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Are You Just Like Everyone Else Too?

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about my life, my likes, my aspirations.

I so like to travel. It’s more than the green grass feeling. It’s the something’s there I need to see before I die feeling. Can I possibly live a full life in one place? Can I have life, a full life moving all over the place like I do?

I need more life, more lifes, more lifetimes, more life times, more time, more times.

I want a chance to be Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa, Betty Crocker and Tom Peters. I want to be Donald Trump and Princess Diana. I want go live in a cabin off the land. I want to live by the beach and sleep on the sand. I want to live with every one of my friends. I want to live in another country in a tiny village and ride a bike everywhere I go. I want to be a gardener, a gymnast, a piano player, a mathematician, a poet. I want to direct music videos.

I want to sleep in a king-sized bed with a seatbelt on an airplane.

I want to live in the highest, highrise in the biggest, busiest city. I want to be a recluse and reflect on deep, long thought with lovely music playing while I drink hot chocolate and write. I want to have a personal shopper, a driver, and a minder. I want to follow my own path and walk off into the sunset and never have to worry about good byes.

I want to be simple and complex. I want to be open and mysterious. I want to be a grownup and a child.

I’m just like everyone else I guess.

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5 Sure Fire Ways to Motivate Yourself

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A Guest Post by
Farouk Radwan

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We all have goals and tasks that we want to accomplish but unfortunately we don’t always find ourselves motivated to do our tasks or to pursue our goals.

One of the big differences between successful people and those who didn’t succeed yet is the ability of the first group to motivate themselves to work on their goals.

Certainly we all want to be successful and that’s why I decided to write this post to tell you about 5 surefire ways that can help you motivate yourself.

1) Know exactly what you don’t want: Sometimes knowing exactly what you don’t want can motivate you more than knowing what you want. Wanting to be rich will certainly motivate you but not wanting to be poor, miserable, broken, sad or helpless can sometimes motivate you more.

Visualize the worst scenarios that can happen If you didn’t work on your goals can give you a strong motivational boost.

2) Combine both positive and negative motivation: In order not to fall in the trap of negative thinking you must use both positive and negative motivation techniques. Just like you should remind yourself of the negative consequences you should use visualization and images to remind yourself of the amazing feelings you will get when you succeed.

For example if you want to get rich you can hang on the wall above your computer a picture of your dream house or dream car. Each time you will look at them you will get motivated.

3) Don’t wait for the right mood or the right time: Lots of people mistakenly believe that people who are highly motivated always feel good while pursing their goals while the truth is that those who are self motivated have learned how to work even if they feel really bad.

Its not about waiting for a good mood to start but its about learning how to start even if there is no good mood.

4) Use motivational media: No one can underestimate the effect of suggestions we receive from songs, movies, pictures ..etc. If you are getting these suggestions anyways then why not make some of them positive by filtering out the negative media you get subjected to and increasing the positive media you encounter?

5) Lack of knowledge results in lack of motivation: Why would a person who want to do something badly never become motivated to do it? For example I know many people who would die to lose weight but in the same time never try to do it. The reason some people lack motivation is that they don’t know what to do in order to solve their problems, had those people educated themselves about possible solutions they will become motivated to pursue their goals
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Farouk Radwan wrotes for The Ultimate Source for self understanding – 2knowmyself.com You can find him on Facebook as m.farouk.radwan and on Twitter as @2knowmyself

Thanks, Farouk for the motivation on a Friday morning!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Show Your Workspace Some Love

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I Don’t Read Your Desk

Messy Desk


Productivity.
A desk is like a garage — it’s where you keep your tools. It helps if it’s organized, but your car will run fine when it is not. But messy writing is a sign of messy thinking. It’s proof our ideas aren’t under control. No one wants to be behind the wheel with someone who can’t keep the car on the road.

The thing is it’s a whole lot easier to do clear focused thinking when we don’t see clutter all around us looking back. If we take a few minutes to straighten where we work, our thought come through more easily. Here’s a way to make work more motivating when you return Monday morning.

Friday’s Answer to a Motivated Monday

Finish your last work task early on Friday, so that you have time to complete this list. If you’re working late this week, do all you can to take a “last half hour” anyway. On Monday morning, you’ll be glad you did.

  • Put things done away.
  • Lay out things that still need attending to. Mark what needs to be done. Make a to-do list, if that’s your way.
  • Use the things you laid out to make a plan for next week. Decide what you will tackle first and what your three most important goals will be.
  • Order the Monday tasks by putting what you can get done fastest first. Do this for two reasons. You’ll quickly have a sense of accomplishment, and you’ll be able to pass on what you finished to someone else can take that piece to the next step.

Then consider the week closed, leave the work at the office, give your brain a break, and have a weekend. What a great way to remind yourself and everyone else that you can enjoy your job — head for the weekend with an office that looks like it could be in a magazine . . .

Whether you work in a building away from home or in your bedroom, it’s boost to your Monday to walk back into a space that’s ready to work in.

Don’t you think the way that we take care of ourselves shows in our work? Show your workspace some love. You’ll feel it back guaranteed.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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Universal Thoughts

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I've been thinking . . .

about the power of thoughts.

They say that what I think is the deciding factor in what the universe serves up to me. I can see the sense of that.

As I think, I see.

When I choose to focus on the brighter, smarter ideas and people, I seem to find them more.

When I’m sure of my direction, folks follow me. When I’m feeling insecure, folks challenge my ideas. It’s hardly quantum physics to calculate that why should be.

As I think, I feel.

When I’m certain that what I’ll be doing is going to turn out right, it always seems to . . . maybe that’s because I make it so. When I know I’m on the right track, it’s as if I touch a cloud to make the right things rain down

As I think, I am.

This weekend the universe is supporting every good dream.

I’m going to think it so.

What about you?

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Left-Brain, Right-Brain, Whole Brain Think

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Analysis and Synthesis

It’s no secret that our brains have two hemispheres or that the two work differently. Despite how we talk, people aren’t really right-brain thinkers or left-brain thinkers. Everyone uses both sides of their brain in everything that they do. Each hemisphere takes charge of certain specialized thinking.

What is managed by the left hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the right side of the body
  • sequential and linear thinking — a, b, c, . . . 1,2,3
  • reading left to right
  • interpreting the meaning of text without context
  • analyzing details — drilling down into spreadsheets
  • knowing logic

What is managed by the right hemisphere of the brain?

  • action and response on the left side of the body
  • simultaneous thinking — That’s a math book. That’s newspaper.
  • reading right to left
  • interpreting the meaning of context
  • synthesis — the global view
  • knowing the world

People do have attributes that lean toward left-brain directed thinking or right-brain directed thinking. Here’s what Daniel Pink says about that in his book A Whole New Mind.

Call the first approach L-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the left hemisphere of the brain — sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic. Ascendant in the Information Age, exemplified by computer programmers, prized by hardheaded organizations, and emphasized in schools, this approach is directed by left-brain attributes, toward left-brain results. Call the other approach R-Directed Thinking. It is a form of thinking and an attitude to life that is characteristic of the right hemisphere of the brain — simultaneous, metaphorical, aethetic, contextual, and synthetic. Underemphasized in the Information Age, exemplified by creators and caregivers, shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools, this approach is directed by right-brain attributes toward right-brain results.

Of course, we need both approaches in order to craft fulfilling lives and build productive, just societies. But the mere fact that I feel obliged to underscore that obvious point is perhaps further indication of how much we’ve been in the thrall of reductionist, binary thinking. Despite those who have deified the right brain beyond all scientific evidence, there remains a strong tilt toward the left. Our broader culture tends to prize L-Directed Thinking more highly than its counterpart, taking this approach more seriously and viewing the alternatve as useful, but secondary.

But this is changing . . .

What changes do you see? Are you using your right-brain talents more? Are you feeling less appreciated for your left-brain abilities?

–ME Liz” Strauss
Behind every successful business is an outstanding manager –The Perfect Virtual Manager.

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Thinking about thinking . . . and playing

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I’ve been thinking . . .

about this quote:

Too often, young artists paint before they think. Over the years, I have disciplined myself to think before I pain. When I see a paintable subject or interesting situation, I paint more than I see. I paint what is to be seen. I paint what is inside me. I personalize the scene, make it my own so that through my painting you and I, viewer and artist, can communicate. My goal is to create paintings that are a voice, not an echo — Charles Wysocki, Heartland from The 9 Rights of Every Writer

Purple coneflowers

I’ve learned to think about what I write before I write. I know that when I do it’s so much more valuable. The words, the words I choose are chosen so much more carefully when I finally get around to deciding to choose them.

Thinking, trying on a thought, I let it live in me. Giving a thought time to breathe like a fine red wine sets the nuances out where I can see them. They’re like the wisps of a fall dandelion in the breeze floating against a blue sky background.

While I while away time letting thoughts go where they will go, my body takes a posture of relaxation. I breathe in ideas about whatever I’m letting myself think upon. So when I start to write I have a peaceful, deep understanding. I type slowly what I know intuitively about my ideas.

Today I was thinking about thinking about how a life might be wonder-filled if I were to take time to think before every important thing I ever do, especially playing.

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