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Unleash Your Inner Creativity for Achieving Unparalleled Success

Once again, I am pleased to host writer Jessica Brody on Finding the Better Way. The past few years have been fraught with finding new ways to do things, finding different methods for accomplishing our goals and employment has been a difficult path for many. Enjoy Jessica’s writing and feel free to pass this on to others who might be interested in this path.

Best, Dan

In today’s rapidly evolving world, the ability to harness and cultivate creativity is crucial for both personal advancement and professional achievement. Whether you’re an artist pushing the boundaries of your craft, a writer in search of new inspiration, or an entrepreneur on the forefront of innovation, the strategies outlined here (and shared via Finding the Better Way: An Outsider’s View) aim to rejuvenate your creative energies and propel you toward your aspirations.

Explore Different Artistic Avenues

Venturing into new artistic realms not only broadens your skill set but also encourages innovative thinking. By experimenting with different forms of expression, such as learning a new musical instrument, exploring digital art, or diving into creative writing, you push the boundaries of your comfort zone. This exploration challenges your usual thought patterns and reveals hidden talents, sparking new passions. Each unique medium offers a fresh perspective, enhancing your creative journey.

Revitalize Your Career with a New Path

Changing careers can significantly reinvigorate your creativity, presenting an opportunity to explore new horizons and challenges. Exploring a cybersecurity degree through an online program allows for the flexibility to work full-time while gaining critical knowledge in protecting a business’s computers and network systems. This path not only broadens your skill set but also injects a fresh wave of inspiration and innovation into your professional life.

Broaden Your Literary Horizons

Exploring a wide range of literary works, from timeless classics to enlightening non-fiction, exposes you to various perspectives and styles, fueling your creativity. By reading beyond your usual choices, you challenge your preconceptions and ignite your imagination. This immersion into diverse narratives not only generates new ideas but also builds empathy and enhances your problem-solving skills. Each book serves as a gateway to different worlds, expanding your creative vision and inspiring broader thinking.

Embrace the Unfamiliar

Stepping into the realm of the unknown and welcoming risk and innovation serve as powerful drivers of creativity. Pursuing unique and untested ideas distinguishes you in any domain, demanding bravery and a readiness to face failure. Such challenges are the birthplace of revolutionary concepts, as innovation often emerges from the confluence of diverse ideas and fields. By adopting a mindset open to experimentation, you lay the groundwork for significant breakthroughs and personal development.

Enhance Your Professional Image with a Resume

Securing a job that fulfills your creative desires begins with the foundational step of crafting a stellar and professional-looking resume. By utilizing a free online resume builder, you can effortlessly create a resume that stands out, choosing from a library of professionally designed templates. This allows you to personalize your application with your own copy, photos, colors, and images, ensuring that your unique creative flair and professional skills are showcased effectively to potential employers.

Foster a Sense of Wonder

Nurturing a constant curiosity propels you towards endless discovery and learning, essential components of the creative process. By questioning the status quo, exploring diverse interests, and deepening your understanding of various subjects, you not only expand your knowledge base but also uncover novel insights and connections. This quest for knowledge encourages deeper exploration, leading to more profound, creative ideas and solutions.

Create Your Creative Sanctuary

Creating a dedicated space for your creative projects is key to maintaining concentration and productivity. A workspace free from distractions allows you to immerse yourself in the creative flow, where your best ideas can emerge. Tailoring this space to reflect your inspirations and goals can further motivate and support your artistic and professional endeavors. Such a sanctuary acts as a tangible representation of your creative journey, aiding in the realization of your artistic and career aspirations.

Incorporating these strategies into your daily routine not only reignites your creative spark but also lays a solid foundation for navigating challenges and achieving success. Creativity flourishes with change, curiosity, and the courage to explore the uncharted. By dedicating yourself to these principles, you unlock a world of endless possibilities and embark on an exhilarating journey of continuous growth and discovery. Embrace this path with an open heart and mind, and witness the transformative power of creativity in your personal and professional life.

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My_Way

Photo:Keith_Johnston/Pixabay

As humans, we all like to do things in our own particular way. This may be tempered by being left or right handed, tall or short, or unable to do things in multiple ways. There is a comfort to this for all of us. So when we are challenged by a parent, a spouse, a teacher, or a coach to learn a ‘new’ way of doing things, we sometimes don’t see the reason we should change. ‘Why? This is working perfectly well for me,’ is a common response. What we don’t often see is the necessity of making something better, yet as both artist and sculpture, it is difficult to admit—to ourselves, largely—that other ways may, indeed, serve us better, particularly when we are working to make ourselves better.

As a result of not being able to see ourselves in any kind of neutral way, we go through life doing things and making decisions based on what we know, what we have experienced, tempered with our triumphs, our fears, and our doubts. When we look around and see others doing things in a particular way, there is a tendency to imitate what we have seen modeled for us, even if it doesn’t quite work the way we think it should. We know when we make mistakes, and it’s never a good feeling admitting such, yet it is the best thing we can do. As Einstein is famous for saying that he didn’t fail, but that he just found 1,000 ways NOT to make a lightbulb. For most of us, this is not comforting, but leaves us feeling sheepish, not to have seen the errors in our thoughts. 

We all do this, yet as small children, we were not born with the innate ability to walk, run, talk, or sing, yet the mistakes we made while learning to do so, were, indeed, simply one particular way NOT to do something. We go on to talk, sing, walk, run, and do all sorts of wonderful things that bring pleasure to our lives and let us enjoy our lives. As a junior tennis player, I had a coach who thought a particular way to serve might be better for me, given my strength, my height, and my playing style, and so when she suggested that I learn the new motion, I jumped on the idea, and with many errant balls not going in any direction I wanted them to go, I finally caught on to how my body went through the motions of this new serve, practicing—in frustration or triumph—and one day I was amazed to see the ball go precisely where I wanted it to go, and I had a new serve in my game. Not letting go of the old motion or refusing to try a new one would have simply left me where I was, which was not a bad thing in particular, but without doing that I would never have learned ‘what I was missing.’

My way. It works for me. And when it ceases to ‘work’ it’s time to let go of ‘my way’ and find another. The journey to that new place may be frustrating, or painful, but when I live my life seeking the Truth—my truth as well as the truth of others—I am able to see other horizons I might have missed…sticking with the tried-and-true.

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Language Art

Photo: Free-Photos/Pixabay

Language is one of the great gifts to human beings. With it, we express those thoughts, emotions, and feelings that would otherwise remain hidden within us. Language is, however, a double-edged sword that can hurt as well as defend. As a race, we are often in disagreement about things, large and small, and tend to stand by our choices and beliefs vehemently, sometimes attacking the opinions of others in defense of what we believe to be right. When we use the gift of language to build up, and not tear down, to display truth and not falsehood, we are making moves toward a more open, honest, and cohesive world.

‘But what about those people who don’t do that? Those people who attack things they don’t even understand fully, just to be difficult, or to make things difficult for others?’ These people are, indeed, with us, and it is frustrating not only to hear their words, but to see and understand that there are those who believe what is being said, not questioning anything, but simply taking it as truth. Which it is not. What to do then? Many will dismiss those others as ‘stupid,’ ‘ignorant,’ ‘uneducated,’ and so forth, but what purpose does that serve? It serves only to further separate ‘us’ from ‘them’ in belief, and it creates a situation where not only is no one listening, but there is no one trying to connect in any way at all. There are, to be sure, those who are doing this to create tension and encourage separation, but this is not using language as a tool to connect, but to divide.

Speaking in languages of respect, help, listening, and love, so that we actually hear each other, especially when we are in disagreement, especially to those who doubt our words and thoughts, is the only way to ensure that some kind of civil discourse can prevail. Even if we finish our discussion still in disagreement, we will have heard what others are saying, what they are thinking, and how they think things should be done. Within those words could be the nuggets of an idea that has not been presented, that actually brings a number of things together, and in most ways, satisfies everyone. If it was not heard, though, how can it be nurtured and allowed to grow into something bigger and better than a single idea or thought presented originally.

To reach our goals as humans, there is a lot of speaking and listening, picking up one idea and discarding another, arguing about the merits of one thing and not the other, and coming to some conclusion on how to best go forward. We face this situation at every age, in every situation, in life and in work, and we navigate it as best we can. Going into these situations, though, with a mind more open than not, can be one of the best things we do…for ourselves. Prepared like this, we are able to listen, perhaps question our own ideas, ask questions for clarity, and discuss how particular ideas might be the best template for what we desire. To use our gift of language to the ways for which it was intended.

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The_Right_Path,or_not…

Photo:Alexas_Foto/Pixabay

Have you ever started on a road trip, thinking you know the way, and then find yourself lost, with no idea how to get back on track? We all have done exactly this. It does not end with road trips, however. We can be on the wrong track, the best of intentions and plans in place, and realize this is a mistake. A big mistake! Taking a job that sounded so great, yet makes us miserable. Choosing to go to graduate school, only to realize that further study of a particular subject is not doing to help us, and adds nothing to our lives. Moving to a new city or state, to ‘start over.’ All of us have been there for one reason or another, and are then tasked with finding a way ‘out’ of the mistake we created. Sometimes it is a matter of retracing our steps to find the mistake, and at other times we have gone so far astray that we know we are now on unfamiliar ground, and need to truly start over.

While ‘starting over’ does not seem so bad in theory, as adults we tend not to like going back to versions of our younger self when we knew less, we answered to others, and our decisions did not affect our lives as they do when we are adults. When we experience a physical injury that heals slowly, and leaves us needing to learn to do basic things again, when we have ‘been through that’ already, we become frustrated. We become more childlike. We may cry. Having met people who have had to learn to walk again, their frustration at their helplessness is palpable: they may lash out at others, and all the feelings they could not possibly have expressed as young children learning the same thing come out, leaving them feeling even worse.

Sometimes, and this is another thing that adults do not like to hear, the solution is to wait, and for time to work its magic. Those who need to learn how to walk again after an injury find themselves dependent on others for much more than they thought, both physically and emotionally. Yet, if we are able to see our plight as both adult and child, that is, understanding what needs to be done to move forward, and allowing ourselves to be vulnerable, to be open to suggestion, and to trust in the good intentions of those around us, the healing begins in earnest. We can celebrate simple things, in this case: standing on our own, without crutches or aids. Or perhaps taking a short walk, maybe just across the room, or maybe down the street. These are the victories of that openness and trust.

As adults, we tend to be very self-reliant at times, refusing to see our situation as it really is. When we then cling to the belief that we are ‘right’ in doing things as we are, we close a door to let other people show us a different way that may actually be the thing we seek. When we let ourselves make mistakes, course correct, and are open to new ideas, we allow ourselves the capability of finding the path that brings us happiness, satisfaction, and joy. The empty space in our life is finally filled as the right puzzle piece clicks into place.

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To_Rise_Above

Photo:12019/Pixabay

Each and every day, life presents us with challenges; those that try our patience, those that cause anger, those that scare us. And depending on what we face, we handle them in various ways and keep moving through our lives. Much of what ‘challenges’ us does so because there is often fear behind our reaction. Things such as ‘Am I going to get through this?’ ‘What will people think of me when they find out?’ Or ‘Will this cause me to lose my job?’ All things that make us pause, think a bit more deeply than simpler questions demand of us, and make a decision.  As humans, there is a strong desire to stay safe and keep ourselves alive, and things that scare us are connected to those fears that things may change and not for the better. 

George Bernard Shaw said that progress—hope—depends on the courage of the unreasonable man. The man that walks into the arena to face the lion, the one that swims out into the ocean to save the one who was not paying attention to the currents, the one who simply looks fear in the eye and does not flinch. Yet, all of us, at some time, have made the decision that ‘it is too much,’ for us to handle. Yet Shaw’s ‘unreasonable man’ is the reason things change for the better. All those expressions like ‘The tall flower gets cut down.’ or, ‘no one has ever done that’ can be taken in many different ways, though. Certainly, the way many of us understand them is that we are not to take the risk, challenge the authority, or upset the cart. Because people will not like it, and they will then blame us. If we truly believe these sayings, and many of us do, good would never triumph over evil, the status quo would never be challenged, and nothing would ever improve. Can you imagine? Living in a world where nothing changes? Where the powerful always win? Where the powerless always lose?

This is where the expression ‘ordinary people doing extraordinary things’ reminds us that while we can choose courage ourselves, sometimes we believe in something so much that courage chooses us and we find ourselves doing things we never would believe we could do, yet there we are, doing them. It’s one thing to be scared of something or someone, yet it’s another thing entirely to live in fear of them. What most people generally want in life is actually on the other side of fear. Which means we need to rise above our fears, our doubts, our lack of training or education, and simply do it. Instead of making a choice to be afraid and avoiding the challenge in front of us, a better tack is to decide on what action we will take. It can be small or it can be large, but actually doing something to address what is perplexing us helps build our own confidence, which leads to the realization that there are other things that we might be able to do as well.

These are extraordinary decisions, big and small, and they are our baby-stepping stones to learning what we are capable of doing and of living the life we always thought we would live. To rise above our fears and say…’Yes, I will try.’

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In_Plain_Sight

Photo: Kranich17/Pixabay

As we go through our lives, we visually take in a great many things that register in our brains in various ways. Sometimes, we look all over the house for our car keys or glasses, only to find them in a very obvious place. Obvious to everyone but us. Driving a car through the city or the countryside brings more things to catch our attention, but we tend to describe our journey as bucolic or fast-paced, without mentioning the things we saw. When questioned by others, ‘Did you see the museum on Park Avenue?’ or perhaps, ‘Isn’t the old covered bridge beautiful?’ we offer an answer but only a half-baked one, not having remembered whether or not we saw it. Then we go on for some time about the things we made the trip to see. The things we expected to see. The reason we made the effort to see them. We saw what we wanted to see. And only what we wanted to see.

Which begs the question: how much do we miss in our lives by not observing those things we did not expect to see? Seeing the beauty of a stark landscape, or hearing  the laugh of a happy child, noticing the beauty of the stars in a clear night sky. How many people have we overlooked because we did not expect to see them come into our lives, and exiting just as quickly. And what about those people or situations that are not happy ones: those who suffer from disease, poverty or loneliness, or perhaps the stray dog near our work whose days are filled with finding food and shelter. While we cannot save the world ourselves, seeing it as it is, as it really is, and not as we expect it, can be the beginning of making it better.

We all read about those who took a chance on finding a better way to move through life; seeing people for who they are, what they need, and asking how we could help. It doesn’t take millions of dollars, or a foundation donating money or goods to make things better. Time is something we can all donate to any number of organizations that try to help adverse situations, allowing us to learn more about what is needed and how we, and those we know, make an effort to improve life for us all. These things are in plain sight of us all, but do we see them? If we do, does our discomfort lead us to ignore the problem, telling ourselves that surely someone is doing something to make this better. But is this the case? Largely, it is not the case, and things are being left to those ‘others’ who never appear, leaving us in the same situation.

Taking a chance by saying to ourselves ‘I am someone…’ who can make things begin to happen and to help nullify adverse situations and help those affected by them. Sticking our neck out is not something that is particularly comfortable at first, but like many things, it becomes easier the more we do it. Seeing the changes we help cause becomes its own reward for us, and the impact on others, unable to help themselves, makes our world a better place for all.

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Leap…and_Grow

It’s only human nature to stick to the things we already know, socialize with our old friends, and to do the same things time and again. There is comfort in this. And there is fear within new things. Learning a new language, knowing we will make mistakes, embarrass ourselves with errors, and feel silly when we are grasping for that perfect word. The only way to really learn those foreign languages is to do just that: fail toward success, and learn with each mistake. Fear of looking foolish is natural, yet we all do so at various times in our lives with no harm done but a bruised ego. In the classic fable ‘The Golden Key,’ an old man shows a boy the reality of the world around him and that there is no progress without some risk. He moves an enormous stone from the cave’s floor, and shows the boy a hole that seems to be bottomless. The boy objects, saying that it’s impossible. The Man only replies that he must throw himself in the hole, that there is no other way, and that while it is truly scary, it is the way.

We are here on this earth for such a really short time. In a particular job. As a single person. It also seems that far too many of us let the fear of something—looking foolish, being thought stupid, failing—stop us in our tracks and we simply go on existing without challenge or satisfaction. Fear is to be respected as it can, indeed, protect us from all sorts of unpleasant things, but if we can change that paradigm to feel fear…of what we will miss if we do not take action, our lives begin to change. To say ‘yes’ to those things that frighten us, like running a marathon, writing a book, or starting a business. Like the boy facing the bottomless hole shown to him by the old man, knowing that everything will change should he take that leap into the unknown.

Taking action, and making tough decisions can be difficult. Largely, there are no easy choices, and it is hard to judge the consequences of the decision made today and of the effect we will face tomorrow. This is, of course, what really scares us: making the wrong choice. And the questions haunt our thoughts, things like, ‘what if it doesn’t work?’ or ‘what other options are there?’  So, by doing so, we paralyze ourselves with analysis, and our idea, our project, our work comes to a grinding, screeching halt, and we find no progress is made.

As Kierkegaard reminds us, ‘What cowardice fears most of all is the making of a resolution, for a resolution instantly dissipates the mist.’ We can choose or we can not choose, but if we bravely choose, and then act, our lives have changed forever. We are no longer deliberating, we are no longer procrastinating, but we are moving forward! Forward toward whatever goal we decide we want to accomplish, from that leap in the dark, into thin air and the heretofore unknown life we only dreamed about living before that moment.

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Real_Growth

Photo:Pixabay

At certain times in our lives, we look around and see that our lives are not what we had hoped, and decide to make changes for the better. To get in shape, to learn a foreign language, to read more, or spend more time with our families. All good things, and worthy changes that will make us better people in the long run. And many times, we begin and our resolve to stick to our goals fizzles out more quickly than we thought, and we find ourselves back where we started, no better off, and wishing things were better than they are. Real goals, ones that we stick to, ones that we accomplish, begin when we call ourselves out on our own faults. Realizing, and admitting to the fact that it’s just so much easier to sleep an extra half-hour than to get out of bed, lace up your trainers and go for a run before work. Or perhaps placing constraints on what time we do have, and deciding to finish the report for work as soon as we get home, rather than spend time with our children, and finishing the report—in a much better frame of mind!—after the kids are in bed. When we finally get tired of hearing our own excuses, complaints, objections, and dislikes, and decide to do something anyway…is when real growth begins.

As humans, we have the capability of justifying nearly everything we think is right, or that we believe in, despite the evidence that these things are not working for us, or those around us. There is an old saying that addresses this: ‘nothing changes if nothing changes.’ We all want things to change for the better, but largely without making any change in how we live our lives and how we make decisions. Many of the programs designed to help people break addiction to alcohol, drugs, etc., use a form of ‘when you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired’ of your condition, that’s when real change can begin. When the excuses, no matter how good, how justifiable, are recognized for the enabling crutches they are.  While many of the changes most of us want to make in our lives are not this dire, the mind-set is often the same. 

The changes we might need to make in our lives do not have to be enormous, difficult changes in our lives, though. These changes can be as simple as saying ‘I will eat salad with dinner each night, or I will not have dessert,’ and the changes begin as our bodies adapt to the new diet. Spending a few minutes in the morning with our spouse or children, talking and asking questions begins to open our minds to hearing and understanding those things which concern others, as well. Similarly, a walk after lunch is the beginning of becoming aware of our bodies as well as taking in nature, such as it might exist where we live, is a new beginning as well. The small steps are not only achievable quickly, but as quickly, we begin to see things in a new and different way, and our understanding of them in this way starts to grow.

Change and growth, which keep us engaged with life and with the others around us, is truly not a mountain to climb, but an honest look at our lives, how we are living, and what we could change to make it better, as our entry to change that leads to a better life for us all.

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Silence &Motivation

Photo:cocoparisienne/Pixabay

Making changes in our lives is an exciting thing. When things happen to us in our lives, like being accepted to our school of choice, or perhaps being promoted at work, it ramps up our feelings of fulfillment, achievement, and personal success. Dopamine is released into our bodies and we have enhanced feelings of pleasure. As a result, we feel happy, focused and energized; all feelings we like to have, and that we actually seek when we are not feeling them. When we are seeking to change things in our lives on our own, that, too, is an energizer for us, and anticipating the coming success, we like to tell others about what we are doing and how we are doing it. This is a completely natural feeling and most of us don’t realize that when making changes in our own lives, moving ‘in silence’ through this process is often a better tactic than announcing our plans to our world.

‘Why is this so?’ you might ask, and it’s a great question. When we tell others about our plans to get in the best shape of our lives, or perhaps to finally start that business we’ve flirted with in our past, suddenly things change. Telling others about our plans to start our business, along with where we will be located, our goals for our first year, and how we want to grow, we are releasing ‘cheap’ dopamine into our system, although only the words have been spoken, while no action has been taken. This shot of dopamine into our bloodstream gives us those same happy and satisfied feelings we have when we have already accomplished something, yet in this case, we are feeling those same great feelings though nothing has been accomplished. By telling others our end goals, we have tricked our brains into thinking they already exist, which effectively lowers our own motivation to push ahead because we have already felt the joy of accomplishment.

Conversations with friends and acquaintances about what is happening in our lives is a natural and pleasurable part of the relationships we form as we move through life. As such, it might be completely natural to mention something we are working on, hoping for, or desiring, but the details are often better kept to ourselves. Most of us work very hard to make a good life for ourselves and our families, but the hardest thing can be not allowing ourselves to get trapped into the mental cycle of planning to change our lives, but never actually doing it.

While a kind word from a friend or loved one is sometimes just what we need when life challenges us, it is often the case when doing hard things, extraordinary things, that ‘falling in love’ with those things that make it ‘hard’ is the key to moving through the challenges we face. Moving through difficult times, work, or situations makes us stronger, more mindful and flexible, enabling us to move through these times, to rise and triumph yet again.

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Removing the Barriers

Photo: Klimkin/Pixabay

This world is such a huge place. Physically, we are separated from so many people and cultures, and though we learn much about other places, there is only so much we can do to make that more personal and intimate. How many of us go to parties, to school, to work, and are content to interact only with those with whom we have some commonality, some similarity, that makes the connection a bit more personal? Most of us at times. But what about all of those other people we simply do not know? How many friends have we not made, only to meet these same people later in life and find so much in common? And how much friendship, pleasure, and fellowship have we passed by because we were content to know what we already know, and not reach out to learn more?

In light of this, it is interesting to think of the business convention, with people from all over the country, or perhaps around the world, in attendance, and we choose to sit with and interact with those we already know. We are all in attendance, dressed professionally, some of us are scheduled to speak to larger groups, and we are all wearing a paper name tag that says, ‘Hi! My name is _______.’ We see people, we read their name on the tag, and then return to our group, our ‘safe’ space. Yet, in every one of these situations, there are a few people who step out of their comfort zone, and say, ‘Hi Robert. My name is Mary. It’s nice to meet you.’ A conversation follows where we learn where they live, what their life is like, are they married or single, are there children in their lives, and so much else. And all of a sudden, we know someone new. Just like that. We have, in a minute or two, turned into actual human beings, instead of strangers studying the landscape, trying to decide what we can and cannot do in this particular situation.

One similar situation that happened in my own life landed me a friend, that, though I have not seen her now for over twenty years, I know the minute we meet again, we will converse and rejoice in each other’s company as if there had not been such a long expanse of time between our meetings, as if we had seen each other last week, and the knowledge and intimacy of our friendship will only be strengthened. Because one of us reached out, said ‘Hello’ or similar, and the words began to flow, leading us to know one another better, and as our time together passed—far too quickly—we forged a bond that still exists. We have been in contact since, through relationships, a marriage for each of us, and a comparison of our lives and how they have changed since we first met, living across the hall from one another, at an ancient school, in another country, so many years ago, and we put our hands out, said ‘Hi!’ and found a barrier removed. This type of thing not only removes barriers, it allows us to truly be who we are, truly and honestly, and to allow someone else into our lives that makes a real difference in our words and thoughts.

Breaking through those fences, removing the barriers, being ourselves, and letting others be their true selves as well, is the start of friendship, of love, and of respect. Not only for others, but for ourselves as well. And it all begins with laying aside the fear of being judged, of not being liked, and of taking the chance that we have greeted a person who will not only reciprocate, but will change how we think and move through life.