Monday, May 19, 2008

One new thing Every Day!

I often get asked in interviews whether i find it difficult to handle the business side of my profession (as many creative people find it a huge challenge). The truth is i really do love the admin and managerial stuff i need to do every day. The down side is that it's very easy for me to spend weeks getting so absorbed in the business side, that i forget to stoke the creative fires.

So this week i gave myself the challenge to CREATE ONE NEW THING EVERY DAY. It sounds like a big ask, but when you break it down to the fundamental principal of the idea, it's not difficult to achieve at all. I'm not asking myself to write a whole song every day, or write a masterpiece. All i'm asking to do is flirt with my creative mind at least once during each and every day.

It might be a simple thing, such as taking a photograph, or trying a new take on an old recipe. At the moment i'm designing t-shirts, and i find that very gratifying, but it might be just writing a verse of poetry.


Just think, if we all did something small each day, we would have 365 new things that have come from within ourselves every year.

Imagine too taking this idea to another level, like doing one kind gesture every day. If only 10people in your town followed this principal, there would be 3650 kind gestures per year, which could touch a lot of people. Of course, you'd have to make it so it was a step further than your normal niceness (I'm sure you do nice things all of the time). Maybe there's a lonely old person who you could bring a nice meal to, or offer to pick up a friends children from school one afternoon when you pick up your own. Little things like thanking someone else for taking the time to make your own life better (someone who goes that extra mile - we should all thank them). The possibilities abound.

So, ONE NEW THING EVERY DAY. It's not that hard. We just have to decide to do it. Heres the link to the T-shirt
smiles to you! Tania

Monday, May 5, 2008

Connections

What is it that makes two people connect?
They can be strangers in the street.
They can see each other from the other side of the store.

What is the energy that draws us nearer?
What is the desire to interact?
Do we need to understand it?

No matter where i go i see people working very hard to avoid contact, when it would be far easier just to look at me and give a little smile or a nod. It takes so much more energy fighting the natural instinct to look at someone than to acknowledge it with a simple smile.

I choose to embrace the natural instinct. I used to look away, pretend to be watching something else, act like i didn't have the urge. Now i'm a little wiser, i smile, sometimes even say hello. Other people seems to feel relieved. It's like i've given them permission to not have to play that stupid game.

Next time you catch yourself playing the avoidance game, give a little smile. You'll be a much more honest person for it, and you might even make someone else feel a little bit better about themselves.

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Living Simply...what can you trade with me?

We live in a very complex world, full of complex things and complicated happenings. If only there was a way to simplify everything, wouldn't our life be better? Imagine if we could...

Everything CAN be simplified. Human beings don't need much at all to live and be content. The problems many of us are experiencing in this mad mad world are symptomatic of the complexities we attribute to everything. and yes, WE buy into them. WE make it complicated. WE CHOOSE to think of it as being complicated.

"I have no time to myself" - then allocate some
"All i seem to do is rush rush rush" - s-l-o-w down. Take time to smell the flowers
"I just don't understand it" - do you really need to?

Sure, you can come back to me with a "you don't understand. It's more complicated than that". Who says it is? Oh, you do.

The thing is that we live in a time where all of the "experts" tell us we don't know anything unless your another expert (and then you're wrong anyway). We have forgotten how to simply live, or is that live SIMPLY.

You need shelter, healthy food, and fun. That's it. Money is simply a means to be able to have healthy food and shelter. It's a way of trading one service for another. It's not complicated. Our ancestors used to swap cabbages for milk, but when you don't have anything to trade with, money became a way of giving points which could later be traded for something else with someone else.

So what can you do, or do you have, or can you make which is worth trading? I trade with people i know all of the time...a friend gives me massages and i make promotional material for her, i help another friend producing her album, and she does some work for my business. Everyone has something to trade with, even if it's just their time to help in the garden, or mow the grass, or look after children.

And you know, trading in this way makes the transaction a meaningful one. When's the last time you had a meaningful transaction, where both parties felt a sense of fullfillment and friendship? And you don't even have to be friends with the person.

This is how communities evolve, and how people care for each other, and how bonds and friendships are formed and people are nurtured. THIS is just one tiny example of how we can learn from the past, and become healthier and happier living simply. And the biggest buzz is that it FEELS GOOD.

This week, offer to trade something with someone. Think of something you would like done for you, and be the first to offer the trade (make it a friend to get started). once you get the hang of it, you won't look back, and it will be the start to your life becoming simpler.

You CAN make the change! You just need to want it.