Archive for December, 2010
The Importance of Building Trust in the New Era
Posted by: | CommentsRecent surveys as revealed in Spend Shift showed customers valued Trust number two on their list behind number one Quality.
Quality is much easier to assess because it is usually quantifiable.
Trust originates in our Reptilian brain and is further filtered through our personality grid.
When we think of the word trust we don’t think of it in much depth but let’s explore. Our first brain was the reptilian and separates every encounter into prey, predator, food, or mate. That brain can still dominate our first reactions.
The second brain was the limbic which gave us the amygdale for recording emotions and memories. The hippocampus allowed us further evaluation of stimulus so we could differentiate between alligator in the zoo and alligator in our path.
The third brain, the neo cortex and pre frontal lobes, allowed only our species to start evaluating each stimulus with more rational thought and even a check list of evaluations if necessary.
Personality is formed, say neurologists, half from our genes and half from our early environment. Even before we can talk we are absorbing behaviors that we might later emulate. As time passes we start to form a world view and our incoming stimulus gets categorized.
Some might feel the world is a good place and people can be trusted, but we need to watch out for bad circumstances. The other extreme might be that the world is a bad place, people cannot be trusted and everyone wants to take advantage.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) would tell us that 90% of communications is not verbal. We have a sensory perception beyond thought about what is happening when we meet or encounter a presentation.
Mix our reptilian brain, our personality, and our sensory perception together and you get a highly sensitive meter to trust. The world is more complicated now than in our primitive days and we are wary of why people would want information, relationships, or signatures.
We are wary of giving our name, address, emails, phone numbers, and social security numbers. We are wary of why people want relationships with us, why they want to email us, or why they might want to call us We are afraid of identity theft, spam, and harassment.
We no longer trust government, big business, or financial institutions. In fact a survey showed which industries have lost our trust and we have a descending degree of trust from the worst to those we do trust.
Some brands have great trust and have earned our comfort. Some financial procedures have earned our trust like pay pal or online credit card use. We are comforted by the fact that most banks will reverse transactions for cause.
So when I go to Amazon, Best Buy, Go Daddy, Host Gator or Chase, I know that service is mostly guaranteed, there is phone access, trusted money collection, and consistent delivery of expectations.
What does it take to form relationships these days? 80% of executives in a landmark study said they prefer to opt in to services rather than being solicited. This means the Relationship Marketing era is alive and that the intrusion marketing of the Traditional marketing era is really losing ground because people cannot be trusted.
It signifies that giving away free information online and allowing people to opt in for more has gained ground over advertising, calling and mailing. In fact, business has learned that you can give away almost all your expertise to gain the goodwill and trust of those in need of your services
Target marketing and identifying needs and then inviting prospects to sample services and engage in free trials allows a lowering of the guard. It goes without saying that services should be guaranteed with money back options.
Credibility is gained with testimonials, a clients list, and case histories. But since the great recession, the new era customer wants more. They want to know the character, mission, and community contributions of their suppliers.
People are giving great weight to companies that are green, support the needy, and treat everyone well. Spend Shift emphasized that the highest quality given to a company might be “kindness”.
People are judging companies like they were friends. Companies are becoming more engaged with their customers. There is dialogue, transparency, and sharing. There is now caring for people and the environment. It is like we excrete a pheromone which is defined as a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. (Wikipedia)
Trust is no longer just a word, it is a behavior, a philosophy, a spiritual calling, a community foundation block.
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Values and spending habits are changing. Learn more with Spend Shift by John Garzema
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 8 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters. 1-760-231-8966. Services,
What Do The Optimists Have in Common?
Posted by: | CommentsUnderlying the current pessimism about the mess we are in, there is a rebirth of optimism about the opportunity to make the future better.
The spirit is seen in spending, how the new class of entrepreneurs are working, and in the selection of products by what they stand for.
The optimism is first seen in a new selection of values. “The Millenial Generation is 20% bigger than the Baby Boomers and 80% of them polled are optimistic about their opportunities to make the world a better place.” John Gerzema in Spend Shift.
85% of these people polled feel they must be the leaders.
A Young and Rubicon study of consumption practices with over 85 metrics on why people choose brands shows that people are choosing brands that exemplify what they believe in. “Awakened by the recession people are returning to old fashioned values of optimism, self-reliance, practicality, hard work, thrift, community, honesty, and kindness” Spend Shift.
In fact one of the most important values people seem to seek in choosing products and services is “kindness”. They want companies that treat their own people and the public with respect. There is sort of a universal empathy that we are in tough times and we must band together whether organizations are vertical or horizontal.
88% of young adults felt their own imagination is the key to their future. The optimists are not waiting for a government bail out or for politicians to solve our problems. It might be noted as both a positive and negative indicator that 23 million Americans are growing their own food and supplies sold for preserving foods are up 30%.
As Americans already hard hit by unemployment or loss of income and assets cut back on their living expenses they say they are living with less but confess they are happier with a more down to basics life style. People are starting to assess what they need over what they want. They are starting to choose products for quality and durability.
Communities that have been wracked by the recession such as Detroit are sprouting new businesses in the ravages of recession. With the lack of employment prospects, more people see their future in starting their own businesses. In these almost war torn communities there is a banding together to support new enterprises that hire locally and gets supplies locally.
It can be seen especially in new cafes and restaurants in places like Detroit, Dallas, and Brooklyn where menus boast that all foods are purchased locally and they are higher quality because they are organically grown. There is a sense of community to both serve the neighborhood and support the neighborhood establishments.
If there is a common spirit it might be that it “doesn’t cost anything to be a person of character who meets others with honest, kindness, and empathy.” John Gerzna. Have we gone back to the mentality of the old west and small farm communities where everyone knows their neighbors?
Along this note, I mentioned in earlier posts that the interest in barter is accelerating. The Social Networking is taking on an economic bent not previously anticipated. People like transparency and face to face. Sites like E Bay and Craigs List show there is a high level of trust among community that might not be felt for face entities like “Big Pharma.”
Have people seen that the government, industry, banks, and big business are pretty helpless in stopping or easing the current and incoming crisis? Most even suspect that the greedy self serving nature of these institutions putting themselves above all others is the cause of current suffering.
Whereas selfish ego centric behavior caused suffering, self less, generous, honest behavior is the road to salvation. People are willing to accept the responsibility and need for accountability to lead themselves and their neighbors through the duress we may face for the next unforeseeable years.
There maybe a collective unconsciousness for authenticity, connection, quality, neighborliness and kindness.
Big business is seeing the need to involve their people in a collective intelligence effort to preserve their competitive edge. Whereas so far the efforts of big business have been manifested in hiring third party sources to install software that aids the flow of ideas, they haven’t yet made a great effort to educate their people on how to be better contributors.
This effort by business to involve workers is only a small part of the larger movement afloat to create a sense of community to build and improve our environments. Cities have benefited by the altruistic efforts of citizens to build their businesses by contributing to causes for the less fortunate.
Many businesses are aided by the universal sentiment that those who spend time and money helping the poor or the schools or the arts should be rewarded by patronage. The sense of community is both a salve to heal the wounds and a stepping stone to make life better.
We may not have yet seen the worst but the new seeds of growth are evident in the optimism that self reliance, fair dealing, and charity will create a better happier future for everyone.
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Have your eyes opened to the seeds of a positive future in John Gerzema’s and Michael D’Antonio’s book “Spend Shift, How the Post-Crisis values revolution is changing the way we buy, sell, and live”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 8 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
Great Work Happens When We Rest
Posted by: | CommentsThe heart rests between each beat.
Muscle builds between weight work outs.
Creative ideas come best when thinking in the left brain is suspended.
And on the seventh day he rested.
Why don’t we see the value of rest? Is it our idolatry of the work ethic?
When something isn’t happening we say try harder. Should we be saying give it a rest?
The heart can beat for 100 years because it rests as much as it works. Half of every day in most places is night. What is the significance of yin and yang?
There is a natural rhythm to which we don’t pay attention that throws off our productivity and maybe our results.
I can write seven days a week because each day I rest while it is still light. It enables me to read and do research and then go cool out. The value is that rather than over work and burn out, I am always learning and moving forward refreshed.
I have a tendency when exercising to get excited about my progress and work too many days in a row or do too much. Then when I have over trained, I have to rest for 10 days to let my body get back its strength.
When I exercise, if I give my self a day or two rest or work two days and give myself a day off, I feel better and my body performs better. Everybody needs rest, but what happens at the end of the day is people turn on the TV and on Fridays they hit the bar to let alcohol impose rest on the over worked left brain and nervous system.
Creativity occurs when the left brain is suspended. The left brain defines the problem and collects the necessary data. When the left brain is suspended the right brain, in its own way, goes over the data and looks for new relationships, patterns, assumptions, alternatives, uses, combinations, breakthroughs, designs, and users.
We need to know how to get the right brain engaged. It is the source of income for the new era. Innovation is one of the few areas that might separate the U.S. from the manufacturers in the new economy and we are actually behind other countries in our efforts to develop it.
The constructive way to suspend left brain thinking is to put it to sleep with constructive monotonous activity like meditating, running, long walks, painting, gardening, doing laundry, house cleaning, car washing, swimming, napping, sleeping, or taking a shower
I often wake up at 2 a.m. after four hours sleep and realize there are ideas going through my head relevant to something I have been working on. I let the ideas play for as long as they want. I figure I could spend several waking hours the next day concentrating on the problem and make no progress.
We may have the work ethic wrong. We may have our daily schedules and rhythms wrong. Innovation experts have suggested giving certain workers 15% of their time to muse and consider solutions to problems. Maybe we should be like real some corporations that know the value of letting smart people pick their own schedules.
As we enter the mobile age when people can work from anywhere and check in with cloud technology to a corporations own server, we might see the value of getting great ideas storming in from someone who happens to be out hiking with their I Pad in tow.
Until we flip currency values with the Chinese, the U.S. had better learn to create new things to manufacture, new uses, new users, new assumptions, new designs, new ways to deliver, and new ways to interpret demand. We had better be thinking better than everyone else and this cannot be accomplished under stress or exhaustion.
Too much adrenaline is the bad side affect of dopamine and the anti creativity chemical in the body. The first innovation on which we need to act is how to get more creativity out of the work force in a week’s time, every week.
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If you want to get into an Innovative mind set read FastCompany.com and pay special attention to their “Design” page. It is all about how design, as much as anything, can get us to challenge assumptions and look for new ways to use products and new uses for products. The same methods could get us to look at any process, system, practice, pattern, or method.
We need to start challenging the assumptions for everything that we assume is normal.
Develop this skill by getting retrained into Lateral Thinking (further explanation)
Understand how your creative brain works, which type of thinking makes you happy and which type of tasks at which you are best in Whole Brain Thinking (further explanation)
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Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 8 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
Will Fitness Determine the Future Levels of Income?
Posted by: | CommentsEverything that moves on earth requires energy. At the nucleus of each cell is energy and cells power every part of our body including your muscles and brain.
The blue collar worker, if there is such a term anymore, has a job that might involve physical activity or tasks that are normally performed eight hours a day for five or six days a week. Completing the tasks each week is pretty much the pass or fail.
The white collar worker, used loosely, might have assignments including sales, supervising, creating relationships, or developing strategy. I will add that upper management might have the same tasks with more orientation these days of organizing and pointing people toward goals.
The success of these tasks is measured by the results more than whether someone could complete the week. These results have a lot to do with the competition. Competition now is made of forces you can see and forces you cannot predict. The internet has leveled the playing field, currencies and global economies alter the playing field on an annual basis.
Today the greatest competition maybe the mental challenges of one organization against the other for who has the most foresight and is best prepared for recession and recovery. How do you use capital, technology, and human resources to best serve demand?
Big business has thrown open the doors to Collective Intelligence within its organizations. It is seeking to mine improvements from its people and induce them into collaborative sessions that are probably not mentioned in their job descriptions.
Organizations now need the highest form of mental energy from its people; creative thinking. If you study creative thinking as it leads to new innovations, the process requires left brain analysis and statement of a problem. It then needs right brain conjuring of unlimited alternatives. Then the ideas have to be evaluated with the best ideas making it to the finals for budget approval.
It is not enough to have energy to complete your tasks. The new and valuable worker must learn to create and collaborate. Top CEO’s emphasize they interview to evaluate the potential of these capabilities in candidates.
Balancing the right and left brain capabilities and optimizing their functioning necessitate several steps. Healthy eating allows the body to receive the nutrients that are necessary to power all organs and fuel the neurotransmitters of the brain. Healthy eating minimizes digestion which can be the number one energy robber.
Exercise allows the balancing of the beta and alpha waves so that anxiety produced adrenaline does not over power the thinking and creative capabilities. Dopamine that allows the left brain beta waves to produce at optimum is fueled by the right foods, exercise, sleep, and mental rest.
Eliminating busy-ness distractions that deteriorate mental memory open up more room for creativity. We don’t realize that constantly checking emails, texting, internet surfing, TV, Social Networking, and other little activities have a gross affect on our mental energy.
Focusing on feeling the best we can delivers more energy to defining problems and then we need to suspend the left brain thinking while we allow calm contemplation come up with the wildest and most practical alternative scenarios.
The future leaders will be the best thinkers. The best thinkers will be the most fit. Fit will have a much broader meaning to signify you can handle all that is demanded of you.
“Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learned. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and where appropriate, profits.” Edward de Bono, Father of Lateral Thinking
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Eating for Energy by Yuri Elkaim
Whole Brain Thinking by Jacquelyn Wonder
Innovation is Everybody’s Business by Robert B. Tucker
More Lightening Less Thunder by Bob Eckert
Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 8 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
After the Fire, We See The New Seeds of Innovation
Posted by: | CommentsInnovation is more alive and necessary now than ever. It requires a real paradigm shift from how we used to think in a more predictable environment.
We are on the verge of an innovative revolution because everything we know has changed. We might still be grappling with the economics, but the near failure of the financial system and continuing failure of the employment system tells us that revolution of how we live is on the door step.
On a larger scale we see the difficulties of the political system to function effectively and we certainly see that schools are preparing students for yesterday’s environment. In the meantime, globally, we have millions of previously employed people who are suddenly obsolesced.
I used to live in the hills where a particular brush only regenerated from fire. The fire destroyed everything but the seeds of this brush which then sprouted anew. Globally we have been through this fire. But there are the seeds of hope.
In an interview with Dr. Stehphanie Pace Marshall, the founder of the Illinois Mathematics and Science academy which she refuses to call a school but rather a “center of inquiry and imagination” she gives birth to the type of seeds we need in the new world.
Trung Lee of FastCompany.com, an innovation website, interviews her and presents her ideas about design that could apply to any industry, any business,and any life.
“How can the entanglement of design and education move the unmovable object — i.e. the established, staid institution of education?
I love this question, because it seeks to get at the core of design and its role in helping to co-create an educational system worthy of our children. I would amend it slightly however, to ask: ‘How can design both enter into and perturb a new conversation about education so the system becomes disturbed enough to begin living into their desired future now?’
Design enables us to redefine who and how we now want to be
I am not a credentialed designer, but as a leader I have always been mindful of the power of design to evoke changes in perception, attitudes, experiences, and behaviors by helping to change the relationships, patterns, and shape of the system.
For me, designers are storytellers.
They speak a patterned and relational language, and they use it to create environments and experiences that change the system’s neural network and the traditional dynamics of who and how we move, think, and behave, within a particular place. Design invites us to navigate a new narrative, to alter the map and landscape we have traditionally traveled, and to be different and belong differently to a place.
Design enables us to reclaim spaces and behaviors that may not have been accessible before and redefine who and how we now want to be.
Design enables us to encode our stories and create our maps. It makes our covenants visible, and it illuminates our beliefs and values. And when this happens, when design enables our children’s, teachers’, and system’s inventive genius to flourish, education will change.
Sometimes there are moments in human history that seem to beckon awakenings. They perturb us to reevaluate our beliefs, assumptions, and reigning cultural stories. They challenge us to synthesize and integrate seemingly disparate forms of knowledge into new relationships, new patterns, and new theories.
They invite us to invent new language, new rules, and new structures. They call us to create and live into new stories of possibility. The ancient Greeks called this time kairos, the “right moment.” It is a time when reality embraces possibility. “
This is the classic definition of “Innovation” and how those already out of school have to get reoriented to flourish in the new environment after the fire.
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Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 8 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
Can You and the Dollar be Saved or Only You?
Posted by: | CommentsAfter the recent financial collapse, the governments of the world have stepped in to save each other through loans and the World Bank. They have succeeded in saving the banks which are backed by the governments’ treasuries and the right to tax.
This is what backs currencies. Since the currencies are not backed by gold or anything else of value, they are called Fiat currencies. With high unemployment, the taxation issue becomes more difficult.
Who do you tax? The people who can afford it, but steam the economy or the people who can’t afford it and could riot and storm the capitals? We have seen quite a bit of storming in the last few years for food and now from austerity measures.
Countries going through austerity have lost the ability to print money to stimulate their economies. That is because the ultimate arbiter of governments’ sovereignty are bonds. If the world of investors doesn’t think a government can support its banks or pay its debts, the interest rates go up on the bonds. This of course means more hardship.
The U.S. is still printing money trying to out run the hounds. It has three things to fear. Deflation brings more unemployment and the depression that could cause suffering but eventually sort out all the problems. Inflation which makes currencies value less and causes people to buy wheel barrows to carry the money to the super markets
The third fear is the collapse of the dollar as the world standard. The Chinese would like to be that standard. The world would love to throw it to the Euro. The first problem is the European governments are going down faster than the U.S. because the hounds are really biting at their heels.
The Chinese are facing hyper inflation already which would debase their currency. If they can’t slow it down by raising interest rates which they are now doing, they can’t be considered.
As the Chinese raise their interest rates they won’t buy as many dollars. Their support of the dollar has been a double edged sword to protect the dollars they own, but also to keep their currency lower in value to increase their exports and fuel their economy. If the dollar now falls in relation to their currency, U.S. exports will increase and help the U.S. economy.
This of course leads to more taxes in U.S. government coffers and the ability to pay its debts. This also leads to lower interest rates for U.S. government debt.
If you have too many people in government trying to decide which is worse, deflation, hyper inflation, or collapse of the Fiat currency, you have a real grid lock on stimulus, bail outs, and taxes. Some in the political system want to avoid the pain as long as possible and out run the hounds.
The public sits on the side lines seemingly helpless to watch the show unfold. How can one family oppose so many forces? It’s like me and my little surf board trying to fight big waves that treat me as a little twig.
As a by stander, you can prepare for the hounds getting too close. You can start downsizing your own household. In deflation, your savings are your resources. In inflation, you will need to convert savings to something of value. If the currency is abandoned, which seems the least likely scenario until they all collapse, you once again need something of value.
Many of the stages are already in place for the Fiat currencies to become worthless. Many counter measures are also in place. Strangely, the final determination of whether the Fiat currencies have value is confidence by the people holding them. When they lose confidence, they start looking for something else they can own that is better. That is why gold is at $1400.
The ultimate value would be arable land, food and some means of valuable exchange. You may not be following the headlines on the rush for arable African land.
It is too late for you to buy a farm and learn how to produce your own food. There is still time to start putting some of your savings into precious metals. There is time to contemplate which of your skills could be used in a deflationary or inflationary economy.
One of the difficulties of the U.S. riding this out and maintaining stability on its own, which it could probably do, is that it is dependent on the other global economies to export its goods and on the price of oil.
Just as in the next few years we will know which direction we are headed, there will be great demand for new ideas and more collaboration. Learning how to be a creative thinker, develop innovative ideas and then brain storm them to implementation with others is a currency all on its own.
As value less currencies start circulating at a faster rate looking for value, so will the need for new ideas become more important to avoid the hounds. Developing your own currency by becoming the most innovative person on your street is one of the few protective measures left.
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You might be interested in a recent post “The Three R’s of Innovation”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
Entering Flow on a Daily Basis for Maximum Productivity
Posted by: | CommentsThere are two good reasons to get into flow for tasks and for life.
- While in flow, you will produce your best effort for today. Flow is a relaxed but slightly energized concentration on something important to you. Flow requires that you have some competence or have practiced the activity to the extent you do not have to talk yourself through the steps.
- Secondly, Flow is the most enjoyment you can have in an activity. There is no struggle. The exercise is almost effortless. You are in a highly consciousness and almost unconscious state in that you are only into the single act and everything around you ceases to have importance.
Ravizza (1977) was one of the first sport psychologists to describe how athletes felt during their greatest moments. Interviews of 20 male and female athletes who played in 12 different sports yielded the following characteristics:
- Loss of fear—no fear of failure
- No thinking of performance
- Total immersion in the activity
- Narrow focus of attention
- Effortless performance—not forcing it
- Feeling of being in complete control
- Time-space disorientation (usually slowed down)
- Perceive universe to be integrated and unified
- Unique, temporary, involuntary experience
I have been in the zone in sports and I get into the flow most every morning to write. With the one or two times I remember with sports it was an involuntary act. It just sort of took over my body. Today, I think professional athletes go through rituals to get themselves into the zone. We certainly see performances that could have been in the zone, but as spectators we don’t know what is going on in their heads.
As I writer, I set up my flow or zone. For me it is the most important thing I do during the day that requires both my left and right brain to be synchronized. I try to set up all my left brain activity before I get into the writing, because then it often takes off into the creative which can be utilizing the information and data collected to create new or intuitive relationships.
Flow requires previous practice at the task. It requires a relaxed concentration. It requires a calm excitement about what is to be done. It assumes you have competence and yet the task is going to have a slight challenge, but not greater than your ability.
It assumes the outcome is important to you, but once in the flow you are not worried about being judged. I have no real time limit for how long the task will take and no rush to get it completed. There is nothing else that has to be done while I am into my effort. I often get up in the middle of working to let thoughts flow over a new idea, but I don’t really break my concentration by allowing other obligations to creep into my consciousness.
When I am finished I often look at the work and tell myself that was amazing. I often love what I have done and at that point only have minimum concern what everyone else will think. I often feel a let down or the reduction of attentive focus after I have finished and need a break. Sometimes I need to read the news or even read my emails to let myself down from a natural and not an adrenalized high.
I have tried to set up my life in the same vein. I have moved to the beach so that I can move into connection with nature as often or as much as I need everyday. I get very relaxed, refreshed, and energized at the beach or in the mountains. I get very highly charged with my writing and research so I like to have a very effective release.
With the ability to refresh everyday, I can write seven days a week.
Art Fong, one of the great scientific innovators as quoted in a blog by Shankar of India said:
.. when the going gets tough, go backpacking, fishing, skiing, so forth. Relax. It gives you a break when your problems are all mixed up in your cranium. I found sudden answers while looking at the clouds, a falling star, or a fawn. Thinking of problems while in a new environment often leads to a new path to the solution.”
It is sometimes said the shower is one form of meditating. You can get just as lost with other forms of monotonous activities like running, walking, biking, hobbies, car washing and so forth..
But writing is just part of the Flow in my life. I also love healthy eating, exercise and reading for research and relaxation. With a mostly raw diet and the opportunity to surf everyday and plenty of time to read, I have created days that have plenty of challenge and opportunities to focus. Each activity is rewarding and in which I can get totally absorbed.
Creating focus is also eliminating all distractions possible to make it easier. I take care of my obligations or bills early so they are not on my mind. I have disconnected my cell phone and TV. I love but have distanced myself from the news and even football so that I am interested but not addicted.
Creating flow is Creativity Peak Performance. It is a worthwhile goal. It is a work in progress. You can start anywhere. You could start today.
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Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
$200,000 a Month for Good Ideas
Posted by: | CommentsJust when you thought you knew how to think.
Big companies pay Jump Associates $200,000 to $500,000 a month to come up with solutions to abstract problems or $200,000 a day to train 25 people how to think. David Segal NYTimes.
It must not be what we think it is.
Thinking is not the same as when you were in school. Thinking was thought of as a left brain activity to get the right answers to math, science, and English problems. The difference now is that technology can find right answers. Business needs new questions and to solve problems that haven’t been considered yet and to challenge what already exists.
School was always about teaching you things already known and brainstorming has always been about getting the right answers through a logical process that builds one right answer on top of one another until the right solutions is reached. That is vertical thinking. A+B=C. If you can’t find B, the process is stuck.
Innovative thinking in the new era allows for wrong answers and propositions and “what ifs” so as not to stifle the whimsical or silence the reticent.
Innovative thinking has deep roots. In 1948, Alex F. Osborne wrote a book on “Your Creative Power” in which he said we have a creative muscle that has to be exercised and that group think is a great way to come up with ideas.
In the 1960’s, Edward de Bono may have coined the term Lateral Thinking to challenge accepted patterns, assumptions, and results.
In the 1990’s the dot com bust made it clear business could not rely on traditional ideas and that it was necessary to innovate or die. Now we know change is necessary. Keith Sawyer wrote a book “Group Genius” in which he shows all the better innovations have been created in group think.
So why aren’t corporations doing their own thinking?
“Although we like to believe we know what is going on in our brains, we know almost nothing about what is going on inside them,” … “We’re not only blind to certain things, but we’re blind to the fact that we’re blind to them.” Clayton M Christenson, Harvard Business School Professor.
The budding industry of Collective Intelligence is a $250 million a year business and growing at 30% a year. Big business is setting up the software through third party providers to encourage its people to pitch in. Wouldn’t that alert individuals that innovation should now be part of their repertoire and that everyone should begin to learn what innovative thinking means?
Govindarajan, the Dartmouth professor, presents companies with what he calls the three-box framework. In Box 1, he puts everything a company now does to manage and improve performance. …“Companies spend all of their time in Box 1, and think they are doing strategy,” he says. “But strategy is really about Box 2 and 3 — the challenge to create the future that will exist in 2020.” David Segal
We need to go back to school to learn how we are expected to think now. It’s not the same thinking. Maybe it should be called Modern Thinking. It includes knowing how our brain works in the thinking process. It includes being able to access the left sphere of the neo cortex and right sphere at will and switch back and forth consciously.
It is inducing brain states. It includes understanding how to suspend left brain thinking to access the creative, intuitive, imaginative abilities of right brain and how to access the slower speed Theta waves.
The Theta wave state can be accessed as we enter or come out of a night’s sleep. It can be reached through meditation. It is often reached while doing monotonous exercises like running or walking or gardening. Sometimes we come up with a great idea in the shower.
Our Beta waves of the left brain get over active and cause anxiety which is very anti creative. The side affect of the powerful dopamine becomes adrenaline. Then we are in the practice of suspending the left brain with alcohol or TV to escape. A healthy process would be to reduce stimulus and relax which would invite right brain thinking.
If we are going to move into the new generation of thinkers we need to learn how to improve our life styles in a healthy manner that creates optimum thinking, moods, and temperaments. We need to create our personal environment for cultivating the optimum brain states.
Healthy eating and exercise create the body and mind set that is operating at peak performance. Understanding how to prioritize creativity periods in our schedule is necessary to access right brain and revelation opportunities.
The Modern Thinker understands and utilizes Lateral and Whole Brain Thinking. Then the Modern worker knows how to collaborate with software and fellow workers through advanced Emotional Intelligence. At some point soon, we may be collaborating online with people we have not met. It will be the convergence of the Internet and Social Media.
I can see the continuing trend of reduced office spaces with no cubicles and everyone operating mobile with their I Pads throwing their ideas into the corporate idea pool and working through issues for which the corporation hired us. Technology will take care of daily activities, but people will be needed for new direction.
Good ideas obviously have value in the market place and job security may be more dependent on the multi tasker who includes creative thinking in their routine. If technology can replace people to get the right answers and business has to go outside to get people who think, what’s next for today’s employment?
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Read Edward de Bono’s book on Lateral Thinking
See Jacquelyn Wonder and Whole Brain Thinking
See Robert B. Tucker on Innovation is Everybody’s Business
See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Get Free Download “Healthy, Lean and Happy Forever”
See Innovative Downsizing for full coverage on all these topics
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
Being in the Flow is Like the Big “O”
Posted by: | CommentsThe other day I went to the post office around 11:30 a.m. and returned to work on my new E Book. Before I knew it, it was 4:30 p.m. Where had the day gone? I couldn’t remember.
Sometimes I write a post in the morning and when I am done I am aware that the clock moved forward, but I was unaware of the minutes. I sit back and look at the piece I wrote and tell my self it is amazing. Not another person in the world might agree, but at the moment it doesn’t make a difference. I did it for me. The satisfaction is so immense that it keeps me coming back like good sex.
You have had experiences where time passes but you are unaware. You often say, where did the day go? Ever have a conversation and pretty soon five hours have passed. How about reading a good book you can’t put down. We see movies that have us on the edge of our seat.
Being in the flow or the zone feels like total suspension of the left brain. You are in the emotional, creative, intuitive zone of the right brain. You are not thinking of logical steps, or organizational needs, scheduling, or why some things don’t make sense. Good movie makers have developed the art of taking you to their lair of total emersion.
You are not worrying about the economy or concerned about why the U.S. is at war or feeling sorry for people that are poor and starving. You are connected to universal energies that connect you to an object of interest like a laser. There is nothing outside the beam.
I have played sports where a few times I was in the zone. My motor skills were perfect and the world outside my focus did not exist. I could feel I was doing well but I was more excited by the fact that I was so absorbed. I did not want anything or anyone to distract my concentration. I wanted to stay in the cocoon for as long as possible.
The highest order of Emotional Intelligence is working in the Flow according to Daniel Goleman who wrote a book called Emotional Intelligence. The flow is usually in an area of competence that we have mastered or al least practiced ad infinitum. Then we begin to experience our work by concentrating on what ever it is and our mind takes over as if on automatic control.
I think we could set our lives to live in the flow. Having just an interest is not quite enough. We have to have a commitment to something that gets 110% of our focus at times. We have to work at it until we are developing some competence. It has to be something that we practice or in which we engage frequently.
In our lives, we have to be able to focus on our interest without major distractions. It would be enhanced with a near perfect diet that doesn’t allow digestion to become a major factor in our day. It would include fitness so that our brains are fully stimulated with alpha and beta waves. The brain would not have too little or too much dopamine that regulates it perfectly before anxiety creates adrenaline.
In our lives, we would minimize our daily distractions or be able to put them in a box. It is best achieved by minimizing all those little activities that one at a time tear from our capacity like cell phones, emails, text messages, TV, and the news.
Eliminating distractions is almost as important as practicing our habits. Then our days become filled with proper eating, exercise, creativity and engaging in our area of focus. Falling away are the ills of poor health, electronic and digital addictions, distracting world events, and non essential activities.
In the world of flow, distractions disappear but it is easier to get into flow if there are not too many to begin with. Then there is only you and the object of your desire.
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What is Peak Performance and Living in the Flow?
See more about Living in the Flow and in the Zone
Soon a free E Book on “Peak Performance and Living in the Flow”
See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Get Free Download ‘Life Begins at Inspiration”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
The 3 R’s of Innovation
Posted by: | CommentsYou might be old enough to remember when the three R’s of education were reading, writing, and arithmetic. They were all left brain activities and part of I.Q. Intellect was the true measure of one’s potential because it could determine if you could be a doctor lawyer or engineer.
Why was it assumed that there was no glory in working for a corporation? Maybe because major corporations were behemoths that manufactured average goods for the masses and the road up the corporate ladder could take a life time of low wages and politics. Not a pretty picture for the young, ambitious, and independent.
What happened? The age of industrialization moved to the age of technology and then information. Manufacturing for the masses went to Japan and specialization in niches required a new type of talent with smaller niches and the demand for a different kind of talent.
Today manufacturing has gone to China and we are left with the age of Innovation. We have to decide how needs that have to be delivered quickly and can’t wait for a trip from over seas can be met efficiently and with greater satisfaction as a trade off for price.
There are still doctors, lawyers, and engineers but they don’t seem to have the same cache. Education has gotten expensive and fewer can afford to spend that much time in school for positions that seem to be getting socialized.
In the days of Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Face Book there is real cache in being an imaginative wonder kind that can visualize a need not yet demanded. Each had founding individuals that made a short trip from college to billionaire because they had the innovation of a life time.
There is no star in society that shines as bright today as the innovator. It is cleansed of the necessity of politics or appointments. It is real grass roots ascendance of the rugged individualist. Every big business is envious of the profits created by the first to the market place. The “also rans” can make profits, but by then they are dwarfed by the competition.
Leaders realize that everyone is just not a Bill Gates and there is a secondary level of accomplishment that can be garnered by using the Collective Intelligence of an entire work force.
What are the three R’s of Innovation for the new Era? Innovation implies something that is different, better, and profitable. It requires a process that challenges existing assumptions, processes, uses, and users.
Lateral thinking is the new math of thinking. It allows for the whimsical, illogical, impractical, and non sequential contribution of ideas in search for the breakthrough. It can be the creative right brain process of a group that understands the current dynamics of an existing problem, process or product. They are able to spin it around like a top on a table looking for looking for the amorphous form that could improve demand
Whole brain thinking is not just an explanation but a practice that allows an individual to move from the left practical to the right creative spheres of the brain to accomplish different phases of the innovative process.
The left sphere defines the problem and collects the research. The right sphere ruminates and looks for new relationships and revelations. Then the left sphere looks at the new ideas and evaluates for the best answer.
Whole brain thinking includes knowing how to get in and out of the appropriate sphere. It might also lead workers to understand their strengths and management to assign the right people to the right tasks.
Emotional intelligence is the discipline of knowing how to contribute and collaborate to create an effective group and not a dysfunctional one. It is the art of knowing your feelings and recognizing those of others. And finally it is the understanding of how to get into the flow for Peak Performance.
Every business has need for the evolved contributors and individuals can enhance their position by developing their innovative capacity. There is a new order that has need for new education.
What is Peak Performance and Living in the Flow?
Soon a free E Book on “Peak Performance and Living in the Flow”
See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Get Free Download ‘Life Begins at Inspiration”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books and Newsletters.
The New Reality of a Temporary Work Force
Posted by: | CommentsDon’t look now but there is a growing trend to hire workers as temporary instead of permanent especially in the small business sector. Some of your considerations are:
- Could your job become temporary?
- What skills are needed for temporary work?
- How should it affect your current preparation?
“Temporary employees still make up a small fraction of total employees, but that segment has been rising steeply over the past year. “It hints at a structural change,” said Allen L. Sinai, chief global economist at the consulting firm Decision Economics. Temp workers “are becoming an ever more important part of what is going on,” he said. NYTimes article by Motoko Rich http://nyti.ms/g3IVGr
Three of the main purposes it serves for business are:
- Short Term Projects
- Benefits
- Flexibility
It allows business to take on short term projects and outsource the work to firms who specialize in supervising part time employees or specialists. It serves everyone. It can even include projects involving installations, service, manufacturing, and accounting. A business can bid on a project then estimate the cost of letting someone else handle the contract and then add on their own fee.
Temporary workers do not get medical or 401 k contributions. The employer does not have to contribute taxes. As government tries to make business support more costs, the businesses shed the expenses by finding alternate means to produce.
Even big business is slow to hire because they are unsure of the future. Right now the world’s governments and especially China and the U.S. are in major currency battles. The winners get exports and jobs. The losers get unemployment.
The fate of the Euro nations will have a large affect on U.S. exports over the next few years. Nations in danger of getting bailed out have to implement extreme austerity measures which cut their spending and imports.
“This year, companies have hired temporary workers in significant numbers. In November, they accounted for 80 percent of the 50,000 jobs added by private sector employers, according to the Labor Department. Since the beginning of the year, employers have added a net 307,000 temporary workers, more than a quarter of the 1.17 million private sector jobs added in total.” NY Times
There are 15,000,000 people still out of work. This does not take into account the millions that are under employed as small business owners, contractors, independent contractors and college students graduating each year.
Do we need to take on a temporary project or job mindset? Many of those working temporary jobs have four or five of them. It occurs at many levels.
I am thinking of my favorite little sports bar where all the workers get a few days or nights only and they fill in with other jobs and are always looking for permanent work. That is a microcosm of the big picture but a view into the future of what happens with generalist’s skills.
What are three criteria employers seek in hiring workers?
- Traditional corporate skills
- Technical skills
- Collaborative skills
Can the employer plug you into an opening and have you take over comfortably with minimum training necessary? Can you work well with others because your interest is in contributing to the entity and not entirely egocentric?
Considering the Federal Reserve declared that 9.6% unemployment should be considered a new structural reality and that anemic growth over the next ten years would not allow for substantial increases in permanent employment, I think we are looking at the new reality.
That lends itself to looking for the business needs required today and not necessarily careers unless you are highly trained in a trade, have a doctorate, or are a professional. We are forcing a segmentation of the work force and this requires a quick evolution for those who want to survive. Regardless of the skills you can develop, the reality of fifteen million unemployed and more under employed remains permanent.
If you are employed, you should be looking for ways to become more valuable by becoming more innovative and thinking of the benefit to the whole. If you need work you should be thinking of your core competencies and in which fields you could enthusiastically and even passionately make a contribution.
Anxiety does not help Peak Performance. As we become accustomed to the possible insecurity of the future we have to become more resolved in the value of our own persons. We have to understand our connection and develop our discipline to become better mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Darwin said the strong will survive so we must develop confidence in who we are and deliver our most inspired and passionate efforts to the work environment. Living at Peak Performance and in the flow is our strongest asset and most competitive edge.
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What is Peak Performance and Living in the Flow?
Soon a free E Book on “Peak Performance and Living in the Flow”
See Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Get Free Download ‘Life Begins at Inspiration”
Ideas for your future brought to you by Kaalm Media Group and its assortment of 7 websites with daily postings, E Books, and Newsletters.
Peak Performance and Living in the Flow
Posted by: | CommentsIf you have been following the posts of the last few days you have some context for this topic.
My thinking has evolved through several steps to get to this point. I began with the value of healthy eating and fitness to arrive at appreciation, connection, and inspiration. I then moved to creative thinking as core to improving our value and welfare in this new economic era.
Adding innovation and emotional intelligence were the last two pieces to become the ideal corporate employee. Since we are also individuals, the qualities sought by big business would also suit us if we operate small or online. A forecast for the future melding of the internet and Social Media for business purposes predicts online collaboration with strangers.
We must learn how to invoke creative thinking. We must learn how to develop ego less communications in collaborating in person or online. We must have minds and bodies operating in peak condition to offer our best products daily.
Taking it from the beginning I suggest you get as close to a raw diet as possible. Or you can look at raw and ask what you would have to add in to make it palatable. I went to raw and have since added in a chicken breast every other night. You need to exercise at least every other day to support brain activity.
I would hope that getting healthy would give you appreciation for how we can live best on this planet. Knowing you can really feel good, might give you some appreciation for being here and inspire you for ways to express yourself or even open up some activities for which you can feel passion.
Thinking can be divided into a few necessities which you can investigate to get more detail or read my past posts. But key are the capabilities for
- Lateral Thinking,
- Whole Brain Thinking and
- Emotional Intelligence
Lateral Thinking is the development credited to Edward de Bono in which we challenge all assumptions and learn to investigate patterns. If we challenge the purpose, the utility, and the continued relevance of all systems and products without judgment about our ideas we get into the Innovative Thinking process.
Whole Brain Thinking is understanding which of our right or left brain is dominant and how to build more parity into their functions. Then we learn how to move from right to left or back in creative thinking. Finally we learn how to move into the appropriate brain for the activity we need or how to suspend one brain to elevate the focus of the other.
Emotional Intelligence at its core means understanding your feelings as they happen and being able to regulate your behavior. Secondly it means understanding the feelings of others and being empathetic. A higher level is being able to control others’ feelings which could lead to popularity, leadership, or interpersonal effectiveness.
The highest level of Emotional Intelligence is flow or living in the zone. This is focus on an activity that consumes your attention and time itself. It usually occurs with an activity you have practiced and in which you have competence.
If you were to create a life in which you were mentally and physically fit, had inspiration, creative thinking skills, and focus, you could experience peak performance and flow on a continuing basis.
My Free Download E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration”
The following books are available at Amazon.com. Used they are often just a few dollars.
Innovation is Everybody’s Business by Robert B. Tucker
Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono
Whole Brain Thinking by Jacquelyn Wonder
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Heal the Mind Rewire the Brain by Patt Lind-Kyle
Modern Prosperity and Happiness Depend on Balance
Posted by: | CommentsI have a stack of small ocean stones on my desk piled four high. The bottom one is the biggest at a few inches. The next one is pretty flat. The third has more curvature and the top one is very round.
They sit precariously and safe as long as nothing hits or shakes my desk. I think of them as I think of life. Life requires balance, it is fragile, it is best held together by family, it is dependent on income, and one needs their health.
When I hit the desk or move something heavy the top ones fall and I put them back again. Life is not permanent nor is anything in it. We are given a gift, but we have to be thankful for what we have and try to protect what we can.
Nonetheless, we often have little control.
At a young age I lost parents in a plane crash because they were in the wrong place as they flew on vacation. I almost lost a daughter as she fell over an edge and fractured her skull. I have been in the real estate industry which disappeared over night. I am not mourning, I am saying how lucky it is that I am here and that I have my faculties, health and loved ones.
Around me I see people take things for granted until something surprising happens. We can’t live in fear but we need to assess how we live. Not only should we not live in fear, but we should live in exultation. We have and can experience incredible feelings of inspiration and joy.
Life is chaotic for most people these days because they are focused on their economic well being. That is important but that puts their life out of balance. Economic well being should just be one stone in a life that builds on a strong foundation of appreciation and skills.
We have core competencies. I have discussed in the last few posts how some new skills are needed and an accurate assessment of who we are and how we operate could be more essential to developing Peak Performance.
When we understand how our own brain works, what it likes, and how to move it from analytical to creative thinking, we have a modern weapon. We should also understand what we do best and what comes to us most naturally. This has a lot to do with understanding whether we are left brain or right brain dominant and then knowing how to build the less dominant. Whole Brain Thinking
Emotional Intelligence is one of the most in demand skills even though business does not label it. Most of the human skills necessary for job security and promotion these days require
- traditional corporate skills,
- technical skills,
- creative skills and
- collaboration skills.
More than ever, business requires people who play well with others. Business today needs people who can perform their tasks, communicate, and share ideas. As technology and Social Media blend, we see a larger propensity toward online collaboration with people you may not know.
You will need to develop your best competency and offer your results to the common effort. Amazon.com is a great example of a core competency that serves the masses in achieving their particular needs.
How can you find happiness, offer your core competencies, and achieve peak performance?
The highest level of Emotional Intelligence is operating in the Flow. This is well explained by David Goleman in Emotional Intelligence. In his book he quotes
“Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist who developed a theory of multiple intelligences sees flow and the positive states as a way to teach children and draw them into the domains of their natural competencies. ‘Flow is an internal state that signifies a kid is engaged in a task that’s right. You have to find something you like and stick to it’” he says
Understanding what you love, engaging in or practicing what inspires you or attracts your passion, is a path to living in the flow. When you live in the flow, time ceases and life is delivering its promise.
Living inspired creates an appreciation for who we are and life’s gifts. We tend to be more generous and less egocentric. We think of our health, our families, our contribution to business, and our community.
Living inspired and in the flow creates balance. This can start with getting in connection with our own humanity. I believe healthy eating and fitness create a very strong connection to nature, creativity, and inspiration. See free download, Healthy, Lean and Happy Forever.
Living in balance helps you keep those stones stacked with fewer knock overs and easier reassembly. Things continuously fall out of place, but when you have a sound concept of who you are and how you work best, you can get the stones back in place with minimum disruption.
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See Free Download Life Begins at Inspiration
Downsizing and Optimism Can Lead to Peak Performance
Posted by: | CommentsI mix a number of themes with the purpose of giving my readers ideas on health, fitness, creative thinking, inspiration, emotional intelligence, and Peak Performance.
The reality of the economic situation is that if you are not big business, you are facing or have faced the necessity to monitor your budget. This runs in the back of your mind like an anti-virus program and can affect your performance. I say this because I recently had to disable an anti virus program on my computer.
The near term global economic outlook is not great and I yet I feel individuals can improve their personal welfare in face of the obstacles. We can still fulfill our purpose and have great lives.
A most important requirement is a positive attitude. A positive attitude, optimism and hope as discussed in yesterday’s post, are important for all mental, physical, and spiritual systems to operate at optimum. The systems must come together in what I call O.L.E., Optimizing Life’s Experiences.
Downsizing can be a positive experience. It can mean getting smaller but it can also mean getting to “savings”. There is very little capital available to the non-big business populace. Cash flow must come from business revenues, wages, passive income, or savings. Every big business has increased earnings from reducing expenses.
For the individual that might mean reducing the size of their residence, not buying a new car, cutting vacations, reducing the evenings out, cutting back on clothing expenditures, and maybe even reducing the coffee allowance.
In any case, as we experience the pain of doing without, we pick up the feeling of being more disciplined, secure, responsible, and independent.
If you want to build on some more positive experiences, start improving your healthy eating and fitness. Create more downtime to give your brain a rest and opportunity for creative thinking.
Find one or two activities for which you could develop passion, life’s most compelling emotion. Passion puts your life into “flow” regardless of economics.
I found that as I started eating healthy and building my fitness program, I became leaner; 41 pounds leaner at this point. The regular exercise supported my mental acuity, self esteem and confidence. The better you feel the more confident and optimistic you become. Keeping track of weight loss has a strange counter balance to asset loss.
I felt that in improving my personal well being, I also became more connected with my spiritual values because I was eating and living closer to the way Mother Nature intended for us to exist. I started feeling the connection.
The more positive I became, the more I wanted to express my appreciation for having the opportunity to be here and live my life in a meaningful way. I became inspired to write as a means of self expression and push my fitness as a secondary means of self expression. There is solace in physical exercise as a right brain activity.
Living inspired is the act of doing things just because we enjoy doing them. We don’t have to have an end game to pursue things that inspire us. They give our days real meaning and significance.
We can become much more competent in activities that inspire us.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, practice in competencies leads to “flow” and “being in the zone”. Participating in these competencies everyday leads to “living in flow”. Maybe these activities will lead to monetary rewards or maybe not.
In any case, it leads to appreciating the fact we are here and then our economic experiences just become something else we have to deal with. The whole world is dealing with things and in most Westernized countries we have a peace and freedom that make people in most countries envious.
Let’s count our blessings, assess our competencies, and find our passions. Downsizing and developing personal power can create an optimism that puts life in flow and enhances economic opportunities
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You might enjoy my Free E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration”
I am also adding daily to a new site: “Innovative Downsizing” .com
I now call my collection of 7 websites the “Lateral Media Group” thanks to the suggestion of my friend JIm Greenwood of Tossly.com
Emotional Intelligence and Living “In the Zone”
Posted by: | CommentsEmotion can guide our lives in a way that intellect could never achieve. With the right emotional direction, preparation and practice are the strongest allies.
“The quality of attention in flow is relaxed yet highly focused…the most challenging tasks are done with a minimum expenditure of mental energy…well practiced moves require much less brain effort than ones just being learned..” Daniel Goleman, “Emotional Intelligence”
Howard Gardner, a Harvard psychologist who developed a theory of multiple intelligences sees flow and the positive states as a way to teach children and draw them into the domains of their natural competencies. “Flow is an internal state that signifies a kid is engaged in a task that’s right. You have to find something you like and stick to it” he says.
We have all experienced activities in which we were in the flow or zone but did not characterize them as such. If you have ever been engrossed in a movie, a conversation, a book, or an activity where life around you disappeared. It’s the book you can’t put down. It’s the conversation that went for five hours without you realizing it.
Some people get this in their work. The “mad scientist” might spend days working on his new invention. I see quarterbacks who in the final minute complete every pass as they take their team down the field. Roger Federer seems to be a master in high performance concentration where you ask yourself “how can he do that under so much pressure?”
When we learning to do something well and sticking to it, on occasion we have performances where we feel we are out of our minds. Everything comes together…we are unaware of our surroundings…
“Being able to enter flow is emotional intelligence at its best; flow represents perhaps the ultimate in harnessing the emotions in the service of performance and learning. In the flow emotions are…positive, energized, and aligned with the task at hand.” Daniel Goleman
One of the emotional competencies that lead to this experience is optimism or hope. “Optimism, like hope, means having a strong expectation that, in general things will turn out all right in life, despite setbacks and frustrations.” Daniel Goleman
Having the faith that you can achieve your goals and sticking to them with a commitment, discipline and courage can lead to experiences of being in the flow.
Inspiration is living in flow because it is the act of doing what you love without concern for the end rewards. The act is the reward. So this stretches out flow from experiencing it in the moment to experiencing it over a long period of time. If I love to write, I can experience it every day. Some days it may flow and some days it may not. In surfing, I practice most everyday and some days its magic and some days it is not.
Getting engaged in something you love probably means you are incorporating some key competencies, adding an optimistic attitude that you can do it, willingly practicing or working at it, committing to doing the best you can, and not being overly concerned where it takes you.
Finding your competencies and committing to doing what you love is a combination that leads to living your life in the flow.
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For further study you might want to read Daniel Goleman’s book Emotional Intelligence
Download my Free E Book “Life Begins at Inspiration” . I discuss how eating and fitness can take you through the discipline and courage important to reaching your life’s work.
