Modern quantum physicists have demonstrated that matter and energy are interchangeable; matter is simply another form of energy. In other words, everything is comprised of energy! The human body, and indeed the bodies of every living thing, is made up of energy and sustained by energy. Each of the body’s organs and glands not only has a different function, but also has a different rate of vibration.

Nowadays, our lives are becoming more and more hectic to the extent that so many people have forgotten how to relax their bodies and minds. We end up either over-energised, with manic behaviour, or with severely depleted energy levels,

In despair, some turn to drugs or alcohol to try to shut out life’s constant pressures only to find that this numbs the body and mind but does nothing to help their long term ability to cope. Physical or nervous breakdowns ensue, leading to a health crisis at a national level.

A significant factor underpinning this health crisis is an over-reliance on adrenalin. Fast-paced living, junk food, caffeine and other stimulants, chronic and/or acute stress all place a load on the adrenals. The result? Most people’s adrenals are overworked.

In trying to find healthy ways to prevent this from happening, we have been exploring the uses of the Quantum Wave Laser (QWL) as a relaxation device. This combines the therapeutic uses of Low Level Laser Therapy with some interesting approaches to light waves (using sine waves rather than straight lines.) We’ve only had the machine for a couple of months but our experience is that the machine helps the body into a similar state to that experienced with deep meditation.

As the basis of the QWL is laser technology, it is also a very powerful device for helping the body to heal itself from a whole host of conditions.

I’ll be posting more information as I gain greater experience of using the machine.

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It’s so easy to get wrapped up in our work and neglect our personal relationships. For the self-employed, this is a real danger; we spend as much time as we can chasing and delivering work and forget the reasons why we are doing it. It’s so easy to neglect the personal; growth in the business is little satisfaction if there’s no one to share it with, if our “significant others” leave us because they feel neglected.

Do you have a balanced definition of personal success? Take a moment and decide what success means to you – if you achieve all of your monetary goals but you are distanced from your children and your partner has left you, have you been truly successful? Or if after working years and years of 18 hour days, you finally achieve your material goals but you have had 3 heart attacks and are on blood pressure medication, is that success?

From the “Golden Age of Greed”  of the Thatcher years until now, the focus has been on material wealth, consumer greed, living on credit that can barely be afforded. We’ve seen the results of that with the collapse of the financial sector, but it’s time to look at ourselves. From the ancients like Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, to the father of modern science, Sir Isaac Newton, our great leaders of philosophy and science thought about the total being: Mind, Body and Spirit.

What are you going to do this week to help your body overcome the excesses of the Noughties, to fuel your Spiritual Needs and most important of all, to tell those important people that you love them and how important they are in your lives?

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What is the definition of guilt? An on-line dictionary defines it as: “The fact of being responsible for the commission of an offense.” So there lies the key to removing this barrier to personal growth and dealing with your guilt: accept responsibility for what you’ve done and act appropriately. You may need to apologise, you may need to make reparation and both of these may be as true when apologising to yourself as to others.

This will help your personal growth in another way – it will teach you to listen to your intuition; you may initially feel that you have to take masssive action but if you pause and take a breath, your intuition will guide you. It’s difficult for some people to accept the wisdom of their inner voice – people have a difficult time accepting this inner teacher that has perfect understanding.

The other side of the coin is forgiveness – we often have lengthy conversations with students on our courses, and with our clients, about the need for forgiveness. The conversation usually goes along the lines of “Why should I (or How can I) forgive them after what they have done?” The answer is simple – it has little to do with the other person. It’s for your benefit, for your personal growth. It’s about releasing the angst trapped within us, angst that can add significantly to the burden of stress we carry. To put it another way, the other person may have done something nasty to you that caused you a lot of problems. Why should what they did continue to cause you a problem, perhaps even endangering your health? Why give them that power over you? Forgiveness is for your benefit, not theirs.

Another important catalyst for personal growth and development is pardoning yourself – we often carry unrealistic expectations about ourselves and when we fail to meet those expectations, we blame ourselves. For example, for years I blamed myself for mishandling how I told my brother that our mum had died. It took me a long time to understand that there is no ‘best way’ and that I’d done the best I could with what I knew.

When you have a quiet moment, sit and ask your self two questions:

1. What guilt are you carrying around and what can you do about it?

2. Who do you need to pardon?

I wrote here that true happiness comes from within and I believe that you can start to experience this by thinking about, and acting upon, the two questions above and by beginning to listen to your intuition. What benefits have you gained from learning about guilt and forgiveness? How important has it been for you to learn to forgive yourself?

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1. Fear of Failure

This is one of the most common fears impeding our personal growth. Are you afraid of failing? Are you afraid of the scorn or “I Told You So” response from those around you?  If so, ask yourself a simple question – how do you know you will fail? And how do you perceive failure? One of the big differences between successful and unsuccessful people is the ability of the successful to reframe negative situations. The ‘average’ person looks at the undesirable result as failure and beat themselves up over it as I wrote here.  The successful person looks at it simply as an outcome, then tries something else and ultimately produces their desired result.

2. Fear of Success/Personal Growth Means Hard Work.

Whilst some people are afraid of failure, others are afraid of achieving their goals or of  the price that they fear they may have to pay for their success. So they stagnate rather than enjoy the benefits of growth at a personal level. Fuelled by quick fix, get rich quick schemes, many people are loathe to put in effort, to take direct action. Others are afraid of the jealousy it might cause in people around them and the friendships they might lose.

3. Poverty or Scarcity Consciousness

Most of us were told when we were growing up that we should not be greedy or selfish. We may also have been brought up to believe that the world has only a limited amount of resources, that there’s not enough to go round so we’re being selfish if we succeed.

John Kehoe (1992) summed it up when writing:

“Imprint these 4 prosperity beliefs into your unconscious mind:

1. It’s an abundant Universe
2. Life is Fun and rewarding
3. Staggering opportunities exist for me in every aspect of my life
4. Having lots of money is good. It is my responsibility to be successful. “

There is nothing greedy or unspiritual about having money; it’s what you do with it that matters. Greed is keeping it all for yourself, wanting money for money’s sake, which is selfish. The positive is all the good you can do with the money you earn – it’s difficult to make a difference in the world without earning the money first.

4. Life is hard with little reward

Yes you have to put the effort in, and the reward is commensurate with the effectiveness of the effort you put in. Note the subtle difference – I didn’t write that the ‘reward is commensurate with the effort you put in’, but with the ‘effectiveness of the effort.’ There’s a huge difference!

The distinction is simple – effectiveness means doing the right things (as opposed to efficiency which means doing things in the best way), so are you being effective? In other words, is everything you do aimed at living your dream? If the answer is ‘no!’, then yes, life can appear to be hard with little reward.

True achievement never diminishes someone else, is never selfish. Make sure that you never allow yourself to be jealous of someone else’s success. Instead, see it as proof that if they can succeed, so can you! As well as the direct benefits your service provides, there are also the indirect benefits; you spend the fruits of your success, creating profit for others, contributing to the economy as those people in turn spend their greater profits and so on.

5. Having a closed mind

This is typified by phrases such as ‘There are already so many books out there’, ‘That won’t work for me because…’, ‘It won’t work in the current economic climate’, ‘That might work for most people, but I’m different/my situation is different’, and so on. A closed mind is another way of saying that ‘My perception of the world is right and is the only valid one.’ It actually becomes a self-reinforcing, vicious circle. A closed mind closes down its options.

6. Money is unspiritual

You can be spiritually rich and financially prosperous. As you reap your rewards, think about all of the causes you’ll then be free to support, to invest in! While money is unspiritual if you allow it to manage you, the more money you make, the greater the causes you can invest in!

7. I am unworthy/nothing good ever happens to me

This is one I can really identify with; for a long time, due do an overheard conversation that I misunderstood, I believed that my younger brother was more intelligent than me and that nothing good every happened, or would happen, to me. I guess that this was exacerbated by my mother’s death, which served to reinforce the belief that only bad things happen to me. It’s a dangerous mindset to have, because anything to the contrary is discounted or ignored, which ultimately is the path to depression.

8. Nothing I do is good enough

Do you believe this? If you do, my question for you is what are you using as your comparison? Good enough compared to what or whom? And look at your belief…nothing? Have you never produced a good result at anything? At some stage in your life, you must have succeeded at something. So you can get good results. Which means that the belief is false. Time to reprogram yourself!

9. My failure is a result of bad karma from a past life

Make it a regular practice the philosophy of Givers Gain, espoused by BNI, for example. That will quickly cancel any “Karmic Debt” you may carry. And there’s a bonus – The more you give, the more you’ll receive! Give more, get more, give even more, get even more and so it goes on!

10. God will provide so I don’t need to do anything

God/the Universe/Spirit are available to help you if asked, but they won’t do it for you; as I’ve said before, you have to play your part. My wife has a great expression “Trust God but lock the car doors when you park.”

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Patch Adams failed to make it through the medical board exams he needed to pass to become a doctor and it got to him. After months of suffering from depression and attempting suicide he sought help by voluntarily admitting himself to a psychiatric ward.

In hospital, he met people with a wide range of problems: catatonics, the mentally retarded, schizophrenics and so on. Eventually, Patch found ways of treating his own ailment and recognises that he has to sort his life out. Why? Because he realised that he still wanted to become a doctor, in spite of (because of?) all he had been through! He carries with him a positive attitude that fuelled his personal growth and success.

As he grew, he used his unusual methods to help the people around him to deal with their issues. Did he succeed in becoming a doctor? I wont spoil it for you if you haven’t seen the film.

So, what self-growth lessons can we learn from Patch Adams?

• How can others accept you if YOU can’t accept YOU? Stop acting, thinking and feeling like a failure, because you’re not.

• When you see hunks and models on TV, focus on self development, not self pity. Stop comparing yourself unfavourably. Self acceptance is not about having nice slender legs, or great abs. I know some real bitches and morons with ‘perfect’ bodies! Concentrate on inner beauty.

• If someone feels down, reach out to them and give them a hand back up. Don’t pity them or pile on the sympathy, give them practical help.

• The world is a classroom with the emphasis on lessons, not mistakes. Of course you will make mistakes along the way, but that’s part of the learning and are not to be dwelled on. Don’t beat yourself up over each mistake – if a toddler did that, she’d never learn to walk!

• One day at a time. Plants, trees, animals all grow one day at the time. Self growth is no different; it is a one day at a time process.  I use the word process for a reason; it’s not a journey, because journeys have destinations. Self growth is a continuous process.

• Consistent, one day at a time, small steps in personal growth  lead to inner stability, self confidence, increased self-esteem and… SUCCESS!

• Little things may have big meanings for other people. You may never know just how much the pat on the back, the friendly smile, saying “hello”, meant to the other person.

• Just because you are willing to go through the process of self development, it doesn’t mean that everyone else is. Be tolerant of other people’s attitudes to change, no matter how crazy you may think they are.

• My definition of success may not be the same as yours and there’s no point one of us forcing our view on the other.

• Finally, remember that there’s no such thing as over night success. Chris Brogan, one of the world’s leading bloggers on social media issues, took 6 years to be an “overnight success”!

But if you feel you are floundering, unsure what to do, there’s a lovely Chinese quote to fall back on – “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”  It sounds like one of those trite, fortune cookie sayings, but I’ve found it to be true in my life.

We are all here to learn our lessons and it doesn’t require formal “teachers or “gurus”.  Our spouses, partners, children, parents, friends, colleagues, officemates, neighbors, even strangers, may be our teachers.  All you have to do is be open to receive the lesson.

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I’m hoping that one of the results of the downturn will be a desire amongst many people to paddle through shift creek,  and come out into the new waters of compassionate capitalism. This requires personal growth, being prepared to let go of old habits, as well as change on a more national and even global scale. And the social media tools could play a big part in mobilising this. It is widely accepted that the Obama’s election marked, amongst many things, the first election where social media tools were used to contact voters. Wouldn’t it be cool if the population were to now use those same tools to inform politicians of what we want!

Part of societal, community and personal growth, is being prepared to take a good long  look at yourself and deciding which behaviours that may have been useful in the past, are no longer. The traditional model of capitalism has led to the following behaviours:

• Short term self-interest
• A narrow definition of stakeholders combined with isolationist thinking
• Profit maximisation through cutting costs rather than growing turnover
• A short-term view of shareholder value
• Disregard for long term consequences
• Deification of “The Market” which rejects any criticism or any attempt at regulation
• Deification of the scientific method as being the only way to assess truth
• Prominent values and behaviours are based upon anger, fear, greed, manipulation and self-assertion
• Focus on self, “me, me, me!” and rampant consumerism

I would suggest that what is now needed is a different model, one which values and supports:

• A focus on stakeholder value as well as shareholder value, where “stakeholder” takes into account the population as a whole and the planet
• Some of the profit that is achieved is used to support the common good
• Acceptance that when it comes to the metaphysical, to internal and subjective reality, there are other truths than those revealed by the scientific method
• IQ, emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence are each equally valued
• Prominent values and behaviours are based upon cooperation, exploration, service, the common good, self-knowledge, respect and trust.
• Understanding the difference between true personal needs and wants

Another shift in societal and personal growth could see us working to overcome Gandhi’s 7 deadly social sins. I wrote about them here, but in case you missed them, they are:

• Wealth without Work
• Pleasure without Conscience
• Science without Humanity
• Knowledge without Character
• Politics without Principle
• Commerce without Morality
• Worship without Sacrifice

Is this just pie in the sky or is a journey many of you want to share? If the latter, how can we each contribute? How can we use the tools of Social Media to drive such change?

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On  Wednesday I looked at material simplicity.  Today I want to use the same principles to look at the importance of focusing on simplicity of communication.

Complexity.

Look at the following example. It comes from  the UK’s Department of Health for a definition of a container in the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004:

“‘Container’, in relation to an investigational medicinal product, means the bottle, jar, box, packet or other receptacle which contains or is to contain it, not being a capsule, cachet or other article in which the product is or is to be administered, and where any such receptacle is or is to be contained in another such receptacle, includes the former but does not include the latter receptacle.” All that to describe a simple container for medication!

Some people seem to think that expertise is demonstrated by using long words and creating complexity. In this way, they attempt to show the superiority of their knoweledge by seeming to understand things that others cannot. In addition, complex, convoluted and opaque writing creates an opportunity for others “in the know” to nod their heads wisely (“I’m part of the hip crowd!”) and even to create the role of “interpreter” of the “words of wisdom”. Little wonder then that in some quarters, simple communication is frowned on. It removes the  apparent superiority of the orginal communicator, membership of an in crowd and the need for an interpreter.

Simplicity.

More and more organisations are embracing social media as a means of communication with their customers. This should mean that more focus is placed on the need for clarity and simplicity. Because of the pressures of work, organisations are too quick to accept the first solution that seems to be about right. Or they give important communication tasks to subject experts, who write for people of similar levels of expertise, rather than for the end user. Just look at Micosoft manuals to see an example of the end result of that philosophy!

We need to be committed to the belief that there is a simple way of communicating to customers and the public in order to keep on searching for something better than the first solution. Organisations have to enshrine simplicity as an important corporate value in order to encourage everybody, from top down, to put effort into achieving simplicity.

But don’t ever confuse “simple” and “simplicity” with “easy”. If you make that mistake, believing simplicity is easy to achieve, you will be tempted to give up too easily when it turns out be harder to achieve than you had anticipated. One of the reasons it may turn out to be hard is that simplicity comes from knowing your subject well. At the ecademy birthday bash on February 18th, Nick Tadd, Vanessa and I discussed social networking and the various social media tools for about an hour. Thinking about it afterwards, one of the things I really enjoyed about the discussion was that no-one felt the need to try to impress by using long words.

Another reason why simplicty and clarity may turn out to be harder than you had first thought is the danger of soming up with a solution that is either simplistic or and over-simplification.

Simplistic.

A solution may appear to you to be appealing in its simplicity but turn out to be simplistic, failing to deal with all of the elements of an issue. The question is: “How do you know if a solution is simple, or simplistic?” The answer is that you will not know unless you have a good grasp of the subject being communicated. If you are the communicator, you need to make sure that in finding a simple way of describing a phenomenon, you haven’t  underplayed the complexity of the situation.

Over Simplification.

Over simplification is not quite the same thing as simplistic. Whereas a simplistic solution underestimates the complexity of a situation, an over simplification misses out some important aspects. A simplistic solution is usually wrong; an over simplification is incomplete.

In conclusion, in order for you to communicate with simplicity,  you have to have a good understanding of the subject being discussed. That way you can avoid falling into the traps of being simplistic or of delievering an over simplification. If you want to do it consistently I believe that you have  to embrace simplicity as a permanent habit, as a way of thinking. But that’s just my belief. How important is it for you and what tips would you add?

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This has led me to think about the following issues and I’m interested to know what you would add.

1. Value quality over quantity. Stop buying unnecessary things. Only buy the necessities, and always ask yourself: is this truly necessary?

2. Work out what makes you happy and get rid of the rest. This is going to require some heart searching – identifying what is essential and what is an emotional belief that you “just have to keep it”.

3. Get rid of the obvious things. Do you tend to keep the boxes that software applications, mobile phones etc come in? I filled an entire bin liner just with these kind of boxes. How many do you have lying around, “just in case”?

4. Open the wardrobe – what have you got that you haven’t worn in the last year? The last 6 months? Are you ever going to wear it again? There are plenty of charity shops that can find a good home for clothing you wear only infrequently.

5. Clear all of your flat surfaces of everything except he things that have to be out in the open. Find somewhere to put away everything other than the essentials.

6. Look at all of the momentoes, the nick nacks from holidays, the gifts from other people that you had quickly consigned to a drawer or cupboard – why are you keeping them?

7. Identify your biggest buying vice and ration yourself. For me, it’s books – I can rationalise just about every non-fiction book as “research” but even so, I buy way too many books! I have rationed myself for 2010 – it’ll be interesting to see how well I stick to it but I have so many books I’ve barely dipped into, let alone read.

8. Storage – do you need more, or to make better use of what you have? Living in a small space makes you think creatively about storage, and to making several trips to IKEA!

9. Recognise that it’s an ongoing process of reduction, reduction and more reduction. Simplicity and minimalism are a journey, not a destination.

10. There are many different paths to the simple life – I’ve only looked at one aspect of it here, but even when thinking about posessions in living spaces theer are many different approaches. There’s the person who lives in an expensive house that is furnished with a few, high quality pieces; there’s the Zen approach of having a sibgle focal point in every room; there’s the person on a low budget who recycles and makes everything last as long as possible, buying very rarely. And there are many more approaches.

The key for me  is to work out what makes you truly happy; all else is commentary. But I’m keen to know – what tips would you give to anybody wanting to unclutter their lives and to lead a materialistically simple life?

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On February 17th, I wrote a post about the economic recession suggesting that we’re asking the wrong question. In it I suggested that instead of asking when the recession should end and when will things get back to normal, we should instead be asking ourselves  “What message is this crisis giving us about the need to change?” Many thanks to all of those who sent me messages of support about the post – this post explores the question further.

It’s extremely easy to point the finger at the bankers and financial industry and blame them for the economic downturn. In an interview earlier this week, Mr Varley, the Chief Executive of Barclays Bank suggested that there was little that the government could do to make life “difficult” for bankers and he went on to say that it was ‘very unlikely’ that what he described as “the fundamental competitiveness of Barclays would ever be threatened by the decisions of the Government”. How arrogant and out of touch with public sentiment can one get?

But I wonder how much of our finger pointing is an attempt at some level to avoid having to look at our own behaviour. After all, the concept of supply and demand is a  basic one that underpins economics. If there had been no demand for easy credit, if people hadn’t wanted to risk mortgages that they could barely afford when interest rates were low, there would have been no point in the financial sector offering them. Let’s be honest about this. The ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s have been an era of keeping up with the Joneses. Easy credit and mortgages we can ill afford have all fuelled our desire to meet our wants, confusing wants with needs.

I read recently about a rich guy who was quite despondent that his 100 ft yacht, that had been the biggest in the local marina, had just been outdone by a couple of larger models. It made no difference to the quality of the sailing offered by his yacht, or to the amount he had invested in it. What mattered was the symbol – it had been the biggest and the best in the marina; now it wasn’t, and that spoiled the experience for him! Did he need such a big yacht? Most people would agree that such a possession is a want and not a need.

And whilst we may not have yachts, we all have our own version of them. How much of what we have do we truly need, as opposed to want? How much of our rampant consumerism is just to satisfy wants? “When is enough, enough? ”And what sort of role model does it provide our children with? How do you respond when your 7 year old comes home from school and says (s)he wants an iPhone? Perhaps that’s when the penny should drop that we’ve gone down the wrong track!

There is a backlash starting in some areas – it’s interesting that one of the most popular self-development blogs on the web is at www.zenhabits.net where the message is about simplifying our lives and minimalism.

My wife and I live in a small appartment and we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff since we moved in. next week we’re going to do a huge de-cluttering exercise to reduce the contents to the essentials (plus a few luxuries, of course). What’s interesting when you do such an exercise is different people’s definition of needs vs wants!

There are lots of lessons to be learned from the economic downturn. As a start, I suggest the following:

• Care for the poor is essential for the common good. Some people are going to have to revise their opinion that the unemployed are just lazy. The downturn has led to many “middle-class” people losing their jobs and a realisation that in many cases, “job security” is a myth.
• Spending money we don’t have just to satisfy our “needs cravings” is an unhealthy foundation upon which to build a society or a family.
• A healthy society is a balanced society in which markets, the government, and our communities all play a role.
• The counterbalance to greed is to realise that there is enough for everyone if we share it.
• Just because something is legal, and we can do it, doesn’t mean that we should. I believe that our sense of what is right and wrong is more important than, and should always come before, our legal and economic system.
• It used to be that only God was seen as being all knowing, all present  and all powerful. Somewhere during the last 50 years we have attributed those same qualities to The Market, and in particular the financial markets. Those who question this new deity, the great God Market, as seen as being as heretical as those who questioned the Will of God in days gone by.
• We need to find a way to regulate the banks so that they can make a profit for their investors but cannot operate based upon the greed of recent times. I was shocked to read earlier this week that the bankers still don’t think that anything that they have done is wrong and they don’t understand how angry people are.

We need to get relationships back into banking. It is interesting to note that in the USA, the banks that have survived and thrived during the downturn have been those that are smaller and where managers know the people they are lending to. Do you think it’s a coincidence that all of the bad lending decisions that have been made, and all of the financial irregularities in the financial sector have happened at the same time as the role of the bank manager and branch manager in the building societies has been reduced to little more than a clerical role? I don’t!

• Most important of all for me is that it’s time to stop keeping up with the Joneses and time to start ensuring that the Joneses are okay. We need to learn that our own good is entwined with the common good – government, business and the community need to work together and not in competition with each other. In that way we can create businesses that thrive and operate in a just manner.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who do you know that was in a “secure” job that has been a victim of the recession? In practical terms, how can you help them? In some of the poorest areas of America, people are using vacant areas of ground to grow vegetables that are then shared with the needy.
2. How will you teach the young about the difference between wants and needs? What will you say when they feel left out because all of their friends have got a wii, a playstation, an X-Box, a laptop and an iPhone?
3. What are you going to do to return your focus to what are genuine needs and to stop feeding this consumerism monster we have all created?

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This has taught me that whether they think they can, or think they can’t, everyone has the ability to be innovative. It just takes time, practice and daring. The box of crayons in kindergarten were not limited to those who possessed potential; because the truth is, everybody has potential for personal development. You are not stuck with who you are now, unless you choose to be.

How long did it take you to learn to drive a car and pass your test? How long did it take you to learn anything worthwhile? The trouble is we live in a get rich quick, fast fix world. But reality is not like that; it takes patience, it takes time and it takes effort. And a sense of humour helps too!  It’s the same with innovation. It takes a bit of practice and a lot of time before the mind accepts that you are innovative, especially if you are out of practice.

Creativity is a Licence to Play. You weren’t always like that, just look at small children. They are so innovative and creative and this article will teach you a few tips on how to remember what it was like as a child and to bring innovation back into your life. You may need to learn to play again and to not beat yourself up over the slightest mistake.

Don’t be constrained by what other people say. Sing your song in your voice – it’s unique to you! Trying to include elements of other people will only bring cacophony to the music you are trying to make. If you have an original idea, don’t waste your time and effort trying to make people understand. They won’t. And the help you will probably get comes in the form of negative feedback. By all means listen to the feedback and adjust if you truly believe it to be necessary – but that’s not the same as copying other people from the start.  If all those geniuses listened to their peers, we would probably still be living in the middle ages.

Find your own style. You can always tell a Van Gogh from a Matisse. You’ll know Hemingway wrote something by the choice of words on the paper. So it is the same with you. People will appreciate your innovation more because it is uniquely yours and that no one else would have thought of what you were thinking. That will let people see how valuable an asset you are.

Spend time on it. I cannot stress that enough; it takes time, effort and discipline. If you are juggling your innovative side with a day job, this involves some tricky time management. But with a little discipline you’ll be able to squeeze both in.

Exercise Tip. Take a walk. Run a mile or two. Send all those endorphins coursing through your veins. Exercising certainly clears and relaxes your mind and allows for anything to pop up. If you don’t like that kind of exercise, take the dog for a walk or spend a couple of hours making mad passionate love with your partner – that releases endorphins and serotonin!

Record your dreams. Aren’t some of them just the craziest things that your conscious mind would never have thought of? If you’ve had these dreams before, and I’m sure have, this only shows you the untapped innovative power you have lying within. So jot down those notes. Those dreams may just create an innovative spark in you.

Don’t hide behind technology, gadgets or tools. Don’t mistake the technology with the goals. I’ve made this mistake, continually fine-tuning my website believing that if I could only make it perfect, people will flock to it. You don’t need the most expensive set of paints to produce a masterpiece. The same way with writing. You don’t need the most expensive laptop or desktop to write high quality material. fact, J.K. Rowling wrote the first book of the Harry Potter Series on bits of tissue. I’ve come to the conclusion that as I improve, it’s better to reduce the number of tools I use and to get the most out of those I use regularly and therefore understand.

Be Selective. The internet is teeming with advice, some of it good, much of it contradictory. It’s tempting to try to chase down the latest piece of information, believing that with it we will have the answers to all of our problems. In reality, it always boils down to the same thing: do the basics well. Find the sources you feel comfortable with and stick with them. Most of us who are interested in on-line writing have spent hours visiting site after site after site.  The truth is? Most of that time would have been better spent being creative!

Nothing will work without passion. It’s a much over-used word these days, but I can’t find a better synonym. As I wrote in an earlier article, you need to find your passion. What wakes you up in the mornings? What keeps the flame burning? What is the one thing that you’ll die if you don’t do? Sometimes people with talent are overtaken by the people who want it more. Think the hare and the tortoise.

Ellen Degeneres once said that if you’re not doing something that you want to do, then you don’t really want to do it. And that’s true. Sometimes you just want something so bad you become a virtual unstoppable. And that is passion. Passion will keep you going.

Don’t Wait for Inspiration. You can’t force it; inspiration hits when you least expect it to, for those unpredictable yet inevitable moments you should prepare. An idea could strike you on the subway, yet alas, you poor unfortunate soul; you have no sheet of paper to scribble down a thought that could change the world. Avoid these disasters. Have a pen and paper within your arm’s reach at all times. Or use your smart phone!

I hope this article has helped you bring more innovation into your life. Keep in mind that you’re doing these things for your own satisfaction and not anybody else’s. But soon enough they will notice, and everything should snowball from there.

And remember what Einstein said: “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”

Which ones are important to you and are there any you would add to the list?

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