. You can't force it; inspiration hits when you least expect it to, for those unpredictable yet inevitable moments you should prepare. An idea could strike you on the subway, yet alas, you poor unfortunate soul; you have no sheet of paper to scribble down a thought that could change the world. Avoid these disasters. Have a pen and paper within your arm's reach at all times. I hope this article has helped you bring more innovation into your life. Keep in mind that you're doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else's. But soon enough they will notice, and everything should snowball from there. Dare To Achieve More!

You can never outperform your self-image

One of the greatest and perhaps the most life changing lesson I learned was that we truly can’t outperform our self image. I realized that if I was going to be happy, healthy and wealthy, I had to first be able to see myself living the life, then learn to believe I deserved it with passion and expectation that it would materialize exactly as I had envisioned. It was extremely important for me go through this process and not allow my current circumstance – the results I was currently getting to hold me back from creating the new winning self-image that I truly desired.

Unfortunately a lot of people (including me) get stuck here and that’s what I want to talk a little bit about.

We need to really grasp the fact that one of our biggest obstacles in life is our self image.  Your self image can be your biggest supporter or your most difficult challenger. We often don’t see ourselves as we wish we could be. We tend to compare our weaknesses with other people’s strengths – but we do have the power to create our image as we want to be and then become that image.

Decide What you Want.
Decide What You Are Willing to Give up to Get it.
Set Your Mind on It.
Get on With The Work

There’s a great lesson here in H.L. Hunt’s quote, so let’s take a look point by point

“Decide what you want”

• make a decision as to what you really want, not what you think you can get but what you really want this is a very important step.
• try to see yourself living as you want to, doing what you want to, being what you want to be and having what you want, make a decision and go ahead and create a clear picture

Go ahead, take your time and really give some thoughts to this.

“Decide what you are prepared to give up to get it”

• this where we need to learn to let go of that old image
• be willing to give up the old patterns of thinking that created that self-image

Understand

• the past is gone
• that old self-image is giving you the results you have now
• let go of those destructive habits, make room for a new way of being.
• if you want to change your life, you’ve got to change your life
• you’ve got to change the image – your winning self image
• so let go – make room for the new

“Set your mind on it”

This where you have to start to see your new image, feel the emotion that’s attached to your new winning self-image

• get emotionally involved with the new image
• plant that new picture firmly in your mind, over and over again
• understand by doing so – it will manifest
• above all be grateful for the new image, as if you already were the new you!

“Get on with the work”

• take action to move yourself in that new direction
• take the first step
• It’s important to understand that we must step forward with belief and an expectant attitude
• expect what you desire
• act as if you are already the person you desire to be
• act based on that new winning self-image

Maxwell Maltz captures it perfectly here – he said

The self-image is the key to human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.

I found this really interesting – Eric Hoffer said here

No matter what our achievements might be, we think well of ourselves only in rare moments. We need people to bear witness against our inner judge, who keeps book on our shortcomings and transgressions. We need people to convince us that we are not as bad as we think we are

You see, it is very important to understand that it is our self image that will either power or prevent our success in life – It’s also very important to understand you can never outperform your self-image.

Feel free to leave your comments below!

To your success!
Lee M. Jenkins

Winning The Battle In Your Head

Motivation is a funny, complex thing. The thing that motivates one person is always different from that of another even though they are working for the same thing. And while people can motivate other people, they can only do so to a certain degree. At the end of the day, you still have to work out a way to get yourself moving. But when everything looks bleak and all you want to do is to surrender, from where do you muster the will to go on?

Begin with winning the battle in your mind.

The battle always starts in the head. One part of your mind tells you to move, work, and strive for what you are working for. The other part tells you that it is foolish. It is always easier to listen to the latter, because it is more convenient, less taxing, and easier to do. The former forces you to act and work. All things equal, people always choose the less inconvenient, easy way out. But this isn’t always the better choice. In fact, it is never a good choice.

What separates very effective people from those who are not is their ability to always make the right choices most of the time, even if these choices are the hardest to make. They know how the game works and they try to beat it every single time. Exhausting, yes, but it is also gratifying. There is always a sense of satisfaction in defeating your worst enemy – yourself.

But how do you win the battle that goes on inside your head?

Understand your thoughts and how they affect your emotions and your will power. Negative thoughts can easily kill your sense of purpose. It comes in many forms – lack of self-confidence, general negativity, lack of belief in others, procrastination and the list goes on. Each of these has the power to convince you to throw in the towel and accept that you can't carry on. Identifying each of your negative thoughts is the first step to winning yourself back from a defeatist attitude.

It is not simple feat, though. It takes time before one can shut out the voice in the head that says 'give up, give in'. And sometimes, even when you have already succeeded in neutralizing your negative thoughts, it is still easy to give up at the first sign of a speed bump. After all, it gives you time to rest from the unending struggle to achieve whatever it is you are pursuing, even for just a moment. But don’t buy that. That short period of rest can turn to days, weeks, months, years, ultimately paralyzing you from taking action and living a full life. That's the characteristic of discouragement. It offers you immediate gratification without securing anything in return.

Try to gain positive momentum every time, instead of succumbing back into a demoralized attitude. Every time, even if that means you have to start the battle in your head all over again. 

Staying Motivated

Life has a way of interfering us while we are going after our dreams. It distracts us from pursuing things that really matter and even convinces us that nothing really matters. It can attract us to adopt a defeatist attitude – lacking on enthusiasm and interest – ultimately sapping out our sense of purpose.

But there are ways to stay motivated, no matter how you feel about everything around you. These are not easy, far from that, but are nevertheless very helpful in keeping yourself fired with motivation.

Develop the attitude of interest. Find the thing you are most passionate about. The happiest people, they say, are those people who do the things they love the most. It is not coincidental that they are the most motivated people as well. After all, passion and motivation go hand in hand. They are closely intertwined to create a person who is full of zest about everything.

Find the thing that can spark and sustain your enthusiasm. Then channel all your energies towards that thing. This sparks motivation, productivity and satisfaction.

But what do you do when you are stuck with things that you are not truly passionate about? In times like this, when passion is lacking and your zeal is at its all time low, interest will suffice. Be interested in everything you do, no matter how boring, tedious or nonsensical it may seem. Find meaning in everything. Take the time to be engrossed, to be interested. Otherwise, your life will seem and feel like a living hell.

Having said that, always find reasons to be happy about the things you do, the goals you are pursuing, the dreams you are trying to realize, and the life you are trying to live. Never lose sight of happiness and never let it slip away.

Maintain an elevated level of energy. The mere act of smiling at yourself can recharge your energy. Having no energy almost always ensure that you won't feel as motivated as you need. Always take the time to recharge yourself – sleep, eat, breathe, relax, and rest. Do whatever it takes to always keep your energy high, if not sustained.

Act like it. Translate positive emotions into actions. If you are not feeling positive about anything, try to act like it. Sometimes, despite of lacking motivation, you can still feel motivated when you deliberately act with enthusiasm. 

The 7 Levels of Awareness

There is a difference between WISHING for a thing and being ready to receive it. No one is ready for a thing, until they believe they can have it. The state of mind must be BELIEF, not mere hope or wish. Open-mindedness is essential for belief. Closed minds will not inspire faith, courage and belief.

The key to Napoleon Hill’s quote is right there “hope or wish”, you’ve got to get away from hoping and wishing and you’ve got to believe and until you believe you’re not ready.
How do we believe?
We do it by re-evaluating our situation and as we re-evaluate our situation, our belief about that situation will change.
I was searching and trying to figure out why I changed. I was a City Bus Driver 25 yrs ago and today I’m a business partner with Bob Proctor. I had to find out why it changed. Well I did find out, I found out that I kept re-evaluating myself, I kept studying, I kept studying this type of material and because I kept studying the material, I started to change my thinking about myself and what I was capable of doing. When I first started studying I didn’t believe in me, I had virtually no belief in me at all. As I began studying this everything started to change. I started to look at myself quite differently.
Our evaluation of something is what develops our beliefs. Frequently when we re-evaluate a situation our belief about it will change.
All the great books, all the self help books, they all say you have to believe. but how do we develop beliefs, where do our beliefs come from?
Do you know that most of the beliefs we have, we have inherited?
We didn’t originate them, we just inherited them and we never even questioned them.
So we grow up believing that some people have more potential than others. We grow up believing that some people are luckier than others. We grow up believing that everyone doesn’t get the same opportunity and these ideas are burned into our mind. We grow up believing that if you’re going to earn a lot of money you’ve got to be really smart. We grow up believing if you don’t go to school you’re never going to do well in business.
None of this is true!
Everything that we do is going to be a choice and it’s a choice we make.
Now when you do believe – you’re ready – ready for what? – You’re ready to change things.
Let’s look at the next line in the paragraph – Hill said “Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty”
If you had told me that 30 years ago, there’s absolutely no way I could have believed it, and if you’re reading this and you’re having difficulties really believing it, understand it’s just because you haven’t studied enough. If you study it enough you’re going to start to believe it and if you don’t you won’t, it’s that simple. We’ve really got to study and as we study we start to find out who we are and what we are and our world starts to change, our results will start to change.
Now what we are really talking about here is levels of awareness. And as you raise your level of awareness, your world changes, it literally changes.
Here’s the 7 Levels of Awareness

 

On an “Animal” level … we re-act
“Mastery” level … we respond
Think, we go from animal to mass consciousness to aspiration to individual consciousness to discipline then experience and mastery. But some people live very much like an animal, a very shallow level of consciousness, they re-act to everything – its fight or flight, you see it going on all the time – people killing each other or perhaps just in arguments.
The people that have mastered it don’t let circumstance control them – they control the circumstance and they respond – now when you respond, you think and you plan. Now play with this for a moment …. You think … and … you plan. That’s how you respond. If you are re-acting to a situation – the situation is controlling you. If you respond, you control the situation.
Now we move from this animalistic consciousness to mass consciousness where we just follow the masses and whatever the masses are doing that’s what we’re doing. But then something happens, there’s a desire inside of us for something greater than what we have already got. We want something beyond where we are at.
WHY?
Well it’s because as “Individuals”, we want to express our uniqueness and this is where the battle starts. You see your desire for something greater is being pulled by your need to express your uniqueness. But your paradigm – your self-image is pulling you back to the awareness level referred to as Mass. Now this takes real courage to understand this, you’ll often find that this happens between couples. One spouse is growing and the other is not.
The desire for something greater is going to pull you towards the “Individual” level but the paradigm, your current belief system is going to pull you back to “Mass”.
So we have to ask, how do we get over this? It’s a struggle, we’re getting pull this way then that way – how do we get over this? Well, we’ve got to stop the paradigm and we need to understand what’s going on.
We need to say “I’m going that way” … but how?
Well that’s where “Discipline” comes in. You say I’m not going to do that anymore … I’m going this way. When you discipline yourself some wonderful things happen.
Now you see, you’ve got the two sides pulling. One side wants to create; the paradigm wants you to stay where you are. The paradigm will have you moving in the wrong direction. The answer to that is: give yourself a command and follow it! That’s what “Discipline” is. You say to yourself “this is what I’m going to do, I don’t care, I’m not going to let the paradigm hold me back, I’m not going to let the masses control me anymore”
When you act on the idea, you take action and your actions change your results. You’ve learned something; you’ve learned you don’t have to live that way. You build a new idea here “Experience” and when you do and act on it, you change your whole world. Not only will you change your world but you’ll change a lot of people’s world and that’s how you do it.
It’s so basic and so simple but yet so misunderstood. When it is understood, you will move to a level of “Mastery”. You’ll think and plan. This is exactly what I did and it took me from driving a bus to becoming a business partner with a man I have admired for 25 years. I don’t want to leave you with the idea that this is going to be easy but it must be done if you want a life different than where you are today. Take control of you thinking and you’ll take control of the outcomes in your life.

Please leave your comments below!
Dare to Achieve More!

Persistence

To make any of your desires come true you must be persistent!

In Think and Grow Rich In the chapter on Persistence – Napoleon Hill said “there are 4 simple steps that lead to the habit of Persistence.”

Now think about what a habit is. A habit is something you do automatically without any thought, a paradigm. You do it automatically; it’s like putting 1 foot in front of the other. You weren’t born with the knowledge or ability of how to do that, you had to train yourself to walk. You had to program your mind to walk.

Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel. ― Napoleon Hill

Napoleon Hill points out that these 4 steps don’t require any great amount of intelligence, no particular amount of education, just a little time and effort.

Here they are:

1. A definite purpose backed by a burning desire for its fulfillment
2. A definite plan expressed in continuous action
3. A mind closed tightly against all negative and discouraging influences including negative suggestions from relatives, friends and acquaintances
4. A friendly alliance with 1 or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose.

These 4 steps are essential in all walks of life! The truth is that there is no end to what you can do. The biggest problem we have in any industry when starting out is that we feel that we don’t know enough, so we stay at home and study some more. That’s actually a cop out, it’s a way of letting yourself off the hook. You already know enough, even if you only know a little bit, you know a lot more than a high percentage of the population You don’t have to keep studying to go and do something. You have to keep studying if you want to keep getting better, but not to get started.

You must stick with it. If you do what I’m suggesting for 90 days, you’ll do it for the rest of your life. Do you know what will happen? Through the repetition of impressing this idea, pretty soon the old paradigm (habits) will change, it dies for a lack on nourishment and then you truly are free. You’re living the way you want. You are not going to let the old habits stop you.

Be persistent in everything you do. Don’t allow fear, worry, doubt and anxiety stop you from living the life you deserve. Never let go of those dreams. It won’t be easy in the beginning but it will be worth it!

Please leave your comments below!

 

Dare to Achieve More!