You’re reading 11 Ways To Nurture Your Creative Spirit While Holding A Day Job, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Many creatives will agree that holding a day job could hamper the creative spirit especially when the job is not a creative or challenging one.

According to research from Harvard University, many companies have managerial practices that kill the creative spirit because roles are not assigned based on creativity but rather on productivity. However, till managers reconcile creativity with job descriptions, here are 11 secrets creatives need to know in order to keep their creative spirit alive.

11. Write Out Your Goals

For most creative people the goal is to live a life fully or partially financed by their creativity. To achieve this the first thing is to write down your goals. If you ever thought you had it all in your head, you do not. Write your goals down, it leads to clarity, gives a sense and you will get more things done.

10. Practice In Your Spare Time

Malcolm Gladwell’s book the Outliners recommends 10,000 hours as the number to attain expertise. While the number has been a source of debate, it gives an idea of how much practice is needed to perfect a skill.
Since most of us hold day jobs, we often wonder how do we find time to practice. Here is what you can do.
After work and during weekends, get to know more about your interest. I study my camera, when I get back from work. I experiment shutter speed and low light capabilities of my camera in the dark and learn something new. During the weekends, I ask photographer friends if they have shoots I can come help with. Find time to hone thy craft.

9. Bye Nay Sayers

Being creatives we hear a lot of negativities. “You cannot do it”, “No one will buy this?”. Someone once told me “that is not how you hold a camera” Trust me I was not holding the camera upside down. Hearing demoralizing statements is part of the journey, people will ask you to stop, ask if you are crazy, do not take them personal. Surround yourself with positive people who will encourage you and tell you the truth.
While you need positive people, you do not want someone who will encourage your excesses but someone who will encourage you to be truthful to yourself and encourage your creativity.

8. Nourish Your Soul

Listen, watch, read motivational and educative content. Surround yourself with inspiring and successful people, who have towed the part you are on now. Indulging in these acts have encouraged me greatly. When I feel like giving up and surrendering to a life behind the desk, these books, videos and others give me another push. Try and nourish your soul with positive things this will encourage you to keep your creative spirit alive.

7. Join Creative Platforms

I live in Nigeria, a country where creative works are seen as something for the uneducated, therefore finding creatives who are passionate about what they do and willing to teach is not an easy task. You might be wondering what I did.
I attended creative seminars near me and befriended other creatives in my field. From there I was able to assist photographers and gain more experience. I was only allowed to assist because I asked so do not be shy to ask.
Online I joined lots of creative forums to keep me inspired like Cole’s classroom, Phlearn, Sue Bryce and get constructive criticism on my work. These are photography forums but I am quite sure all creative categories have forums so join.

6. Do Not Be Too Tired

It is easy to get involved in your day job, and just eat and fall asleep. That’s how you die creatively. Learn how to dedicate three to four hours after work to your passion. Most nights I fall at sleep on my phone or laptop researching how to take myself a better photographer and writer. I wake up before dawn to write a short story or edit a photograph.
This will motivate you: Michael Punke the author of “The Revenant” holds a day job as the deputy United States ambassador to the World Trade Organization.

5. Don’t Forget Your Lover

My boyfriend is a constant supporter of my creative spirit, but with work and weekend shoots I barely have time for him.
I try as much as I can to spend weekends with him. We do fun things like cooking dinner together and laugh about our colleagues at work to cool off. There really is no point being a lonely creative make time for our lover.

4. Believe In Yourself

As creatives we are constantly in doubt of our capabilities. We question ever single art we create until we share it with the world and receive tremendous feedback. This self-doubt sickness is borne out of our fear of rejection. I constantly thought, I could not take the pictures I saw on social media or have my writings published anywhere least of all a popular website but I have done these things by simply believing in myself and giving it a go. You too can just believe in yourself and take action the world is waiting to receive you.

3. Comfort Zones Are For Babies

Who wants to be a baby forever? I know you do not. Leave your comfort zone. This will mean, you will face rejection, be scared most of the time, but you will turn to gold. A friend asked me to cover an event and I ended up with blurred photos. Totally embarrassing but I learnt focus and weddings are chaotic for photographers. As creatives there will be embarrassing days but you will grow and turn to gold.

2. Grow Thick Skin

Your thick skin will make you grow. Your work will be criticized some from people who love you and some who have no idea what they are saying. Learn to distinguish good advice form bad advice. That being said when you get constructive criticism learn not to be angry, instead ask how you can improve and work with it. You’ll offer your services to some people and they will turn you down, this does not mean you are not good enough do not let it bother you. Pitch to the next person.

1. Keep A Day Job

You need a day job because you will have bills to pay and equipment to buy. I know day jobs can be annoying for creatives because must of them do not allow us to be innovative in any way, but we need these jobs. Yes, there will be times you will feel like quitting your day job and taking your chances. For those ready take your chances. For those of us still figuring things out, do this: visualize your future goals this will help you get through. I remember when I worked at a call center and I had joggle work and getting a masters degree those were dark days, but I never stopped seeing the end goal.

Hold your day job, and hone your craft when you start making more money on your creative job, than your day job then you can consider quitting.

You’ve read 11 Ways To Nurture Your Creative Spirit While Holding A Day Job, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading The 5 Signs You Are Suffering From a Stress Related Illness, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Friends:

Stress as a cause of illness has been accepted by the most prestigious of institutions. Both Harvard Health and the Mayo Clinic are now on the record that an overactive stress response can increase risk for everything from heart disease to GI issues to insomnia to cognitive decline.

The stress response is the modern version of the “fight or flight” response we developed as cave-people roaming the earth long, long ago — it’s the brain-body process that keeps us on “high alert” for threats that could harm us, and mobilizes our bodies to fight the threat, or flee the threat, to preserve the species.

The problem is that our modern brains can’t tell the difference between real “tigers” and “emotional tigers” — the same kinds of physiological responses occur in our bodies … and if we don’t learn to self-regulate our stress-response, we can develop chronic pain.

So what are the 5 signs you may be suffering from a stress related illness?

1) They Can’t Find Anything WRONG! This is actually the title of a book by my friend Dr. David Clarke that I highly recommend. Dr. Clarke is a well-respected physician and educator who, over the course of his career, successfully treated 7,000 patients with stress-related illnesses. One of the common themes with his patients is test after diagnostic test turns up “negative” — because these tests don’t measure stress and its effects on the body.

2) Your Pain Moves Around: In my personal experience with persistent back pain, I found that the pain would move around to different locations in my back. Sometimes it was my low back, sometimes the sides of my back, sometimes my mid or upper back. I recall one episode when I was up at the crack of dawn to leave for a business trip and the whole right side of my back seized up leaving me writhing in pain on my bathroom floor. Does your pain “move around”?

3) You Experience Tension Elsewhere in the Body: Those of us blessed with the “perfect-storm” of Type A personalities, lots of emotion, and lots of stressors in life (on the flip-side it’s what makes us driven to achieve and succeed), tend to experience tension in several places. Examples would be headaches, stomach issues (“nervous stomach”), tightness in the chest, and many more. These are all signs that you may be suffering from stress.

4) You’re Not the Best Sleeper: When your mind is on overdrive, and your body is on high-alert facing down the “emotional tigers” of your day-to-day life — Sleep doesn’t come easily. According to NPR, 60 million Americans will be afflicted with a sleep disorder this year(!). If you find it hard to quiet down from your day and fall asleep easily, it’s a sign your parasympathetic nervous system (otherwise known as the “rest & digest” response) needs some attention.

5) You Have Trouble Concentrating: You have to try extra hard to really focus on the task at hand, or what your beautiful little child is trying to tell you when you come home from work, or the point your colleague at work is trying to make during the meeting … you get the picture. What may be going on? When your brain and body are in the stress response, you are focused on “survival” not the subtleties of what may be happening in any given moment.

If these signs resonate with you it’s actually good news. Why? You can take action to boost your parasympathetic nervous system through a range of techniques from meditation to deep breathing to negative writing.

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Jon Slavet is an executive and advisor to high growth consumer companies. He is also the GM of We Work.

 

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You’re reading 5 Simple Steps To Get You Concentrating Better at Your Tasks, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Let’s face it – we have all had problems with concentration before whether at work, school or even at play. It sounds almost banal to say that better concentration and focus helps make life more stress-free but it is true. When you’re more focused, you get more done in a shorter amount of time; you work more productively and efficiently. The good news is that you do not have to be an expert or a personal development coach to improve your concentration; in fact there are plenty of simple, free and readily available ‘tools’ you can use to raise your concentration levels.

The next time you find yourself losing focus during work or during any tasks that you are doing, you can try doing any of these 5 things:

1. Breathe.

We all need to breathe. And we do it so unconsciously that most of us do not actually pay attention to the breath. Taking a breather is a simple way to restart your concentration. Take a break for three minutes and just close your eyes and breathe deeply. In-out, in-out. Just 3 minutes – surely you can afford that?

Slowly notice your body being slightly more relaxed and the tension ease away. This will effectively help you get your focus back.

I love this quote from mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn that goes something to the effect that “pay attention and be aware of your breath like your life depended on it” (because it really does!)

2. Remove distractions.

Get rid of all the distractions around you as much as you can. All the noise, eyesores and other things that may distract you from what you are doing should be removed. This also includes mobile devices such as tablets, mobile phones and other digital devices that cause distraction.

One practical tip: when you need to focus, keep your phone tucked away in the other room or in a closed drawer. Psychologically, it helps keep your distractions literally out of sight.

3. Take one step at a time.

Everything takes time so don’t rush. Especially when we are talking about building a skill such as cultivating concentration. Avoid multitasking and stick to one, at most two, task at the same time. Multiple studies have some multi-tasking has a deleterious effect on the quality of our work. Why do we want to risk the quality of what we produce?

We don’t need more distractions in our lives (we are distracted as it is), we need more focus.

4. Declutter.

Very few people can work in a messy and unorganized environment and decluttering certainly helps. Don’t get scared off by ‘decluttering’ and think that it involves lots of work – that is a myth! It can be as simple as rearranging your books to make it neater or just doing some basic cleaning over the table. This way, you are not only clearing (and clearing) your office space but also your mind.

5. Check your environment.

Finally, on a more practical level, take a step back and check your surroundings. Do you have enough space to work on your task? Do you have ample lighting and ventilation? Is the room too hot or too cold? If you feel like your environment is distracting you from your work, then adjust according to your preference. Make sure you have enough lighting, ventilation and space for you to finish your work. An ideal condition naturally breeds better concentration and productivity.

6. Reward yourself.

Whenever you’re done with a task or reached a goal, do not forget to treat yourself to a small reward. It can be something as simple as having an ice-cream or giving yourself an extra 2 hours sleep over the weekends. When you do this consistently, you’re reinforcing the feedback loop and strengthening (both consciously and unconsciously) your concentration – productivity link.

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This is a guest post by Dylan from More Motivation. For articles on motivation, inspiration and practical advice on concentration, personal development and financial success head over to http://ift.tt/2fA0xWc

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You’re reading The 7 Best Blog Posts On Gratitude, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

You have so much to be grateful for! How many times have you said this to someone or had someone say this to you? Gratitude, fortunately, has become as commonplace as a reminder to tune into positivity, yet, it does somehow still take a back seat to our daily life stresses. That is likely because gratitude flourishes or diminishes based on our desire to train ourselves to be appreciative. Being thankful is not always experienced as a natural state of existence, we must work at it, akin to a type of strength training for the heart. Practicing gratitude can strengthen our immune system, help us feel less lonely, and even encourage us to find compassion and generosity toward others. Here are 7 blogs that express the power and practice of gratitude.

1. This blog focuses on beginning your own gratitude practice. At its core is the idea that we must ‘be grateful for small mercies’. The acts themselves, committing to doing it, reflecting on it, sitting down and writing even just one thought on what it is you are grateful for, is beneficial in shifting our mind set.

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2. Gratitude is good for the heart! This blog shows evidence based results of people who are patients of heart disease. They were asked to write down what they are grateful for and discovered that inflammation was greatly decreased while heart rhythm improved. Acknowledging the presence of gratitude in our lives help us manage and cope with illness and mental stress, improving our overall health.

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3. Henrik Edberg writes a wonderfully simple blog on how to feel lighter on a daily basis. Concentrate on the small things that you are grateful for (your lunch, your plant, a helpful stranger, or the fact that you have gas in your car, for instance) and you will see that your life is actually more about opening up to the simple beauty in life. With this approach, ‘larger’ problems will not seem too much to overcome.

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4. This blog centers on how to become a master of gratitude. It is not about waiting for a positive act to happen to you and then be grateful for it, it is about acknowledging all that you’ve been given in this life. If one at a time, those ‘things’ were taken away and then slowly returned, within that time of their absence, we would feel their loss and wish for their return, promising never to take them for granted again. This blog challenges us to imagine this has happened, and then decide to consciously be grateful for all those things and express it in writing.

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5. Getting ‘unstuck’ is exactly what this blog helps one achieve. The points are laid out well and easy to follow. With great tips and insight into specific steps one can take to discover gratitude, we can begin to see its life altering effects. Paying genuine compliments, feeling humility, switching a negative trait to a positive one and asking what one can learn from a bad experience are all positive coping skills worth practicing,

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6. Aval Sethi’s blog specifically concentrates on how to express gratitude toward others. This is a very important practice as it enhances your relationships, teaches you to be more detailed in your observations and listen more intently to others. In turn you will genuinely feel grateful toward them and vice versa.

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7. This blog is from TED, it’s a round up list of what to read and watch that will guide one through the subject of gratitude. From the health benefits of gratitude, to the difference between being thankful and grateful, this article shows us many perspectives on this topic. One interesting take away is that fear and joy are inextricably linked with our ability to be vulnerable, and subsequently, our vulnerability is linked to our ability to be grateful. It takes courage to be imperfect and it takes embracing one’s vulnerability. A connection will come as a result of living in this authenticity.

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With our Thanksgiving holiday approaching, the insight that practicing gratitude can deliver is felt by many who enjoy time with those they appreciate. Gratitude is much deeper than being a giver or a receiver of gifts and compliments, it’s about an awareness and acceptance of our world, how it flows, how it changes, and being grateful for our belonging in it.

Do you read a great blog about gratitude that’s not on the list? Leave a comment on FB!

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Larissa Gomes is a breast cancer survivor and single mom to her spirited baby boy! Originally from Toronto turned Angeleno, she has worked in roles from writer, actor and producer for well over a decade. In that time, she’s developed concepts, film and television screenplays, short stories, along with freelance articles, blogging and editing work.

You’ve read The 7 Best Blog Posts On Gratitude, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading The Ultimate Secret To Wake Up Early And Be Productive, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

“The day I complete my sleep is the day i’ll change the world” – Lazy People!

If you can relate to not sleeping at night and then regretting it later, you have come to the right place! First of all I want to congratulate you, because the fact that you are here signifies that you really “want to get a lot from life.”

Great! That is what Personal leadership is. It begins from you. It begins from self awareness. It begins with with getting up early to be more productive and getting more things done.

Self awareness is the guaranteed step to become a millionaire.

That is what successful people do, right? That is what successful entrepreneurs do.

“We all have the same 24 hours in a day. Successful people use it, Lazy people abuse it”

Getting more things done is all about getting up early and being a Manager. Your routine don’t lie. If you want to see where your future belongs, you can reflect that in your daily routine.

No one ever became super successful by being a couch potato.

Successful people get up early for work. Ideally around 5 am. Not because that’s what all successful people do, but because this is wise. It is wise to give time to yourself. It is wise to manage your time efficiently. It is wise to utilize your Holy Hour.

What is a Holy Hour? No, i am not discussing the benefits of meditating.

Holy Hour is the time, early in the morning, before the sun rises. It is that peaceful and pristine time when you are far away from all the distraction, embracing the quietness around you and working on your inner self.

Your inner health reflects your outer health and work productivity.  By getting up early each day you work towards your inner well being. Doing so on a regular basis can make you a dramatically better person.

Holy Hour is that 60 minutes of time when you contemplate your goals, your purpose and your strategies. It is that moment when you think about your relationships and how you can make them better. You will be surprised to know that the answers to the questions you were searching for out in the world are residing deep within yourself. It is when you focus your energy on the right track. On the things that require your focus and attention.

Doing so it’s just like operating a DSLR. The way that you adjust your camera lens to blur out everything and keep your focus on your ultimate target. To get a beautiful picture, to get a beautiful result.

That being said, it is not as easy as it is described. It takes time to be building your concentration to the right place and focusing on the right track by removing all your distractions. It takes practice. People who contemplate deep in their life are the people who achieve big.

As we discussed in our post Top 5 Practices of Rich and Successful People we discussed deeply about the power that you reveal by utilizing your Holy Hour and thinking and contemplating.

Successful people do a weekly analysis of their to-do list and prioritize their goals. They know the importance of time. They know time is money.

I once read about the secret of Asia’s top CEO’s outrageous success,

“I make time to think” he said.

Every morning he spends at least 45 minutes with his eyes closed, deep in reflection. He’s not meditating. He’s not praying. He’s thinking.  Sometimes he’s analyzing business challenges, other times he’s thinking about new markets. Still other times he is being introspective about the meaning of his life and what he wants it to stand for. Often, he’s simply dreaming up new ways to grow personally and professionally. Every once in a while he will spend between six to eight hours doing this. Sitting silently with his eyes closed. Thinking.

Being thoughtful and strategic is step number one as you walk to greatness. Clarity precedes success. By thinking more, you’ll have a better sense of your priorities and what you need to focus on. Your actions will be crisp and deliberate and intentional. You will make better decisions and wiser choices.

More time thinking will make you less reactive. You will become clearer on the best uses of your time which will in turn save you time. Your think time will also provoke some some amazing ideas and inspire some big dreams.

My question to you is..

How can you be a positive source of energy to those around you when you yourself have no energy? How can you develop the best in others if you have not connected with the best within yourself?       How can you champion another person if you fail to see the champion in you?

Getting up early to do your inner work, enlarge your thinking, to sharpen your life’s philosophy or to review your goals is not a waste of time. Getting up early for utilizing your holy hour is not a waste of time!

The holy hour infuses every remaining minute of your day with a perspective that elevates each area of your life. It will transform you. Make you better as a leader, as a parent, as a human being.

Apart from  achieving scientific evidence, Holy Hour has it’s deep routes in Hindu Tradition and is also mentioned in knowledge and wisdom rich Vedas. This Holy Hour is called “BHRAMA MUHURAT” in sanskrit Which means the “HOLY HOUR“. There are still various Gurukuls that follow the tradition of brahma mhoorat along with other Buddhists, and Chinese philosophers.

I believe that now you have enough reasons to waking up early and if you still fail to do so just remember this following powerful quote:

“There will be plenty of time to sleep when you are dear”-Benjamin  Franklin

So join the club of early risers. Be more wise. Be more Productive.

Here are 5 Practical ways that can help you get up early in the morning. ( Try to wake up around 4 or 5 am) :

1. SET YOUR GOALS.

This may seem obvious but it can have a tremendous impact on your life. People don’t wake up early just because they can not find any reason to do so. Even if they wake up, they already waste enough of their time thinking to take next action. Understand that this routine is new to you. So unlike waking up at regular time and knowing what you should do next is pretty simple. You’ve been following that routine for ages. But this is the beginning of your new journey so set goals early.

The night before you go to sleep at night , think of all the actions and your to do list that you need to perform tomorrow. This way you can save a lot of your time and it will also give you a reason to wake up early.

Plan your day out and make enthusiastic goals that force you to get out of bed without hitting the snooze button.

Goals breathe energy and life into your days. Goals inspire you and give you something to get out of your bed each morning. Take out your journal and prioritize your goal. It will light a fire in your belly and flood you with passion.

2. THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND.

a) DON’T EAT AFTER 8 P.M : This will help you sleep more deeply as well as more sweetly. It’s the quality not the quantity of sleep that’s more important.

b) KEEP YOUR GIZMOS AWAY :Research shows that people who sleep with no distractions sleep more peacefully and have high quality REM SLEEP.

c) SLEEP IN COMPLETE DARKNESS AND NO NOISE: This ritual can be helpful to people especially who are insomniac. Lavender essential oil when used as a aromatic fragrance can help relieve stress and bring more peace.

d) SLEEP MAX. BY 11 PM : Don;t stress yourself out. Your body need rest. Without a proper sleep research shows that you can be less productive. In order to have fresh mind at least have 6-7  hours of sleep.

3. DON’T KEEP HUGGING YOUR BED!

After your alarm clock goes off, jump out of bed and start your day. The more time you lie in after the alarm clock goes off, the greater the likelihood that the chatter of your mind will say something like, “stay in bed, sleep a bit more. The bed is warm, you deserve it.” You want to stay away from those evil forces as much as possible!!

4. SET YOUR ALARM 30 MINUTES EARLY.

This little trick can help you change your life. Think like you are getting up at 5 am. By the time you are up and out of bed , you’ll realize that it’s only 4.30 AM.

Voila ! Sounds silly but it works!!

5. KEEP AWAY!

A night before , when you set your alarm clock keep it at a distance where you can’t reach easily. So doesn’t matter if you don’t want to wake up early and get going, You have to have get out of your bed to stop that annoying buzzing of your alarm clock!

You’ll get annoyed as hell at first, but you will thank me that you actually woke up!

6. GIVE IT AT LEAST 21 DAYS.

Research has found that it takes at least 21 days to form or delete a habit. You need some time to get used to it. It wont be easy at first but you need to keep going, okay?

Personal change is a process that can be hardest at the beginning. Be it waking up in the morning and be productive or losing your weight. It does not happens in a day or in a week. It takes time to overcome the pull of your old habit. But after four days from now, your life will so much better and you will feel so much powerful and strengthened. Always give yourself at least 21 days to install a habit.

DON’T GIVE UP!

Let me know your thoughts on Facebook!

You’ve read The Ultimate Secret To Wake Up Early And Be Productive, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading 5 Signs That You Are A Creative Person, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Are you a creative person? Yes…No…Yes...I don’t know...Maybe. If one of these is your answer, you may need to know yourself in a better way. Creativity is not something that can be measured; it can only be shown through your work and achievements. But I have seen that most of the creative people don’t know whether they are creative or not. If you are one of them, don’t worry it’s quite normal. Sometimes we need to explore ourselves  to bring out our creative side. If we examine the traits of highly creative people and delve into the research, the following 5 signs are common to all creative people:

1. Do you possess a complex personality?

Creative people usually possess complex personalities. They can experience conflicting emotions simultaneously. They are happy but also sad at the same time; they love solitude but suddenly they can also become the life of the party. Creative people tend to behave in two totally different ways at the same time; this particular trait is called ambivalence in psychology. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has conducted his research regarding the personality traits of creative and has come up with the conclusion that creative people possess multiple and conflicting emotions and ideas simultaneously. So, if you have a segregated personality you could be a creative person. But, hold on! Let’s see what’s the next sign is.

2. Do your friends find you Mysterious?

Creative people are mysterious; they are hard to understand. When you come to think that you have understood them, they may surprise you by showing an altogether different side of their personality. Have you heard about Leonardo da Vinci? The great painter, a prolific architect, mathematician, engineer  etc etc. Historians have declared him a mysterious man. According to Art Historian Helen Gardner: “his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote”

Your mysterious personality can be a herald of your creative mind.

3. Do you want to sit alone for a period of time every day?

Creative people love their solitude. They may go to parties and enjoy family get-to-gethers but at the end of the day they want to spend some time alone. They find peace in loneliness. Unconsciously, they try to focus and explore their creativity side. Chase Jervis, an award winning photographer, claims that his creativity evolves when he spends his time alone. Albert Einstein said that he loves to go on long walks alone to listen to his inside self.

4. Are You a Sensitive Person?

Do you get hurt easily? Do you feel intensive agony and suffering? Yes? I can hear that. Creativity flourishes in sensitivity. Creative people are usually oversensitive. They can easily succumb to pain and depression. Creative people have to work hard to cope with their potential to be extra anxious and most of the times its trivial matters.

5. Do you love Challenges?

M.A. Collins in his book “The Handbook of Creativity” finds creative people more challenging. They accept new challenges and their enthusiastic and inquisitive nature compels them to explore new dimensions of life. They go for new experiences, learn from their failures and thus they are unstoppable.

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I’m Uzma Faheez! Read more of my articles HERE!   

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You’re reading 19 Powerful George Orwell Quotes To Inspire Change, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, and critic. Known for his sharp political commentaries, and outspoken views on democratic socialism, he led a very interesting life.

Orwell’s most popular works, 1984 and Animal Farm, still continue to move readers all over the world, even though over 60 years have passed since their release.

His ideas and words seem increasingly relevant, as we reflect on them at a point in there are pressing concerns facing the future of the world.

In the coming decades we will be forced to consider important questions about government, technology, and ethics – and ideas like those presented by Orwell can help inspire us and move us towards more personal and cultural freedom.

Here are 19 powerful George Orwell quotes to inspire change.

1. Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood
2. In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act
3. Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
4. Never use a metaphor, a simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing printed.
5. But if thought can corrupt language, language can also corrupt thought.
6. In the face of pain, there are no heroes.
7. To an ordinary human being, love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others.
8. People sleep peacefully at night because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
9. It´s not much staying alive, it´s staying human that´s important.
10. They can make you say anything, but they can´t make you believe it.
11. Mankind must put an en to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
12. Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first one is that if you disagree with someone´s lifestyle, you must fear them or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don´t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.
13. Apologizing does not always mean you are wrong, it just means you value your relationships more than your ego.
14. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one.
15. Power is tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choice.
16. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable…what then?
17. We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right.
18. To see what is in front of one´s nose needs a constant struggle.
19. It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realise that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.

Attention Pick the Brain Readers!

Are you ready to ignite change in your own life?

If so then grab a copy of our free eBook:

MORNING MASTERY: The Simple 20 Minute Routine For Long Lasting Energy, Laser-Sharp Focus, and Stress Free Living

Ben is a freelance writer, and the co-creator of Project Monkey Mind—a new blog for the 21st century solopreneur and young professional who wants to take control of their minds, smash through their limitations, and lead a life worth living.

You’ve read 19 Powerful George Orwell Quotes To Inspire Change, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading 5 Ways To Be More Productive In The Morning (Even If You’re Not A Morning Person), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Maybe you jump out of bed each morning like the energizer bunny. Or maybe you think mornings are just plain evil.  They say that “to win the morning is to win the day”, so if you want to be productive throughout the day, it has to start with a productive morning. Here are 5 ways to be more productive in the morning (even if you’re not a morning person.)

1. Wake up earlier- just by 15 minutes.

This might be the most cliche productivity advice but stick with me for a minute. It’s not about waking up at 4:30 in the morning (although that does work well for some people). It’s about giving yourself a little extra time at the start of your day to set yourself up for success.

If you’re a night owl, waking up at the crack of dawn isn’t going to help you. It’s probably just going to frustrate you and make you less productive. However, waking up just 15 minutes earlier than usual gives you an advantage over your day. It’s also be a much more doable change.

2. Eliminate decision making in the mornings.

Mornings are hard. Don’t make them harder than they have to be. If you’re looking for a way to make your mornings more enjoyable and less stressful, get rid of as much decision making as you can.

You know that feeling – lying in bed thinking “Ugh, I have to pick out what to wear today.” and “Oh man, what am I gonna take for lunch?”. It makes it so much harder to actually get out of bed and get moving.

Try to eliminate those decisions by planning them the night before, or even earlier in the week! I pick out of all my outfits and plan my meals on Saturdays for the next week. This saves me tons of time about thinking about decisions in the morning. It helps me get out of bed and let myself run on autopilot for a bit.

3. Just get moving. 

Everyone says “work out” in the mornings, but that’s probably not the best advice. It just doesn’t work for everybody, and it’s also not always an option. While there’s definitely merit to that advice, it’s not mandatory. The principle is that you should get moving in the mornings, and that’s something you can do in a variety of ways.

You can do yoga, walk the dog, do a few sit-ups, go for a ten-minute run… whatever you want to do, even for just a few minutes! There are so many options. Moving around definitely helps get your day started, but it doesn’t have to be an hour long work out at your gym.

4. Write your to-do list.

If you start the day in charge, you’ll find that you’re more likely to finish the day in charge. If you start with a plan, you’re less likely to let anything interfere with your most important tasks.

But the only way you can prevent those interruptions and distractions is to know what your most important tasks are! Spend a few minutes in the morning thinking about (and writing down!) what you’re going to focus on for the day. For bonus points : Visualize yourself actually doing those things, and they’ll be even more likely to happen.

5. Pause and reflect for a few minutes.

You might think the word “meditation” sounds too new-agey and not something you’re into. I didn’t think I was into it either. But then I tried it. I found that spending a few minutes in the morning to pause and focus actually helped me gain clarity throughout my entire day.

You don’t have to do anything fancy. Just spend a few minutes focusing on your breath, or “watching” what you think about. You might be surprised by just how busy your brain is.

Having a busy morning and tempted to skip? Experts say that those are the days you should spend even MORE time meditating. Those are the days you’ll need it the most.

Conclusion

By waking up earlier, removing willpower and decision making from your morning, and focusing on your day, you’ll propel yourself into the best day possible. And you can do this every day!

So now that you know how to be more productive in the morning, make sure to use that extra time to achieve your biggest goals. Make sure that you’re making the most of your time all throughout the day and not just in the morning.

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Brittany Joiner is the founder of Project 1440, a resource that helps people be more productive so they can reach their goals and make every minute count for something great.

You’ve read 5 Ways To Be More Productive In The Morning (Even If You’re Not A Morning Person), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading How To Let Your Sun Come Out, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

You are the only one who can control how you look at life. Yes, you. Not your mom, sister, cousin, uncle, best friend, neighbor or neighbor’s cute little yapping Chihuahua. You. It is like the old glass half full/half empty debate. – you either see life as a miserable, death-welcoming experience or you see life as the most beautiful opportunity to do something brilliant and good. It’s different for everyone; a matter of opinion, so-to-speak. I know people who have had an easy road in life – loving, two parent homes, middle to upper class neighborhood, good education and they are put under surveillance for trying to end their lives. And then I have known people who have had the rough end of the deal – missing father, drug addicted mother, placed in foster care, bounced from home to home, living on generic bologna and white bread sandwiches – and they still smile and laugh as if everything was all hunky dory. Why is that? And how do they do it?

I assure you, it is all about perspective. See, we cannot change the life we are dealt. God decides where we are to go and it is up to us to do something with it. I remember as a kid getting upset when I wanted a toy and my mother didn’t want to get it for me. She would mock me in a moaning voice and say, “let’s all cry with Shelly, she didn’t get what she wanted.” This would only make me more upset. The sad thing is that these pity parties, as we called them, followed me into adulthood — If things didn’t work out the way that I wanted them to, I would get sad and, well, have a pity party. I would look at the situation with gloom and frustration, as if my life was just so awful.

Really? I know, I know.

But then I met someone who changed my outlook. Mickey was a homeless man who was always smiling. He didn’t have anything but what could fit in the small, dirty backpack that was always by his side. He didn’t take for granted all the things most of us do – hot showers (or any shower, for that matter), food, an ice-cold beverage, a dry, soft place to sleep at night. When he received any of those things, his heart was soaring. His smile could light up a room. When was the last time you jumped for joy when you turned the water on for a shower?

That’s my point, folks.

We so often take for granted the things that we are so fortunate to have. To give perspective: I slept in my king size bed last night with two pillows. I was nice a cool with my AC running and my fan going. I turned my electric alarm clock off this morning, opened my eyes to look around for a minute as I used my mind to gather my thoughts for the day ahead. I then found some freshly laundered clothes, took a hot shower, brushed my teeth. Once ready, I headed to work in my car, stopping for coffee and a bagel on the way. Mickey woke up cold and wet from the rain storm we had last night, his makeshift cardboard awning soaked and broken. He knew he must wake up before the sun because the police will be called on him for sleeping in a public area – business owners don’t like homeless people invading their space.

I am grumpy because I had to get up and go to work. Mickey is smiling because he has the chance to see another sunrise – and the sun will dry his belongings.

Perspective.

Life isn’t about comforts, material things, or keeping up with the Jones’s. Life is about loving unconditionally, having a heart brimming with happiness, being selfless, and taking chances. You have been given your life for a reason. Do something with it. Make a point to remember this every day.

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Michelle Blan is a freelance writer and avid blogger determined to motivate even those lost in their darkest moments. There is always a way out…I can show you. Check out my blog at www.shellblan.com or follow me on Twitter @ShellBlan

You’ve read How To Let Your Sun Come Out, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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You’re reading The Power Of KINDNESS, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Happiness researcher Sean Achor demonstrated through his extensive research that if you perform random acts of kindness for two minutes a day for twenty-one days, you can actually retrain your brain to be more positive. Studies such as his show that when your brain is more positive you are more likely to be creative, intelligent and productive. These attributes can spin into what we perceive as ‘quality of life’ attributes – job success, wealth, healthy relationships, and better health. This adage, that happiness breeds success, is counterintuitive to what Western society popularly perceives as the opposite, that success lends itself to happiness.

Kindness is a simple concept, yet so very impactful. It can make the world a better place by ending suffering at the hands of war, hunger, human rights violations, and injustice. It has the power to drastically improve our own well-being as well as that of our families, friends, acquaintances, and strangers. The very act of expressing graciousness to one another can make us more empathetic of other people’s hardships. Within the workforce, kindness towards one another can inspire employees to be more productive and make businesses more profitable. And within our communities, kindness contributes to safer and cleaner schools and neighborhoods.

Does the paragraph above sound a bit dramatic? Pay attention to how kindness has the ability to impact your life. Observe those moments when someone does something unexpectedly kind for you. How frequently does it happen? How does it make you feel? Does it transform your outlook on the day? I challenge you to commit a random act of kindness. Spend two minutes a day doing it for just three weeks. How does it make you feel? How does it make your recipients feel? Share your stories with us here.

Bob Kerry once said, “Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly and most underrated agent in human change.” What a profound statement! And yet it is the easiest thing in the world to execute. With very little time (even just two minutes a day) and very minimal effort we can transform a human being’s day, week, or even life. The return on investment is off the charts! How can something so simple and so easy have such a tremendous impact on others and ourselves?

Every act of kindness creates a ripple effect that spreads from person to person with no end in sight. Kindness is contagious like a disease in which the outcome is divinely beautiful. Jamil Zaki, Professor of Psychology at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab recently conducted a series of studies that observe how witnessing kindness inspires kindness, causing it to spread like a virus. He concludes that “by emphasizing empathy-positive norms, we may be able to leverage the power of social influence to combat apathy and conflict in new ways.”

To start a movement of kindness we created Kindness & Co, Random Act of Kindness Kits. The kits empower an individual to start their own chain reaction of kindness. Each Kit includes a long list of fun and innovative ways in which the recipient can create their own acts of kindness. Because we found that people increasingly value experiences over material things, Kindness Kits are our way of replacing consumerism in holiday or birthday gift-giving and replacing it with the truly honorable experience of spreading cheer in people’s lives.

Additionally, businesses and organizations are using Kindness Kits for employee gifts, thank you’s, lead generation, and tokens of customer or employee appreciation, to name a few. While it seems inconceivable that benevolence has a place in today’s cutthroat, competitive, winner-takes-all business environment, even the most successful companies are recognizing its virtues. Billionaire and entrepreneur Mark Cuban was recently quoted saying “Nice is way undervalued right now. It’s one of the most valuable assets out there,” when asked about negotiating tips.

I was absolutely thrilled when Erin from PickTheBrain, after seeing our video, agreed to partner with Kindness co. to spread the message of Kindness! Instead of buying bland, typical gifts again this year for your friends and family, and acquaintances, how about saying and doing something more imaginative and creative that will make a bigger difference to both you and them. And rather than giving your employees a logo-emblazoned chotski that lacks any real value to them, give them the experience of kindness. Give a positive experience that makes the recipient happy and helps the world. In the words of Maya Angelou, “People will forget what you did, they will forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”

Every act of kindness creates a ripple effect that spreads with no end in sight. Let’s run with it!

Join Erin & I to start your kindness journey >>> Try it here!

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Jesse Weinberg is a cereal entrepreneur living in the Pacific Southwest and loves nothing more than to spend time free time with his wife and son. He is the founder of GlobalYodel.com, a community that explores the world from a local and Global Yodel Media Group a content/influence marketing agency. He thinks kindness is cool and in 2015 founded Kindness & Co with the mission of starting a movement of kindness though Random Act of Kindness Kits and beyond. He is dedicated to shifting the paradigm of collective human consciousness to revolve around more kindness.

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You’ve read The Power Of KINDNESS, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

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