Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: So What the Heck Do I Do Now? (End)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“If you want to change the fruits, you will first have to change the roots.
If you want to change the visible, you must first change the invisible.”

(Harv T. Eker)

An old saying, “What you hear, you forget; what you see, you remember; what you do, you understand.” As you read Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, do you remember Eker’s motto? Exactly, action always beats inaction! That’s why I suggest that you get started. Take the ONE Wealth File that you liked and/or needed the most and read it again and follow the action plans. Think of what you could do RIGHT NOW that would bring you closer to how rich people think and act. That’s the first step. It’s your actions that count!

Now, reading is a start, of course, but if you want to succeed in the real world, it’s going to be your actions that count. Reading is an action as well, and reading great literature is a HUGE step in the right direction. Still, it is very important to integrate what you’ve learned into your life. Otherwise, it doesn’t help you grow. Getting rich said Eker throughout this book, takes focus, courage, knowledge, expertise, 100% of your effort, a never-give-up attitude, and of course, a rich mindset. So work on yourself. Work on your thinking. Work on your mind. Work on who you are. And if you choose to be rich, or better – if you commit to being rich – then it helps to know that the most important ingredient to self-made millionaires’ success is the MILLIONAIRE MIND!

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #16 Rich People Act In Spite of Fear

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Wealth File #16:

Rich People Act In Spite of Fear.

Poor People* Let Fear Stop Them.

“Action is the ‘bridge’ between the inner world and the outer world,” writes Harv Eker. Because we are the creatures of habit, we need to practice acting in spite of fear, in spite of doubt, in spite of worry, in spite of uncertainty, in spite of inconvenience, in spite of discomfort, and even to practice acting when we’re not in the mood to act (“It is not necessary to try to get rid of fear in order to succeed”). “If you are willing to do only what’s easy, life will be hard,” explained Eker, “But if you are willing to do what’s hard, life will be easy.” Wow! Take action is the cue! All we’ve learned so far – all the wealth files – is useless if we don’t act. It’s simple as that. If you understand that managing money is crazy important for you but you don’t do it, then what does it help you? Nothing… N.O.T.A.D.A.M.N.T.H.I.N.G.!

It’s easy. Let’s assume that most people know that eating healthy and exercising regularly are important for their health. Then why are health issues bigger than ever before? Because people do not act in accordance with what they think or know is the right thing to do. I don’t say it’s easy to act that way, but it is necessary… at least if you want to be healthy or in this book case, be rich. I have to admit, action can be difficult. Maybe you’re scared, maybe you feel not talented enough, maybe you feel uncomfortable or maybe you are just lazy. But what if sometimes we need to be scared, uncomfortable and make an effort? Well, that’s at least what rich people do said Eker. They act in spite of fear or discomfort. “The only time when you are actually growing,” Eker reasons, “is when you are uncomfortable.” If you are willing to act in seemingly tough circumstances, then you are going to succeed. Life will be easier. If you don’t act, you just stay where you are… or you will even go backwards. For you own sake, take the actions that are necessary for your growth!

Poor people are not willing to be uncomfortable. Being comfortable may make you feel warm, fuzzy, and secure, but it doesn’t allow you to grow. They only time you can actually grow is when you are “outside of your comfort zone.” The minute you get comfortable, you have stopped growing. So, the only way you can grow is when you’re outside your comfort zone. Ask yourself: When was the last time you were outside your comfort zone? I’m sure that was uncomfortable at the moment, but it felt great afterwards. Well, that’s growth! And that’s what you should do every day. Keep living at the edge. Keep living where we don’t feel completely safe and comfy. That’s where we grow!

I say it again: Fear and discomfort should not stop you! Fear most often is based on some (often out of one’s mind) idea of our mind. “You mind is the greatest soap-opera scriptwriter in history.” We, however, have the power to control it and even when our mind goes nut we still have the power to think more rationally and see that often our mind is silly. Eker puts it this way, “Training and managing your own mind is the most important skill you could ever own, in terms of both happiness and success.” Harv suggests starting by observing your mind. What do you think? I mean, literally, what do you think right now? When you do that, you observe your thoughts. When you consciously do that, you can decide whether you want to follow a thought or just let it go and wait for another one. When there is a thought of fear, just let it go. When there is an empowering thought, let it come. “Choose to entertain only empowering thoughts while refusing to focus on disempowering ones,” says Eker. Keep this in mind:

Your thoughts do not run you, you run your thoughts.

So, act in spite of fear and in spite of discomfort.

That’s a necessity for all you want in life…

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

[*I need to note that the Harv Eker makes it clear in this book that he does not mean to degrade poor people. He does not think that rich people are better than poor or middle-class people. They’re just richer.]

Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #8 Rich People Are Willing to Promote Themselves and Their Values

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Wealth File #8:

Rich People Are Willing to Promote Themselves and Their Values.

Poor People Think Negatively about Selling and Promotion.

“Resending promotion is one of the greatest obstacles to success,” said Harv Eker. “Rich people are almost always excellent promoters.” If you believe that what you have to offer can truly assist people, it’s your duty to let as many people as possible know about it. In this way, you not only help people, but you also get rich! How can you become rich if you don’t let people know about what you have to offer? How are they going to find out about you? How are you going to sell your product if nobody knows about it? Nobody buys a product he doesn’t even know about! Eker puts it this way: “If you don’t sell, you don’t earn a darn thing!”

If you believe that what you have to offer can truly assist people, it’s your DUTY to let as many people as possible know about it. That’s clear as water. You can help people – that’s great! Everybody wants to help other people, so, let them know about your value. That’s the coolest thing on earth: You help people AND you get rich! Eker shares about some reasons why poor people* have a problem with promotion and/or selling:

#1 They had a bad experience in the past with people promoting and lied to them. This will hold them back.

#2 They had a disempowering experience when they tried to sell something and maybe they experienced total rejection. They still fear failure… they need to let the past be the past.

#3 They probably have been conditioned that maybe they heard it’s impolite to ‘toot your own horn.’ In the real world though, if you don’t ‘toot’ you own ‘horn,’ nobody will…

#4 They maybe feel that promotion is not so important. The problem is that nobody is going to find them as nobody knows about them.

If you don’t like selling and promotion for whatever reason, just swallow it. If you want to become rich, you need to promote your value with passion and enthusiasm. Simple as that. Sell yourself! Be authentic. Be passionate about what you have to offer. If you absolutely can’t be passionate, then probably what you have to offer does not have much value… It is indispensable that what you offer needs to have value. Yet, the biggest value is useless if you don’t promote it! Who should be enthusiastic about your product if you not? Step out and promote what you have to offer – your skills, services, products – with passion and enthusiasm. If you believe in your value, how could it be appropriate to hide it from people who need it?

[*I need to note that the Harv Eker makes it clear in this book that he does not mean to degrade poor people. He does not think that rich people are better than poor or middle-class people. They’re just richer.]

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Wealth File #6 Rich People Admire Other Rich and Successful People (Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Wealth File #6:

Rich People Admire other Rich and Successful People.

Poor People Resent Rich and Successful People.

Poor people* often look at other people’s success with resentment, jealousy, and envy. “You have to realize that if you view rich people as bad in any way, shape, or form, and you want to be a good person, then you can never be rich,” writes Eker, “It’s impossible. How can you be something you despise?” That’s an easy psychological truth: You become rather like someone you admire than like someone you resent. Keep that in mind. From now on, when you see something you (secretly) want, may it be a nice house or a dream car or someone who is wise, admire what you see. Admire the house and also admire the owner. Admire the car and also the brain. Don’t be jealous, don’t be envy, admire them. Bless them. Love them. Practice the Huna philosophy: “Bless that which you want.”

Why do people resent rich people? Why do people think that poor people are in some way better spiritually than the rich? To put it bluntly – that’s just stupid! There is absolutely no reason to think worse about the rich than about the poor. Of course, there are some rich people who don’t act morally and ethically right, but that same holds true for some poor people. No doubt there are always exceptions to any rule, but for the most part, who do you have to be to succeed at anything? Try some of these characteristics: positive, reliable, focused, determined, persistent, hardworking, energetic, good with people, a competent communicator, intelligent, an expert in at least one area, etc. What does it take to get rich and successful? How can someone become successful? Some or all of the above? Does negativity, laziness and being average at everything make you a success?

The answer to the last question is crystal clear – NO! If you want to become successful, you need powerful traits that make you who you are. Rich people are rich because they have the character it needs to get rich. Being rich is nothing to do with being lucky, acting mean or morally wrong, being a bully, using people or whatsoever. So why would you resent someone who actually worked a lot for his or her success? Who was persistent? Who always tried to be his best? Who is reliable and focused? Why would you resent someone when you’d secretly want to be like that person?

To put it clearly, when you resent the success of others, you’re not going to get any… When you resent your friend for having a girlfriend, you’re not going to get one. When you resent someone for having a Mercedes, you’re not going to have one. When you resent a rich person for his or her money, you’re NOT going to get ANY MONEY. “Act like rich people and admire what you want. Bless what you want. Love what you want,” Eker emphasized. Yes, love what you want, love what you want, LOVE WHAT YOU WANT!

[*I need to note that the Harv Eker makes it clear in this book that he does not mean to degrade poor people. He does not think that rich people are better than poor or middle-class people. They’re just richer.]

I Have A Millionaire Mind!

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: The Process of Manifestation T > F > A = R (Part 1 Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by T. Harv Eker’s Secret of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth (2005) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

Process of Manifestation: T > F > A = R

“Thoughts lead to Feelings. Feelings lead to Actions. Actions lead to Results.”

(Harv Eker)

That’s what Eker calls the Process of Manifestation. Thoughts are at the root of every result. He then goes one step further and states that we are programmed or conditioned in a certain way. That’s why we think how we think. The primary sources of this programming include mainly our parents and siblings, but also friends, teachers, and media, to name only a few. In short, our life is a reflection of our thoughts, which again come as a result of how we have been programmed.

This is important in many ways. Look at our culture: How could we survive without the knowledge of our ancestors? We’re born into a world of culture and structure: How could we survive without the knowledge we’re given from our parents? We depend on our parents for a very, very long time. We’re all born helpless. So, in a certain way this programming is a necessity, but in the case of money, it is often a burden… That’s where your money blueprint (see the previous post) comes in. A blueprint, in general, is a preset plan or design. Let’s take a blueprint for a house as an example. Before you build the house, you make an exact plan of what you want to build. And then, you build what you’ve planned. Now, and this is important, we all have a blueprint for money, our money blueprint – a preset plan of how much money we’ll have and how we can handle it. Every child is taught how to think about and act in relation to money.

Our financial blueprint consists primarily of the information or “programming” we received in the past, and especially as a young child. “Your past conditioning determines every thought that bubbles up in your mind. That’s why it’s often referred to as the conditioned mind.” First of all, Eker suggests, we need to understand how we are conditioned. We are conditioned in three (3) primary ways:

#1 Verbal Programming: What did you hear about money, wealth, and rich people when you were growing up? “Save your money for a rainy” “Filthy rich!” “Rich people are greedy” “Money doesn’t grow on trees” “Money doesn’t buy happiness” “We can’t afford it” and so on. Eker says, “I’m sure you heard at least one of them. The problem is that all these statements… remain in your subconscious mind as part of the blueprint that is running your financial life. Obviously, such statements do not support your financial well-being.”

#2 Modelling: What did you see when you were young? How did your parents manage money? Did money come easily in your family or was it always a struggle? Was money a source of joy in your household or the cause of bitter arguments? All these things matter a lot because as kids, we learn just about everything from modeling. It is important to recognize that your way of being related to one or both of your parents in the arena of money.

#3 Specific Incidents: What did you experience when you were young around money, wealth, and rich people? This is close to modeling but maybe you can think of a specific personal incident. Maybe a huge fight your parents had that seemingly led to the divorce? Maybe you can still hear your father swearing about a rich neighbor? Such experiences shape your beliefs you now live by.

These are three (3) major ways that have conditioned us in terms of money. Basically, that’s your money blueprint, your pre-set plan for success with money. Eker highlights: “Your money blueprint will determine your financial life – and even your personal life. And again, you can have all the knowledge and skills in the world, but if your ‘blueprint’ isn’t set for success, you’re financially doomed. If you think poor about the rich, how are you ever going to be rich? If money has always been a struggle, chances are high that it always will be a struggle. That’s in your subconscious mind. When the subconscious mind must choose between deeply rooted emotions and logic, emotions will almost always win.” If you want to think like rich people, you need to change that programming… how?

You need to become aware. “AWARENESS is the first step of change,” emphasized Eker. That’s where you are right now. You thought about how you grew up around money and hopefully became aware of the fact that you’ve been conditioned in a certain way. Now, you need to UNDERSTAND what effects this conditioning had and still has on your financial life (I personally had a bad programming). It’s only through the understanding of what your conditioned mind does to you that you can become able and willing to change. Do you see that your money blueprint is not you but it is only what you’ve learned? You do have the choice in the present moment to be different (Yes I can!). That’s the third step of change: DISASSOCIATION. How you have been conditioned is not how you need to be and how you need to think. You have the choice! It is imperative you choose your thoughts and beliefs wisely.

Eker concludes: “Being aware and living consciously is probably the most important ingredient for substantial change. YOU make the choices in life. YOU are at the steering wheel. YOU know that you have been conditioned in a certain way and that this lies at the roots of your financial life. Now that YOU are aware, YOU can change!”

REMEMBER: T > F > A = R

12 Rules for Life #3 Make Friends with People Who Want the Best for You (Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Jordan B. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos (2018) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“If you have a friend whose friendship you wouldn’t recommend to your sister, or your father, or your son, why would you have such a friend for yourself?”

(Jordan Peterson)

Almost every person has two kinds of families, says Peterson: #1 The one that he is born with; and #2 The one that he chooses by himself – friends. The selection of these important people is not to be taken lightly as they often have an impact on our lives. It is your obligation to keep away people who are making your life worse or hurting you. It is your right to decide who should be close to you and who shouldn’t. Peterson affirmed, “There are no ethical dilemmas about that.” If you have a friendship that you wouldn’t recommend to someone, then why are you still keeping it? End it, NOW!

So why many people are not making good choices? That’s because “surrounding yourself with good and healthy people is harder than the opposite.” Being good and healthy requires strength, daring and the determination to choose the difficult but right paths. Willing to take a risk. Consequently, standing up near such a person you have to be a strong, daring and determined person, ready to accept some harsh criticism from time to time which would benefit you. Good friends will do these things to you.

On the other hand, being around bad and unhealthy people is much easier to choose. Being on the bottom is much more convenient than being on top. Bad people will make you adopt laziness, easy unhealthy lifestyle, self-pity, tolerating being hurt or even hurting others for your benefit. So choose your friends wisely.

It’s Your Choice.

Start With Why: The Golden Circle (Chapter 3 Summary)

This book summary series is taken from Simon Sinek’s Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2011). Your curiosity and knowledge is infinite, but your time is not. Read this summary – and you’ll be inspired!

The Golden Circle finds order and predictability in human behaviour. Put simply, it helps us understand why we do what we do.

WHAT: What do you do? [“Every organization on the planet knows WHAT they do. These are products they sell or services they offer.”]

HOW: How do you do what you do? [“Some organization know HOW they do It. these are the things that make them special or set them apart from their competitors.”]

WHY: Why do you do what you do? What’s the purpose? [“Very few organization know WHY they do it. WHY is not about making money. That’s a result. WHY is a purpose, cause or belief. It’s the very reason your organization exists.”]

Simon Sinek explains that most companies communicate on WHAT they do; from the outside to the inside of the golden circle. They know exactly what product or service they offer and what features it has. Some organizations might even know HOW they do it. This might be the Unique Selling Proposition (USP). But very few know WHY they do what they do. “The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

By starting with why and communicating from the inside out, organizations can inspire people to take action. For example, Apple Inc. company:

Apple if they were like everyone else:

We make great computers.
They are beautiful designed, simple to use and user-friendly.
Want to buy one?

How Apple actually communicate:

Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user-friendly. And we happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?

Apple simply doesn’t reverse the order of information, their message starts with WHY, a purpose, cause or belief that has nothing to do with WHAT they do. What they do – the products that they make, from computers to small electronics – no longer serves as the reason to buy, they serve as the tangible proof of their cause. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Most organizations, however, use the tangible features and benefits to build a rational argument for why their company, product or idea is better than another. Companies try to sell us WHAT they do, but we buy WHY they do it. When communicating from the inside and out, the WHY is offered as the reason to buy and the WHAT serve as the tangible proof of that belief. Consumers and investors are completely at ease with Apple offering so many different products in so many categories. It’s not WHAT Apple does that distinguishes them. It is WHY they do it. Their products give life to their cause and everything they do works to demonstrate their WHY.

Apples competitors lost their cause, they turned from companies with a cause into a company that sold products. And when that happens, price, quality, service and features become the primary currency to motivate a purchase decision. At that point a company and its products have become commodities. Simon assured that a company doesn’t have to have to best product, they just need to be good or very good. Better or best is a relative comparison. Sinek argued, “Without first understanding of WHY, the comparison itself is of no value on the decision maker.”

If a customer feels inspired rather than manipulated to buy a product, they will be able to verbalize the reasons why they think what they bought is better. It is the cause that is represented by the company, brand, product or person that inspires loyalty (see previous article). So, instead of asking “WHAT should we do to compete?” the question must be asked is, “WHY did we start doing WHAT we’re doing in the first place, and WHAT can we do to bring our cause to life considering all the technologies and market opportunities available today?”

From Inside Out: Ask WHY, then How, then WHAT. Always Start with WHY.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (Conclusion)

If you like to read all the summaries from Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life (2016), click HERE

The key to becoming a happier person right now is to build a better sets of values. When your values are realistic, constructive and completely under your own control, you will be able to lead a life filled with healthy challenges.

If you really want to gain the knowledge from this book, and apply it in real life. Then here’s a checklist for actions to take:

Sit Down Right Now and Make An Honest List of the Values and measuring systems you use to evaluate your life. Then go through the list and using Manson’s criteria, determine which are good and had values. Brainstorm how to change the bad values into good ones.

Take An Honest Look at How Your Thought Measure Up with Your Actions. Are you deluding yourself into thinking that you are extraordinary and exceptional when in reality you have not done anything?

Next Time You Run Up Against A Problem You Are Struggling to Solve, Don’t Just Sit There, Do Something – anything. Let your action lead to inspiration and motivation rather than waiting around for inspiration to strike.

Not Giving A F*ck!

Here's to the Crazy Ones, the Unreasonable People

When Steve Jobs launched Apple’s iconic “Think Different” marketing campaign in 1997, it was clearly a reflection of his own philosophy and ideals. He praised “the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently.” Nobody would disagree that Jobs himself personified this category, along with the famous individuals who were featured in Apple’s ads, such as Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Sir Richard Branson, John Lennon, Thomas Edison, Ted Turner, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Martha Graham, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Pablo Picasso.

By their nature, radical innovators tend to be contrarians, heretics, revolutionaries. They are forever discontent with the status quo. They are people who challenge conventional thinking, who show no respect for rules, or precedent, or popular opinion, and who never accept “can’t be done.” They dare to defy the deepest-held dogmas, dispute the most established industry practices, and trash the proudest of institutional legacies. Where everyone else seems content to “zig,” they feel compelled to “zag” – to swim against the mainstream, contradict prevailing wisdom, break the accepted patterns, slaughter the sacred cows, question the unquestionable, fix things that “ain’t broke,” turn the seemingly impossible into the possible, and, well… to simply “think different.”

Innovators are not satisfied just playing the game. They have an irresistible itch to rethink it, to change it, to improve it. Or to invent an entirely new game. They are, as George Bernard Shaw once explained, unreasonable people. Shaw argued that “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Rather than conform to the existing patterns of the world, innovators can intuitively see what is wrong with those patterns – where others cannot – and they instinctively want to put them right, or to replace them with their own patterns. They quite literally want to change the world.

In a 1994 interview conducted by the Silicon Valley Historical Association, Steve Jobs said the following: “When you grow up, you tend to get told the world is the way it is, and your life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much… That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact, and that it – everything around you that you call ‘life’… you can change it, you can influence it… you can mould it. That’s maybe the most important thing. It’s to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just going to live in it, verses embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it… Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”

Jobs summed it up very well. Innovators don’t just accept that “the world is the way it is.” They are always driven to reshape it into the way they envision it could be. Innovators behave exactly as those “Think Different” ads said they do: “They invent. They imagine… They explore. They create. They inspire. They push the human race forward. Maybe they have to be crazy… Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Is Your Child Naturally Creative? Nine Sure Signs that They Are

I believe that creative talents are due to nature (gift) and nurture (learn) at the same time. It is a blend of the two. But some children seem to be outstandingly creative from a very young age. Victoria Wilson in her book Boost Your Child’s Creativity (The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc; 2009) listed nine signs that your child may be creatively gifted or naturally creative:

1)    They’re Often Lost in Daydreams. A vivid imagination, and a love of fantasizing and being playful with thoughts is a strong sign of a creative child.

2)    They Connect Seemingly Random Objects and Ideas in Their Fantasy Play. Of course most children love imaginary play, but a key thing to look out for is if your child connects seemingly random objects or ideas into their play or stories. For example, they are an alien descending to sample the tomato soup on planet Earth, or their pretend horse loves chatting to the flowers on his mobile phone. This ability to make unusual connections is a key trait of very creative children.

3)    They Ask Lots of Unusual Questions. Most children go through a phase of asking ‘Why?’ to everything. But if your child is always asking questions and especially if he or she comes up with very strange, seemingly silly questions such as, ‘What would happen if the sun came back up at night-time?’ or ‘Why don’t apples grow from our fingers?’ it is a strong sign they are very creative. What they are also demonstrating is the ability to rearrange elements of thought to create new ideas and the inclination to question things others take for granted.

4)    They’re Often the Odd One Out; They Don’t Dress or Act the Same Way Others Do. It’s natural for children to want to be accepted by their classmates and friends, but some children will deliberately choose to be the odd one out no matter how much pressure there is to fit in. Often this is simply because they think differently to others, and thinking differently is thinking originally.

5)    They’re Resourceful and Good at Solving Problems. Creative children are, by definition, good problem solvers because they are flexible in the way they think and adapt quickly to different situations. Also, by definition, children who are creative will have lots of ideas and potential solutions to problems.

6)    They Love Playing Alone and Can Entertain Themselves for Long Periods of Time. Of course, children need some organized activities, and there’s even some evidence that a little carefully selected TV can stimulate learning and ideas. But a child who’s naturally able to come up with ideas is usually able to find plenty to occupy him or herself. In fact, it is very hard for children who are shuttled from one arranged activity to another, or put in front of the TV for long periods every day, to be creative.

7)    They’re Often So Absorbed in What They’re Doing, They Don’t Even Hear You. Being utterly absorbed in creative play or activities is to be in what famous psychologist Abraham Maslow labelled a ‘peek experience.’ This is the ability to ‘become lost in the present.’ It’s an important ability, particularly for young children who need constant supervision, because it allows them to free themselves from interaction and interruptions by others, while remaining in their presence, so they can really focus on their own thoughts, feelings and experiences. This is essential for creativity, because it allows children to form individual and original thoughts.

8)    They’re Rebellious. Of course, sometimes this is simply bad behaviour, but the instinct to think for themselves and to be individuals will drive creative children to question parents, teachers and books. It is down to you and your innate knowledge of your own child to determine whether a demand to wear a ballerina costume to bed is an act of creative expression, or a ploy to put off bedtime…

9)    They’re Often Both Extroverts and Introverts. Psychologists have found that very creative people can often be very outgoing and very shy at different times, whereas most of the population are either one or the other.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Renaissance Innovators who Challenge Orthodoxies (Nonconformists Wins)

Perhaps the first thing that comes to mind when we think about Renaissance innovators is their contrarian spirit. It was a time when people began to ask sceptical questions that had never been asked before, and to challenge deeply entrenched beliefs that had long been taken for granted. For examples:

Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler asked:

“What if the Earth is not the centre of the Universe? What if it revolves around the Sun along with the other planets?”

Martin Luther asked:

“What if the papacy and the dogma of the Roman Catholic church are actually wrong? And what if we could read the Bible and listen to sermons in our own language, instead of in Latin?”

Petrarch asked:

“What if a person can achieve great things in this world without being ungodly? What if God wants us to use the intellectual and creative powers he gave us to their fullest potential?”

Andreas Vesalius asked:

“What if the dominant theories of human anatomy that have been unassailable for a thousand years are fully misguided? What if the human body functions completely differently than we have been taught? And what if we started dissecting some dead bodies to find out the truth?”

Paracelsus asked:

“What if everything we know about medicine is nonsense? What if certain chemicals and minerals, used in the right dosage, would be a far better way to cure illnesses than traditional practices? What if nature could teach us more about medicine than ancient books from Greece and Rome?”

Machiavelli asked:

“What if politics has nothing to do with theology or morality? What if it’s simply about using all means – fair and foul – to retain power?”

Descartes asked:

“What if all of our traditional systems of thinking, most of which are founded upon Aristotle’s ideas, are false? What if we set out to build a new philosophical system from the group up, by first doubting everything we think we know?”

Isaac Newton asked:

“What if conventional concepts of physics, gravity, and motion are inconsistent with reality? What if we need new laws and mathematical models for understanding mechanics?”

Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti asked:

“Why can’t a painting be less like wall decoration and more like a window into the nature world? What if we used mathematical and optional principles to imitate objects so accurately that they look entirely real?”

Christopher Columbus asked:

“What if we could get to the East Indies much faster by sailing west instead of east and circumnavigating the globe?”

Amerigo Vespucci asked:

“What if the Earth has a much larger circumference that we learned from Ptolemy’s cartography? What if these lands Columbus has newly discovered are not the Indies at all, but in fact another whole continent – a New World?”

Almost by definition, the Renaissance revolutionaries were nonconformists who were willing to contest previously held truths – beliefs and assumptions that had been accepted as absolute truth for perhaps a thousand years or more – and to reinvent their worldview completely from scratch. Many of them were branded as heretics or lunatics. Yet their propensity to break the chains of precedent and to challenge conventional thinking became the basis for a whole string of breakthrough discoveries and new philosophies that literally changed our world.

[Questions are taken from The 4 Lenses of Innovation (2015) by Rowan Gibson. Title mine]

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Be a Lifelong Learner

“I'm a constant learner. You need to be a constant student

because things change and you have to change and grow.

And I emphasize the word 'grow’”

(Zig Ziglar)

To know is to arrive; to ask questions is to embark on a quest. People whose lives are characterized by a question mark (?) rather than a period (!), who look for learning opportunities everywhere they go, are generally joyful, are more creative, enjoy better relationships, and attain higher levels of satisfaction in life.

To be a lifelong learner is both fun and functional, and all we need to travel along that path is a humble heart and a curious mind. Every person we meet – a student or a teacher, a friend or a stranger – can teach us something; each experience holds within it an important lesson; in every moment is a message waiting to be discovered. When we embrace the spirit of inquiry and curiosity, we embrace life. How wonderful it is that this life is an inexhaustible source of wonders. How exciting to learn that the excitement of learning can last a lifetime. Even young Jesus “listening to [the Jewish teachers] and asking questions” and they in return “we amazed at his intelligent answers” (Luke 2:46-47).

Don’t be in ignorance,

Open your mind and heart to learning.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Change Your Life: Listen with Empathy and Openness (Don't Rush to Give Advice)

“It is the province of knowledge to speak,

And it is the privilege of wisdom to listen”
(Oliver Wendell Holmes)

I’m still learning this: the key to providing emotional and moral support to people in need, is the ability to listen to what they are saying. When others need our help, my instincts, our instinct is to rush in and provide comfort and practical advice. But no matter how valuable the knowledge that we wish to share, no matter how well intentioned our desire to help, our first obligation is to provide the space and the opportunity for others to share experiences, feelings and thoughts. We need to beware of our inclination to think about our response while others are speaking, jump to complete their sentences, or interject with our advice – even if it is the best advice possible.

Learning from the experience and advice of others is extremely important – it is one of principal ways in which we grow as individuals and humankind. But it usually works only if those receiving the advice feel that they have been heard. Once a student told earnestly to me, “Thank you for listening to me.” I didn’t give any advice, I just listened and I asked questions. Well, if advice is needed and necessary, then give advice. But first – listen.

In the early 1970s, Robert Greenleaf coined the term Servant Leadership after noticing that the great leaders throughout history spoke and acted as servants. According to Greenleaf and other leadership scholars, one of the core characteristics of servant leaders is that they listen first and talk later. In fact, in become a servant leader, Greenleaf argued, a person has to go through “a long arduous discipline of learning to listen, a discipline sufficiently sustained that the automatic response to any problem is to listen first.” First we need to learn how to listen.

Don’t rush to give advice,

Listen with empathy and openness

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

2. On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View of Psychotherapy by C.R. Rogers (Boston: Mariner Books, 1995)

Change Your Life: Appreciate and Learn from Those Around You

“Appreciation is to humans what the sun is for plants”

(Frank Iversen)

There are certain people – ones we know intimately and others we meet for the first time – who, for one reason or another, irritate us. It could be the way they act or talk, the way they look or walk. And while there is no need to always change our perspective about those people – leaving the scene or minimizing the time we spend with them could be the right thing to do – we lose many opportunities when we mindlessly succumb to the dictates of our unpleasant reactions.

Reflecting on the source of our dislike toward another person can reveal something about ourselves, because we often get annoyed by precisely those things we dislike in ourselves. Learning to appreciate things about the person who vexes us can help us cultivate the benefit-finder within, as well as develop deeper compassion – both of which will contribute to our relationships with others and with ourselves. What can you learn from others now?

Don’t allow others to upset you,

Appreciate and learn from those around you.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

 References:

1. Choose the Life You Want: 101 Ways to Create You Own Road to Happiness by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD (New York: The Experiment, 2012) Buy this book!

2. An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life by Dalai Lama (New York: Back Bay Books, 2002).

Creative Mind: The Creative Environment

Just as any plant needs a specific setting in which to strive, your mind needs a nurturing environment in which to maximize its creative abilities. The right creative environment will vary from person to person. Use these ideas to find yours:

Choose the best atmosphere. T.M. Amabile says that people are more creative and imaginative when they spend time around other creative folk. Hang out with people whose thinking inspires you. Find locations that energize you (Starbuck? Mine is State Library, surrounded by books already make me think smart and creatively). Play music that puts you in your desired mental state (Mine is Jason Mraz’s songs!). Paint your study walls your favourite colour. Experiment to find the atmosphere that most seems to free your mind.  

Give yourself time to “sit” with a question. Rushing can stifle your creative ability. When you allow time for thought to percolate, or you take breaks when figuring out a problem, you may increase your creative output. Change your environment, get some exercise, sleep; talk with a friend, work on something else. Some of the best ideas pop up when you have given your brain permission to go “off the job” for a while.

Let yourself play. People often hit upon their most creative ideas when they are exercising or just relaxing. Often when your mind switches into play mode, it can more freely generate new thoughts. Mental play can allow you to find a brilliant discovery in what seems like a crazy idea. For example, the idea for Velcro^TM came when an inventor examined how a burr sticks to clothing.

Write it down. Many people think of ideas while exercising, driving, or in the shower, upon walking, or even while dreaming. When an idea occurs – a solution to a problem or a new thought – write it down as soon as possible. To make sure your creative environment includes a way to write ideas, try keeping a pen and paper by your bed, your smartphone in your pocket (Do we need a reminder?), a marker attached to your notebook, or a notepad and pen in your car. Try it, make it a habit!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

References and Suggested Readings:

1. Roger von Oech, A Whack on the Side of the Head (1998)

2. J.R. Hayes, Cognitive Psychology: Thinking and Creating (1978)

3. T.M. Amabile, The Social Psychology of Creativity (1983)

Creative Mind: The Characteristics of the Creative Person

Creative thinkers combine ideas and information in ways that form new solutions, ideas, processes, or products. “The hallmark of creative people is their mental flexibility,” says creativity expert Roger von Oech. “Like race car drivers who shift in and out of different gears depending on where they are on the course, creative people are able to shift in and out of different types of thinking depending on the needs of the situation at hand.” Look at table below to see some primary characteristics of creative people. Underneath all these qualities lie a desire to learn, a drive to question, and a commitment to keep an open mind.  

CHARACTERISTIC	EXAMPLE
Willingness to take risks	Taking a difficult, high-level course
Tendency to break away from limitations	Entering a marathon race
Tendency to seek new challenges & experiences	Taking on an internship in a high-pressure workplace
Broad range of interests	Investing new moves on basketball court and playing guitar at an open-mike night
Ability to make new things out of available materials	Making curtains out of bedsheets
Tendency to question norms & assumptions	Adopting a child of different ethnic background than the family’s
Willingness to deviate from popular opinion	Working for a small, relatively unknown political party
Curiosity and inquisitiveness	Wanting to know how a computer program works

Source: Adapted from T. Z. Tardif and R. J. Sternberg, “What Do We Know About Creativity?” in The Nature of Creativity, ed. R.J. Sternberg (London: Cambridge University Press, 1988).

Try some or all of the following strategies to boost your creative abilities.

Be curious. The more information and ideas you gather as you think, the more perspective you have to build a creative idea or solution. Collect information and ideas from reading materials, people, the Internet, anywhere – and record them on smartphone or in writing. Branch out and cultivate new interests. Seek out new experiences and take in the ideas and perspectives that you encounter.

Shift your perspective. At first, a problem may look like: “The house isn’t quiet when I study.” If you take a wider look, you may discover hidden causes or effects of the problem, such as “I haven’t chosen the best time of day to study” or “I haven’t let my housemates know that I need quiet.” Question your assumptions; ask people you trust for their perspectives; read in order to discover new ways of looking at situation.

Don’t get hooked on finding the one right answer. There can be lots of “right answers” to any question. The more possibilities you generate, the better your chance of finding the best one. Also, don’t stop the process when you think you have the best answer – keep going until you are out of stream. You never know what may come up in those last gasps of creative energy.

Break the rules sometimes. All kinds of creative breakthroughs have occurred because someone questioned a rule or an assumption. Women and members of minorities can vote and hold jobs because someone questioned a rule – a law – many years ago. Even the rules of logic don’t always hold – following strict logic may cause you to miss analogies or ignore your hunches. At one time in the not-so-distant past, for example, it made no logical sense that two people could talk to one another while in different cities – and now the telephone is a fact of life (Just thinking, how logical it was for you to read my blog from you smartphone or laptop from the invisible World Wide Web in the year 1800).

Ask “what if” questions. Set up hypothetical environments in which new ideas can grow. “What if I knew I couldn’t fail?” “What if I had unlimited money or time or energy?” See what idea, however outrageous, comes from a “what if” question – and then think about how to make it happen. Don’t necessarily make it happen, but – think. Just by asking the question “what if” you can boost your creative ability.

Take risks and, when necessary, embrace failure. Even though failure is always a possibility, taking risks is the only way to make your highest goals reachable. If you insist on playing it safe, you may miss out on the path – often paved with failures – leading to the best possible solution or situation.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

References and Suggested Readings:

1. Roger von Oech, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants (1986)

2. Roger von Oech, A Whack on the Side of the Head (1998)

3. J.R. Hayes, Cognitive Psychology: Thinking and Creating (1978)