Tag Archives: creativity

Slipping Into Darkness

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

Was feeling a bit like this song by War today…like I couldn’t see exactly where I was going with this particular client. For me to be able to function I MUST always have a framework – a point of reference and I had none. I was slowly slipping into darkness so of course I decided to write about it AND Google the song :) and this is what I found:

“This song is about trying not to slip off that other side, the deep end. War drummer and founding member Harold Brown told us: “Howard (Scott, War guitarist) was working on some lyrics and he had this concept, thinking of how one could slip into darkness. Your mind could just go on, and you just go off to the left – you have to be careful, you have to say, ‘Don’t go there.’ It’s like that wall between sane and insane. We all figure we’re sane, and once in a while we look past that wall, our head pops over and we look and we say, ‘Here’s Johnny.’ I always like that. You look over there and you see certain things, and some of us have been known to go over there and stay, and there’s some that pop their heads right back. Because that’s just right on that borderline of sane, insane, and really close to being a genius.

You get in that moment of creation and you start seeing things different than the way a lot of other people are seeing it. Most of the stuff we’re seeing, it’s accessible to all of us, but then we go and take these different words or materials. It’s how you rearrange it that makes it different and it presents itself. Like a tree. I look at a tree, and I say, Okay I could do a couple of things with that tree. We can let it stay there, it’s beautiful, I can cut it down, make firewood, or I can make furniture with it but rearrange it. You have to watch that balance. That’s when guys start getting all blown out on drugs and stuff, and become crazy. You find out the people that have the highest amount of creativity, there’s a fine line between them being sane and insane. They’re the ones I find, guys that are really out there. You got to have a certain way to talk to them, you got to know their moods. You got to know those events, those episodes, when you’re dealing with them.”

Whenever I’m feeling blind it’s usually because I have too much going on – too many ways to ‘look at the tree’ – too much creativity – forcing me to descend rapidly into a state of absolute confusion and not-knowing-ness.

If this happens remind yourself very quickly that “There is a way, and though not obvious right now, you are intent on finding it!” Next laugh at yourself and like me you might just find more depth to a song you once just knew the words to but now understand the meaning of and finally know that there is light beyond slipping unless you decide to stay on the other side of the wall – which I know you’re not going to do – because your creative spirit simply would not allow it. There’s too much work to be done, this side of the fence!


Illustration from http://www.lauraest.deviantart.com

Are You Suffering From Wealth Inhibition?

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

As published in my weekly column in today’s Business Newsday

Money, as the basis of any discussion brings up queasiness. MONEY – It can be uncomfortable, unnerving and downright sticky for some! But if you’re in business you are going to have to get comfortable with money. You have to tell people what things cost, determine rates; negotiate deals and payment schedules etc.

The rich keep getting richer and the poor – poorer is a phrase that represents a ‘general think’ about money. If you think you are poor, chances are this thinking will make you poorer. If you are rich, you will continue laughing as they say all the way to the bank.

 

So what exactly happens when you are in between – neither rich nor poor?

Most peoples’ world view of wealth is as a zero sum game. The belief is that the available wealth on Planet E is limited. If this is your belief I am assuming that for every dollar you earn you will think that it came at the expense of someone else. Your gain equals another’s loss. Ah lie?

Think about the power of your ability to attract wealth resting in the form of a dial where you can either turn your wealth attraction power up or down. What if you could have your power turned on full?

But you see we are programmed to believe that if we operate on full power that it would be harmful and unfair to others. We believe that to be decent means that the minute too much money starts flowing into our lives that we must push it away. We begin thinking that we made that money far too easily and that we should be content with our fair share – but what is that exactly? Who determines what’s fair and what’s not fair?

How many times when you were playing your best game didn’t some careless soul tell you that you were too full of yourself? Teacher, writer and intuitive alchemist Hiro Boga says that when you are fully yourself it means you are cultivating your uniqueness – that which makes you unlike any other being in the world. It’s the task of discovering and honouring your own beauty, power, creativity, vision, and values; feeling your feelings; loving your body; nurturing your gifts; expanding into your potentials; extending your capacities. We live in a culture that is self-obsessed to such a degree that loneliness and isolation are endemic among us. At the same time, if you truly love yourself, delight in your own miraculous being, and express your joy and appreciation for who you are, you’ll most likely run into disapproval and judgment from the people around you. The unspoken message is: Who do you think you are, you egotistical, arrogant jerk?

There isn’t a lot of permission in our society to be full of ourselves, in the best sense of the word.

Whether you work in sales, identify yourself as a salesperson, or are in some other profession there are two things that always reflect wealth inhibition. One has to do with price. Most fear discussion of price, raising prices and are paranoid that their prices are higher than their competitors. The second is about being able to keep a straight face and a voice free of stammer, tremor or terror when quoting the fee! This may be the reason why a lot of art and antique dealers write the price down on a piece of paper and slide it across the desk to you. Our natural tendency is to discount before even being asked to do so out of fear, inhibition and presumption.

Dan Kennedy, known to be an irreverent, sarcastic but effective ‘Millionaire Maker’ says “the queasiness about price, about who somebody is selling to, about their ability to pay, and about their ability to afford it is all deadly. And the truth is, anytime you start to make those decisions for other people, it really reflects more about what’s going on internally with you than it does about anything else.”

If you want your wealth attraction to be operating at full power here’s what you need to understand. First – no queasiness. You can’t have any reluctance or any inhibition. Next you need to understand that whatever financial position anyone you know is in, anyone you do business with is in , or anyone period, is in, has nothing to do with you. Whatever the state of the economic affairs in the world, has nothing to do with how much wealth you accumulate.

Unless you can buy into this premise, I’m afraid you will always suffer from wealth inhibition.

Image from http://www.wagner. nyu.edu

Be Authentic and Remain Open to Inspiration

Posted in Practicing Self Mastery by

I have been reading and listening to Perry Marshall for quite some time now, especially his “Guerrilla Marketing for Hi-Tech Sales People” and he always shares great stuff. So of course when I saw the subject line in today’s email “The #1 Enemy you will conquer in your life is SHAME” I immediately clicked to read.

This was Perry’s email

THE most powerful destructive force in the human race is shame.

There is nothing that holds any of us back more than the fear and terror that others will judge us and reject us as not good enough. Not measuring up. Not feeling worthy.

That’s a big enough challenge when you’re a regular guy or gal, paying the bills and being married and raising teenagers and whatnot. When you’re an entrepreneur and everything you do takes a risk of being accepted or rejected, when there are no guarantees of anything, you experience everything 2X.

My friend Dan Mack of Mack Elevation Forum sent me this TED video. It’s one of the best descriptions I’ve ever seen of how we either embrace or avoid the real stuff of living; how we either fling ourselves into the full experience, or else medicate – and numb ourselves to life itself.

This gets to the heart of why some succeed and some fail, even when given the same tools and the same education. The #1 enemy you will conquer in your life is your fear of shame. Rise up, stare it down and face it.

I had never heard of Dr Brené Brown before but boy did her story resonate with me. I talk a lot about standing out and being authentic and I am convinced that we could all be that much more fulfilled in our lives if we were courageous enough to ask for what we wanted and stopped settling for less than we deserve. After listening to the brilliant presentation I went to Dr. Brown’s blog and there  I met Karen Walrond,  an original Trinbagonian and in an interview with her she  summarized the essence of fulfillment like this -

‘What are your greatest creative barriers?’

My own head.  Even though I’ve been writing and shooting full-time for about 2 years now, it’s still sometimes hard for me to think that perhaps I should have stayed in the corporate life that I’d built for myself prior to being a writer.

Then I remember how miserable I was and how happy I am now, and I feel worlds better. <—— This is EXACTLY what I’m talking about! :)

Check out Karen’s book…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and begin seeing you for who you are, with everything that you love, and don’t love about yourself including your own vulnerability!

You are worthy of love and belonging…Let yourself be SEEN!

Our Invisible Assets – The Real Source of Our Wealth

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset, Practicing Self Mastery by

In business when you prepare a balance sheet you compile a summary of your assets and liabilities. Under assets you may have real estate, cars, equipment, furniture, cash, jewellery, securities and any other tangible assets. Under liabilities you would include all debts, obligations, mortgages, bank loans and any other promissory notes. When you subtract your liabilities from your assets you come up with what is known as your “net worth.”

Most people assess their wealth based on these facts alone however if we want to determine our true wealth, we need to include our invisible assets. What value did you put on your original business idea? What about your creativity, determination, persistence, commitment and knowledge? What about your valuable skills: selling, marketing, persuasion? Yes – we tend to take these for granted, and sometimes don’t even charge for our expertise, yet get upset when our customers also take what we do for granted.

A huge asset many business owners overlook, are their contacts, relationships and connections. Perry Marshall, author of ‘the Definitive Guide to Google’ says “it’s simply amazing how many companies are sloppy about what is arguably their most valuable piece of intellectual property: Their customer database. That’s right, no matter what you do, what you make, or how smart you are, the most valuable thing you own is your list of customers. And the second most valuable thing you own is your list of prospective customers, those people who have expressed interest in your product or service.”

Think about Amazon.com. Their customer database is listed as an asset on their balance sheet. Amazon tracks everything you do and so is able to recommend more books to you based on genre or author. Amazon will suggest people who bought the book you bought and what else those folks purchased and of course they will always encourage you to buy more books. The model works. Don’t go off thinking that you have to have the infrastructure like Amazon to make it happen. Think: Do you capture the name, address, phone number and email address of everyone who calls you? Do you stay in contact with them, letting them know what’s new and always reinforcing your sales story every time you contact them? Does this require complex software to achieve? No.

In order to get a clear picture of your true wealth you also need to list your liabilities. The list may include laziness, procrastination, poor organization, fear, hesitancy, perfectionism, pettiness, small-mindedness, anger, poor organization and a bad reputation.

We give money far too much power than it deserves. We put all our energies on sales tactics and trying to ‘force our client’s hands’ almost – particularly if we’re desperate! Instead of focusing on sales tactics and techniques, focus on building trust. In their e-book ‘7 Reasons why High-Paying Clients aren’t Choosing You” authors Rudy Nelson and Traci Feit Love suggest: “Learn to see the world through your clients’ eyes so you can speak to them on their terms. Share meaningful insights with prospective clients so they learn to trust your expertise. Make sure that you assess prospective clients’ needs before proposing a solution, so they know you are proposing something that will work for them. We all prefer to buy from people we trust to look out for our best interests.”

If we’re experiencing a financial setback it is very difficult to remember that what we possess – our unique way of doing what we do – is a valuable asset. Sometimes we make it so complex that the customer can’t find it in the confusion that we present to them. Nelson and Love’s prescription: “Focus exclusively on what really matters to your ideal clients. Describe the value of your services in concrete terms. Make sure you’re saving your clients time and effort. The easier it is for your prospective clients to understand what you’re offering and how it helps them, the easier it will be to bring them on as clients.”

In these economic tough times, it is so easy for us to confuse our own value with the fluctuating value of our work in the marketplace. So when clients are calling us or we’re getting work we’re happy and if they stay away – we get depressed. Well of course! That seems perfectly natural except deciding to be down is not an effective response. Use that energy instead to continue to take action. Refine your offers. Tweak your website. Do what you can do every single day to create a thriving business whether or not you are seeing results in the short term.

And always remember this Universal truth: You don’t have wealth – you are your wealth.

For a FREE copy of “7 Steps to Up Your Game and Get Your Phone Ringing” send an email to possibility2profit@gmail.com

Image from http://www.feedthepuppy.typepad.com

Your destiny depends entirely on your mental conduct

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset by

Someone said to me recently, “I didn’t realize how negative I was.”

If we were to record from sun up to sun down all our thoughts tomorrow, I bet that we would find ourselves quite negative in our outlook.

Thoughts come and go so swiftly that we are not always aware. Negative thought habits are so strong that if we are not consciously aware we will transgress.

As we leave August and step into September, I have started thinking about how we create situations and ideas and arrive at conclusions in our mind. It all occurs right there – a mixture of complex situations, contradictions and possibilities. If we examine further we will see that we are thinking  the way we are because of some childhood or memorable experience (good or bad). If we were to be honest we also embellish and enrich the thoughts with our own assumptions and feelings. Nothing is necessarily true or untrue.

We can choose to create and make opportunities using our imagination. We need to leave upstairs in our mind and come downstairs to play in real life. We need to forget yesterday and live today. Live NOW!

There are two of us existing at all times: -ten inches small when living in the past, ten feet tall when living in the present.

Start September on the right foot. The circumstances of your life tomorrow are molded by your mental conduct today.

Choose to live as the ten foot ‘truth’ that’s you!

Photo courtesy Marcus 7 4 id@ freedigitalphotos.net

The rests are just as important as the notes

Posted in Developing the Possibilities Mindset by

In music there are things called rests which indicate no sound is to be made. I guess rests are to notes like punctuation is to words.

Punctuation breaks up a running on of words, and helps us make sense of everything written in a paragraph.

“What am I to you”, Ryan Bingham asked Alex in the movie “Up In The Air” and she said “parentheses, a distraction, an escape from life as it is.”

I am not asking you to consider morphing into twin brackets BUT I will suggest including a couple pauses in your day because those moments are important. And yes we can call them rests too, except when working people consider resting in the day, they deem themselves lazy.

So to offset that, I am going to encourage you to pause regularly during your day AND (big surprise) I got you a cap so that you can remember!

Yes I know, like everything else in life you need a couple examples so here goes:

Pause to go to the bathroom (yes for those of us who want to ‘hold it in’ until we finish the report) GO!

Pause to just breathe deeply, one or two times, stretch and walk about, go play with your dog, cat or stuffed dog or cat. I don’t care! Take a break :)

Pause to visualize where you’re heading – why you’re putting in all these hours – what are you working towards – bring that to the forefront, immerse yourself in the moment and enjoy it.

Pause because we weren’t meant to just go and go and go and sometimes a ‘pause’ that involves closing your eyes briefly and checking your eyelids for cracks (not sleeping of course ;) ) can be very therapeutic – ask those with siesta systems – anyway following a short rest you will return that much more creative and energized to produce.

So what are you going to sprinkle your day with and often?

That’s right – PAUSES!

And for those who figure the cap is going to mess up your hair…I have a button for you…