What Quiets You?

Sorry to send you into a sugar coma with the cuteness today!

Today’s question is “What Quiets YOU?”

I was pleased to hear blogging and leadership superstar Michael Hyatt give out some serious props recently for naps and people who take them. I like working late, but my family needs me early. I need my naps. No, I don’t get them regularly. When I don’t something happens. I fall asleep reading. I go right into REM sleep too…as you might imagine.

Except for when I’m exhausted I can only nap when one other thing is in place:

I must feel safe.

If threats loom I am disquieted.

Trust is what quiets down my soul so I can wade through the rest of it, and lay me down to sleep. Trust in God, Trust in myself, and Trust in others.

In finding what quiets our souls we find not just peace, but vitality, and fullness. (click to tweet that reminder)

The hush may come from acceptance, wonder, rest, or satisfaction from a job well done, but it must be found.

Without it we just keep on wandering.

So ask yourself. “What Quiets Me?” How and where am I most settled?

Write down one word to remind yourself, and tape it up somewhere.

It will help you not just remember to find it, but it’ll help you remember who you really are.

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Feel like sharing? What surprising thing calms your soul?

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Give it to a friend or hide it in a Geocache. This is a lot of family fun!

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More Creative & More Productive in 2 Days

Photo Credit: Rennett Stowe via Compfight

Try this experiment with me.

I did it, and I got much more done. My Creative Muse seemed to appreciate it too. I wonder if it’ll help you.

BE WARNED. Everything in you will itch at first, but stay with it.

Here it is: Postpone checking your email or going online until noon, for 2 weekdays in a row.

First Create: Get your most creative work done first. (Maybe after a cup of coffee.) Do stuff like idea generation, constructing a mission plan for your project, and the sorts of things that take more lateral thinking (vs. vertical analytical thinking…drill downward at one spot problem solving.)

Second Do: Get your 10 min “must do” stuff out of the way. You know the little things that pile up at work or home that take 10 minutes or less.

(If some of these must do things include going online or emailing…put it off until 10 or 11 a.m.)

Then, please report back.

I’m excited to hear what happened. It’ll be interesting to compare notes.

Ode to the Letter Box

Inspired by the STORY conference, and the piece I wrote for the official attendees notebook (on Little Free Libraries), I decided to start telling a very amazing Story of my own. It begins this summer, and unfolds a bit at a time.

Officially, nothing has happened … no advertising or promo blitz… but if you want to poke around, you’ll see some new things. Actually, if you don’t want to poke around and sniff out the new, semi-hidden stuff you won’t much care about what it is in the first place.

Since creativity is married to curiosity you get your creative juices going on adventures, mysteries, discoveries, and treasure hunts of various kinds. It’s hard if not impossible to have one without the other.

I’m up to something, and you can start to find out what it is. But, yes, it’s all up to you. And I’m not worried about spreading the word because it’s the anti-release…A good Story doesn’t need the same kind of advertising. It grows its own legs and walks the Story around for you.

There will be more revealed throughout the summer. Stop back when you can.

one more thing, by way of introduction (anti-introduction)….
The first phase has everything to do with “the letterbox”. You know, that old thing that holds bills and circulars, political flyers, and sometimes the random greeting card.

When was the last time opening the mail was magical?

Perhaps Now?

(There is a contest running all summer. See if you can find the tab under “Spark My Muse!”)

All Creation is Theft

Today is about stealing.

Jeff Goings will tell you today that the 6th habit of great writers is their propensity to steal. I agree. They (we) don’t always realize they (we) do it, but at least a bit is stolen.

We all have hidden influencers, as much as we have recognized models we admire or even imitate.

Theft is even more true in terms of creativity, but for an entirely different reason. An important reason.

Namely, origins.

The brilliant thinkers of the ancient world told of the Muses. The daughters of the gods gave mortals inspiration. Creativity was borrowed. Co-opted. It was not a product of spontaneous generation. It neither started nor ended with a human. Genius wasn’t characteristic of a person, but of an influence.

There is but one true source for creation and creativity Theos …deity.

In Christianity, a monotheist Source.

It’s all a heist, my friends. A beautiful heist. The more personal of twist we put on the process and delivery the less it’s identifiable as stealing.

Now, it’s your turn:

Do you agree?
Who or what have been your biggest influencers?
And what are some of your possible hidden influencers?