Tag: Creativity

The fourth and final part in the series on finding abundance in every corner of your business:

Creativity is an ethereal thing. Though business magazines laud it, and CEO’s magnify its glory, it will not be contained. We all want more of it, but whenever we have it, we cannot seem to keep it in the box, even if we sit on the lid. Even as we believe we have achieved the perfect recipe to attract it and keep it, it vaporizes like a spirit into the dark night. Grasp it by force, and it will elude you.

If I could only order it from Amazon, with that two-hour delivery thing. I would have it delivered just when I needed it most. (“I’ll take an extra large case. And please, set me up with a Dash Button.”) Upon receipt, I would carefully inspect the contents. No, I lied. That is not how it would go. I would watch for the truck, and as soon as the driver put his big toe onto my driveway, I would yank the box from his hands, and wildly thrash open the box like a kid at Christmas to peer inside. What would I see? What exactly is it? Bear with me. With my intellect, you may not be able to understand this highly scientific definition:

Creativity is the ability to look at a bunch of existing stuff and imagine new stuff. It is not in the box. It is in me. I have to find it within my own soul. Creativity remixes, refines, reworks, reforms, and reconnects old dots to create new pictures.

So what are the souls of highly creativity people like? Creative people go boldly where no man has gone before. They travel fearlessly to alien places for opportunities to explore new mental landscapes. They have the right stuff.  But what is this right stuff? Must you be artistic? Brave? Highly educated? Do they have a large financial reserve? No, no, no, and no. The answer may surprise you.

Highly creative people are thankful people.Their hearts are filled with gratitude. Here is how Gratitude opens the door to Creativity:

Gratitude gets you outside your own head. Grateful people are not self-absorbed. They pay attention to others and find inspiration in other people. When their creative commodity is running low, they move into an environment of makers and creative people. Creativity begets creativity. It fuels and inspires their work.

Gratitude makes you more observant. Grateful people retain their sense of wonder. Have you ever had a day when you got to work and somehow did not remember getting there? Routine can and digress into boredom–unless we work to retain a spirit of wonder. Unless we shake things up, we can lose our sense of awe and wonder. Do yourself a favor. Break your routine today. Take a different route to work tomorrow. No one can be creative when they are bored. Gratitude causes you to look at things as if for the first time. The little things are the big things. The simple things that we often overlook are the profound things.

Gratitude gives you a sense of well-being. One of the biggest barriers to creativity is a lack of confidence and fear of taking risks. Creativity requires energy. No one can be creative if you are in a state of worry. When we are just surviving the business jungle day by day, we will have little reserve left for artistic endeavors, or to expand our intellect. We will not be able to play. Play is a catalyst of creativity. Gratitude helps us to lighten up and to celebrate the serendipity right under our noses. Grateful people are focused on what they have, rather than what they do not have. Because of this, they do not miss opportunity. Because they are focused on the positive, their ability to see and connect new dots is enhanced. Gratitude also helps you sleep better. A rested brain is a creative brain. 

Gratitude is the key element in the primordial soup from which all good ideas emerge. By focusing on all that is true, and good, and beautiful, we can expand our own horizons.

Want to unlock the door to an abundance of creativity in your life? This Holiday Season, try some common gratitude. It is available to anyone: rich, poor, educated, brave, or not. It is medicine for your head, your heart, your soul, and the eternal kid inside.

We take this opportunity to wish everyone a warm and wonderful Thanksgiving and Holiday Season, filled with awe and childlike wonder. We are thankful for every person who reads our blog.

When we count our blessings this year, we will be counting you.

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This is the fourth and final part of the Unlocking Abundance series. If you liked this article, you may enjoy Parts 1, 2, and 3 here:

Part 1: Unlocking Abundance

Part 2: The Most Underrated, Unexploited, & Unexplored Advantage in Small Business

Part 3: How to Fuel Your Entrepreneurial Fire

Why do we at etc!graphics inc, a graphic design company, care about your business strategies?  Because no matter how beautiful we make your visuals, your graphics will never make more sense than the clarity of your own vision. The clearer your target, the more lucid your marketing will be, and the better connection you will create with your visual graphics. We want to help you become the best you can be. Join us all this month as we share ways to help your small business sustain and grow in a crowded marketplace. Etc!Graphics is devoted to helping you, the small business owner, think like a marketer. 

Are you a Plucky Duck?

In 1992, a shipping crate fell overboard, containing 28,000 plastic bathtub toys. Since then, they have been sailing around the world and appearing on beaches in the most unbelievable places.  While much has been written about the Friendly Floaties, I’d like to present these little guys as an allegory of high-level business acumen.

Yes, they have provided new information to scientists regarding ocean currents, and provided another opportunity to bring important environmental issues to the surface. (Pun fully intended). But these guys are the poster child for the Power of Small.  And I’m not just trying to wring some ‘think positive’ psychology out of the allegory. It is real advantage.

Think of these three advantages alone:

Opportunity abounds

The waning economy has dumped and displaced many workers into the vast economic sea. But at that moment, hundreds of new startups were launched.  Imagine them all, minutes after they bobbed to the surface, all floating together in a friendly flotilla. They are free to do and go wherever they want, no longer hindered by the box. Don’t you love it? The big box store does nothing for creativity. Innovation is born from freedom and liberty. Opportunity abounds like never before.

Space to be me

There is always room for one more small business. Please do not view it as hundreds of new competitors. If you have carefully differentiated your small business, you have nothing to worry about.  There is room for all- even bumping up against each other. While large boats must stay quite a distance from one another, the small business, especially one that has positioned itself carefully, has all the room they need. Small business can swim circles around the big boys, under the radar, in customer service and niche offerings.

Instant adaptation

These little ducks are the ultimate evolutionary model. Darwin would have been so proud.  Currents change. Weather happens. Things a little duck cannot control. But these plucky ducks have endured storms that have brought down the most daring sailors and the largest ships.  They have instantly changed course. Recovered from the largest waves. Endured long periods of sustained sun and loneliness.

If you are a small business, you have more advantage and more help at your disposal than ever before. Got waves? Stop looking at the wave as a disadvantage and use it as a tool and an opportunity to rise to new heights and go places you have never been before.

Small is the new Big. If you are small business owner, you are one Plucky Duck.

If you have enjoyed an advantage of being small, please share it with us in the comments.

And if you would like more information about the friendly floaties, check out these sites:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/what-can-28000-rubber-duckies-lost-at-sea-teach-us-about-

The Author of Moby Duck:

http://www.donovanhohn.com/Home.html