The Biggest Mistake

The Single Biggest Mistake I made As A Leader (And How I Fixed It) by Chris Myers at Forbes:

I’ve made my fair share of mistakes as a leader, but the worst mistake by far was allowing negativity to take root inside of my organization. Negativity is like a cancer inside of your company; it grows undetected until suddenly it consumes you. More often than not, bad attitudes start out fairly innocently. Sometimes it can be as simple as a disagreement over a particular strategy. Other times, it can start out as a personality conflict between team members. Regardless of its origins, unchecked negativity tends to snowball into something that can be fatal for a team. Looking back, I realize that I noticed early signs of this happening in my team but chose to ignore them because I genuinely wanted to think the best of people. Unfortunately, I learned that my inaction allowed the problem to fester and ultimately cause more damage than it should have. Here’s how I went wrong.

I didn’t heed my own advice

I’m a firm believer that at the core of every successful business is an amazing team. Building that team is often one the most difficult and risky challenges you can face as a leader. That’s why I’ve adopted a simple rule that guides all of our hiring decisions at BodeTree: we look for people we trust, respect and admire. It sounds trite, but I’ve found that if the candidate fits those criteria, everything from cultural fit to skills naturally falls in line. The problem is that I don’t always heed my own advice.

The problem began when I allowed my lack of patience to get the best of me. We were preparing for a surge in activity at BodeTree, and I grew frustrated while trying to fill a key role that we desperately needed. After going through countless resumes and enduring several excruciatingly bad interviews, I jumped at the first candidate who made a good impression. I didn’t take the necessary time to get to know the person and determine if they were someone I truly trusted, respected, and admired. Instead, I took the shortsighted easy way out and set the stage for future problems to arise.

I ignored the contagion

Several months later, my executive team and I started to notice a change in the attitude of some of our team members. We were going through a significant organizational shift at the time, directing our focus towards institutional sales and away from the direct-to-consumer model that we had built up over the course of the past few years. Unfortunately, not everyone was on board with this shift, and I did not do a good enough job of selling every member of the organization on the vision. The key team member I had hired a few months earlier took particular exception to the shift in strategy. I took the traditional steps to offer coaching to shine a light on the issues we were experiencing, but I failed to grasp how contagious an attitude could be.

Instead of recognizing the severity of the situation, I treated it as an isolated incident and moved on. I wanted everyone on my team to be successful and went to great lengths to make excuses for their shortcomings. It was only later on that I realized I wasn’t doing them any favors. Psychological momentum is a powerful force, for better or worse. By not calling out bad behavior, I allowed it to gain momentum and influence others. Before I knew it, great employees who I thought very highly of were being drawn into the same downward spiral. Negativity had taken root in that particular team, and I knew then that if I didn’t take decisive action, one bad apple would spoil the bunch.

Finally, I eliminated the problem at its source

Once I fully realized the severity of the situation and the role I played in allowing it to happen, I took decisive action. I had to eliminate the source of the problem and stop the rise of negativity in the rest of the team. It required a delicate balance of providing transparency into what was happening while still being respectful of individual privacy. I didn’t want to demonize any particular individual, but at the same time I needed the team to understand what behaviors were considered unacceptable. My management team and I moved quickly, providing additional clarity into the situation and recognizing our shortcomings. When all was said and done, the rest of the team was fully on board with the direction we were taking, and the negativity disappeared.

This was a difficult time for me as a leader because I saw all too clearly how my personal failings allowed the situation to progress out of hand. Still, the lessons I took away from the experience have proved to be invaluable. Negativity simply cannot be tolerated in any organization. This does not mean that dissenting voices should be ignored. To the contrary, disagreements should be heard and thoughtfully considered. However once a decision has been made; the entire organization needs to rally around it. If any team member continues to spread negativity and dissent, their attitude will act like a cancer inside of your organization. As a leader, you have to make sure that you avoid this situation by hiring people you trust, respect, and admire. Then, if you see the early signs of contagious negativity, you have to eliminate it at the source. The process might be painful, but your organization will be healthier for it

Focus

13 Habits to Increase Focus - by Kirby Ingles (via Adam Smith)

Do you spend your day with a clear plan or strategy?

What has the most emotional impact on you?

How are you spending your time? On the Urgent or the Important?

How Do You Contribute to the Problem?

You will normally do the things that distract you like checking email, answering phone calls, sending text messages and responding to notifications on your smart phone. Productivity requires you to focus on your day. Analyze the key components of your day, create a plan and focus on what you can control. We live in an age of distraction. Everyone wants your attention and you are connected to the rest of the world 24/7. I can even log onto the internet and get a live feed of the space station right now.

Your Focus is Being Targeted

You can focus on the things that are barriers or you can focus on scaling the wall or redefining the problem. – Tim Cook

Everything you do, interact with and see is marketed towards you. The study of human behavior is so good that we know how to stack shelves to catch your eyes and your kid’s eyes, the type of colors to use and packaging that will attract your attention. I even know what times are effective to send emails to you and my co-workers so it increases a higher percentage of being opened. Each popup window is strategically placed based on your past behavior. This is why in today’s world it is increasingly important to focus on the task at hand.

Take Back Control of Your Focus

1. Get clear-cut on what you want. There are a thousand things on everyone’s to-do-list. Which is more important and moves you towards your goals?
2. Make sure you focus on what’s important. Select 1 or 2 things that are most important to you and are related to your core values.
3. Keep it to a minimum. Only select 2-3 items per morning to work on. Anything more has your brain cluttered and juggling more than it can handle.
4. Disconnect from the world. Probably the toughest, but best advice you can receive. Your will power and ability to resist is higher in the morning.
5. Turn off your notifications. Smart phone and computer notifications keep us up-to-date, but pull us away from important tasks.
6. Clear the clutter. Whatever work station you might have, keep it clear and minimal. Whether it is a lad, cubicle, or service truck, clutter distracts the mind.
7. Email kills productivity. Control how you check your email so it doesn’t control you.
8. Train people to respect your time. Someone needs something at every second of the day and what they are working on is more important to them. Take the time to do something for yourself while meeting the needs of others.
9. Don’t try to do too much. Think quality over quantity. Efficiency is much more productive and faster than working frantically.
10. Stop multi-tasking. Attempting to multi-task destroys focus and prevents efficiency.
11. Take more time. Plan more time to complete tasks. If you get done early, use the extra time you have as a reward.
12. Plan the night before. Planning the night before allows you to reflect on today’s current success and failures and lets you apply lessons learned before tomorrow gets here.
13. Take breaks. Breaks are rewards. Breaks refresh will-power and focus.

Leave At 5 Without Guilt

How to Leave At 5 Tonight by Kevin Kruse at Monster.com

Would you like to leave the office at 5:00 p.m. today to make it home for dinner? Would you like to do it without feeling guilty?

Early in my career I was constantly overworked and overwhelmed. As the founder and president of a fast growing startup, I worked long days, slept too little, and literally jogged down the office corridors rushing from meeting to meeting. When I was at home, my mind was still at work. Going through the motions of date night, stacking blocks with my daughter, but thinking the whole time about the million dollar pitch I still had to work on.

My life changed when I read High Output Management, by then Intel CEO, Andy Grove. In the book, he describes how he always arrives to work by eight in the morning, but never leaves later than six, and he never brought work home with him. The CEO of a major tech company clocks out at 6:00 p.m. every day? How is that possible?
Later I would read about other highly successful people:

• Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, leaves work at 5:30 p.m. every day so she can have dinner with her kids at 6:00 p.m.
• Doug Conant, as CEO of Campbell Soup Company, made the time to hand-write twenty thank you notes each day.
• President George W. Bush held an annual reading contest with Karl Rove; although he lost the bet, President Bush read 95 books in one year.

The leader of the Free World has time to read 95 books in one year?

You just know the President of the United States of America has a million things to do. At the end of each day, there are more foreign leaders to call and influence, more CIA briefings to read, more campaign contributors to suck-up to, more veterans to visit, more voters to rally, more, more, more—and by the nature of the job, he had a limited number of days to make an impact! And yet President Bush “found” time to read 95 books in one year.

In his book, Grove described a fundamental time management truth:

My day ends when I’m tired and ready to go home, not when I’m done. I am never done…There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.

That simple realization—there will always be more to do—hit me like a ton of bricks.The ultimate secret:

There will always be more to do; I will never be done.

Highly successful people don’t just burn hour after hour trying to cross more items off their to-do list. Instead, they think through their priorities, schedule time for each, and then enough is enough.

Bush probably valued reading two books a week because it was a way to relieve stress, get smarter, and he knew that recharging was, in itself, a valuable task. Sandberg is committed to Facebook’s success, but also values her family and thus schedules time (invests her time) with them. Conant once told me that writing thank you notes was his ritual for daily gratitude—it enabled him to see all that was going well, after a day of putting out fires.

Yes, your work is important; your career is important. And there will always be more to do in these areas.

What else is important to you? Exercise? Family? Sleep?

Looking back, I view my always on the go lifestyle as a form of laziness. I wore “crazy busy” like a badge of honor (“Look what an important entrepreneur I am! Busy, busy, busy!”)

But once I contained the number of hours I spent on work each week—and it was still a lot of hours—I had more energy, more focus, and ironically, achieved better results.
Now is the time to send a txt message to your spouse; say you’ll be home for dinner.

The Importance of Talking to Yourself

Good piece on "self-talk" - Focus On Your Internal Conversation by Kirby Ingles (via Adam Smith)

The clear advantage between someone who is achieving the things they want in life and someone who is not is the momentum they create. Focus is a matter of creating momentum just as much as it is about concentration. The snowball effect can make the difference here. If you missed that post click here.

The way you carry yourself everyday in your life affects your mindset – how you walk, talk, and think. Take some time and focus on what you crave in your life. Your internal conversation about these cravings affects how you carry yourself and feel. Changing how we address ourselves and others can give us power and determination to create a better quality of life. The right thoughts will lift you up.

Find people who walk the walk and talk the talk. These people are those that you admire. You can also find something about them that you desire to create inside yourself. Whatever it may be, you have an urge to do or create.

It only takes five minutes everyday to start creating an internal conversation that convicts you into believing you can have what you desire in life. Successful people do what others will not and I claim that if you do this for five minutes a day for a year, you will have a profound confidence. Do this by making your internal conversation a ritual or habit when you wake up every morning.

Reflect on those people who have had traumatic experiences or abuse in their lives and that turned out fine. Now consider all those that had love, education and everything in life that came easily and are not doing so well. The biggest difference between these two different outcomes is not about what they have, but the meaning in their lives. You and I could have the same experience and different outcomes. The decisive factor in the outcome is that one of us looks at ourselves as a victim and the other as a survivor. Some will look at themselves better off and become stronger in learning from an experience and others will feel less fulfilled.

Being aware of what you say to yourself will affect the temperament you place yourself in. Questions that start with “Why” are knee buckling and make you the victim. Asking yourself questions that start with who, what, how and when, can help you find the meaning beneath emotions and behaviors.

Those who do not achieve are those who do not reach out and dare to dream and act. They will not make an attempt to grow emotionally and spiritually through their experiences and fix their eyes upon being productive.

10 Productivity Habits

10 Habits Successful People Give Up to Increase Their Productivity by Carl Preston at Life

What are you willing to do in order to reach success? It is common among people these days to be average and not stand out too much. But those who are successful do not fall under this category.

In order to stay on top of your game and reach the level of success you want, you need to follow a certain set of self-induced rules. Success is not something that happens by accident; if you want it bad enough, you will get it. Learn the habits that successful people have given up in order to reach their own success.

1. They don’t work in their comfort zone.

What is your comfort zone? Your comfort zone is defined as “A psychological state in which a person feels familiar, at ease, in control, and experiences low anxiety.” When you get outside of your comfort zone, it doesn’t mean that you should strive for a constant state of anxiety and stress. It simply means that, in order to grow, you should try new things and expand your horizons.

The reason we are comfortable in our comfort zone is because we are not taking risks when we are in this state. When we live in our comfort zones, we are living life like hamsters on a wheel, going around and around in a constant cycle, but going nowhere in our lives.

Famous motivational speaker, Les Brown, said it best with, “If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness.”

2. They don’t do without first learning.

Learning is what we do best. The greatest thing about learning is the benefit that we receive in all aspects of our lives. Successful people strive to continue learning new things and expanding on things that they already know.

If we stop learning, then the only thing we can do is settle with what we already know; if we settle for that, then there is no way to expand our minds. Expansion is essential on the path to success. Since our minds require learning for expansion, we must never stop seeking new knowledge.

Imagine what would have happened if Bill Gates stopped learning and growing. The internet would be much more primitive than it is today. But because he followed his dreams and continued growing, he founded one of the biggest companies in the world and it is still flourishing and growing today.

3. They don’t fear asking for advice.

Richard Branson, a famous entrepreneur, stated, “When you need to make hard decisions, being able to discuss your ideas with entrepreneurs and business leaders who have solved similar problems can make all the difference.”

Asking for advice is not always easy. We think that we have the same opportunity as everyone else and sometimes feel insecure and dependent, so we decide not to ask for advice, and try to figure it out ourselves. But this could be greatly limiting us from reaching our full potential, because the advice we might be seeking could be something that somebody knows very well.

4. They don’t get lost in the small details.

When life gives us seemingly endless opportunities, it is very easy to get lost in the small details. The small details are very easy for us to become focused on, thus causing us to miss out on the overall vision, also known as the “big picture”.

Focusing too much on the smaller details constricts your ability to see how everything ties together. Much of our lives hinge upon the connections that we make with others and with ourselves. If we get lost in the small detail, it is like having missing pieces to a puzzle. How are we supposed to solve that?

Imagine what would have happened if Henry Ford only saw the small details. When building the company that Ford is today, he knew that he must do something different if his company was to succeed. After many people told him it couldn’t be done, his company continued improving upon the smaller details until they got it right.

Henry Ford didn’t focus too much on the small details, which were the hundreds of times he failed; he saw the overall goal and knew that it could be accomplished. It required seeing the bigger picture to make it happen.

5. They don’t multitask.

Multitasking is typically viewed as a skill that only certain people possess. But truth be told, nobody actually has the ability to multitask. Multitasking is known to actually decrease productivity. Those who are successful focus on one specific task and do that task to the best of their ability without interruption.

Team Building - Enjoy the Journey

An important lesson on team building from Michael Nichols:

Why is it such a challenge to get everybody headed in the same direction? Why do team members get frustrated? How do you get them excited about what you are doing?

A few weeks ago, I was driving Madison and her friend to school. To avoid busy school traffic, I turned down a narrow back road.

As we talked about her morning and her after school plans, the passenger side tires left the pavement for a few moments spinning up grass and gravel. I laughed and told Madison to keep her side on the road – the same thing you say to your kids, right?

Then Madison asked, “Dad, why does mom always complain about your driving?” (For the record, Sarah doesn’t ALWAYS complain about my driving. And she complains less today than she used to.)

I responded, “Because I drive fast sometimes. And sometimes I fast.”

Madison was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Dad – It’s really not all about getting there fast. It’s about enjoying the trip and getting there together.”

She’s right – more right than her 8-year-old mind can comprehend at this stage of her life.

What about you? Are you having fun? Is your team excited about what you are building and becoming together?

Here are 5 ways to help your team gain momentum and lead with passion:

1. Clarify Vision

Vision is the foundation for all growth.

It allows people to determine if (and how) they fit within the culture and direction of the organization. And you must be communicating the vision often enough to provide ample opportunity for them to self assess – their performance, their vision, their passion.
Your people want to be reminded why their work is so important and how their contribution is making a significant difference.

2. Develop people

One of my core convictions is, All people are valuable and worth developing. You will never be able to develop everyone. So you will have to choose to do for a few what you would like to do for many (something I learned from Andy Stanley).

Never accept less than their best. If you do, you are cheating them. You are cheating your team. And you are cheating the organization.

When your team members do well, express gratitude. And do it publicly. They’ll love you for it.

3. Trust

Many believe trust is the byproduct of trustworthiness. Meaning – if someone is trustworthy, they can earn your trust.

I wonder if we have talked ourselves into this perspective because we are too lazy to do the hard work of real trust.

Trust is a choice. Period.

For every team member, you choose to trust or to be suspicious.

If you are suspicious, you’ll find yourself operating from a win-lose perspective. You will assess every situation wondering if you (or your organization) are winning or losing.
When you choose to view a team member through the lens of suspicion rather than trust, usually everyone around knows it. They see it in your communication, in your actions, and in your decisions.

Let’s face it – nothing productive ever comes from interactions based on suspicion. Your team members deserve your trust.

Read the rest at the link.

Are You A Leader?

Are you a leader? Unsure? Red 10 Signs You're a Leader and Don't Even Know It by Margielyn Musser

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that in each and everyone of us, there is a potential leader. The difference between John Quincy Adams and yourself however, is the courage to take a step forward and the drive to reach a goal. Do you ever lay awake at night thinking about the promotion you should go for but can’t because you don’t think you would be fit for it? Think again, here are some indications that you are a great leader, and you don’t even know it yet.

1. You are approachable.

If you find yourself giving advice to your friends and coworkers more than you are taking it, it means that they value your opinion and are the go to person for help. Being approachable is an important quality for a leader to have because no one really wants to work for someone without an open door policy. People trust your judgment and confide in you: take pride in that.

2. You maintain a smile, even when it is difficult.

Maintaining your composure professionally is an excellent trait many leaders have and many companies are looking for. It is important to keep calm and keep the situation under control. If you have found yourself nodding silently and listening to someone who is obviously upset and is screaming at you, then you have more patience than most.

3. You have a open mind.

Keeping an open mind is an important trait when it comes to being a leader. If you have found yourself listening to someone tell you on how to do things more efficiently and take it as constructive criticism, I applaud you.

4. You are straight forward.

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where someone is asking for advice and even though you know they do not want to hear it, you give it to them anyways? You don’t sugar coat it and give it to them straight to get the point across. That is a good thing, it may not seem like it to your friend at the time, but it is a great quality each leader has. Sometimes, you will have to hold meetings, give constructive feedback on an employee’s performance and occasionally, let someone go. It takes a tough person to have this trait, be proud of it.

5. You are responsible, even though you don’t want to be.

There are some of days where it just sucks to live and you want to just lay in bed. You want to stay there, eat your meals there and go back to sleep. Whatever has got you down, you push it aside and you force yourself out of bed because you have responsibilities. You have people counting on you and you have things to get done that will not finish themselves. There are some that don’t make it out of bed, and just push those tasks aside for another day, but not you. This is called being responsible. Leaders need be responsible when no one else wants to be.

The First 15 Minutes

14 Things Productive People Do In the First 15 Minutes of the Work Day by Yong Kang Chan at Life Hack:

The first 15 minutes of your workday sets the tone for the rest of your workday.
If you are already too busy at the start of your workday, imagine what the rest of your day might be like when challenges arise and other people start seeking you for help.
Here are 14 things productive people do in the first 15 minutes of their workday to help them stay productive for the rest of their day.

1. They stroll into the office at least 15 minutes before official working hours

Productive people know the importance of reporting to work early. Instead of rushing to work anxiously and hoping to be on time, they leave their house early and stroll into the office calmly. They set a relaxing tone right from the start of their workday and give themselves an extra 15 minutes to be ready for work.

2. They set up their workspace like professionals

Similar to a surgeon performing an operation and a chef working in the kitchen, productive people make sure their tools are in proper position before they begin their work. Every minute counts in the operating theater and kitchen, so too in your workspace! Productive people keep their workspace organized so that they don’t have to spend unnecessary time looking for what they need.

3. They review what they have done previously

It’s good to review what you have done previously, especially if you’ve just returned from the weekend or holidays. Productive people warms themselves up for work by reminding themselves where they left off previously. Instead of jumping straight into a task, they review past achievement to give themselves some direction on what to do next and a sense of accomplishment.

4. They review their to-do list and deadlines

Productive people have a to-do list. They review their to-do list at the start of their workday so that they can strategize and plan ahead. They remind themselves of important deadlines and meetings so that they can prioritize and schedule their work accordingly.

5. They identify no more than 3 important tasks for the day

Productive people know they will be overwhelmed if they plan too much for themselves. To stay focused at work and prevent themselves from multitasking they identify no more than 3 important tasks for the day. Leo Babauta, founder of the productivity blog Zen Habits, also sets himself 3 most important tasks (MITs) each morning to move himself forward.

Seeking New Opportunities

I am currently seeking new career opportunities. Here's my resume.

BARRY G. SIMMONS, CPA

Cell: (601) 668-7172

E-Mail: bgsimmons56@gmail.com

Skills Summary

Financial executive & leader with demonstrated history of success in the fields of:

• Financial Accounting,
• Enterprise Management
• Program Development
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Purchasing
• Supply Chain Control
• Software Installation
• Human Resources
• Payroll
• Financial Analysis
• Income & Sales Taxes
• Investment Management

Work Experience

Controller & HR Director | Pure Water Solutions, Ridgeland, MS | 2/06- 3/15

Grew the firm from $3.5 million to $8.5 million in sales & from 4 to 8 locations, while processing efficient merger of 3 acquired businesses

• Managed Financial Reporting, Taxes, Vendor Supply Chain & Accounts Payable
• Oversaw Human Relations, Payroll & Employee Benefits in period of rapid growth
• Installed & Implemented new accounting system
• Reported directly to CEO

Pure Water Solutions was acquired by Mar Cor Purification on January 2015. During transition period I worked on the merger & consolidation of Pure Water Solutions into Mar Cor & closing out the independent business operations of Pure Water Solutions. Seeking new professional opportunities in spring 2015 upon completion of these projects.

Director, College Savings Plans | Miss. Treasury Dept, Jackson, MS |12/96-8/05

Launched two Section 529 college savings plans from beginning to highly popular & successful operations

• Oversaw operation of the programs, analysis of results & tracking of investments
• Planned & implemented effective marketing & public relations plans
• Effectively represented Programs before the public, media, state & national organizations.
• Reported directly to State Treasurer & College Savings Plans Board of Directors.

Budget Analyst & Forecaster | Miss. Treasury Dept, Jackson, MS | 12/93-12/96

Earned promotion to management by highly effective achievement of assigned goals

• Developed forecasts of interest rates, interest earnings & economic trends.
• Prepared cash-flow forecasts & projections on financial liquidity
• Coordinated financial analysis projects, special research projects & legislative proposals.
• Prepared statements of State's debt & projected debt service costs for legislative budgets
• Did professional writing projects for the Treasurer.

Education & Certifications

Mississippi College - B.S. In Business Administration with “High Honors & Special Distinction”

Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Mississippi License Number 4300

Bed Time Productivity

10 Things Productive People Do Before Going To Bed by Luigi Potneza at Life Hack

The most productive people all have certain habits in their daily routines that contribute to their success. They understand that their success starts and ends with their mental and physical health, which is almost entirely dependent upon their habits before bed time.
So, here’re 10 things successful and super productive people do that leads them being in the top 20 percent of money earners in our society

They review their day

Steve Jobs was a strong proponent of living life to the fullest every day. He wonderfully explained this concept when he said: “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.”

All successful and wealthy people, before going to sleep, they think about if what are doing has meaning. At the end of each day, they think about how have positively contributed to the world and review if the goals achieved are in line with their overall vision. Thus, they make plans to track their progress and take notes to put the best in every single things they do.

So today, before going to sleep, review your day because it will force you to clarify what you want and motivate you to take action on your goals.

They write down their thoughts

Emmy-winning talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres used to write down her thoughts, feelings and emotions when she was younger: “Writing is truly cathartic, because it just lets it all out and brings the best out of you”.

Super productive and successful people write down their thoughts, sensations, feelings and emotions. They try to analyze when and why things went right and wrong. They write to improve their communication and thinking skills to be a better leader. So, by writing things down you can help yourself to sharpen your thinking, clear your mind, destroy negative self-talk and pay attention to your most dominant emotions through the day. Journaling may tell you something that you haven’t really paid much attention to about yourself or about your life.

People like Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Winston Churchill kept a diary, so why not giving a shot?

They stick their noses into books

This is the proof that readers are great leaders. Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates is an avid reader. Each night before bed, he spends an hour reading a book, ranging on a variety of topics.

Many successful people in the world are voracious readers. They read at least for 10-20 minutes before going to bed every day and they learn from what others talk about. They expand their know-how to be better prepared to lead and motivate their team and build multimillionaire businesses.

Another big benefit from sticking your nose into a good book on a nightly basis is because reading improve the long term health of your brain.

They set priorities for the next morning

With so many things happening on a daily basis it can be really easy to lose focus on what you are trying to accomplish. That’s why, before bed time, productive people review their schedule and plan for the following day.

They make a list of everything they have to do and before they start working they set priorities on the list. This allow them to go into the next workday feeling better prepared, more confident, and less stressed. Include this life-changing tip in your daily routine by writing down your top 3 to 5 most important tasks you need to do the next day. If for any reason you don’t do this, it should be the first thing you do every morning. And remember, every minute spent in planning saves 10 minutes in execution.

Power Reading

I found this helpful-  3 Strategies To Read What's Relevant by Kirby Ingles:

Have you ever felt frustrated when reading a book, because you intend to finish it and cross it off your to-do-list, but the author is dragging out the material?

Do you ever feel like the author is trespassing on your time, because you feel bound to complete their book, but it’s daunting.

How many books have you stopped reading because you lost the desire or motivation to press on?

ere are three strategies, pre-reading, scanning, and skimming, that can solve your problem.

Pre-Reading Can Be Your Secret Weapon

Pre-reading resembles reviewing an itinerary or an agenda. Pre-reading gives you better results because you are preparing your mind for the material. When you pre-read you can easily see where the author is going from beginning to end.

Begin by reading the title and subtitle. Sometimes, but not every time, it’s a great idea to review the publication date and author’s bio. If expertise and time matter, this can be pertinent information. This may be a make or break deal, if you are researching something. This can save you valuable time and credibility.

Then, review the table of contents the author has provided you and outline there. Sometimes they include subheadings to chapters, which provides additional insight.

Next, begin by flipping through the pages reading the headings and subheadings of each chapter. Think about these headings and subheadings as cues or reminders of what’s surfacing. I call these power statements and they keep you zeroed in on the theme or main idea.

Pre-reading is the first strategy you should go to. Although you completed all these steps and you’re beginning a fresh chapter, you should also entertain the headings and subheadings of the previous chapter and the next chapter. It has likely been a few days or weeks since you pre-read the book and this gives your brain a little bit of a jolt. Again, you are gearing up for a better understanding of the material.

After I’ve read a book, I post-read. Finally, turning back through and reviewing all the chapter titles, headings and subheadings, is a good way to commit the material to memory.

There is creative reading as well as creative writing. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Scanning Can Save You Time

Scanning is the most widely used technique that I use. I use this strategy when seeking new information by rummaging through content, looking out for cues or phrases. You will use this when you have a good handle on a topic and you’re checking for additional information or new insights. Maybe you are not interested in the author’s ideas, but a specific point for research.

During my graduate level pursuit in counseling, I have read up on Freud a lot, but I already know a good share about Freud. When Freud emerges in the material I scan over it. Only slowing down to read new, relevant information I haven’t read before.
You should ask yourself the question, “How does this enhance the conversation?” as you are scanning information in the book you are reading.

In the last three textbooks I’ve bought, Freud is mentioned in each one and is usually reintroduced like I haven’t heard of him before. I don’t blame the author, because they are clueless of the level of knowledge the reader has. This is where scanning is key. Bypass the irrelevant information you already have a good handle on and only read the chapters or paragraphs that heighten your preexisting knowledge.

I’ve read a lot of self-help and personal-growth books. Many of them feed off the same ideas and concepts, therefore I don’t read the entire book. By rereading you’re not acquiring any new or relevant information, but rather you should be attempting to increase knowledge. How do you figure that out? By reading the first and last chapters. Once you’ve done this, you can strategically scan the book by using the information you gained from pre-reading to attack certain areas of the book. If you didn’t find anything enlightening about the book after reading the first and last chapters, then it’s probably not a great idea to delve deeply into it.

The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries. – Rene Descartes

Skimming Can Help You Standout

Skimming is a valuable tool and can be performed when you have limited time to consume information. The purpose of skimming is to understand the content conceptually. You really do not require a deep understanding of the material, but you just need the nitty-gritty upfront. You are skipping over stories, charts, explanations and majority of the conversation the author is trying to have with you, because all you have enough time for is the overarching concept.

You can skim when you’re standing in line at the pharmacy, riding on the subway, or just before a meeting. You may already be skimming newspapers and magazines each day, watching for current events and small pieces of data to use in your daily conversations. You might skim to refresh before a test or call up the ideas in your mind that you studied for several weeks.

When you skim you should only read the introductory and closing sentences of each paragraph. While doing this you can also read keywords, anything highlighted, and information in italics or bold, because authors usually do this to convey an importance to understanding the concept.

In conclusion, these strategies are productive, time-management strategies used for a specific purpose as shown above. I still hope you continue reading books front to back, but know that using these strategies along the way will help you read more books. The practices in this post have helped me read 18 books already in 2015, which is one more than all the books I read last year.

100 Useful Websites

Interesting list at Life Hack - The 100 Most Useful Websites on the Internet.

Unwanted Solutions

Important Decisions

The Perfect Day

Some good ideas on prioritizing and scheduling in How to Have the Perfect Day by Bruce Harpham at Life Hack

How can we make our work days more effective? The specific details will like vary depending on your industry and responsibilities, but there are still universal hacks we can all apply.

The infographic below suggests a number of excellent ways to perfect your work day. Let’s explore a few of the important ideas. Sleep sets the foundation, so make sure that you get 7-9 hours per night. When you cut sleep time, everything in life and work becomes more difficult.

Next, exercise before work because daily exercise improves your performance at work. Take small breaks throughout the day – no matter what work you do, breaks are important (for more tips like this, read: 21 Counter-Intuitive Break Ideas to Boost Your Productivity at Work).

Early in the day, choose one difficult task to get done – completing the hardest work done early makes the rest of the day will be easier to handle. And to finish the day on a strong note, record daily wins.

After all, the perfect work day has at least one win – an accomplishment that you are proud of. Take a few minutes to write down your wins in a journal at the end of the day (or in Evernote).

What if you want to improve your work day even more? Simply add two more habits to your routine: generate ideas and adopt a robust problem solving strategy. Developing new ideas at work makes you stand out from others who simply go through the motions, so take the time to generate new ideas on a regular basis.

Next, solve problems effectively by applying a problem solving strategy to all those surprise requests you keep receiving from your boss and other people.
It is easy to be overwhelmed by the all the suggestions. Do yourself a favor and start small – pick just one idea and put that into action.

Becoming A Better Communicator

Found this good piece on becoming a better business communicator at Life Hack:  Not A Communicative Person At Work? You Will be After Reading This by Karima Mariama-Arthur. She says:

Are you an effective communicator at work? If not, there’s no shame in admitting this, especially since there’s a lot that you can do about it. Even if you are simply hesistant about speaking up, you can actually add value by learning to become a more effective, engaged, and confident communicator using a few tried and true tips.

Consider the following five ways to hone your communication skills at work:

1. Become a better listener

When people think about becoming a better communicator, listening is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. However, before you can raise your communication IQ, you must first learn to become a better listener. By listening in earnest to what others think, feel, and expect, you can learn to craft your message more effectively. Too often people dimiss this idea and simply focus on crafting responses to what others are saying, rather than listening with the intent to learn and connect more deeply.

2. Focus on connecting with others

We’re humans and by definition, “we’re meant to connect,” says Lucidity CEO and communication expert Michele Gilliam Morrissey. We need human interaction and for reasons that range from biology to sociology, connecting with others is what the survival of our species requires. Social media and technology may have revolutionized the way that we communicate and of course we may even enjoy them. However, they cannot replace the warm, intimate, and interactive conversations that have fueled our need to be connected.

By focusing on connecting and developing rapport with others, you lay the foundation for trust, which allows you to communicate more effectively and capture the undivided attention of your audience.

3. Don’t be defensive

All great minds don’t necessarily think alike. And when they don’t, sometimes conflict can ensue. However, you can make the choice in advance not to become defensive and graciously allow others to express differing opinions without getting upset or lashing out. Also, because maintaining an open, positive, and collegial work environment is critical to supporting the lines of communication, being defensive is actually one of the least effective kinds of postures to assume. It also puts everyone else on edge, which is counterproductive.

4. Begin with the end in mind

Every opportunity to communciate, is an opportunity to become more effective and achieve specific goals. Get clear on which goal you are trying to accomplish before you begin. It’s easy to get sidetracked once an conversational exchange begins, but if you know which points you need to cover – even if you have to write them down – then you will be far more successful than if you haphazardly muddle your way through the conversation.

Additionally, if you begin to run short on time, you have the option of tabling your point(s) until the next available opportunity without sacrificing the meat of the discussion. You will also feel like you are making progress because you are keenly focused on achieving specific outcomes.

5. Step outside your comfort zone

Becoming a more effective communicator may require you to step outside of your comfort zone to become better. Maybe you are used to keeping quiet during critical discussions at work for fear that your ideas may be rejected. But why not begin to speak up and become part of needed solutions, instead of leaving them for others to solve?
Maybe you could benefit from communication training, but fear getting constructive feedback from others. If so, why not encourage yourself to be vulnerable and challenge yourself to grow for the greater good? Your ability to communicate will certainly improve and over time, the process won’t feel so uncomfortable, which is its own reward.....

Read the rest at the link

Build A New Habit

I'm spending some time meditating on these ideas - How to Build a New Habit: This is Your Strategy Guide by James Clear

According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day.

Understanding how to build new habits (and how your current ones work) is essential for making progress in your health, your happiness, and your life in general.

But there can be a lot of information out there and most of it isn’t very simple to digest. To solve this problem and break things down in a very simple manner, I have created this strategy guide for building new habits that actually stick.

Even more detailed information is available in my free guide, Transform Your Habits, but the basic principles mentioned in this article will be more than enough to get you going.

1. Start with an incredibly small habit.

Make it so easy you can’t say no. —Leo Babauta

When most people struggle to stick with a new habit, they say something like, “I just need more motivation.” Or, “I wish I had as much willpower as you do.”

This is the wrong approach. Research shows that willpower is like a muscle. It gets fatigued as you use it throughout the day. Another way to think of this is that your motivation ebbs and flows. It rises and falls. Stanford professor BJ Fogg calls this the “motivation wave.”

Solve this problem by picking a new habit that is easy enough that you don’t need motivation to do it. Rather than starting with 50 pushups per day, start with 5 pushups per day. Rather than trying to meditate for 10 minutes per day, start by meditating for one minute per day. Make it easy enough that you can get it done without motivation.
Further reading: Identity-Based Habits: How to Actually Stick to Your Goals

2. Increase your habit in very small ways.

Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.
—Jim Rohn

One percent improvements add up surprisingly fast. So do one percent declines.
Rather than trying to do something amazing from the beginning, start small and gradually improve. Along the way, your willpower and motivation will increase, which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.

Further reading: This Coach Improved Every Tiny Thing by 1 Percent and Here’s What Happened

3. As you build up, break habits into chunks.

If you continue adding one percent each day, then you’ll find yourself increasing very quickly within two or three months. It is important to keep each habit reasonable, so that you can maintain momentum and make the behavior as easy as possible to accomplish.

Building up to 20 minutes of meditation? Split it into two segments of 10 minutes at first.
Trying to do 50 pushups per day? Five sets of 10 might be much easier as you make your way there.

Further reading: I’m Using These 3 Simple Steps to Actually Stick with Good Habits

4. When you slip, get back on track quickly.

The best way to improve your self-control is to see how and why you lose control.
—Kelly McGonigal

Top performers make mistakes, commit errors, and get off track just like everyone else. The difference is that they get back on track as quickly as possible....

More ideas at the link. Read it all there.

When Things Go Wrong - Learn and Move On

10 Things Successful People Do When Things Go Wrong, by Robert Locke (via Life Hack)

It is easy to imagine that successful people have always had that magic touch, when everything they do turns to gold. The reality is that they too have screwed up and failed. This article will tell you how they cope when things go pear shaped. If they can get over failure, then so can you. Lots of useful life lessons here.

1. They know how to adjust their goals

Successful people are not going to give up that easily. If X went wrong, it does not affect Y which is the hallmark of their success. They are adaptable, resilient, and determined to go on. That means having a plan B ready so that the phoenix will rise from the ashes.

2. They are realistic optimists

They know that optimism is what counts and their glass is always half full. Research suggests that the realistic optimist is more likely to be successful. In addition, they are grateful for what they have achieved and will concentrate on their successes.

3. They learn from their failure

“When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.” – Dalai Lama

If successful people fail, it means that they were prepared to:

• move out of the safe comfort zone
• take calculated risks
• experience the joy of growing and fulfilment

When and if they fail, they are able to sit down and assess calmly what went wrong. There is a lesson from every failure and they know how/where to find it, accept it, and above all apply it to future projects.

Bill Gates’ first company called Traf-O-Data was a failure. He was able to adapt and try again with Microsoft and we all know how successful that is.

“Success is moving from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill.

It is interesting to note that Churchill was defeated in many elections until he finally became Prime Minister at the age of 62!

4. They know that failure is a prelude to success

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”- Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan kept at it and made sure that he perfected his technique. You can do the same by assessing your skills set and see how they can be improved. Or maybe you need to spend more time on networking and building relationships. Is there a way you can take the initiative the next time?

5. They ask for advice

Many entrepreneurs were able to crawl out from the ruins of failure and start again. But some were wise enough to seek advice from friends or mentors. Obviously these have to be the kind of people you would trust your life with. They are also upbeat, confident, and can boost your morale.

Those who make it to the top also know how to get help from their networks and connections, when they want to start over after failure or setbacks.

Conversational Greatness

Here's an excerpt from a great piece by Jason Treu-  How to Start Great Conversations To Make Powerful Connections. Jason Is a former lawyer, and "life mastery coach."

Years ago, I was very nervous to approach strangers and especially large groups of people I didn’t know. I watched some of my friends dive into these situations with ease, and wondered how they made it look so easy and natural. Meanwhile, I found myself awkwardly alone, palms sweaty, clutching a cocktail, and desperately brainstorming witty things to say.

How did I go from being fearful and uncertain in meeting people and starting conversations to confident, energetic and positive?

There are ten key principles on how to start great conversations to make powerful connections. They made a huge difference in how I gained confidence and expertise in meeting new people, creating rapport, and building extraordinary relationships.

By practicing and using the information below, I mastered the relationship building process and mentor others across the world on how to do it.

By the time you finish this article you will learn how to:

• Start great conversations
• Never run out of things to say
• Build instant rapport and connection
• Leave people wanting to get to know you more

1. Delivery Trumps Content

People focus way too much on what to say and trying to say the right thing. Research has found your delivery is much more important than content in building rapport, especially in initial interactions.

It’s not WHAT you say, it’s HOW you say it.

People feed off your emotions, energy, and vibe, because you are projecting your thoughts and emotions to them. They feel and see your charisma and magnetism when you do this correctly, and when you are being yourself.....

Read the rest at the link.

Making Customers Feel Awesome

From 6 Tips For Making Your Customers Feel Awesome (and Why It Matters) by Alice Default via @Buffer on Twitter. Good article at the link above.

Undrstanding Context

"All meaning is context dependent" is a phrase that has been very helpful to me. Therefore, I appreciated this article by Joel Gascoigne at Buffer - The Habits of Successful People: They Work To Understand Context. The material below is quoted from the article.

I’ve had a few different experiences in my past that made me reach a big realisation. What I’ve discovered is that the context of any situation is very important.

Hiten Shah clearly already understands this very well. This Tweet from him is what tipped me over the edge to share some of my further thinking around context:

                      Get context before you give advice - @hnshah

Why we should seek context at all times
“Seek first to understand, then to be understood” -Stephen R Covey

The above quote is Habit 5 of Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

I’ve read the book a couple of times, and I’ve read other content around the topic of gaining context, but it’s something which has only just “clicked” for me as to why it’s so important. Also, after now understanding the importance of context, I’ve found it to be very difficult to actually practice.

The premise is quite clear as to how vital context is: without context, we immediately jump in our heads to what we want to say next, based on the very first few words we hear from the other person. This is something I find myself doing far too frequently.
Most of us listen to someone with the intention of replying, and therefore as soon as we have a “reply” in mind, we stop listening and wait our turn to reply. No matter what remarkable new insights are uncovered in the subsequent words from the other person, it is likely that we now have a strong desire to share that initial thought we have about what to say back.

With context, on the other hand, we can achieve so much more. If we truly understand the background of the other person, we can tailor the approach for each occasion. I believe gaining or having context can be useful in so many scenarios:

• giving advice
• receiving advice
• meeting a stranger
• making friends
• getting press
• raising funding

The conversation that shocked me

A while back, I was in a Skype call with someone to try and help them with their current startup challenges.

As normal, I asked about the founder’s startup and what stage he was at. After uncovering a tiny amount of context about his previous experiences and where he was now at, I unfortunately slipped and switched to my own thinking about what the best next steps were for him.

I proceeded to advise him based on my previous experience. The experience I based my advice on was the following:

• I had worked on an idea for a year and a half which I never charged for
• I therefore generated no revenue, and consistently had to work on the side
• While I had a few thousand users of traction, I failed to raise funding

I advised him to charge for his product from Day One, since that worked for me the after the first failure. I also advised him to aim for revenue and not worry so much about user numbers, since that’s what truly freed me from working on the side.

He was very receptive of my advice—even thought it was the wrong advice for the situation he was in. Luckily, he went on to share extra information that changed everything:

• He had a previous startup for which he had hundreds of paying customers and good revenues
• He was still making money from the idea and had runway to last almost indefinitely working on a new idea
• He got into an incubator with the idea
• He went to the Valley to raise funding, but since he had low user numbers (even though they were all paying) he struggled to raise funding

I could now completely understand why, in fact, he shouldn’t just follow the advice I gave him. He had almost entirely the opposite previous experience to me, yet equally valuable and foundation building. He was perfectly poised to try an idea which could gain massive visibility rather than simply making money. Making some money was not his biggest challenge, as it was for me when I started.

Our opposite contexts meant that in fact opposite choices for next steps made complete sense. I was genuinely taken aback when I realised this....

More at the link.

Worth a Look

Some links worth a look:

10 Must Read Blogs for Advanced & Intermediate Marketers

14 Things That May Not Exist in 2020

Study Less, Study Smart: The Best Ways to Retain More in Less Time

Secrets to Awesome Weekends

Everybody loves the weekend. Everybody needs a break. So check out How Can You Make Your Weekends More Awesome, by Eric Barker;

What’s the research have to say about making Friday through Sunday that much better…?

For The Most Part, Don’t Trust Your Instincts

Ever eat or drink too much, feel awful, then do it again… and feel awful again? As counterintuitive as it may sound, we’re actually pretty bad about remembering what really makes us happy.

Reading Harvard happiness expert Daniel Gilbert’s bestselling book Stumbling on Happiness my main takeaway was this:

"Much of our unhappiness springs from the fact that we’re terrible at accurately remembering how things made us feel in the past, so we make bad choices regarding the future."

In Gilbert’s own words (and backed up by many studies):

"We overestimate how happy we will be on our birthdays, we underestimate how happy we will be on Monday mornings, and we make these mundane but erroneous predictions again and again, despite their regular disconfirmation."

When most of us have leisure time, do we do what truly makes us happy or do we opt for what’s easy? Easy wins it most of the time.

Via The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work:

"Studies have found that American teenagers are two and half times more likely to experience elevated enjoyment when engaged in a hobby than when watching TV, and three times more likely when playing a sport. And yet here’s the paradox: These same teenagers spend four times as many hours watching TV as they do engaging in sports or hobbies. So what gives? Or, as psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi put it more eloquently, “Why would we spend four times more time doing something that has less than half the chance of making us feel good?” The answer is that we are drawn—powerfully, magnetically—to those things that are easy, convenient, and habitual, and it is incredibly difficult to overcome this inertia. Active leisure is more enjoyable, but it almost always requires more initial effort—getting the bike out of the garage, driving to the museum, tuning the guitar, and so on."

The things we frequently choose to reduce stress are often the least effective:

Via The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do To Get More of It:

"The APA’s national survey on stress found that the most commonly used strategies were also rated as highly ineffective by the same people who reported using them. For example, only 16 percent of people who eat to reduce stress report that it actually helps them. Another study found that women are most likely to eat chocolate when they are feeling anxious or depressed, but the only reliable change in mood they experience from their drug of choice is an increase in guilt."

So What Works?

Spending time with friends on the weekends definitely helps:

"A large portion of the weekend effects is explained by differences in the amount of time spent with friends or family between weekends and weekdays (7.1 vs. 5.4 hours). The extra daily social time of 1.7 hours in weekends raises average happiness by about 2%."

But you knew that already. What are we missing?

That Mountain of E-Mail

Some good advice here on overcoming your mountain of daily e-mails: The Secret of E-mail : The Golden Rule by Kirby Ingles at Adam Smith's blog - 

Ever wonder how you can earn more time doing what is most important to you?

Do you feel like escaping from behind your desk and away from the 126 emails the average person receives per day?

There is a way for you to process through all your emails.

Would you love to hear more about it? Out of 126 emails, only 77 are legitimate.
How would you enjoy knowing about a golden rule that pierces through your inbox?

Save Yourself from Email

When I was a Human Resources Manager in Upstate New York, my days centered around email. It seemed as if I was chained to my desk. I was so buried in processing email that I would forget to drink my coffee. Not realizing the time that flashed by, I would grab my cup and sip some nasty, cold coffee. After several months of reliving this tragedy daily, I bought a candle warmer to keep my coffee warm. The problem was not the coffee cooling, but it was me living inside of my inbox that kept me from enjoying my favorite morning beverage.

“Veni, Vidi, Vici”

“I came, I saw, I conquered.”

How to Take Over Your Email

The golden rule of email is the same concept as Get Things Done. If you spend longer than two minutes processing an email, put it in a folder to process or reply later. Create 3 folders. First, create a folder to place emails that require a response that lasts longer than two minutes to draft. Second, you need a folder where you can store things that do not require responses, but are waiting upon an action. Last, create a folder where you can archive items that you think are valuable and will reference later.

The average Jane or Joe types 38-40 words per minute. Sentences are comprised of 8-11 words to be easily read. Do the math and that equals 7-10 sentences per 2 minutes. Generally, you can communicate effectively to most emails in 7-10 sentences if you cut out the fat. If you want to change your behavior, you must change your thinking. Take a Twitter-like approach who limits tweets to 140 characters. Instead, use 7-10 sentences to convey your thoughts. When you slice the excess fat, that means you use plain text, limit attachments and no abbreviations or emoticons. Do not send one-liners such as Thank You, Okay, and kill the read receipts. You’re not only fiddling around, but cluttering up inboxes with rubbish. Respect the recipient by providing a prompt, clear, concise and easy-to-read email. Your goal is to keep the amount of elapsed time to less than an hour in your email.

7 Steps to Make Certain Your Inbox is at Zero

1. Start using the golden rule of email.
2. Create a 3 folder system.
3. Process your inbox first by reading the subject and scanning.
4. If you can craft an email response in two minutes, execute.
5. Process your folders according to importance.
6. Process emails in each folder from more important to least significant.
7. Spend more face-to-face time with the people you work with and enjoy hot coffee.

Ultimately, once I took control of my inbox, I was in a position to be a more engaged leader that had a face, not a signature block.

Serendipity of Creativity

What Happens When I Surround Myself With Creative People- By Ryan Smith at Adam Smith's website:

As I’ve mentioned before, your creativity is highly influenced by your environment. The way that you see the world is through the lens of your experiences, both past and present. All that you’ve been through and all that you know shapes your perception of what it takes to be different.

So when it comes to being different, to adding your own uniqueness to the world, it dramatically helps to bring together others who are interested in doing the same thing.There are classic examples of great thinkers, innovators, artists, and other creatives who were only able to do what they are known for because of the company they kept.From the discussions between Plato and Aristotle, to the letters of J.R.R Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, to the joint efforts of the impressive actors Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, collaboration and discourse led to improvement and inspiration.

Some of the biggest movements in history stand out not for individual accomplishments, but for the way that individual innovators drew from each other to create their own individual works that reflected what they as a community faced. Looking at times like the European Renaissance during the 14th through 17th centuries, to the Harlem Renaissance in the early 20th century, to what I would call the “Technology Renaissance”, occurring as we speak, it’s through relationships, the sharing of ideas, and building of bonds that these were possible.

It’s no coincidence that historical and modern-day figures of those eras were all present during the same time period, making waves. It’s actually through the discussions, the arguments, and the observations they made that they were able to build off of each other and create something novel.

If you’re looking to become more creative, work with others who are doing the same. They don’t have to be at your level. They can be just starting out if you’re a veteran, or vice versa. One of the great things about creativity is that it doesn’t really have a hierarchy. You can be just as creative today as you were 10 years ago. There’s always something to learn from others, and always something to gain from trying new things together.

I try to spend time surrounded by creative people whenever I can. It’s an amazing feeling to be with those who are also interested in creating something new and just see their approach to not only the creative process, but their entire lives. I always come away with something new. It could just be the way I think about my ideas or it could be entirely fresh ideas built on the topics we discussed.

If spending time with creative people is not something you regularly do, I would strongly suggest that you make that a priority. Creativity is a multiplier; you will see massive changes in the way you approach your work and the way you approach your life.