Five qualities of creative thinkers

The more you do of what you’re doing, the more you’ll get of what you’ve got.  Creative thinking requires that you continually dig deep into yourself and generate more, newer, better, faster, cheaper, different ideas that you can use to improve the important parts of your life. Want to be a creative thinker? Read below some unique qualities of creative thinkers

Ask Questions

The first quality is that creative thinkers are intensely curious.  They are always asking questions.  They ask questions like “Why?” very much like children do all the time. Then they ask, “Why not?”  “Why can’t we do it?”  “Even if it hasn’t been done before, can it be done now?”

Change Your  Mind

The second quality of creative thinkers is that they have a willingness to change.  They recognize that in a world such as ours, the unwillingness or inability to change is fatal.  They prefer to be in charge of their lives rather than being caught up in the flash flood of change that is inevitable and unavoidable. The words of the truly flexible person, the person who is willing to change are simply, “I changed my mind.” According to researchers, fully 70% of the decisions you make turn out to be wrong in the long run.  This means that you must be willing to change your mind and try something else most of the time.  Mental flexibility is the most important quality that you will need for success in the 21st century.

Continue to Learn

The third quality is that highly creative people can say, “I don’t know.”  They recognize that it is impossible for anyone to know anything about everything, and it is very likely that almost everyone is wrong to some extent, no matter what they are doing.  So when someone asks them a particular question that they don’t know the answer to they admit it early and often.  They simply say, “I don’t know.”  And if necessary they go about finding the answer. Here’s an important point.  No matter what problems you have, there is someone somewhere who has had the same problem and who has already solved the problem and is using the solution today.  One of the smartest and most creative things you can do is to find someone else, somewhere, who is already implementing the solution successfully and then copy him or her. The smartest person is not necessarily the person who comes up with the idea.  It may be just a lucky flash of insight.  The smartest person is the one who copies the idea first.  And it is often the person to recognize the value of a new idea that makes a fortune from the idea while the originator makes little or nothing.

Creative Thinkers Are Goal Oriented

The fourth quality of creative people is that they are intensely goal focused.  They know exactly what they want.  They have it written down very clearly.  They visualize it on a regular basis.  They imagine what their goal would look like if it were a reality today.  And the more they visualize and imagine their goal as a reality, the more creative they become and the faster they move toward achieving it.

Creative Thinking Generates New Ideas

The most important part of  creative thinking is your ability to generate ideas.  And the greater the quantity of ideas that you generate, the greater the quality your ideas will be.  The more ideas you have, the more likely you are to have the right idea at the right time. But generating ideas is only 1% of the equation.  As Thomas Edison once wrote, “Genius is one percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”  Your ability to come up with an idea, to test it and validate it, and then to implement it through creative thinking and execute it in your life to achieve results is the true mark of genius. Every single time you originate a new idea, write it down, make a plan for its implementation through creative thinking and then take action, you are behaving like a genius.  And the more you manage your creativity in this way, the smarter you will become.  And the smarter you will become, the more you will achieve in every area of your life.  Your future will become unlimited.

Thank you for reading this article about creative thinking. Please comment and share below!

Source: Brain Tracy

Your Heart Desire

An Old adage says: "God has a plan for every man, and He has one for you," and this is absolutely correct. Your real problem, therefore, in fact the only problem that you ever have, is to find your true place in life. Find that, and everything else will follow almost automatically. You will be perfectly happy; and upon happiness, health will follow. You will be really prosperous. You will have all the supply that you require to meet your needs, and this means that you will have perfect freedom; for poverty and freedom cannot go together. Until you do find your true place in life, however, you never will be really happy, no matter how much money or distinction you may acquire; and until you are happy, you will be neither healthy nor free.

Whoever you are, God has not made you without a definite purpose in view. The Universe is a universe; that is, it is a unified harmony, a Divine Scheme. There can, therefore, be no such thing, as a misfit, or an unwanted or unneeded piece. It could not happen that God could create a spiritual entity such as you are, without having a special purpose in view, and this means that there is a special and particular place in it for you.

God never repeats Himself, and so He has never made two people alike, and it is for this reason that no two people could ever do quite the same work, or express themselves in quite the same way. That is why, rightly understood, there really need be no competition. There need be no such thing as, say, two thousand people struggling for the same place in life. Whatever the place may be, there can be only one person who can fill it perfectly; and there are one thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine other places somewhere waiting for the other people if only they will find them.

But how is one to find his true place in life? Is there any means whereby you may discover what it really is that God wishes you to do? You may feel inclined to say:

"Even if it be true that God has some splendid thing that He wishes me to do, and to be, how can I possibly find out what it is?" Perhaps you may even be tempted to add: "I am a very plain, everyday sort of person; my circumstances are extremely restricted; the conditions of my life are just drab commonplace. How then can there be something wonderful, beautiful, splendid awaiting me? Or, even if there were, how could I possibly get to know about it? “And the answer is Divinely simple- Already in your past life from  time to time, God Himself has whispered into your heart just that very wonderful thing, whatever it is, that He is wishing you to be, and to do, and to have. And that wonderful thing is nothing less than what is called Your Heart's Desire. Nothing less than that.

The most secret, sacred wish that lies deep down at the bottom of your heart, the wonderful thing that you hardly dare to look at, or to think about —the thing that you would rather die than have anyone else know of, because it seems to be so far beyond anything that you are, or have at the present time, that you fear that you would be cruelly ridiculed if the mere thought of it were known — that is just the very thing, that

God is wishing you to do or to be for Him. And the birth of that marvelous wish in your

soul —the dawning, of that secret dream— was the Voice of God Himself telling, you to arise and come up higher because He had need of you.

Source: Emmet Fox: Your Heart Desire

The Sanguine- Who is He?

Why do you act the way you do?  Why do you always get into trouble with your friends and family? Why do you always complain about your boss? Most people find themselves in wrong relationships and careers because they struggle to identify their personality type. When we are able to identify who we really are and our temperamental tendencies, we become better in regulating ourselves, this allows us to develop self-control and self-discipline and avoid unnecessary pitfalls within our lives.

In this post, I intend sharing with you some of the major personality types, so that you can develop your strength as well as maximizing weaknesses that comes with that temperament type.

Let’s begin with the Sanguine

sanguine temperament

Sanguines are the popular, talkative and the “centre of attention ” at all times, no matter the setting. At a party, Sanguines are the loud type making funny comments and telling funny stories all over, typically the ones to  give life to the party, because they love to talk. They attract people with their magnetism and exude charisma; a  sanguine personality is always affectionate, loving, cheerful, optimistic  and hopeful. To easily spot a sanguine; look for the one that easily dominates conversation or talk too much about their selves. And watch out, in their enthusiasm, they may exaggerate the truth, waste time and definitely forget obligations.

If you find yourself dating a sanguine, what they want to hear from you is how attractive they are, how you like their hair, make-up, clothes, dangling earrings or anything else they have put on.

Some down sides of sanguine are; they are not normally goal oriented, waste time and forget obligations.Sanguines are frequently not disciplined, and this is, of course, very difficult for the third personality type called melancholy to understand. Sanguines wear their "heart on their sleeve", but they very easily “forgive and forget”. As quickly as a Sanguine will discover a new hobby or pursuit, that love of it can be lost when it ceases to be engaging or fun.  

What Next?

Are you a Sanguine? Tell me some of your weaknesses and strengths; in my next post I talk about the Choleric temperament

Simple Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp

The importance of keeping your mind sharp cannot be overstated. We’re all part of a fantastic intellectual and information economy, which thrives on ideas, creativity and intelligence. Keeping your mind sharp is sure to give you the edge over the competition, and more importantly lead to your own higher levels of happiness.

When your mind is in top shape, you will:

• Have greater motivation and focus
• Get more done
• Come up with more creative ideas
• Find inspiration more often
• Remember more
• Experience a better life

I’d like to share a few practices I’ve found are extremely beneficial in keeping my mind sharp and can help you as well:

1) Continue reading, absorbing knowledge and experiencing culture
Sorry to use a clichéd quote, but education is not preparation for life, education is life itself.It should be something pleasurable and done for intrinsic reasons above all else. Read blogs on subjects both within your field and in new fields you know nothing about; read books; watch lectures on fascinating new subjects; read about ancient societies; take in a new form of art you’ve never experienced; you get the idea. Challenge your mind to continually broaden your horizon and soak up new information like an infinite sponge (that’s pretty much what it is, you should use it to do just that).

2) Learn a skill or craft you’ve never tried before like playing an instrument, composing music, painting, building a model airplane, or even coding computer programs. 
Engage your mind in learning a new skill. You’re never too old to do this, but this is definitely something you should start as young as you can. I started composing my own music at around 17, and in retrospect I wish I had started even younger. You’d be surprised how much learning a new skill will open up many new paths in your mind and help you become even better at whatever you are already an expert at. You’ll also open yourself up to tons of new connections and intellectual social circles by engaging yourself in a new hobby, form of art, or trade.

3) To improve memory don’t write everything down
If you can, try this for a week: write down everything you need to do at the beginning of the week, as you normally would, but take your list and put it out of sight. Instead of keeping that list visible at your desk, internalize your projects and simply remember and know what needs to be done, prioritize it in your mind, and do it. Your brain is extremely powerful and you’ll find that, in time, you may not have to write anything down to remember everything (you can still keep a list for reference, but it’s great not to need it).

4) Give your mind time to assimilate knowledge
We live in a culture where we are constantly experiencing and learning new things and taking in new information. This is a great thing, I’m not going to go into the information overload spiel, I don’t really believe in that anyway (you are in total control over how much information you take in at once). But in your process of absorbing new skills, knowledge and life experiences; internal analysis of yourself, what you have learned and where you are going is vital to put everything in proper perspective. Some people do it well during running, others through listening to music, and some people through making art. Find your own place that allows you to assimilate all you have learned and frequent it often.

5) Eat well, sleep well and exercise often
Giving your mind the proper rest and energy is essential to getting the best performance out of it. This one is pretty self explanatory, but people often forget that you need proper fuel and proper rest to function optimally. Also, putting your physical body through the paces is a surefire way to rejuvenate yourself mentally. If you’re ever feeling stressed, out of inspiration, or depressed, a few days of nutritious food, good sleep and vigorous exercise will put you back to your full self soon enough.

CreditAdam Singer

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson