Thoughts on Creativity / Turning Your Job into a Passion

• Relax. Take five minutes each day and think. Don’;t think about anything in particular. Just think. Take a walk around your building. Go sit on a bench. Leave your cell phone and Blackberry on your desk. Now, just think. Each time you do this you will have an idea. Sometimes it will be a little idea. Sometimes it will be a big idea.
• Stop creating rules where rules do not exist.
• Eliminate some of your fears (the fear of failure, the fear of making a mistake, the fear of looking foolish) and your creative energy will increase.
• Expand your possibility box. The bigger the box: The more possibilities. When people create ideas, the first instinct is to shrink the possibility box. Try to expand the possibilities.
• Find new ways of doing something. Remember, there is always more than one path and way. Don’;t be so quick to judge.
• Stop trying to analyze and create at the same time. It is impossible. You can do one or the other. Be creative and then analyze.
• Build on each other’;s ideas. Be open to each other’;s ideas. Don’;t have an ego in the creative process.
  

Some thoughts on passion at work. 

1. Beware managers who wear black mock turtlenecks. Sometimes you can really understand a manager by what they wear. Managers who wear black mock turtlenecks still think it is 1992. Odds are they are also wearing loafers without socks. If you mention iPods, Facebook, MySpace, or TiVo, they will have no idea what you are talking about. Talk about Tiger Woods – he is your only hope of finding a common ground. Black mock turtleneck managers seek to destroy you. They don’;t listen or care what you think. And they certainly will not give you the opportunity and positive support you need to be successful. If the person across from you is wearing a black mock turtleneck, please run. Run fast and far.

2. Take responsibility for your passion, energy and happiness. We let other people determine our happiness by their actions or words. Grumpy people get to work, find out there are no more blueberry muffins, and then stay bitter the whole day. If you were a normal, sane person, would you really make the choice to wake up in the morning, comb your hair and brush your teeth and say, "Man, I am bitter, frustrated and angry. I can’;t wait to get to work." No, you wouldn’;t. Yet, people do that every day. It is your choice. Get greedy and take the choice back. And when that happens, you will wake up every morning happier and more energized. And happy people get to work early when there are still blueberry muffins.
   
3. Figure out what work you would do for free. Once you do that, figure out how to get someone to pay you. If you don’;t do this, you will wake up one day as a "Bye-Bye" person. Their minds are gone, they are "Bye-Bye". They are like zombies, infecting young, energetic employees with their negativity and constant whining. They tend to hang around vending machines, break rooms and smoking areas. If they work on a computer, they play solitaire. At least once a week they will have a dentist appointment, sick dog, out-patient elective surgery or "jury duty." They play a lot of sudoku during the day. The truth is you don’;t want a job, you want a passion. How do you get a passion? First, you need opportunity and positive support. When you put those two things together, it will be amazing what you can accomplish. You will never care about anything if you don’;t have opportunity, positive support and ownership. Guess what happens when you start to care? You have passion.