People always seem to think that only a select few people are able to constantly unleash a steady flow of creative thoughts and ideas – but that is not true at all. The reality is that creativity is just like a muscle that needs to be  consistently exercised in order to give out great results on a regular basis. If you do not practice harnessing creative thinking, this skill will fade away into inexistence. However, if keep working this skill you will find your self having creative thoughts all the time.

So how do you unleash your creative thinking? There are 5 steps to unleashing creativity – and they are:

1. Become A Human Leech
Well, the first thing is that you have to become a human leech. I’m not talking about sucking the life out of every living being available, but instead that you should be taking in as much knowledge and learning you can find. Read everything available — good and bad (this is why I read so many blog posts each day!), and always keep your mind open to to possiblities, because a closed mind stunts creativity. The more you know, the more you’ll want to know.

2. Exercise Creativity Daily
You need to focus on a creative activity everyday. I know it’s an effort. It doesn’t have to be anything massive, even doodling is a creative activity. But for people who are just starting out to unleash a little bit of creative thinking in their lives, it is helpful (and encouraging) to have concrete evidence, that, “hey, what I’m doing is getting somewhere.” So why don’t you try it. Practice drawing for a couple of minutes each day. Bring out your old camera and start snapping photos like crazy. Whatever it takes for you to be exercising your creativity!

Before you know it, you’ll have built yourself a tiny portfolio, and you’ll be amazed at the growth you’ve undertaken after amassing all those works of art. Who knows, you might actually take to liking those things you do everyday. Pretty soon those things will become a part of you and you’ll be addicted to these creative exercises.

3. Be An ‘INSIDE The Box’ Thinker
Think out of the box — or don’t. Sometimes, constraints are actually a good thing. Limitations discipline you to work within your means. It enables you to be more resourceful. Creative freedom is awesome, but limitations enforce discipline – and challenges you to work with the tools that you have.

4. Try Something New Everyday
Try something new everyday and let it broaden your perspective. Explore a new district in your neighborhood. Spend an afternoon in an art gallery or museum – go where you’ve never been before. Chat to someone on the bus. Open up to the people around you. As you take yourself out of your comfort zone more and more each day, your sense of adventure grows and so does your creativity. Think about it. When was the last time you did something for the first time? If it’s been a while, then I encourage you to step out and start living creatively!

5. Embrace Insanity
Embrace insanity. Not to the point where you are admitting yourself into the mental ward. John Russell once said, “Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting.” Every creative thought was once deemed insanity by other people at one time or another. Luckily, that didn’t stop the creative geniuses from standing by them. The thing is, sanity or being normal confines people to think normally. With their limits. It’s important that your creativity doesn’t get you detached from the real world completely.

I hope this inspires you to start thinking beyond your limits. Start living a life full of interesting adventures and unleash your creativity!

If you have been reading this blog for even a short period of time, then I am sure that you would have heard me say at least once that I get distracted VERY easily. In fact if procrastination were an olympic sport, I would have a very good shot at Gold!

Here are a few Procrastination Quotes for your entertainment!
(If you are disciplined in time-management just skip to the main points to save time.)

It is an undoubted truth, that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in. ~Earl of Chesterfield

There’s nothing to match curling up with a good book when there’s a repair job to be done around the house. ~Joe Ryan

You know you are getting old when it takes too much effort to procrastinate. ~Author Unknown

Ok, let’s get back on track, but for those of you who liked the procrastination quotes I have added one more to each of the blogs points.

One of the things (I don’t want to say New Years Resolutions, because everyone breaks them) that I have decided to work on in 2009 is to overcome procrastination. I want to finish things I start and get to the end of a day and be happy with all the work that I have done.

So I have come up with 4 easy steps that I will follow (and you can too) on:

How To Overcome Procrastination

1. Plan Your Day

   

The sooner I fall behind, the more time I have to catch up. ~ Author Unknown

This is something that I started to do a bit during December and I was getting great results.

At the beginning of each day (well the ones I remembered), I would write a list of all the things I wanted to get done with my blogs that day.

Here is a list from one of the days:



As you will see, I completed everything on that list, including 3 blog posts, dropping 300 entrecards and transferring a website. Obviously I got more than this done, but these were the things that I wanted to do (that I usually wouldn’t).

Obviously this is the first step on how to overcome procrastination!

The idea is to make a list of all the things that you NEED to get done, and then also create another list of the things that you would LIKE to get done.


2. Remove Distractions

   

Anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn’t the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment. ~ Robert Benchley

Some people may be able to multi-task and be able to work as well as have the TV on, listen to music, answer emails, chat on msn and play games – BUT for the serial procrastinator this is just not possible.

Too many colours. Too much noise. In other words – TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS that seem way to inviting compared to what we are supposed to be doing. So work now – play later. Something that I did was set myself some goals. Once I completed 3 of my goals I could stop and watch tv for 30 min, or after completing each task I could check my emails.

Not only did I get a lot more work done, I found myself becoming less addicted to my websites statistics and my emails! (Because we all know that way to many internet marketers check their email and website stats a little too often!)

3. Be Accountable

   

Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. ~Victor Kiam

Procrastination is a problem that can sometimes be a bit to hard to break yourself. So if you struggle with getting things done even after you write a list then it might be a good idea to share your ‘to do list’ with someone.

This way they are able to hold you accountable for getting your work done by checking with you during the day to see how you are going.

I have never actually tried this method for myself but I know that if you have someone constantly checking up on you then you are more likely to get things done (think of when your mum kept bugging you about that homework you had due!)

4. Start Now

   

“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.” ~ Dawson Trotman

One of the serial procrastinators most frequent sayings would most likely be: ‘I’ll do tomorrow!’

So kick the habit now, and start planning tomorrow – today! Go on, I dare you too!

So just wondering… who else is ready to kick procrastination?

I was a bit bored today so I sent an SMS to my friend asking him if he was up for some exercise. I gave him two options:

• Tennis
• Mountain Climbing

He chose mountain climbing, and we decided climb Mount Tibrogargan and arrived at the foot of the mountain at 1:45pm. With a recommended climb time of 3 hours we knew for sure we would be back down before dark – so we set off.

As we climbed and we struggled against things like the scorching heat and poor fitness I started thinking about how much climbing a mountain has in common with accomplishing our goals. So I decided to share them with you – and include a few pictures from our climb (using my new Sanyo Xacti Camera)

1. Know Your Target
   
   When we were deciding which mountain to climb, I told Cody (my friend) that I wanted a challenge, so he decided to suggest Mount Tibrogargan which as you can read on the sign above ‘Is for experience climbers only’.Knowing that this climb would challenge me, I decided to do a bit of research before we left. I found out how high the mountain was and how long the climb was estimated to take. I needed to know these facts to make sure that we would have enough time to complete the climb – I needed to know what we were up against.

   It is exactly the same with blogging. As each new challenge or goal comes our way, the first thing we need to do is ‘Know Our Opponent’ – just like we had to know the mountain we were climbing and a sportsman or team needs to study their opponents. We need to know our goals and where we are heading.

   Do you know your target? read this entry »

Please note this has absolutely nothing to do with blogging tips, but everything to do with the whole thought of blogging. Blogging is about expressing our opinions and talking about what matters to us. This is one of those things that matters to me.

Africa

As I have mentioned before, one of my goals in life is to impact the nation of africa by trying to inject hope into a hopless situation. I am hoping to visit Africa for a couple of months next year to experience everything first hand and hopefully let the extreme poverty, terrible health conditions and inhumane war, really break my spirit and let it grab ahold of me and not let go.

Recently I was searching different aid organisations on myspace and google and came accross one called Invisible Children. The story of Invisible Children inspired me so much because it is a story of everyday people. Young people. 3 Film makers who decided to visit war torn Africa and find a story that would impact others – not knowing that I would start a movement that has raised millions of dollars to rebuild schools that were destroyed by war in Uganda.

Here Is There Story

I wanted to know more and see more, so I bought both of their dvd documentaries. The Initial trip ‘Invisible Children’ and also ‘Go’ which is where 12 students from America were given the opportunity to go to Uganda and experience it all first hand.

Here Is The GO Trailer

I just finished watching ‘GO’ and it is one of the most inspiring films I have ever seen. To see people my age, a generation that has been brought up to be selfish, being selfless. Being broken by the children that they meet. Seeing the pain in the African childrens eyes and then also seeing how this pain was affecting these american teens made me all the more want to visit africa.

They Way I See It Is….

That we can live our lives focusing on ourselves, getting ahead in life, walking around with our hands over our eyes, or we can choose to live our lives with the intent of helping others, bringing hope and changing lives! And you know what? We don’t have to leave the country to do this. Just find something that breaks your spirit. That makes you stop and think, ‘This isn’t right!’ – and then do something about it!

***UPDATE****

I don’t normally do this, but I have just written a post on another of my blogs which really relates with this:

Poverty Facts: 10 Detestable Statistics In Pictures

I was reading up on some of the statistics in regard to global poverty and I really wanted to share them in a way that would move people into action – and pictures I decided would be the best option.

If you like the article, please share it so that others can be impacted also!