Change Your Life: Do Something - Help and Contribute

“You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness”

(Anne Frank)

With ever-increasing demands on our time, energy, and resources, many of us feel that we are doing all we can just to meet our obligations. As a result, we often let pass the opportunities that we have to help other people. Crucially, it’s not only those in need who pay the price of our indifference. We, too, lose out by not helping others.

Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky conducted an experiment in which she asked people to carry out, in the course of one day, five kind acts that they would not normally do. These actions do not have to be grand and dramatic. An act of kindness can be baking cookies for your neighbour, or donating money or time to a cause you believe in, or helping a friend think through a dilemma, or giving blood, or even simply opening a door for a stranger. What Lyubomirsky found was that whether large or small, these acts of kindness contributed significantly to the well-being of those who gave, not just while they were performing these acts, not just for one day, but for the entire week.

[Taken from Choose the Live You Want (2012) by Tal Ben-Shahar, PhD]

Don’t remain indifferent,

Do something – help and contribute.

THINK BIG. START SMALL. GO DEEP.

Nurture Creativity: Read Widely like Google Search, Read Purposefully like Playing Archery

“Reading remains an unsurpassed vehicle for

the transmission of interesting new ideas and perspectives”

(Steven Johnson, TED Talks)

During my school time, there were three things that I hate in the world most: English language, writing and reading. Now strangely as it sound (and thankfully), I love all of them. I figure it out that if I want to grow I must challenge myself, keep pushing and do what I initially hate doing because I know that it is worth my investment, energy and time. Each and every one of us has the potential to grow. It's just a matter of practice and doing it regularly. In this way, we train ourselves to be more useful and – creative.

So now I love reading. One of the ways you can be more creative is by reading on a very wide range of subjects. Not just any reading will do, though. Blog posts, short articles, magazines, websites, newspapers and the like are all a fun diversion and beneficial, but they simply won’t turn on your creative juices as effective as the way good selective books will. “The reading which counts,” said Leon Gutterman, “is the reading which, in making a man think, stirs and exercises and polishes the edge of his mind.”

Let me give you an advice: you can learn anything, but you can’t read everything. So pick your subjects with a sense of purpose. For example, one of my goals this year is to write a book on creativity, so I should stuff my brain more by focus reading on the subject of creativity, innovations, ideas, arts, inventions, history and biographies/autobiographies of creative minds. Of course, insights and inspirations may come from other sources too. That’s for sure. So read widely (like Google search) and read purposefully (like playing archery). Randomly and focus reading. Both. 

Here are why reading can boost your creativity: Reading will:

§  Stimulate, nourish and broaden your mind (stagnant thinking is dangerous)

§  Help you to think out of the box (look at the things from a different perspective)

§  Add knowledge that can be used to spark ideas

§  Develop your vocabulary (especially for creative writings)

§  Enhance concentration and discipline (focus, focus, focus)

§  Sharpen language and communication skills (boring people are generally non-readers)

§  Helps you to think and gain more ideas from others

§  Improve your imagination (better than watching movies!)

§  Release your stress level and help you to relax

§  Build self-esteem, positive thinking and confidence (except when you read ghost stories)

§  Put you in the range of highly effective people all over the world (most successful people are readers)

§  Ignite your passion to read more. Reading is fun once you get into the habit (Fun = creative state).

§  Reading books, especially, will change your life!

“To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” (Victor Hugo)

So, read widely like Google search and read purposefully like playing archery.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Nurture Creativity: Use Online Time Wisely (Hunt for Ideas!)

“In order to become an effective idea hunter,

one must be receptive to creative inspiration from unfamiliar or unusual sources”

(Andy Boynton, The Idea Hunter)

Most of us spend online time for social networking, searching, reading content, e-mailing or communicating in general, visiting multi-media sites for music or video or both, online shopping, etc. Recently I visited TIME website and stumbled on an article. I thought it is interesting because in the article they include Apps that can count how many time (not necessary ‘wasted’) you spend on Facebook. It is safe and will not appear on your timeline. Mine, since 12^th November 2008 until today, I spend only 3 days 18 hours 52 minutes and posted 14,718 things on my feed. On average 17 minutes per day. How about you? [Check it out: http://time.com/6107/how-much-time-have-you-wasted-on-facebook/]

Surely, Facebook or any other social media or the Internet is not that bad. What’s bad is when you addicted to online 24-7. What’s really bad is when you wasted your life online! What’s good is that you can use these tools for good. These tools, if you can use it wisely, can be your great source of ideas and to spark up your creativity. Basically, these are the thing I do when I’m online:

§  Downloaded audio sermons, audiobooks, talks and seminars

§  Watch video or listen to talks from YouTube, podcasts and websites (I recommend TED Talks, Google Talks, Intelligent² and LearnOutLoud.com)

§  Read articles such as How Stuff Works, BBC and TED blog

§  Surf randomly (but not mindlessly). Who know, you might stumble to a cool website that may change your life!

How to use online time wisely? Here are my suggestions: 1) Intentionally, set time for online. You should be in control. It can be an hour in the morning, then an hour in the afternoon before lunch or mid-night before you go to sleep. Try not to go online, if possible, in the evening. Safe it for outdoor activities. 2) Set a limit. As for me, in regular time, I set at most 2-3 hours online. Depend on your job requires and working hours, set a limit (or simply take some time off once in a while). and 3) Use the time for ideas hunt. Find and gather as many ideas as possible, write it down on paper, steal it! and create your own new ideas – and if it useful, work on it.

Use online time wisely. Go for ideas hunt!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How-To Generate Ideas #15: Learn to Connect the Unconnected

“Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected” (William Plomer)

James Webb Young, author of A Technique for Producing Ideas, said, “An idea is nothing more nor less than a new combination of old elements.” The person who knows how to do this is more likely to come up with a new idea than a person who doesn’t. Making connection or combination where none existed before is what an awesome idea is all about.

“The essence of this technique is about randomness,” writes Dr. Yew Kam Keong. “Force a connection of your problem at hand with something selected at random. There are practically unlimited possible connections that can be made.” You see something or you hear someone, often totally unconnected to the situation you are trying to resolve and all of the sudden – idea’s light on! Newton and the apple, Archimedes in the bath tub, Johannes with the coin punch and the wine press, for examples.

Here are some suggestions of doing this:

1)    Random Observation. Look around you and try to make connections between things that are already related in some way (Example; Home movies + Internet = YouTube) or things that are very different (Example; Video game + Exercise = Nintendo Wii).

2)    Random Word. Choose a word from the dictionary or book or magazine and look for connections between the word and your problem.

3)    Mind Mapping Ideas. Put a key word or phrase in the middle of the page. Write whatever else comes in your mind on the same page. See if you can make any connections (google or read the founder Tony Buzan’s Mind Mapping method).

4)    Pick up a picture or Quotations & Proverbs. Consider how you can relate it to your situation.

Try it! Combine and connect to get an idea.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

How-To Generate Ideas #7: Go Daydreaming

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.

We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift”

(Albert Einstein)

In his book Head First!: You’re Smarter than You Think, Tony Buzan said that Leonardo Da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr. and many other are considered true geniuses because they love to daydream. Daydreaming (or mind wandering, if you prefer that term) encourages creativity. Daydreaming is actually a great way come up with ideas – it is not a waste of time. “Daydreaming is never random”, Tony said, “The brain will daydream about future... Imagination is the source of everything. Where does pyramid come from? Imagination; where does the sphinx come from? Imagination.”

We all daydream. It’s no strange coincidence that during the time you daydream while drive along staring out the window, lying in your bed, listening to songs or playing a guitar, undertake your daily duties at work, when reading the Bible narratives, or when sitting in the toilet (my favorite place to daydream!) – many random imaginations and ideas of possibilities come to mind.

Take time to daydream. Create places to daydream. Play with it. Dream wide awake. Great ideas may just around your dreams.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily idea(s)