For most of my career, there have been conversations about “going down the rabbit hole”. What is a Rabbit Hole? At work, this often refers to the experience of becoming deeply absorbed or distracted by a task, topic, or series of tasks and topics that take you away...
Creativity
The Dance of Inspiration and Motivation
The dance between inspiration and motivation is dynamic and full of collaboration. Inspiration sparks us. Motivation drives action. Inspiration sets the stage. Motivation keeps the momentum. When our motivation wanes, inspiration can get it back on track. They...
The Dark Side of Inspiration
We live in a world where there is content everywhere we turn. With all the information, we can be faced with too much of a good thing. The result – Information Overwhelm. Inspiration can be a double-edged sword. It propels us to reach for the stars. It can also lead...
The Science of Inspiration
Sometimes we need a creative spark, and the inspiration just isn’t there. Our brain is making many connections to enable the experience of inspiration. Combining brain science with inspiration techniques can provide the space for ideas to flow. What happens in our...
Where and When to Find Inspiration
Inspiration is a muse that can strike at any moment. We feel invigorated, motivated, and ready to take on the world. We have a burst of creativity to create art, solve complex problems, or make life-changing decisions. Understanding where and when we’re most likely to...
Unveiling the Mystique of Inspiration
Inspiration often conjures up images of creative geniuses, artists, and visionaries. This can make it feel like a rare and elusive force that strikes like lightning. What if we, normal, everyday people, could harness and nurture inspiration? Today, we’ll delve into...
Planting Seeds
I’ve covered the concept of planting seeds twice in the past – here and here. The first post was when I was introduced to the idea and the second tied to our careers. These followed the philosophy of this quote: “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by...
Happy Valentine’s Day
Today is set aside for love and appreciation. Many focus on their special someone. Yet, this is also a great opportunity to express gratitude for anyone in your life. This leads me to you. I want to thank each of you for following the blog. Knowing you are reading...
Intellectual Wellbeing
We are starting this week with the fourth dimension of wellbeing – intellectual. On Thursday, we talked about occupational wellbeing. Many are curious about the difference between occupational wellbeing and intellectual wellbeing. We can think of it this way -...
Laws of Less
Cal Newport is working on his next book titled The Deep Life. As a fan of Deep Work, I look forward to this next book. His podcast occasionally covers ideas he is working on for the book and one of those is below. Five Laws of Less by Cal Newport Accomplishment is not...
What’s the Vibe
The other day, a comment on TV caught my attention. Lil Jon, the rapper, was talking about feng shui. Seeming out of character, my ears perked up. His next comment was “every home has a vibe”. Apparently, I’ve been out of the loop as his HGTV show now has two seasons!...
The Greenhouse
Sometimes mashing ideas together creates a technique that works. I think I’ve found one of those. Lisa Woodruff of Organize 365 talks about “pink” folders in her organization system. She describes these folders as the place to keep ideas before they become projects....
Manager vs. Maker Schedule
In 2009, Paul Graham coined the difference between a maker and a manager schedule in a blog post. In the world of work, these schedules are quite distinct. The manager schedule is the more traditional schedule seen in corporate environments. Managers...
Creative vs. Corporate
As we continue to see more hybrid professionals in the workplace, they will be creating careers that satisfy all their passions. Some of those may be passions described as more analytical or technical. Another side of their interests could be creative and...
Careers and Hobbies
Many individuals have multiple interests. Some they are trained on or went to school for, while others are learned through self-discovery. Personally, over the years, it has been difficult to sort out where to put my focus and understand the relationships between my...
Finding Unicorns
Companies are looking for more creativity and innovation. This creativity often comes from looking at problems through different lenses. At the team level, this can be fostered by increasing the diversity of the team members ensuring there are varied...
Life in Five Senses – Book Review
The latest book by Gretchen Rubin, Life in Five Senses, was recently released and I highly recommend. I’ve been hearing about the development of the book on the Happier podcast that she hosts with her sister Elizabeth Craft. As you might imagine, I was excited to...
How Will You Be Creative Today?
We are all creative. We look at the world in a unique way and bring our perspective to the world. Some of us may point our creativity at the arts and paint, sing, or dance. Others may point our creativity toward business and create strategies and project plans. Some...
Encourage Writing
Today, April 10th, is National Encourage a Young Writer Day. When we think of writing, all of us may have different types of writing that come to mind. Fiction. Poetry. Journalism. Technical Writing. What may not come to mind is everyday life. We all write every...
Your Mind is not a Container & ChatGPT
When we talk about careers and life in general there is always a focus on lifelong learning. Growth and development are promoted to keep ideas fresh and avoid becoming stagnant. When I ran across the quote below, I realized that it’s not enough to just learn we...
The Sleeping Mind
In the blog post on Friday, we discussed how Maya Angelou works to keep her little mind busy so her big mind can be present. Another time the small mind, or portion of the brain that deals with executive function, is preoccupied is when we sleep. Instead of...