Creative Success Depends on Long View
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In this podcast, we feature author Taylor Marsh, who [read more]
Game Over—Huddle Up!
One of the most meaningful meetings is after the game.
Whether you won or lost matters little to this gathering, because this is the moment you can evaluate and learn about what worked and your failures. Learning opportunities are your gift; [...]
Create Smart Goals to Score Big
You won’t make it across the goal line if you don’t learn how to manage the scrimmage line.
I suggest you utilize the S.M.A.R.T. principle to focus your goals and craft guiding power questions to make your team a winner. Are your goals specific? [...]
Are You a Star Quarterback on a Winning Team?
The position of your team members is a part of your plan that you need to carefully define.
Team roles are important to fulfill accurately so you have all the coverage you need for the abilities you desire. Each step of your action plan will [...]
Your Cheerleaders the Chanteuses of Encouragement
Creative people need to isolate for a great part of their work, but it isn’t always a good practice.
Sometimes you need to be in the graceful presence of another person to feel yourself in their reflection. Everyone needs cheerleaders. Assemble [...]
Dink and Dunk for Masterful Team
A great practice is about asking powerful questions.
In my book Ask Power Questions: A Practical Guide to Help You Get What You Want in Business, Life and Friendship, I share my 17 Strategies to Help You Formulate Power Questions. One of a series, [...]
How to Draft a Winning Team
To make your team a winner you’ll need to isolate and assemble the attributes that lead to success.
Who are the people that work hard to help you succeed? Where and how do you engage your team members? Do you meet in coffee shops, online, [...]
What’s Your Quarterback Cadence
Hut-one, hut-two?
For your team to function well, good communication is absolutely necessary. In my book Ask Power Questions: A Practical Guide to Help You Get What You Want in Business, Life, and Friendship, I share the skills of working with [...]
Know Your Team
You need at least one expert team to help you achieve your goals, and you may need many to reach success.
Think about all the teams you have in place now. Your work, doctor’s office, grocery store, coffee shop all function as teams that serve [...]
Four Personal Keys to Kick Off Your Year
It’s easy to kick off your year focusing on the big stuff you want to accomplish.
You’ll find plenty of encouragement to make vast goals so you can attain great things, but as a coach I know that making big goals alone usually ends up [...]
What Sports Taught Me about My Business Plan and Yearly Goals
You’ve probably read plenty of headlines hawking that you need to plan your year wisely with success in mind.
You’re told to make new resolutions that fix challenges, and you’ve heard the pumped up messages intended to inspire change [...]
Did You Want a Trophy for that Competition?
Competitive nature bombards you and you likely compete with it all day long.
Don’t think you do? Think again. Are you hurrying against time moving to your next meeting? Getting ahead of that car in front of you? Pushing up the line for coffee? [...]
Are You Showing the World Your Best Image?
Your distinctive presentation is more important now than ever.
Your first impression tells people a lot about you. Are you making the most of yours? It’s no longer acceptable for the artsy person to rely on implying that they are creative [...]
Do You Love Doing It? Are You Good at It?
To be good at doing something, you must be fully entwined in the actions that produce your finished creation.
You need proficiency and resonance.
To be in love with something takes an enormous amount of energy on all levels of your being. Ask [...]
Has Your Image Faded?
I write and blog about all aspects and topics related to creativity.
Recent trend reports have placed the words creative and innovative on the undesirable list. It’s getting harder to make my points without using these words. But there is [...]
Feeling Discouraged Early in Another Year – Now What?
Are you failing your New Year’s resolutions?
Bored and onto a new trend? Starting another project because the current one isn’t going well? Feeling the let down of early winter? You’re not alone in your disappointment. I’m never sure [...]
Give Gratitude With Attitude
Creative people are called upon to find ways to make change.
After all we’re change makers. But how do you create the cause and effect that makes a meaningful difference?
Use grace in everything you do.
This isn’t simple, it’s actually [...]
How Do You Define Thanks?
Gratitude in action starts with feeling your own thankfulness then encourages you to put it in action.
The following is one perspective on giving thanks and what you can do to keep it in motion.
T is for Time– Be thankful for time. Having [...]
What Is The Most Important Question Of Your Day? How To Find The Answer
What’s the most pressing thing you have to do today that will give you the greatest benefit tomorrow?
Knowing what you need to get done today, in spite of everything that will jump in front of your efforts is perhaps, the important half of [...]
Artist: Once Upon A Time
There’s a fairy tale we tell ourselves about our artistic and creative pursuits.
We say, “I’m an artist.” Then boldly forget to back that statement up with real, consistent and meaningful art work. Are you really an artist if you don’t [...]
Chocolate, Puppies & Dirt Help Avoid Creative Catastrophe
By: Sandy Nelson
October 6, 2014 | Comments Off on Chocolate, Puppies & Dirt Help Avoid Creative Catastrophe
For me they are all linked in their ability to ground my creative fires.
You can’t whirl around on the fumes of creative energy all the time. Sooner or later you’ll fly smack into a wall and crash. The graveyard of artists who have is vast. [...]
Labored Days And Skipping Creative Work
Fall brings the annual day to celebrate hard work, by not working.
If you’re a working artist you know you’ll pay for skipping studio time. Creative work is hard work. Dancers who miss daily practice will need to stretch harder the next [...]
Playful Power Of Leaping
If you can’t think of something playful to do – jump!
Your impact will be felt somewhere. In one place you’ll push air out and in another vacuum it in. Amazing! Be the creative playful pump.
We have a universal impact on the world, the [...]
Warning: Explosion At Risk
Once in a while you have to do something that makes no sense.
At least to your logical mind. However for you creative mind this will feel like a long run, eating candy, yoga, or great sex! And if you don’t do it there will be serious consequences.
It’s [...]
Blogging Beneath The Sway Of Creative Bliss
I’ve been blogging for a while and just discovered another layer of techno skill I need to master.
Part of me feels surprised and a little dismayed at learning some simple things that seem obvious now, but clearly didn’t really register [...]
Don’t Let Your Creative Tank Run Empty
Creativity needs constant fuel to produce its wonders.
If you’re a creative type you probably know all about how you need to feed your artistic flair, but sometimes we run out of energy and we need a fast juicing.
Here’s how to fill up your [...]
Gear Up Your Creativity
The artist’s calling can be a helpful muse when she yells, but sometimes she whispers and it’s hard to hear her suggestions.
Seasonal shifts can bring creative chaos. In spring my own projects move from inside to outdoors. Painting by the [...]
Life Steers, You Stir
I’ve been busy the past few months, which is a good thing. However what I’ve been doing is not my art.
I needed a decided effort to make any art at all. Creating has become a chore, but I don’t stare at a blank page or canvas. I look at [...]
Old Dogs, New Art Tricks
I’ve found a few new tools to make it possible for me to create something on an almost daily basis.
This is a very good practice to incorporate into my routine. Of course, I’ve had some pitfalls to navigate, like learning to use a new portable [...]
Pacing Your Playtime Offers Creative Payback
Learning to pace how we play is as important as making the time to play.
Are life’s challenges something we must solve quickly, or can we unite with our playful spirit and find creative paybacks?
While some creative projects are driven by [...]
Will Your New Year Be Full Of Kindness Or A Kind Mess
It’s important to think about kindness in relationship to creativity because creativity thrives in a positive environment.
Already well into the New Year it’s time to insure the kindnesses surrounds your creativity. I’m not suggesting [...]
Trading With Creative Currency
Name three forms of currency that could pay for your creativity.
Currency is the medium of exchange and usually has a form of circulation. We circulate coins and bills when we shop. We slide plastic which moves money electronically. However [...]
Feeling Challenged by Change? Use the One-Two Punch that Powers Creation
Once in a while things spin out of our control.
Of course full control is only an illusion, but it’s an illusion we crave, and on many levels need to maintain our balance. If you’re a creative soul, the wild torque that reorders the things [...]
Always Accept Your Muse’s Invitation
Does it seem that your inspirations and ideas come out of nowhere?
Perchance they are the invitation from your Muse.
Muses can be a bit flighty, air-headed and flippant; and they will take you, their charge, on amazing journeys.
As a creator [...]
Can You Create When You’re In The Dumps?
Life seems to demand that creators create no matter what happens to them.
But, is this human reality? I mean, can you really be wonderfully imaginative when you’re stuck in a down turn?
It could be anything that has you in its grip – lost [...]
What Can A Creativity Coach Do For You?
Through the powerful skill of listening, a great creativity coach offers encouragement, and who doesn’t need more of that?
They can also educate about general creative matters, and how you can be creative in your life, which includes the [...]
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