Tips for effective Body Language

" Body language is powerful tool. We had body language before we had speech, and apparently 80% of you understand in a conversation is read through the body, not the words." - Deborah Bull

A gesture is a visible bodily action that may express implicit meaning. It refers to the use of fingers, hands, and arms for expression. It is an important dimension of body language. Gestures may reveal  the mindset of the communicator and convey thoughts through voluntary or involuntary physical movements. For instance, if a person is very upset and nervous, his/her hands may tremble. Although most of the gestures that we make are voluntary, we may sometimes send out negative signals by making some inappropriate gestures.

Your posture talks about your personality. It may tell you are a bold, confident, and dynamic person or a timid, submissive, and a servile fellow. Similarly, your body movements give important signals about your personality. Use your posture and body movements to reflect self confidence, maturity, alertness, and physical stamina. 

"We Communicate all the time, even when don't realize it. Beware of your body language."- Pat Summit

Remember that body language includes both intentional and unintentional messages. These messages will be easy to comprehend when verbal communication and non-verbal gestures complement each other. 

Using positive physical gestures requires a conscious effort and practice but it will definitely be worth it. Positive and appropriate gestures can make us better oral communicators. The following suggestions may help in this regard:

• Gestures should be natural and positive.
• Avoid using gestures to express negative feelings; such feeling should be expressed verbally. For example, if we have to say "no", we should not use fingers or shake our heads to express it.
• Avoid confusing gestures or body movements (biting nails or scratching head)
• Do not use fingers too often,
• Use hands and arms very carefully and effectively.
• While using gestures, be sure that they are consistent with the verbal message and there is no contradiction.
• Learn the cultural patterns of postures and body movements to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings.
• Maintain proper eye contact with the audience.
• Do not forget the magic of 'smile's
• Try to learn about various postures that prompt or suggest the intention of the other person.

As mentioned earlier, it is not speech alone which enables one to communicate. One's body language can add a lot more to communication. One can speak volumes by gesticulating and silent communicating. One's confidence goes a long way in depicting one's character through his/her body language.

7 Typical traits of highly creative people

“A creative person is both, more primitive and more cultivated, more destructive, a lot madder and a lot saner, than the average person.”- Frank Barron, a World War II veteran and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California

It’s often very difficult to describe a creative person. Their personality is guided by a multitude of characteristics and it often becomes hard to comprehend their behaviour. However, if we observe closely there will be several common traits that guide the attitude of creative people. This article will help you to understand and resolve this conundrum of creative behaviour!

Here is the list of top 7 typical traits of highly creative people:

Boredom

“The life of creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.”- Susan Sontag, American writer and filmmaker

Creative minds avoid being bored by being engaged in creative activities. They cannot work on tasks which do not stimulate their mind. They are always ready to tackle new challenges and they don’t mind delays if they believe that they are progressing in the right direction. In fact, driving away boredom is the primary reason behind their creativity!

Creative Imagination (Daydreaming)

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”-Albert Einstein

Creative people do not restrain themselves on the pretence of being practical. For them, anything is possible because they clearly visualize their goals. Most of their time is spent on getting their vision right. Once they see what they want, they become relentless! Moreover, most of the time their vision is so massive that practically cannot be accomplished in their lifetime. Yet, they commit themselves to their vision with complete conviction.

Love for solitude

“In order to be open to creativity, one must have the capacity for constructive use of solitude. One must overcome the fear of being alone.”-Rollo May, author of the influential book Love and Will

Creative people love spending time with themselves and most of them are introverts. They find their answers in the silence of solitude. They are not afraid of being alone. They try to get away from the noisy world to think in peace. All their creative ideas are the products of the time which they spend alone!

Self doubt

“The worst enemy of creativity is self-doubt.”-Sylvia Plath, Poet and Novelist

Yes, creative people are critical about their ideas! They are the first ones to doubt themselves. However, the immense self-belief and trust in their own abilities drive them to continue with their ideas. Moreover, the greatest weapon which they possess in their arsenal is the trust they have in their own instincts.

Lost in time

“Creative people need time to just sit around and do nothing.”-Austin Kleon, author of the book Steal like an Artist

Albert Einstein used to spend most of his time in the evenings staring out of the window in his room. Doesn’t that sound weird? The minds of creative people wander in the world of infinitely possible solutions to the problem they are working on. It might look to the outside world as if they have lost the contact with the reality. The truth is that their minds might be working towards unimaginable, unpredictable and awesome ideas!

Craziness

“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”-Apple Think different ad campaign

Call them crazy, mad or maverick; creative people tend to possess the quality of grabbing public attention with their bizarre thoughts and actions. They have their own whims and fancies, the opinions of others matter very little to them, and most importantly they carry with them the attitude which may not be appreciated by all. Yet, they have their own circle of aficionadi!

Intuition

“Creativity is about play a kind of willingness to go with your intuition. It’s crucial to an artist. If you know where you are going and what you are going to do, why do it?”-Frank Gehry, Architect

Creative people trust their gut. And more often than not, all the laws of logical reasoning and careful analysis go berserk in comparison to the decisions made by creative minds. Their ability to take risk and trust in their intuition is often accompanied by astounding success!

Other traits include their love for freedom, sarcasm and ability to rise from the ashes which were not included in the list keeping in view the length of the article.

Previous posts :

9 Principles of Effective Leadership

How to be driven by discipline?

Can you hear yourself lead?

5 ways to stay focused on your goals

Life lessons from Steve Jobs

4 Ways to unleash the creative genius within you

7 things we can learn from children

How to live a BLISSful life?

5 steps to improve your presentation skills

Inspirational Poems by various poets

5 habits you need to get rid of to excel at what you do

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Get Inspired, Get Motivated and Get things done!!

9 Principles of Effective Leadership

In order to know yourself, you have to understand your be, know and do attributes. Seeking self-improvement means to strengthen your attributes continuously. This can be accomplished through self-study, formal classes, reflection, and interacting with others. Leadership is one such attribute which has to come from within. Different people require different forms of leadership. You must have a honest understanding of who you are, what you know, and what you can do. To help you be, know and do; follow these 9 principles of leadership.

Following are the 9 principles of Effective Leadership

Know and communicate the vision:

“The most powerful man in the world is the story teller. The story teller sets the vision, values and agenda of an entire generation that is about to come.” – Steve Jobs

You might be team leader, a manager or a CEO, if you intend to become a great leader you need to start working on formulating your vision. You must have the ability to see the things you intend to build or the changes you plan to make in a crystal clear manner. After formulating the vision it’s your responsibility to inject this vision into the minds of your co-workers. If you are working in an organization try to align your team’s vision in line with the organizational vision. Also, make sure that everyone working under your leadership is completely aware and well informed about that vision.

Read the following article to improve your thinking skills:

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Be technically proficient:

“You’d better have the technology knowledge. I really urge you not to think you can start a company and business with just ideas on paper, because you’ll end up owning so few of those ideas.”-Steve Wozniak

As a leader, you must know your job and have a solid familiarity with your employees’ tasks. Your ability to understand the problems in detail will serve as the master key to unlock the solutions to many problems. This is not possible until and unless you are the master of your subject area. It also helps you save the time and effort in hiring specialists to resolve the issues you face. Also, if you do not have an in-depth technical knowledge you will not know the consequences of the your decisions.

Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions:

“Rank does not confer privilege or give power. It imposes responsibility.”-Peter Drucker

Search for ways to guide your team and ultimately your organization to greater heights. And when things go wrong, they always do sooner or later-do not blame others. Analyze the situation, take corrective action, and move on to the next challenge.

Make sound and timely decisions:

“Everybody’s got an opinion. Leaders are paid to make a decision. The difference between offering an opinion and making a decision is the difference between working for the leader and being the leader.”-Bill Walsh 

Use good problem solving, decision making, and planning tools. You have a brain and mind of your own. Use it, and reach your own decisions. If you need facts or information from others to help you reach decisions, acquire the facts or information you need quietly, without disclosing your identity. Those who reach decisions promptly, and definitely, know what they want and generally get it. The leaders in every walk of life decide quickly, and firmly. That is the why they are leaders.

Set the example:

“What you do has far greater impact than what you say.”- Stephen R Covey

Be a good role model for your employees. They must not only hear what they are expected to do, but also see. That does not necessarily mean you have to constantly prompt to them what is to be done. But it means to show them the path and to let them explore further possibilities.

Know your people and look out for their well-being:

“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take of your clients.”- Richard Branson

Know human nature and sincerely caring for your co workers. Whenever they come to you with their problems first listen to them completely. Most of the times all they might need is someone who can listen to them. Instead of rushing them to a short term solution, help them to find a solution which would eliminate the problem completely.

Keep your workers informed:

“The art of communication is the language of leadership.”-James Humes

Know how to communicate not only with you workers, but also senior people and other key people. If you communicate the task clearly, more than half of your job is done. Try to avoid the communication gaps which lead to problems like re-work, work delays and improper output. Try keep your work force updated about all the latest happenings in your team or organization.

Read the following articles to improve your communication and presentation skills:

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

5 Steps to improve your presentation skills

Maintain team spirit:

“A team not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust one another.”-Simon Sinek

To become a great leader you should master the art of bringing out the best from your team by continually encouraging, motivating and inspiring them with his words and actions. You must strive to create a sense of bonding among you team members. There nothing more powerful than team of highly motivated, independent and talented individuals working together to achieve a common vision.

Hire only the best:

“Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can’t tell you whether someone will fit into a company’s culture.”-Howard Schultz

Always hire people who are more talented and more knowledgeable than you. When you have highly skilled and independent people in your team, your work becomes much simpler. Also, when a group of people having similar mindset work together ideas start flowing. While hiring always remember this statement ‘talent begets more talent’.

For further reading on leadership please read the following articles:

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Can you hear yourself lead?

How to be driven by discipline?

“With self-discipline most anything is possible”-Theodore Roosevelt

Discipline is not doing extraordinary things but doing ordinary things extraordinarily well through proper actions. Action is of two kinds-without direction and absolute direction. What is discipline? It is a force which marshals our inner force and saves us from possible disasters in which the undisciplined often find themselves.

Discipline has advantages:

• It enables you to cultivate steadfastness
• You do not permit your mind to sidetrack important matters
• It helps you to go on with your work until it is completed
• You remain composed
• Adversity cannot push you this way or that
• You are not at the mercy of your nerves

Without discipline you cannot experience enjoying serenity, which stems from a job well done. Achievement does not come from feverish attempts. It comes from a disciplined action. Begin by doing things of trivial significance. Take something that you have been avoiding for long, whether it is a certain area of work which you do not find interesting, or payment of a bill or a visit to a friend. By using will power, you shall overcome indiscipline.

“Success is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practised every day.”-Jim Rohn

To strengthen your will power, select a small project rather than a big one. If you say “this week I am going to write an essay”, you are likely to accomplish this task. But, if you say, “today I am going to finish this book” the chances are that you will not. When you finish one job do not relax. Instead allow yourself another reasonable task, which enables you to proceed at a steady pace. A break in steady and disciplined effort pushes you away from long-range goal. Go on adding one link to another, which forms an unbreakable chain.

“By constant self-discipline and self-control you can develop greatness of character.”-Grenville Kleiser

When you come into a task, prepare yourself as thoroughly as you can if you have to write an essay, it is better if you keep your side the reference matter. This ensures concentration, and you have no excuse to leave the work incomplete. Do not be overawed by obstacles. Instead, look upon each step as a definite move towards ultimate goal. Then look back and you will be thrilled to see a string of small success behind you. These inspire you to more efforts. They strengthen your sense of discipline. You have results to your credit.

“Talent without discipline is like an octopus on roller skates. There’s plenty of movement, but you never know if it’s going to be forward, backward, or sideways.”- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Be on guard with your so-called friends. They will tell you that you are gaining nothing form you efforts. In such circumstances, remind yourself of your tangible success. Bad suggestions have banal influence. Counter them. Your efforts to cultivate self-discipline go waste if do not master the art of dealing with time wasters. Every successful person has either cultivated or adopted a way of life to keep time wasters out of his life. It is important to have a reasonable and workable plan of work, and a rational attitude towards it. Hurry is an evidence of inner stress. There is tome and ways for action and inner reflection. Don’t escape from time. Fill every bit of it with positive action. This is the core and crux of discipline.

Can you hear yourself lead?

Do you find days turning into weeks, which turn into years and suddenly you are not sure where it's all gone? Does it seem like you are no longer driving your own life but your life and your schedule are driving you instead? Can you hear yourself lead? If this describes you, stop. Just stop. Stand still, be still, and let yourself remember what the silence feels like.

So often in this world we call business, we go so fast we lose our ability to keep up when, in fact, keeping up is impossible. Simply put, if you're caught up, you're out of business. To get back in control, you have to stop and listen.

We are taught to listen to everyone else, that listening is a great asset. However, we are never taught to listen to ourselves. Creativity dies in the face of too much noise. Without creativity everything in your life suffers, including your business. Sometimes, the most important person to listen to is you. Yes, you have something to say but if you never stop to listen, you won't ever get back to control your life again.

So here's how you can put yourself back in the driver's seat:

Dump your feelings in a journal

"Keeping a journal of what's going on in your life is a good way to distill what's important and what's not"~ Martina Navratilova

Start the day by emptying your emotions in a journal. Let all the emotional garbage out on paper. Now, don't read it. Too hard to do? Rip it up and throw it away. This is just a tool to get the frustrations processed and out of your life so you can move on. So you can hear yourself think again. Sometimes our lives get filled up with everyone else's chatter. This helps us empty that out. 

Relax for a while

"The time to relax is when you don't have time for it"~ Sydney J Harris

Take 15 minutes out of the middle of your day and rest. Just stop everything. Go to a room and take the phone off. Find a place where you won't be bothered and stop. Take ten deep breaths. Let your mind empty. Try to spend at least five minutes of the fifteen minutes thinking nothing. Don't laugh, it's really hard to do. Think of nothing. Empty your brain and give your soul a rest.

 Walk

"All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking"~ Friedrich Neitzsche

Walking doesn't just exercise your body, it relaxes your mind. Walk with a friend or walk alone, but walk. This isn't about exercise, it's about letting your mind breathe, outside, in the rain, in the sun, in the snow, in the fresh air. It works! Many great leaders like Steve Jobs loved to walk and they believed that walking would reduce their stress, so what are you waiting for?

Kill the bad advice

"Everyone wants to tell you what to do and what is good for you. They don't want you to find your own answers, they want you to believe theirs"~ Socrates

At the end of the day, spend another 15 minutes writing down all the advice that was given to you that day. All those noteworthy, seemingly wise bits of advice that gets dumped on you everyday. It doesn't matter where it comes from, a book, a phone call, a radio channel or any other means. If you can remember write it down. Now read them aloud. Do any of them feel adverse to your own feelings and thoughts? Great! Cross them and do not think about them again. Learn to trust some things will work for you and some won't.

Remember you're important too and you are the only person that lives the results and consequences of your own life. Be gentle with yourself and take the time. Suddenly you will reach your normal speed, life will feel worth the effort, and your goals will be realised again.

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Previous posts :

5 ways to stay focused on your goals

Life lessons from Steve Jobs

4 Ways to unleash the creative genius within you

7 things we can learn from children

How to live a BLISSful life?

5 steps to improve your presentation skills

Inspirational Poems by various poets

5 habits you need to get rid of to excel at what you do

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Get Inspired, Get Motivated and Get things done!!

5 ways to stay focused on your goals

No matter how exited you are about your business, with so many distractions and things that may be going on in your life, you can easily find yourself losing focus on your goals and what you want to accomplish.

Below are five things that will help you to stay focused on your goals:

Finish what you have started

"Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is Epic"~ Robin Sharma

You probably have heard the saying, "So many things to do and not enough time to do them." Even though that might sound true, you still have to complete them all, especially the things which help you to move a step closer towards your goals. To make it easier for you, just take one thing you have to do and complete that task until it is done. When it is done, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and it will motivate you to move on to your next task.

Organize to make things easy and simple

"For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned"~ Benjamin Franklin

Take a moment to put things in order. If people write to you or send you orders in the mail, make three piles. Put the letters or mails that need to be answered right away in the first pile. Letters or mails that can be answered at a later date can be put in the second pile and letters that have orders in them can be put in the third pile. Doing things like this in other areas of your life will help you keep things in priority and keep you focused on your goals.

Change the way you look at things

"Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change"~ Jim Rohn

If you find yourself having a negative attitude, you must realize that the way you look at things can make all the difference when it comes to reaching your goals. Even when obstacles stand in your way, maintaining a positive attitude, not a negative one and knowing that things can and will get better, will help you to stay on track in reaching your goals.

Understand goals will take time to reach

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet"~ Aristotle

Everything in life, if it is worth it, will take time. This goes for the goals you set for yourself. When you set goals, you should set 2 types goals. A short term goal such as one which accomplished in 6 months and also a long term goal such as one which can accomplished in 2-3 years. You must realize that it is practically impossible to reach a long term goal in two weeks. Whatever your goals may be, only through hard work, determination and keeping yourself focused will eventually lead you to success.

Keep yourself motivated

"When you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you'll be successful"~ Eric Thomas

Reading articles, books or even listening to motivational audio books is a must if you want to keep yourself focused on your goals. Many successful people will tell you that even when they wanted to give up and throw in the towel, a paragraph in a book or something a motivational speaker said put them back on the right track and helped them to reach their goals. So if you want to stay focused on your goals take these five points and put them into action today.

Follow us:

Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/learnersdlite

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/116438032912158600479

Twitter : https://twitter.com/deekonda19

Previous posts :

Life lessons from Steve Jobs

4 Ways to unleash the creative genius within you

7 things we can learn from children

How to live a BLISSful life?

5 steps to improve your presentation skills

Inspirational Poems by various poets

5 habits you need to get rid of to excel at what you do

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Get Inspired, Get Motivated and Get things done!!

Life lessons from Steve Jobs

This post is about the man who taught us to 'Stay hungry. Stay foolish.' A college dropout who went on to build the world's most valuable brand, a man who was kicked out of the company he started, but never gave up his passion, a perfectionist who had an incredible taste for design and a man who believed that he could change the world, and he did. He is none other than the one and only creative genius Steve Jobs.

Here are the life lessons from Steve Jobs :

Your time is limited

“Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice and most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

Yes indeed! But most of you are busy postponing things which you ought to do today to 'tomorrow'. 'Tomorrow' is for losers. 'Now' is for the game changers. Winners are always driven by the thought of doing more in less time. They travel that extra mile, they put in that extra effort and they work those extra hours because they truly value time.

The genius of marketing

“To me  marketing is about values. This is a very complicated world. It's a very noisy world. And we're not going to get people to remember much about us. No company is! And so we've to be very clear on what we want them to know about us.”



We all know that Steve Jobs was a marketing genius. But he always gave importance to building world class products first. He believed that marketing is all about building trust in people about your products and brand. Also, it is equally important to sustain that trust in people by constantly providing quality products. Besides products and services try to build your own personal brand, market yourself effectively so that you will be able to sell your skills for best prices!

Denial to accept rejection

“I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.” 


If you choose not to accept any other result except success, then you shall always succeed. Failure is not an option. What you think as failure may not be the actual failure, but your inability to learn from your failure is the actual failure. If Steve Jobs gave up his career after he was forced out of apple we would not have had many of the apple products that we use today!

Making perfection a habit

“We don’t get a chance to do that many things, and everyone should be really excellent because this is our life. Life is brief, and then you die, you know? And we've all chosen to do this with our lives. So it better be damn good. It better be worth it.”


This world is filled with mediocre products and services. But life is too short to accept mediocrity. You should continuously strive to excel at what you do in order get noticed. You must possess what I call the 'Superior quality'. Marginally superior is also not acceptable. You have to be far more superior to your competitors and try to set standards. Go and get addicted to the habit of perfection. Period.

The power of focus

“That’s been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” 

Ideas are the products of a focused mind. But, you cannot focus if your mind is pre occupied with all sorts of distractions. The best way to drive away distractions is by eliminating the excess around you. Surround yourself with people and things that add value to your life and trim away all the junk. When you do this you automatically drive your brain to focus on things that matter the most.

Have a great purpose

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that’s what matters to me.” 

Robin Sharma says “When your vision becomes your mission, your business will become a movement." Not only Steve Jobs but also many of the successful people never had money as their primary motive. They had a larger than life vision and they worked tirelessly for the fulfilment of that vision. They were mocked, ridiculed and ignored, but they never gave up their vision.

Being Passionate

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you will know when you find it. And like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.”

Creativity and innovation are the results of a passionate mind. A passionate mind is dominated by the thoughts of making the products or services exceptional. You can think freely and creatively only when you do the things which excite you, the things which you love to do and the things which you are passionate about.

Here are few more links that will help you to know more about Steve Jobs :

Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement address

Think Different campaign

Steve Jobs's Top 10 Rules For Success

Steve Jobs Profile: How a Dreamer Changed the World

Previous posts :

4 Ways to unleash the creative genius within you

7 things we can learn from children

How to live a BLISSful life?

5 steps to improve your presentation skills

Inspirational Poems by various poets

5 habits you need to get rid of to excel at what you do

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Get Inspired, Get Motivated and Get things done!!

4 Ways to unleash the creative genius within you

 "Creativity is intelligence having fun." ~ Albert Einstein

Being creative helps us not only build a positive life style but also enhances our thinking capabilities. Whatever may be our filed of work, there will  always be scope for creativity and like any other habit it can be developed by continuous practice. You need not be an artist to be creative, but you need to be creative to excel at what you do. Creativity can be drawn out of an individual in several ways. Here are 4 ways to unleash the creative genius within you:

1.Be Unconventional

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." ~ George Bernard Shaw

In other words try to be different. A process, product or an idea can be called different only if it breaks the custom of doing things in a conventional way. Following conventional methods makes us settle in a comfort zone and makes it difficult for us to get out of that zone. But unless you get out of that comfort zone and try to break the existing paradigms you cannot be creative. You need to start with a basic question 'can this be done differently?'. Being unconventional is always accompanied by the risk of not knowing the outcome. You need to believe in your ideas and be ready to face criticism until you arrive at your desired result. Also, being unconventional helps you to learn a lot of new stuff. Always remember that there is always a better, innovative and creative way of doing things, and being unconventional definitely helps you to be creative. Being unconventional might result in failure sometimes, but failing is the starting step for creativity. If you fail you learn one way of not doing a certain thing! Stay positive and dare to be unconventional and different.

2.Find your passion

"Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate."~Jon Bon Jovi

Creativity is the product of a free mind. If you are forced or you force yourself to work on things which you don't like, then the result will always be mediocre. Also, working on things which you don't love doing may drive you towards distractions. As said by Robin Sharma, "Addiction to distraction is the end of your creative production." You can think freely and creatively only when you do the things which excite you, the things which you love to do and the things which you are passionate about. Working to your full potential is key for developing creative thinking and you can work to your full potential only when you work on the things which you love. Stress is one of the major obstacle to creative production, you get stressed because you work on stuff in which you have no interest. A stressed mind is deadline driven where as a passionate mind is creativity driven. So, if you want get out of the boredom and be relived from the stress, and unleash your true creative potential start working on things you are passionate about.

3.Prefer Imagination to Practicality

"Imagination is literally the workshop where all the plans are created. It is where the impulse, the desire is given shape, form and action through the aid of imaginative faculty of the mind. We can create anything that we can imagine. Our only limitation, within the reason, lies in the development and use of our imagination. The greatest leaders of business, industry and finance, and the great artists, musicians, poets and writers became great because they developed the faculty of creative imagination. Just as any muscle or organ of the body develops the more it is used, your imagination also becomes more receptive in direct response to the amount you use it. Ideas are the products of imagination. An idea is a thought that prompts you take action because it appeals to your creative imagination." ~ Napoleon Hill in Think and grow rich

Do not limit yourself on the pretence of being practical. Practical thinking is good. But creative imagination is the best. Imagination has no limits. So go ahead and stop restraining yourself from being imaginative.

4.Learn to connect things

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was they've had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that's too rare a commodity. A lot of people in our industry haven't had very diverse experiences. So they don't have enough dots to connect, and they end up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem. The broader one's understanding of the human experience, the better design we will have." ~ Steve Jobs

Dig down deep and recollect all the experiences you have had in your life; the things you learnt, the things which exited you, the things which caught your interest and most importantly the experiences you have had. Now try to connect those things with the present ideas you are working on and try to incorporate those experiences to create a world class product or service.

Previous posts:

 7 things we can learn from children

 How to live a BLISSful life?

5 steps to improve your presentation skills

 Inspirational Poems by various poets

5 habits you need to get rid of to excel at what you do

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Get Inspired, Get Motivated and Get things done!!

7 things we can learn from children

“Every child is an artist; the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”- Pablo Picasso

As we grow up we tend to overwhelm ourselves with lot of unwanted stuff and stress ourselves to succeed in life. But if we rewind our lives and think about our childhood, we realise that things were not always hard; we used to laugh, play and enjoy life without being affected by thought of tomorrow. We had many good habits which we gave up due to the influence of people around us. Come, let is try to relearn those good things form children which will help us to find the lost spark within us. Here are the 7 things which we can learn from children:

1. Being Creative

“Creativity is an area in which younger people have a tremendous advantage, since they have an endearing habit of always questioning past wisdom and authority.” - Bill Hewlett

Children are creative because they seek to learn continuously. Their thoughts are powered by imagination and their imagination is limitless. They don’t limit their imaginative capabilities on the pretence of being ‘practical’.

2. Being happy for no reason

“Children are happy because they don’t have a file in their mind called ‘All things that could go wrong’.” – Marianne Williamson

Children find happiness in small things and they are happy with what they have. Sometimes, they are happy for no reason at all! They are not trapped in the vicious social circle which forces people to crave for wealth and fame.

3. Being curious

“Do not grow old, no matter how long you live. Never cease to stand like curious children before the great mystery into which they were born.” – Albert Einstein

Sometimes they may surprise you and sometimes they might make no sense, but children ‘never stop asking questions.’ They are curious to know how things work and why things work only in a certain way. Their fear of being mocked is overpowered by their willingness to know. All they want to is ‘why, what and how’!

4. The ability to tell stories

“We are story telling creatures, and as children we acquire language to tell those stories that we have inside us.” – Jerome Bruner

Children are master story tellers. They are the heroes of their lives. They try to tell their adventurous tales in the most gripping fashion you might have ever heard.

Your ability to engage audience in your speech lies in your ability to tell stories. We all are great story tellers here. But we limit ourselves due to lack of self belief and fear of facing audience.

5. Being expressive

“Everyone pretends to be ‘free thinkers’, but few individuals pass the line into expressive territories that may be detrimental to their own social well-being.” – Criss Jami

Be it love, hatred, anger or laughter, children never hide their emotions. They live in the moment by being expressive. They let all their fears out and they speak about their feelings without any hesitation. Children have a stress free life is because they are expressive. They don’t let the moment pass without taking any action.

6. Dreaming big

“If you can dream it, you can do it.”-Walt Disney

Children have no fear to dream big because they are unaffected by the negativity around them. They believe in their abilities and for them nothing is impossible. They are not bogged down by the opinions of people around them. Big dreams lead to big thoughts and when these thoughts are acted upon they lead us to the path to fulfil our dreams.

7. Having a Sense of wonder

“Don’t lose the sparkle in your eyes and your sense of wonder about the things most people take for granted. Don’t miss the simplest rewards of standing for world class.” –Robin Sharma

They find pleasure in counting the stars; they wonder why sun hides behind the clouds; they wave to the people travelling on trains and many more. In a child’s mind this world is beautiful place. They've very less to complain about and a lot to wonder about. However busy the life may seem to be, they always take a moment to appreciate the wonderful world around them. 

Previous Posts:

How to live a BLISSful life?
5 steps to improve your presentation skills

Inspirational Poems by various poets

5 habits you need to get rid of to excel at what you do

5 Steps for improving verbal communication skills

Qualities of Great Leadership defined by Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

4 steps for developing Effective Thinking skills

Get Inspired, Get Motivated and Get things done!!

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