Archive - October, 2011

Beauty Surrounds You

October 26, 2011 in Dreams, Life with 0 Comments

 

Beauty surrounds you every single day outdoors. To notice it, you must slow down, look and listen.

I really enjoy talking about the process of being creative, of making new things as a writer, musician, and as an artist.   I must confess that lately my focus has been entirely on myself and what I can create.

All creativity flows from our heavenly Creator.  Without Him, we would not be here to create.

Try to take sometime to enjoy the beauty surrounding you outdoors. It will probably inspire you in some way. If you create something please feel free to put it in the comments or email me at woodsjm2@yahoo.com.

 

 

The Golden Rule

October 22, 2011 in Dig Deeper, Life, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

 

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

The golden rule is very easy to understand, but very hard to put into action.

It is humility in action. It is taking care of each other, even when you don’t want to. It is being unselfish in a very selfish world.

When you become a parent, you understand the golden rule better. I know it has been said many times before, but being a parent really does change everything. I realized how self-centered I truly was.  When you are responsible for someone else, your entire perspective shifts drastically.

What does the golden rule look like in action? Generosity. Kindness. Helping. Sharing. Caring. Listening.

What if you implemented these characteristics into your DNA?  What if you included these into a business? I think success would follow. I think lives would be changed.

When your attitude is focused solely on yourself, all of your perspective is skewed. Suddenly it is easy to think that you are entitled to something. You are not entitled to ANYTHING. You need to take care of others and others will take care of you.

You Need To Read The War of Art

October 17, 2011 in Dreams, Life, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

The War of Art by Steven Pressfield is a book you need to read. This book has the to potential to change the way you think.

It gives a name, the Resistance,  to the forces that hinder and kill creativity.

The Resistance is an evil powerful force that finds ways to stop us from doing the work we are meant to do.

Instead of saying I will never work on _________ , the Resistance says I’ll do ___________ tomorrow.

I let the Resistance stop me from being creative and living the life I always wanted to live.

I would recommend this book to anyone doing any creative work (which is pretty much all of us).

I LOVE to discuss this book, so please feel free to chat about it in the comments or fire me an email at jim@unknownjim.com. Thanks!

You Are Creative (Whether You Realize It or Not)

October 16, 2011 in Uncategorized with 2 Comments

I believe that you are creative.

Deep down I bet you know you are too.

When you were younger, you drew pictures and made crafts.

You overflowed with excitement when you shared them with others.

You did not over-analyze your art back then, so why should you now?

Your work once covered almost every square inch of the refrigerator.

Go ahead, scribble outside the lines again.

No one is looking.

Bring back the joy you have expressed in the past.

It is time to have fun and create.

Life is too busy

October 13, 2011 in Dreams, Life, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

Often times I have heard that life stops us from doing what we want to do.

I would like to ________,  but I’m too busy.

Working a full time job or being a stay at home mom can easily take 40, 50 or even 60 hours of your time each week.

Sleeping takes up quite a bit of time as well.

The following pie chart breaks down hours in the work week.

We all have the same amount of time in the week; 168 hours.

I made the following bold assumptions:

1. You are working 60 hours a week.

2. You are getting 9 hours of sleep at night.

This graph does not take into consideration time for showering, commuting  and eating.  However, a portion of those areas would most likely fit into the sleeping or working portions of the graph.

The entire blue area, 27% of your time, is able to be used however you see fit.

You could use all of your free time to be productive; or you could use it to sit on the couch watching TV for hours on end.

Do something useful. Do something important. Do something of lasting impact.

Inspiration 101

October 9, 2011 in Dreams, Life with 2 Comments

This speech makes me think.

It inspires me.

It makes me dream.

Every time I hear the words, I learn something new.

Above all else, I view this speech as a call to action.

It is time to get MOVING.

There is a TON of work to do.

Don’t waste a minute.

Communication Continued…

October 8, 2011 in Life, Uncategorized with 0 Comments

In my last post I concluded that communication is a struggle for all of us.

Here are the main three problems to address:

Each generation has a different approach to email, texting and social media.

We all struggle with information overload.

We are all lazy (to some extent.)

To solve the generational issues, you have to directly talk with the person. Face to face is best. Ask how you can get a hold of them. If they say to send email, then send email. It is that simple.  If you still are not having any luck after following their request, try contacting them to discuss the matter.   Be persistent and do not give up. I firmly believe this issue is simply a different approach to the preferred method of communication.

To conquer information overload, the very first thing to do is clean out your inboxes for voicemail, text and email. Start at the top and delete all items that are not needed. Have a separate email for the newsletters and blogs you to which you subscribe. Subscriptions will clog up your inbox very quickly. If you are not reading an item but receive it everyday, unsubscribe!

Develop an email filing system that is simple and use it. There is no one size fits all email solution for everyone, but you can utilize many different tools such as flags or stars for important emails. I recommend deleting old emails unless you are certain you will need to refer to them again. If you are unsure, organize them by filing them in folders by category.

Laziness is one of the most difficult issues to solve. We are lazy by choice. Some people choose to be lazy while others choose to be productive. You can discourage it to some extent by following up. If someone only responds to half the questions in an email, call them and discuss it. Don’t let laziness on the recipient’s part stop communication.

The one constant thread to all communication is to persevere and be consistent. Use these methods and you can improve how you communicate with others.