The Best Ideas

Not all great ideas come out of a brainstorm or buzz session.  Your imagination often starts working when you are away from the pressures of the office and are in free-thinking mode. 

Often the imagination will take off when you least expect it and ideas will come bubbling to the surface. 

This often happens when we are asleep and our minds have finally let go of the pressures of the day. 

Great ideas pop up when you least expect

The general pressures of everyday life tend to monopolize our brains.  This makes it difficult to stop our minds focusing their energy on mortgages or kids exam results.

However, as your mind slowly switches off from those issues, it wanders to other thoughts. 

Thoughts and ideas that have been sitting patiently at the back of your brain slowly connect with each other and like a chemical reaction, create new ideas.

The common factor among all these scenarios is your ideas bubble to the surface when you least expect it.  And usually they emerge when there’s no flipchart and pen to write it down and remember. 

Usually you mull it over for a few seconds, then gently it fades away.

Carry something to record your ideas

Classical music composer Beethoven was known for carrying a notepad and pen to make sure he wouldn’t forget his ideas.  When he had a musical idea, he scribbled it down to remember it.   

One of my most successful seminar titles popped into my head back in 2004 when I was walking down a backstreet in Washington, DC.  I was wondering how I could help people develop their communication skills in leadership, work, personal life and church.

I wanted to share what I’d learned in broadcasting because I believed it could add real power to communication in just about every context.  The phrase, “Confessions of an ex-Talkshow Host” popped into my mind. 

An idea that created success

I used that phrase the following year for a seminar at an ASTD conference in Orlando.  That clever little phrase was one of the keys to our success at attracting a capacity crowd. 

It was a standing room only crowd of more than 400 participants.  We had to turn more people away because the room wasn’t big enough. 

We adapted that neat little phrase for one of our communication products and it has been getting just as good a response.

If I hadn’t been carrying a notebook and pen as I walked along that street that afternoon, I would have lost that idea.  It would have evaporated over a very short space of time.

The response to the name has been phenomenal  And had I not carried a notepad it would have been forgotten forever.

Always, Always, Always

Always travel with a notepad and pen. Alternatively make sure your Blackberry, Palm or iPAQ is nearby and create a folder to store all your ideas.

If you only ever use 5% of them, just one may bring more success than you can imagine.

A lot of people plan to carry a notebook and pen with them but many forget.  I often find it difficult.  But it’s an important discipline if you want to be a good steward of your imagination and what it offers you.

You will not use every idea you have written in your notebook.  Writing ideas in your notebook is like writing ideas on a flipchart during a brainstorm session.  In a brainstorm session you aim for as many ideas as possible to give you a broader choice when selecting the best



Patience

When everything is going our way, patience is easy to demonstrate. The true test of patience comes when our rights are violated—when another car cuts us off in traffic; when we are treated unfairly. Some people think they have a right to get upset in the face of irritations and trials. Impatience seems like a holy anger. The Bible, however, praises patience as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) which should be produced for all followers of Christ (1 Thessalonians 5:14). Patience reveals our faith in God’s timing, omnipotence, and love. 

Life is a Battle

Life is a battle against the many temptations to lift oneself up above others.
Issues we constantly battle against are pride, anger, self-interests, hatred, unforgiving spirit, self glory, materialism and love for money.

But in Jesus and with Him on our side, we are more than conquerers and the victory is ours in the battle of life. God wants us to share our prolems with Him. You don't have to fight alone.
The battle belongs to God.

De-cluttered my workspace

One of the things that gives me most peace is have a clean, simple workspace. When I come to work every morning and walk into my room that has been decluttered, there is a calm and joy that enters my heart and feels good to start the day. When, on the other hand, I walk into my room and my workspace iscluttered with files, papers, books, journals and extra things all over the place, it is chaos and my mind is frenetic. I’ve been trying to declutter but I do not find it easy. I’ve found that you have to keep coming back to revisit your clutter every once in awhile.

See what I have done to my workspace. Bravo!!

Well, besides the workspace, there are many areas of your home or office that needs decluttering. It may be your drawers, shelves, living room, bedroom etc.

Let me share with you a few decluttering tips:

• Do it in small chunks. Set aside just 15 minutes to declutter just one shelf, and when that shelf or that 15 minutes is up, celebrate your victory. Then tackle another shelf for 15 minutes the next day. Conquering an entire closet or room can be overwhelming, and you might put it off forever. If that’s the case, just do it in baby steps.
• Set aside a couple hours to do it. This may seem contradictory to the above tip … and it is. It’s simply a different strategy, and I say do whatever works for you. Sometimes, for me, it’s good to set aside part of a morning, or an entire Saturday morning, to declutter a closet or room. I do it all at once, and when I’m done, it feels awesome.
• Take everything out of a shelf or drawer at once. Whichever of the two above strategies you choose, you should focus on one drawer or shelf at a time, and empty it completely. Then clean that shelf or drawer. Then, take the pile and sort it (see next tip), and put back just what you want to keep. Then tackle the next shelf or drawer.
• Sort through your pile, one item at a time, and make quick decisions. Have a trash bag and a give-away box handy. When you pull everything out of a shelf or drawer, sort through the pile one at a time. Pick up an item, and make a decision: trash, give away, or keep. Don’t put it back in the pile. Do this with the entire pile, and soon, you’ll be done. If you keep sorting through the pile, and re-sorting, it’ll take forever. Put back only what you want to keep, and arrange it nicely.
• Be merciless. You may be a pack rat, but the truth is, you won’t ever use most of the junk you’ve accumulated. If you haven’t used it in the last year, get rid of it. It’s as simple as that. If you’ve only used it once or twice in the last year, but know you won’t use it in the next year, get rid of it. Toss it if it’s unsalvageable, and give it away if someone else might be able to use it.
• Papers? Be merciless, unless it’s important. Magazines, catalogues, junk mail, bills more than a year old, notes to yourself, notes from others, old work stuff … toss it! The only exception is with tax-related stuff, which should be kept for seven years, and other important documents like warranties, birth and death and marriage certificates, insurance, wills, and other important documents like that. But you’ll know those when you see ‘em. Otherwise, toss!!!!
• If you are on the fence with a lot of things, create a “maybe” box. If you can’t bear to toss something because you might need it later, put it in the box, then close the box, label it, and put it in storage (garage, attic, closet), out of sight. Most likely, you’ll never open that box again. If that’s the case, pull it out after six months or a year, and toss it or give it away.
• Create a system to stop clutter from accumulating. There’s a reason you have tall stacks of papers all over the place, and big piles of toys and books and clothes. It’s because you don’t have a regular system to keep things in their place, and get rid of stuff you don’t need. This is a topic for another day, but it’s something to think about as you declutter. You’ll never get to perfect, but if you think more intelligently about how your house got cluttered, perhaps you can find ways to stop it from happening again.
• Celebrate when you’re done! This is actually a general rule in life: always celebrate your accomplishments, no matter how small. Even if you just decluttered one drawer, that’s great. Treat yourself to something delicious. Open that drawer (or closet, or whatever), and admire its simplicity. Breathe deeply and know that you have done a good thing. Bask in your peacefulness.

Do Something You Have Never Done

Yes, it is about moving out of our comfort zone, our mental models and fears. You will be amazed at how the new experience can enrich your life and the 'aha' feeling after you have tried something you've never done. Be bold, take the first step.

1 Minute Exercises - Easy Way to Health and Fitness

Many of us do not find time to exercise. Some of us are put off by the 30 mintes or so we need to put in to fulfill our exercise regime. Here's an exercise program I recently learnt and it involves looking at exercises as 1 minute bit size sessions. It is very doable.

It’s where you get fit by a thousand little actions.

When the actions are tiny, they are easy. You have no excuse. You can do them anywhere, all day long.

If you haven’t found a way to get fit, try the 1 Minute Exercises Fitness Program. There is nothing better for those who don’t have the time.

Here’s how it works:

1. Right now, do something that only takes 1 minute. It might be a few pushups, bodyweight squats, an attempt at a pullup, a few lunges. You have time to do 1 minute.

2. In an hour or so, go for a walk if you can. If you’re in decent shape, make it a fast walk. Add some hills for challenges. If you’re not in good shape, just walk. Later, add some spurts of fast walking.

3. Later in the day, do a few more 1 minute activities.

4. Gradually build the 1 minute activities into 2 or 3 minutes. Then 4 or 5 of them. Add more of them throughout your day.

5. As much as you can, turn the activities into play. Throw your kids around. Run through a park and climb trees and benches. Race people. Play a sport.

6. Get a pullup bar for your home. Every time you walk by it, try to pull yourself up. If you can do pullups, do a few, or 10, every time you pass the bar.

7. Get a kettlebell. Swing it a few times a day.

8. Run places. Walk places quickly.

Always be active. It’s not hard, if you do it in tiny bits. You can’t say no to 1 minute, or even just a few seconds. And if you do a thousand of them, you’ll be fit. And it does not cause any injury because it is not prolonged exertion.

You can make Fitness is a part of your life now.  Do it in little bits, bit size, without designating a certain time as “workout time”. Your whole life can be workout time. Check out more ideas here.

Enjoy and I hope you have great results. Tell me if it works for you.

A Quiet Time in the Morning

7.30am

There's nothing like spending quiet moments alone reflecting and being grateful for a new day. For me it was a refreshing start for the day this morning, thankful for another new day. It is a great feeling sitting in front of this fountain, listening to the water gushing out and watching the sprouts of water from the various corners of the pool. Now and then a few pigeons come by to the side of the pool for a drink of water.

It is such a restful sight to behold. To prepare, to nourish the spirit and mind for a great start to a new day. And how would you clear your mind and fill it with goodness and love.

I recommend you follow this line of thinking and reflection based this wise saying from the Bible.

"Finally, friends, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Phil 4:8

Yes, think about these things. Hope that you have a good start for the day as well.

Before I go, here's a meditation video set to beautifully relaxing flute music with scenes of Japanese gardens, zen gardens, and waterfalls. Enjoy!!

And another one - an hour long of soothing beautiful relaxing music.

Grateful for 15 days of Lunar New Year Celebrations

Time to keep the CNY deco ... 15 days of celebrations are over.. Grateful for a wonderful time of family togetherness and the renewal of relationships during this period of festivities.