wholistic / connected self

Locking a creative person in a Hardware store is like locking a kid in a Toy shop.

For the innovator, the world is one great big Hardware store.

For creative people, areas of knowledge are just shelves in a supermarket, full of goodies.

An innovator can be categorized as some one who ignores categories.

Categories are the prisons built for established specialists.

Ideas are limited by the silly walls built around fields of knowledge.

Visual communication

 Even an Interior Decorator can SAY something about the character of the building & purpose of the spaces.

Art speaks, decoration is mute.

An artist often explores different mediums to explore new ways to communicate.

I've been to Europe & seen the great halls. -There's a big difference between Art & decoration.

You're not a Decorator. You are a Visual Communicator. (Many created objects are communication devices).

Don't look at your art as decoration. When Michelangelo was asked to 'decorate' the Sistine Chapel, he ran for the hills.

Business is about providing something useful. Yet some artists don't consider that their art can ever serve any useful purpose

People aren't remembered for how well they painted, but for WHAT they painted. (What is the SUBJECT you want to be remembered for?)

Art is great when it says something... Isn't this interesting, Isn't this funny, This is how I felt, This is important to me...

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Trying new things

The life of a creative person is to attempt new things. Distraction is the avoidance of attempting new things.

If you never create, you'll tell yourself you can't do it. If you do create, you'll still need to remind yourself that it was you.

The real buzz is creating something you haven't done before. You surprise yourself everyday.

Creativity is about doing stuff you haven't done before. You begin by fearing it. Then you begin to love it.

Life is a fluid situation. Sometimes you gotta get your feet wet.

No one is ready to graduate or ready for the job interview, or ready to work for themselves. But they begin.

So many wait impatiently for a limo, when the bus was all they needed.

No one is ever 100% ready to begin. So many put off the work of their dreams forever.

Procrastination is indecision. Indecision is resistance.

People wait for decades until they feel ready. The world also waits.

You need to actively chase projects you want to do. Or you WILL be doing uninteresting work.

Stagnation is making what you know well. Enthusiasm is for what we have only imagined.

Don't need to wait for a job you've already done. Chase the creative career you want.

Obvious enthusiasm is more valuable than career experience.

You're not the sum of you work experience. Aim for your career expectations.

Don't be distracted by what you can do. Focus on what you want to create.

Stagnation, indecisive, procrastination, unmotivated & frustrated: all symptoms of no clear vision for your future career. 

You know you are creating when you say, "I have no idea what I'm doing".

People who know how, didn't know how when they began.

We all imagine a tight-rope between today and our ideal future.

To create is a risk. Not creating is a bigger risk.

10,000 say, "I don't know how", and never start. A rare few say, "I will figure it out" and begin.

Some wait for the perfect time. Some are waiting to be perfect.

We wait until we are ready, willing & able. But we just need to be willing.

People say they aren't creative. What they mean is: "I feel safe in my box".

Many say, "I'm not creative". (Translation: "I got by up till now").

For the past 50 years you could get by without being creative. Not any more.

SUCCESS: It’s not what you do well now, it's what you want to do great.

It's not how creative you are. It's how creative you want to be.

Creativity flows AFTER you start creating.

You won't learn about personal innovation until you take a risk.

Time & priorities

How can anyone hope for a more creative life if they don't even set aside 30 minutes a day to create.

I few minutes writing your thoughts down everyday is a great start to a more creative life.

The first step in a transition to a more creative life is to accept your need to create regularly.

It's about Task Management, not time management. Focus on your strengths.

Remember, People who are good at wasting their time, are good at wasting yours too.

Can't decide how best to use your time? Love knows when to say Yes. Wisdom knows when to say No.

Want to save a lot of time? Give people what they need, not what they want.

We spend our whole life waiting for the perfect time. But life isn't perfect.

Everyone needs a Creative Retreat. But that sounds defeatist. Let's call it a Creative Takeover.

We have no time to create because we have an over inflated sense of duty to go beyond our needs.

Today we have more opportunity to fill up our time, instead of protecting pockets of time to explore opportunities.

Your idea must be more valued than the compulsion to fill ever moment with mildly amusing distractions.

Ever experienced the subtle pressure not to create? "Oh, you're not doing much, can you help me"(?)

When we accept the mental cycle of "Need to work & deserve a rest", we won't allow ourselves time to create.

Great way to be more creative: What can you create that will be finished by sunset?

If people don't value your time, they don't value what you're doing.

Time should be shared, exchanged & given voluntarily. Not expected from you.

Time is valuable. People can expect too much of it from you.

Your life isn't giving your time away. It's devoting you time to what you love.

It's easy to say, "When I've organised everything, then I'll create". That makes your art the lowest priority.

There will always, always be something else to do. But you CAN find 15 minutes to create everyday.

I wonder what’s on the Procrasta-vision?

Maybe I'll aimlessly surf the Procrasta-net?

We wait for the mythical 'When'...but the 'NOW' is your moment.

Tomorrow will be a better day to start... ...Start TODAY will a better tomorrow be.

The greatest gift to yourself is TIME...YOU are one of your priorities.

I've been guilty of over planning & under achieving.

Education is a wonderful thing but it conditions people to learn first, THEN apply it in the real world.

'Beginning' has a wonderful effect; What you thought was too hard & too tiring is often only an illusion.

The best way forward is often a bit to the left or right. Never in the middle or to the extreme.

The world & society

Poverty is being robbed in advance.

A society that nurtures the creative, protects the ideas that society will need in the future.

If people valued seeds (of talent) as much as fruit, there would be more of both.

You have already experienced more changes than someone from 100 years ago.

Most of what you use everyday didn't exist 12 years ago. What you're learning now wasn't here 4 years ago.

Modern society should be measured in dog years. And it needs to learn some new tricks.

Societies that value conformity, tradition & duty, can't value new ideas & self expression.

Every society needs a vision. It should be that the unique visions of many should be encouraged for the benefit of all society.

We all got something to prove. Even if it's to prove the world wrong.

You either re-enforce the assumptions or re-invent as much as you can.

The first rule of Popular Culture is; You must accept all their assumptions.

When 80% agree on anything, I worry for the other 20%.

When someone tells me a picture is crooked. I say it's actually straight, it's the world that's crooked.

A better society is one that shows appreciation for more of it's artists & innovators sooner.

A poor country is where people struggle to survive. A rich country is where people struggle to stay awake.

The world is divided into people who have to be self-reliant, & those who need to be.

A lot of music videos seems to be a very elaborate form of flirting.

Your informed personal opinion is more useful than the sound bites of public opinion.

People have freedom of speech. The Individual has the freedom to think, without minding what people are saying.

It's getting harder to work out what is fact, fiction or formula.

If people labels don't stick on you, they'll try mud instead (but what you ignore will fall off).

The only labels that mean anything are the ones you choose to carry.

The world loves to put labels on people. The job of an Individual is to defy description.

The world puts people in boxes so they don't have to think outside of it.

The world will have more geniuses if people were not over medicated & over mediated.

The best guardians of society are people who don't conform to it.

The world always underestimates it's creative potential.

Our future is already conceived in the minds of the young.

History is the record of the impatient. They didn't wait for change. (Often enlightened in individuals but seldom in crowds).

For some reason, it's hard to push a 'problem' into the sea. So much better to make space for a shared solution.

The more a crowd focuses on a problem, the more it becomes the problem.

The fact that a lot of opinions are regional, suggests that many people don't think beyond their own experience.

People want to prove the merit of their ideas. The world should give them the space to do it.

The good news is; Not everyone believes all the bad news.

Money is tight because people are tight.

The Media

News stories focus mainly on repeating the negative. It's like junk food for the soul.

News stories are about the follies of the rich & the poor. The media can't think of any thing to say about average people.

The only creative people who should read newspapers regularly are Fiction writers & Comedians.

Popular culture can be more than a lot of people copying each other.

Talent, gifts & potential (knowing your strengths)

We owe a lot to the artists of the world. Or everyone will still be drawing stick figures in the sand.

Talent is the magnification on small details. Vision is a filter than screens out other details.

Nothing wrong with admiring the talents of others. But don't rubbish yours.

Our talents are our strength. People who don't know their talents feel weak.

If we really know our talents, we wouldn't want the talents of others.

You definitely have talents. It's just they may look different to how you imagined them.

We need to know the difference between the talents we admire but don't have, & the talents we have but don't as yet admire.

Our talents have room to grow when we see a lot of possibilities in our area of interest.

Talent is the ability to imagine endless possibilities in the things you love.

We need to rediscover the talent of being ourselves.

Successful people came to the realization that the best use of their life is the best use of their talents.

A creative life is the process of exercising one talent, only to find other talents emerge.

Never liked working with numbers. They always assume there is only one answer.

Whenever I find things I can't do, I tell myself, "I must be good at something else".

Perfectionism is bad, but if you focus on your strengths, you'll get pretty close to it.

I don't know what your gift is but I know it's unique.

Much talent is hidden from the world. And our own talent can be hidden from ourselves.

FOUND: One big bag of creative potential. If it's yours, claim it as soon as possible.

I don't wait for luck. I believe in my own creative potential.

I believe that so much potentual creativity goes to waste.

Yes, we are all born creative. It's just that we are all creative in different ways.

Talent isn't what you can do. It's the thing that makes you unique.

Multi-talented and unfocused? Combine them for real creativity.

A creative person believes that their best work is ahead of them.

You know you value your talents, when you value today.

Your power is your natural talent.

Your greatest talent is the expression of your vision.

To have the confidence in the future you want, you need to have confidence in the talent you know you have.

100 billion neurons in your head. Oh yeh, you definitely have possibilities.

Your talents can be revealed in your sensitivity to colors, sounds, contradictions, concepts.

One of my strengths is to find creative ways to compensate for my weaknesses.

Knowing your weakness is also a strength. Makes us collaborative & humble.

Rely on ourselves for what we CAN do. Rely on each other for what we can't do.

Be fair to yourself. You can't rule the world. You can only change it.

Got the music in you? Time to get it out of you.

Your talent is stuff you do easily or quickly. Don't under price your work just because it's easy.

Talent is a seed...

The talented people you admire, can't do things you can do.

Your hands are the gloves your talent wears when you let it do its work.

Talent is like an old friend. You know what he's done, but you don't know what he'll do next.

Can't predict what your talent will do. It will always surprise you.

When exploring your talents, you can imagine the possibilities. But you soon discover they give you many pleasant surprises.

From a friend: "I loved that work you did. Are you still doing that?"

From a friend: "You're talented. You should do something with that".

Your talent will define your direction. Your dedication will define the distance.

Your talent may look different than imagined. But it can also take you places you never imagined.

Talent is first revealed in a persistent day dream.

Talented hands, a curious mind & an enthusiastic heart makes a person capable of greatness.

Talent is a raw mineral, a natural resource. It needs to be refined into it's pure form.

Talent is what you love to think about.

Talent needs character; the ability to do what comes easy, even when life makes it difficult.

Talent makes something easy to do. Education makes it easier to do in the future.

Talent needs to become a skill, to become a service, if that talent is to survive.

Some talents are unique to you. Some talents are common to man but rarely used.

Quality shouldn't be a goal; It starts now in the little things you do.