Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Your Money Blueprint (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!

“You can have all the knowledge and skills in the world, but if your ‘blueprint’ isn’t set for success, you’re financially doomed” (Harv Eker)

Who are you? How do you think? What are your habits and traits? How confident are you in yourself? Do you truly feel that you deserve wealth? What are your abilities? Can you act when you’re not in the mood? The fact that your character, thinking, and your beliefs are a critical part of what determines the level of your success (remember, to be successful it is not necessary you have to be wealthy financially, but wealthy is one of the measurements of success). Whatever results you’re getting, be they rich or poor, good or bad, positive or negative, always remember that your outer world is simply a reflection of your inner world.

Harv Eker makes it clear that we live in a world of cause and effect. Basically, who you are [your inner world] determines what you get [your outer world]. So whatever the results you get in any area of life that you can control, it is a mere result of your character, thinking, and habits. Whether it is how much money you have in your bank account or how healthy you feel or how you look like – it is always a RESULT, a reflection of who you are. So in term of money, a lack of money is never, ever a problem. “A lack of money,” said Eker, “is merely a symptom of what is going on underneath.”

If you want to change your outer world, as the book suggests (a lack of money in that case), you first need to change your inner world or “what is going on underneath.” Eker gives a simple example, he recalled, “Back in my time as a student I used to suffer from tense neck and back muscles. Therefore I went to see a physiotherapist twice a week to have my muscles un-tensed. I always felt better afterward, but the muscles would tense again and again. It wasn’t until I changed my behavior (mainly different sitting positions, more sleep, magnesium supplements, and less stress) that my muscle tensions would weaken… My point is that if only you treat the symptoms, you’ll always fall back. So, if you had a lack of money and I gave you some, sooner or later you would end up again with a lack of money. The problem is not the symptom, it is us… It’s our thinking, our habits, the way we act.”

To effectively change your results, symptoms or your overall life [your outer world], you first need to change yourself, your character, thinking and what you do [your inner world]. “Your income can grow only to the extent you do!” What has all this to do with your money blueprint? Well, you’ll understand it in the next post.

[To read my review of this book, CLICK THE TITLE, Secrets of Millionaire Mind Review]

To Change Your Outer World, You Need to Change Your Inner World

The Power of Habit #3 The Golden Rule of Habit Change (or Why Transformation Occurs)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

"You can never truly extinguish bad habits," writes Charles Duhigg, "Rather, to change a habit, you must keep the old cue, and deliver the old reward, but insert a new routine." That's the rule: If you use the same cue, and provide the same reward, you can shift the routine and change the habit. Almost any behavior can be transformed if the cue and reward stay the same.

For example Anonymous Alcoholics (AA). AA succeed writes Duhigg because it helps alcoholics use the same cues, and get the same reward, but it shifts the routine. The program forces people to identify the cues and rewards that encourage their alcoholic habits and then helps them find new behaviors. "To change an old habit you must address an old craving. You have to keep the same cues and rewards as before, and feed the craving by inserting a new routine."

 Often, intoxication itself doesn't make the list. Alcoholics crave a drink because it offers escape, relaxation, companionship, the blunting of anxieties, and an opportunity for emotional release. They might crave a cocktail to forget their worries. But they don't necessarily crave a cocktail to forget their worries. The physical effects of alcohol are often one of the least rewarding parts of drinking to addicts. So, AA will forces the addicts to create new routines for what to do each night instead of drinking. AA's methods have been refined into therapies that can be used to disrupt almost any pattern.

Now add new routine with the power of belief. Those alcoholics that believed that some Higher Power (or God) had entered their lives were more likely to make it through "the stressful periods with their sobriety intact." It wasn't Higher Power (or God) that mattered, write Duhigg, it was the belief itself that made a difference. Once people learned how to believe in something that skill started spilling over to other parts of their lives until they started believing they could change. The belief was the ingredient that "made a reworked Habit Loop into a permanent behavior." Even if you give people better habits, it doesn't repair why they started drinking in the first place. Eventually, they'll have a bad day, and no new routine is going to make everything seem okay. What can make a difference is believing that they can cope with their stress without alcohol.

"If it worked for that guy, I guess it can work for me." There is something powerful about groups and shared experiences. People might be skeptical about their ability to change if they're by themselves, but a group will convince them to "suspend disbelief." A community creates belief. When people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real, doable and achievable. Belief is easier when it occurs within a community.

Let us recall: If we keep the same cue and the same reward, a new routine can be inserted. But that's not enough. For a habit to stay changed, people must believe a change is possible. And most often, that belief only emerges with the help of a group. So, if you want to change a habit, you must find an alternative route, and your odds of success go up dramatically when you commit to changing as part of a group. "Belief is essential and it grows out of a communal experience, even if that community is only as large as two people."

You Are the Sum of Your Habit(s)

The Power of Habit #2 The Craving Brain (or How to Create New Habits)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

CRAVING is what makes cues and rewards work. The craving is what powers the Habit Loop (see the previous summary). Habits create neurological cravings. As we associate cues with certain rewards, a subconscious craving emerges in our brain that starts the Habit Loop spinning.

How to create a new habit? Put together a cue, a routine, and a reward, and then cultivate a craving that drives the loop. A cue and a reward on their own aren't enough for a new habit to last. Only when your brain starts expecting the reward – craving the endorphins or sense of accomplishment – will it become automatic to lace up your jogging shoes each morning, for example. The cue, in addition to triggering a routine, must also trigger a craving for the reward to come.

An example: toothpaste. Claude Hopkins wasn't selling beautiful teeth. He was selling a sensation. Once people craved that cool tingling – once they equate it with cleanliness – brushing became a habit. While everyone brushes their teeth, fewer than 10% of Americans apply sunscreen every day. Why? Charles Duhigg explains: "Because there is no craving that has made sunscreen into a daily habit." He continues, "Craving is what drives habits. And figuring out how to spark a craving makes creating a new habit easier."

You Are the Sum of Your Habit(s)

The Power of Habit #1 The Habit Loop (or How Habits Work)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

“Habit emerge because the brain is constantly looking for ways to save effort.”

(Charles Duhigg)

The Habit Loop: The process with our brain is a three-step loop. First, there is a CUE, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the ROUTINE, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a REWARD, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. See the graph below:

Over time, this Loop becomes more and more automatic. The CUE and REWARD become intertwined until a powerful sense of anticipation and craving emerges. Eventually, a habit is born. So, when a habit emerges, the brain stops fully participating in decision making. It stops working so hard or diverts focus to other tasks. So unless you deliberately fight a habit – unless you find new routines – the pattern will unfold automatically.

“Habits never really disappear. They are encoded into the structures of our brain,” explains Duhigg. If we learn to create new neurological routines that overpower those behaviours – if we take control of the Habit Loop – we can force those bad tendencies into the background. And once someone creates a new pattern, studies have demonstrated, going for a jog or ignoring the doughnuts becomes as automatic as any other habit. “Habits,” writes Duhigg, “as much as memory and reason, are at the root of how we behave. We might not remember the experiences that create our habits, but once they are lodged in our brains, it influences how we act… often without our realization.”

For example McDonald and kids. When the kids are starving and parents are driving home after a long day it makes sense to stop by at McDonald's – it’s inexpensive and tastes good. One meal of processed food can’t be that bad, right? (So we reason). But habit emerges without our permission. Studies indicate that families usually don’t intend to eat fast food on a regular basis. But what happens is that a once a month pattern slowly becomes once in a week, and then twice a week.

As the cues and rewards create a habit, the kids are habitually consuming an unhealthy amount of chicken burgers and French fries. There are a number of cues and rewards that most customers never knew were influencing their behaviour – every McDonalds looks the same, the employees say the same things, and so everything is a consistent cue to trigger (unhealthy) eating routines. Duhigg observes, “The fries are designed to begin disintegrating the moment they hit your tongue, in order to deliver a hit of salt and grease as fast as possible, causing your pleasure centers to light up and your brain to lock in the pattern.” Every habit starts from the Habit Loop.

You Are the Sum of Your Habit(s)

The Power of Habit #0 The Habit Cure (Prologue Summary)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (2012) series. One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Enjoy!

                                                  

“Change might not be fast and it isn't always easy.
But with time and effort, almost any habit can be reshaped.”

(Charles Duhigg)

One paper published by a Duke University researcher in 2006 found that more than 40% of the actions people performed each day weren’t actual decisions, but habits. Habits can be changed, “if we understand how they work,” explained Charles Duhigg.

For example, a riot in Iraq. Violence was usually preceded by a crowd of Iraqis gathering in the plaza or other open space and, over the course of several hours, growing in size. Food vendors would show up, as well as spectators. Then, someone would throw a rock or a bottle and “all hell would break loose.” Then one day, a soldier who is an expert in the habit modification program requested from the town’s mayor to “keep food vendors out of the plazas.” The mayor agreed. A few weeks later, a small crowd gathered near the plaza and throughout the afternoon, it grew in size. Some people started chanting angry slogans. But at dusk, the crowd started getting restless and hungry. People looked for the kebab sellers normally filling the plaza, but there were none to be found. The spectators left. The chanters became dispirited. By 8pm, everyone was gone said Duhigg.

“Understanding habits is the most important thing I’ve learned in the army,” the major-soldier told Duhigg. “It’s changed everything about how I see the world. You want to fall asleep fast and wake up feeling good? Pay attention to your night-time patterns and what you automatically do when you get up. You want to make running easy? Create triggers to make it a routine. I drill my kids on this stuff. My wife and I write out habit plans for our marriage. This is all we talk about in command meetings. Not one person in Kufa (Iraq) would have told me that we could influence crowds by taking away the kebab stands, but once you see everything as a bunch of habits, it’s like someone gave you a flashlight and a crowbar and you can get to work.”

You Are the Sum of Your Habit(s)

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People #1 Be Proactive

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by late Stephen R. Covey, writer of the most-effective personal development book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (first published 1989). One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Grow!

“Be Proactive is about taking responsibility for your life. You can't keep blaming everything on your parents or grandparents. Proactive people recognize that they are ‘response-able.’ They don't blame genetics, circumstances, conditions, or conditioning for their behavior. They know they choose their behavior”
(Stephen R. Covey)

Covey categorizes people into two main groups: the ones that are proactive, and the ones that are reactive:

“Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase… Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the Circle of Concern. They focus on the weakness of other people, the problems in the environment, and circumstances over which they have no control. Their focus results in blaming and accusing attitudes, reactive language, and increased feelings of victimization. The negative energy generated by that focus, combined with neglect in areas they could do something about, causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.”

So, every one of us has a circle of influence and a circle of concern that both share the same center in our personality. As we encounter each part of the problem, we are to choose on how to react to it. If it is something we can’t fix no matter what, we stop concerning about it and focus on the other parts that we can change.

For example, if we live in a society that is characterized by unemployment, reactive people do nothing at all and being passive to the reality. Proactive people focus on what they can do to improve themselves, create new jobs (or part-time) and be more competitive.

Effective People are Proactive People

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: To Change Effectively, Change Perceptions (Introduction)

This is a chapter-by-chapter summary of a book by late Stephen R. Covey, writer of the most-effective personal development book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change (first published 1989). One chapter, one article. Read this summary, buy the book. Grow!

“To change ourselves effectively, we first had to change our perceptions”

“In order to be effective, you have to focus on changing some important things in yourself”

(Stephen R. Covey)

According to Covey, the most importing thing we have to change in ourselves is not our behaviour, but our character and perceptions. Changing our behaviour, which is what most people tend to do when choosing to change themselves, has only brief results. To be effective, we must put an effort into changing the way we see the world around us (perceptions).

Another important thing to mention is that people see other successful people around them and tend to try to become like them in the most effortless and brief way possible. If we really want to achieve our goal we must not focus that much on how long will that take, but firstly focus to change from inside out to be able to attempt it. For example, you can’t really start building a house without building the foundations first.

That’s what The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People will teach you step by step. The first 3 habits emphasize on improving your skills to become independent. The next 3 are focused on taking advantage of teamwork development, interacting with people and become interdependent. The last one is about improving what you’ve already achieved and growing bigger and bigger.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People are:

To Change Effectively, First Change Your Perceptions!

As A Man Thinketh #4 The Most Basic and Logical Principle

“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles”

(James Allen, As A Man Thinketh)

Most everyone understands the biblical concept of sowing and reaping because we can grasp the simplicity of logic. If we were to plant durian in our farm we wouldn’t expect apple to come up. But even though we can grasp the logic, we don’t always act as if we understand the power of this principle. And we certainly don’t act as if this principle will affect us.

An example: For many years my morning ritual began with video games (or PSP to be exact). Most mornings spending an hour or more on games and morning news before dashing off the office. I wasn’t realize then that our minds are most impressionable immediately upon rising in the morning and just before sleep in the evening. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me that my sowing of these thoughts would reap an ‘attitude’ at my workplace (impatient, demanding, shouting, etc.).

I gave up my morning ritual seven years ago and replaced it with a habit of reading. I read my Bible or book of the week and on the way to work I listened to motivational or self-development audiobook. When I sow “good thoughts” and thus I’ll reap “good results.” The Apostle Paul wrote, “You’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse” (Philippians 4:8, The Message).

We always reap what we sow and that is especially true with our thoughts. As Emmet Fox writes, “The secret of life then is to control your mental states, for if you will do this the rest will follow. To accept sickness, trouble, and failure as unavoidable, and perhaps inevitable, is folly, because it is this very acceptance by you that keeps these evils in existence. Man is not limited by his environment. He creates his environments by his beliefs and feelings. To suppose otherwise is like thinking that the tail can wag the dog.”

Think about it!

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

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)

5 Words to Know that You're Creative

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NIV)

Dorothy Sayers once said that if all we knew about God was the first five words in the Bible, all we would know is that God is creative. When in the first words of the Bible, we discover God’s identity as a creator, we get a glimpse of our own identity as humans who possess creative capacities.

Genesis (chapter 1) reveals the dimension of God’s creative process, which, not surprisingly, given our creation in God’s image, is replicated in human creativity. “In the beginning, God created.” God brings something out of nothing and order out of chaos. “The earth was a formless void.” God is a seer who can envision something others cannot and then imaginatively reveal the new reality as a unique, distinct entity. “God saw what He had made and it was good.” Like God, the good artist strives for excellence, not just expression, and the spiritual, intellectual, and imaginative quality of the work is the measurement by which we determine the worth of our art. “The heavens declare the glory of God,” and the human artist seeks to relate and communicate through his or her art.

Our human creativity originates in God’s creative image, which is imprinted in our genetic code. Whereas God created out of nothing; humans create out of what exists. So Igor Stravinsky observes, “Only God can create. I make music from music.” Great artists will tell you that their imaginative inspiration comes from some unknown place. Filmmaker Ang Lee confesses that when things work, they come to him; they are not what he was willed. Mark Doty says that a good poem is something he finds, not something he makes. Imagination cannot be manufactured or willed into being, yet it is at the heart of the creative enterprise. God creates from a known place, Himself, and at God’s core, you find an imaginative being.

Imagination reflects originality, intuition, and the hitherto unseen, and so we evaluate our individual and cultural health by looking for evidence of our imaginative capacity to deliver the new and fresh, which elicits and illuminates deeper, transcendent meanings.

As image bearers, we are designed with a creative capacity.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

[Quote from The Culturally Savvy Christian: A Manifesto for Deepening Faith and Enriching Popular Culture in an Age of Christianity-Lite by Dick Staub (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007) page 52-53]

Nurture Creativity: Keep It Simple

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace;

making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity” (Charles Mingus)

To create complicated thing is not the same thing as creating complexity. For example, even though internal software and electronic stuffs in the phone are complex (at least for me), the use of phones like iPhone is insanely simple. iPhone is a complicated product made easy to use. Making our ideas take shape does not necessarily have to be so complicated. Have you ever get annoyed by a difficult-hard-to-use tool or get bored by a looooonnnnggg elaborate project presentation or browsing website with too many options or answering that full-of-never-ending questions of your friend survey paper for his research project? What a waste of time!

One day after I shared in a Bible Study, a student came to me and said, “Wow, thank you brother. All this while I find it’s hard for me to understand this part of the Scriptures, now you make it so simple that I just can’t missed it!” Of course I thank God for his response. But behind the scene, it took me hours to reread, understand, prayed, asked God for wisdom and studied the text to present it in such a way that it will be easy for people to understand. Sometime I’m amazed (negative kind of) that people are making the simple complicated rather than simplify it. Common people tend to love complicating stuff; creative people however will think and ask: What does people want or need? Can I make it simpler? How can I remove ‘clutter’? Highly creative people understand that simplicity is not necessary the absent of complexity but the removal of unnecessary distractors and clutters.

Marty Neumeier author of The 46 Rules of Genius writes, “People tend to view simplicity and complexity as opposites. But this isn’t strictly true. The enemy of simplicity isn’t complexity, but disorder. And the enemy of complexity is also disorder. While complexity seeks order through addition, simplicity seeks it through subtraction. A goal of design is to drive out disorder by maximizing both simplicity and complexity. In most designed products, what we respond to best is a rich, layered experience (complexity) combined with ease of use, ease of understanding, or ease of purchase (simplicity).” He continues, “Most people have a build-in bias toward addition instead of subtraction. For some reason, the concept of ‘more’ comes naturally to us. Yet the innovator knows that the value of any design doesn’t lie in how much is piled on, but how much is discarded. More is more, but less is better.” Spot on!

We have reached the peak in creativity not when we have nothing more to add, but when there is nothing to subtract. Like many habits, simplicity is a hard thing to do initially. But in the long-run, it is worth the fight. “Simple can be harder than complex,” said Steve Jobs, “You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” How to be creatively simple? Buy books on the subject or/and start to think and live simple. In the meanwhile, do this: look around you. What are the project, presentation, work and ideas that you can make it simpler today? How can they be improved? What can you do to reduce it to bare essentials? Could some of them be removed? Is there something missing?

Keep it simple.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

Think Big

For more than 40 years, Stanford psychologist Carol S. Dweck has studied the science of how our self-conceptions influence our actions. Her work offers great insight into why thinking big is such a big deal.

Dweck’s work with children revealed two mindsets in action – a “growth” mindset that generally thinks big and seeks growth and a “fixed” mindset that places artificial limits and avoids failure. Growth-minded students, as she calls them, employ better learning strategies, experience less helplessness, exhibit more positive effort, and achieve more in the classroom than their fix-minded peers. They are less likely to place limits on their lives and more likely to reach for their potential. Dweck points out that mindsets can and do change. Like any other habit, you set your mind to it until the right mindset becomes routine.

When Scott Forstall started recruiting talent to his newly formed team, he warned that the top-secret project would provide ample opportunities to “make mistakes and struggle, but eventually we may do something that we’ll remember the rest of our lives.” He gave this curious pitch to superstars across the company, but only took those who immediately jumped at the challenge. He was looking for “growth-minded” people, as he later shared with Dweck after reading her book.

Why is this significant? While you’ve probably never heard of Forstall, you’ve certainly heard of what his team created. Forstall was a senior vice president at Apple, and the team he formed created the iPhone.

-         Taken from The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results by Garry Keller with Jay Papasan (Bard Press, 2012), page 91-92.

In the same way, growth-minded people are highly creative people.

Change your mindset, think big, think growth, think creatively.

God, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

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)

The Art of Touching, Tasting and Smelling Creatively

Average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing,

touches without feeling, eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness,

inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking”

(Leonardo da Vinci)

Creativity also can be enhance and increase through our senses of touch, taste and smell. All these senses – including visual and sound – will bring impact on our creativity. When you touch, don’t forget to feel it. When you eat, try to taste it. When you breathe, aware of smell around you. “If we use all five senses – scent, sight, sound, touch, and taste – to stimulate our minds while working,” explain Jane Porter, writer for Fast Company website, “then this may spark more creativity.” Remember, idea is all around you.

Touch

I cannot work in a very cool environment. When I go to the state library, I will take a walk every half an hour for 3-5 minutes to get myself warm. In my office, if nobody is around I prefer to use fan. At home, open windows is good enough. Temperature surround our environment impacts our focus and work performance. Keep our office too cold or too hot may cause errors and inefficiency in the workplace. Sense of touch really can affect us. Another example, if you wear your watch on the other hand for a day or switching your wallet from your right pocket to your left, these adjustments of daily routines can stimulate creativity too. Learn to touch creatively and really feeling it.

Taste

Jane Porter writes, “The connection between food and your mood has been demonstrated across studies over the years. Incorporating fruits, green vegetables, and complex carbohydrates into your diet helps with energy and focus. Fill your body with junk, and your mind likely won't be running on the best fuel.” For me, coffee (not a junk!) is my idea-mood booster. Some suggest a wee bit of alcohol can boost creativity because it helps block out the rational left brain. But when we are at the office, coffee or tea, is preferable. And powerful too. Try this also, eat a fruit – for example, apple. Look at it in your hand and then slowly put it in your mouth and close your eyes. Notice everything as it hits your tongue. Don't chew it yet. See how long you can go just tasting it. Your mouth should water with anticipation as you continue to roll it on your tongue, sucking and tasting the sweetness of that apple. When you start to chew it be aware of everything that you taste. Do you realize how good apple is? Learn to taste and really tasting it.

Smell

I like to go to Starbuck and order my favourite thick-black coffee. Even if I don’t buy, I sometime pretend to look around the shop but secretly I sniff for that amazing aromatic strong smell of coffee brewing. Oh so nice! (I’m not an addict-er, mind you, I’m simply a passionate coffee lover). Often when I need to refocus and attract inspiration, I just smell the coffee, which I find very helpful for me to stimulate my thoughts. Books also can create such stimulation for me. Maybe you like the smell of tea or flower or fresh oceanic air or perfume candle, use it to stimulate your focus and creativity. Put it somewhere close to you. Creativity must smell good! Find your stimulus and really smelling it. Enjoy!

Utilizing the sense of touching, tasting and smelling (hearing and seeing too) are the easiest way to instantly tap into our own creative potential. By experiencing and experimenting with different sensations, we open ourselves up to new ideas. Like what Leonardo da Vinci like to say it: “The five senses are the ministers of the soul.”

Idea is all around you

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)

The Art of Hearing Creatively

Average human “looks without seeing, listens without hearing, touches without feeling,

eats without tasting, moves without physical awareness,

inhales without awareness of odour or fragrance, and talks without thinking”

(Leonardo da Vinci)

We love to talk and are often too busy thinking about what we’re going to say next, or too desperate to get our own voices heard. We forget to stop and listen to what the other person is saying. Basically, in general, we lost the art of listening to God, to our inner voices, to one another, to nature and everything around us. We “listens without hearing.” Therefore, to unleash our creativity, we need to learn to listen and really hearing what’s being said, taking it in, paying attention and thinking about it. Ideas is all around us.

Wily W.Walnut, creative coach, writes, “If you can learn to really listen to the sounds of people's voices, the way in which they say things, you will deduce things that others miss.” In the same way, like people’s voices, if we listen carefully to the music that we adore, nature and sounds around us, we may hear things that people might often ignored. When we listen, we open doors for many ideas to flow. The practise of listening will gives birth to some potential avenues for ideas interaction and for the development of new ideas. Listening, I think, is the cornerstone of creative activity.

Do you know how I come out with ideas and motivations to write this blog? One of it is through listening. Literally, I listen to audiobooks or audio talks every day. I listen to music, stories, sermons, talks, seminars and conferences such as Talks at Google, TED Talks, The RSA, Big Think, Ideas at The House, etc. Sometime I simply ‘steals’ people’s ideas during conversations, modified it and come out with new and better ideas.  “I like to listen,” explained Ernest Hemingway, “I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” Maybe you can try these “hearing” exercises to increase your creativity. Remember, ideas is all around you.

§  First, detox your hearing! Turn off or go off from your gadgets and just breathe. Be silent. Refresh your ears every day.

§  Pause in the midst of your daily life and just listen. Just become aware of all the different sounds that you can hear. Sort through the sound and identify as many unique sounds as you can.

§  Really sit down with headphones and listen to your favourite audio lessons or songs. For example, if you hear a song, don't sing along. Just listen. Try to hear the sounds in the track as purely as possible. Let them be. Let them emerge as they wish to and you just follow along.

§  Expand your musical tastes. Varied your music genre. Try to enjoy Beethoven and Jason Mraz.

§  Go online. Download free audiobooks, sermons, and talks and plug your earphone. Listen and learn.

§  Buy yourself a cup of coffee or peanuts and listen to people talking and chatting. You can do this in the mall, public park, sidewalk or on the street. And if you dare, you may want to spark a conversation with strangers. Listen to what they say.

§  Go out into nature. Listen. Let it teach you.

Listen and really hearing. Idea is all around you.

Lord, Give Us Today Our Daily Idea(s)