Creativity is bringing something into existence that has yet to arrive; it has never existed before. This is powerful work. Being creative makes you focussed, motivated and simply happy. Many of us create something everyday, whether we realize it or not.
We create lists, essays, and tips through writing. We create space, movement, and accessibility through de-cluttering. We create savory smells, layered textures and mouth-watering tastes through new recipes. Human beings love to create. It is part of our human make-up. We were born with a need to fulfill our creative drive.
While some of us are creative daily, many of us really struggle with it. We especially create a block for creativity to emerge in things we call our “bigger projects” like starting a blog, writing a novel, making a software program or creating a small business. We limit our potential for happiness when we deprive and neglect our creative drive. So, how can we jump start our creativity? [click to continue…]
We’ve all heard of Random Acts of Kindness. Indeed, it makes the world go round. But, lately, this too-often used phrase has really got me thinking about the word, “Random” and how it is linked to “Acts of Kindness.” So, I looked it up. ”Unknown, unimportant, uncertain, unpredictable and lacking any purpose or intention” are some definitions that came up in my search.
Kindness can be done spontaneously in the moment when your heartstrings pull at you, but it would be better if it came with an intention. It makes one in balance if you do. And, if things are done randomly, does kindness have any real meaning?
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In part one of Become Untouchable in the Recession, I talked about how Excellence can play a vital role in boosting your confidence and your skill set. We outlined what excellence actually means and what it looks like in our jobs and in our daily home lives. We talked in length of various things we can work on that were mainly theoretical. Excellence is not something that people are born with, it is something that is nurtured and developed. And you can develop this outstanding quality too. It’s time to put this theory into practice with some simple tools.
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Back in Grade 8 as soon as we would enter the classroom there was absolutely no talking allowed. Mr. Miller would simply pass out our loose-leaf journals and we would write in them for 15 minutes in complete silence. We were not allowed to go to the bathroom, whisper, ask questions or make shuffling noises with our feet.
Then, after 15 minutes he would simply pick them up and put them behind his desk, locked in a cabinet. He told us that he wouldn’t read them or “mark” them and no one else would, he simply wanted us to write. He didn’t even make us read out the occasional journal entry after the 15 minutes were up because he thought that knowing that you might have an audience would change the way we really wanted to write.
From that day, I was never without a journal or paperback in my bag. I would scribble away all the time and read in every spare moment. I developed my love for the English language, reading and writing so much, I wanted to go on to major in English in university. And I did do that and to the dismay of myself and my former teachers and friends, my fear of writing set in. I stopped writing and reading and my love of English (almost) went down the drain.
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If you have been pregnant you might understand where I am coming from. But, if not and you might even be a man reading this, don’t worry. I will tell you how if everyone knew and followed the diet of a pregnant person, we would save millions of dollars in medical bills.
I grew up very healthy on my mother’s food. My traditional mother would make everything from scratch, grinding up spices by hand, making sauces with ‘real’ tomatoes, making her own yoghurt and the list goes on. Then, I got married and I had to start cooking for myself and things quickly changed. I bought a spice rack with everything already ground up, I buy “Roasted Garlic and Onion” pasta sauce ready to go and I love the 8% French Vanilla Yoghurt you can get here on Granville Island. What is more, I was painfully addicted to coffee – regular drip, lattes, mochas, roasted bean, iced – everything.
There are a lot of rules for pregnant women to follow – especially when it comes to the health of a baby. But, if only I knew all this stuff before, I would’ve made the changes way back when. And some of the stuff I learned was downright startling.
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Oh my newborn is so cuddly to hold, cute when she coos, and smells so good (most of the time). In between those newborn oohing and aahing from Mama and Baba, there is a whole lot of feeding which means a whole lot of diaper changing. Recently, my oohs and aahs have changed to ewws and arghs. Let me tell you what’s happening.
When I first got home from the hospital, I was told to keep a record of the number of “bowel moments” (aka poopy diapers) and “voids” (aka pee pee). I didn’t know that my first three days of motherhood would be spent analyzing the insides of new daughter’s diapers. Who knew that I would become an expert in my baby’s poop!
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Have you ever thrown away left-overs with fuzzy green fur on it or forgotten about those baby tomatoes you bought on impulse hidden in the back of your fridge? Or can you remember a time when you didn’t eat everything on your plate and someone admonished you and said, “Don’t you know that there are starving people in the world?” But, how exactly do our food habits help starving people? Besides the fact that our country produces too much to begin with, we throw away a lot of food and what is more – “good food” that could actually be eaten. These are not your table scraps or peelings – I mean food that was once good and edible is either forgotten about or we can’t finish the helping we have served ourselves.
According to a national survey, if we total the amount we waste in “good food” it equals almost one billion pounds a year. One billion pounds! This food, prior to landing in your bin, could have been shipped to your local food bank or favorite organization to help the needy. It all adds up. Avoiding wasting food significantly impacts the environment and can earn you more money in your bank account at the end of the day.
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There are a lot of givers in the world. And we hear a lot about giving – give to charity, give to the needy, give a helping hand, be giving. We give our ears to listen, our money, our love, energy and time. But, we often don’t hear about the other side of this; we don’t hear about the takers, let alone do we hear that we should be takers.
The fact is that in all the giving, there are people on the receiving end of all this – the takers. There is nothing wrong with being a taker if you are also a giver. Thus, it is vital to be able to give and to take in order to be a balanced and whole person.
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Whether you are an engineer, doctor, carpenter, actor, blogger, teacher, coffee maker or student, we all share a common quality; we descend from a great lineage of powerful and inspiring people. We come from a rich cultural heritage of innovators, inventors and experts in fields of science, trade, theology, mathematics, optics, medicine and education.
What does that have to do with you and excellence? It means that since we come from great people, we have a duty to also be a great person and one way to do that is to cultivate the quality of excellence in all that we strive to do. By doing this, you can become untouchable in the recession, keep your job and even elevate to a higher position.
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Standardized testing, ranking schools, and undermining student intelligence are the current trends of education. It is a time of dramatic change as schools turn into factories which are churning out students being taught a narrow set of skills readied to enter the ‘workforce’.
Students have become mere dapplers in education – learning a little bit of everything without any real depth – rather than obtaining mastery, thorough and applicable knowledge on a subject. Students have stopped learning just for the sake of knowledge and instead are making cover letters and resumes as early as grade seven.
Teachers, as well, are increasingly scrutinized and held accountable if their class does not rank in the ‘top’ schools of the city in two isolated subjects: English and Math. As a result, teachers have to ‘teach to the test’ producing deadening curricula, taking the heart and soul out of education.
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