Spook Yourself Out

Spook yourself out Wondering how to grow your business or yourself? Does the very thought seem spooky? It might be easier than you let yourself believe, if you let yourself believe it will be (Try that for a tongue twister!). And don’t decide to believe what you just read, prove it to yourself. People who set goals are more likely to achieve them. Didn’t we hear that in school? Yes, countless times, but now it's time to turn up the volume and really do it. When was the last time you asked the universe to show you what goals to work towards? That may sound weird (A little like hocus-pocus!) but in a recent survey 64% of people said they either used their intuition when goal setting, or actively sought answers from the world around them.   How do you do that? You turn up your ability to notice what is happening around you, meaning the road signs, the radio, the person who you were just thinking about who then called “Out of the blue”. Once you start noticing these things, the coincidences and connections might seem positively spooky! When we were in New Zealand, we saw a felt-board at the Christchurch botanical gardens and kids were going crazy putting up felt flowers, felt suns, felt landscaping etc. Why not designate a wall to become your own felt-board? Tear out a few pictures of things that call out to you from magazines or ezines and pin them up there, create a snapshot collage in your Instagram account, or look at your Pinterest - what is it telling you that you love? Is your next step right in front of your nose? Change can seem like a spooky process, but did you know that if you continue to make small changes every day, you increase your flexibility and ability to adapt to large changes? Get busy with those little changes today and before you know it they will add up to become those big changes you've been dreaming of. Creativity Symposium Rescheduled If you were signed up for this awesome event this Saturday, you'll be happy to know we came up with something even better! In honor of International Women's Day and a number of other factors, the organizers have decided to move the party to March 7.  Imagination Changes Everything Looking for some change in your life? Draw your way to success! Genius Toolkits We are coming out with some awesome toolkits to help you be the creative genius at the offset. To get in on the early-bird special pricing, e-mail us here.

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Open the Door & Let You In

Be honest. You want change and yet somehow it never seems to happen... Easy enough. Fast enough. Good enough. Timely enough. Long enough. What if you could change anything in a minute? Would you? I bet 100% of you would say yes. But only 10% of you will actually do something to make that change happen. Become that 10% right now. It only requires two things -  1. Using your imagination, (aka your #creativegenius), and 2. Opening a door. Start here Think of that dream you've been having of something you want to change - where you really want to make a shift. Got it? Now, imagine, out of the blue, the best thing happening to you -  you get the promotion, you drop 20 lbs., your bank account fills with cash. Let go of worrying how you are going to get there or how used to do it or what happened to you in the past and focus on the inner pictures of how you want it to be right now. STAY FOCUSED. Add a little more detail.  What's different in this new picture? How are you different in this picture?  Focus on the best case scenario, and the best you in that scenario. Now smile. Literally smile.  Smiling opens your heart, which opens the door to let in that best self, that best scenario, that goodness that you truly are. This week make a conscious effort to hold the door open for someone else every time you have the opportunity. As you hold that door open, smile. Then remind yourself you are letting in more and more of your best life, your best #leadership, your best partnering ability, your most abundant self, your best #creativegeniusyou. Keep track of what happens and be that 10% who is consciously making change. HIGHLIGHT ON YOU: Here's a note I got this week from someone who watched Draw Your Future  "About one year ago I happened upon your TedX video. Your story and your work has changed my view of the world and how it works, I believe that everything is possible - more and more…" - Naples, Florida  :) When you feel stuck, go back to the basics. Set your dial to "positive", Do Good, Be Good and watch how it opens the door for you. THE GIRL EFFECT DRAWING THEIR FUTURE Now is the time for you to get behind the things you believe in.  Here's one of my things that I'm rolling up my sleeves over. STATS ARE YOU SENDING MIXED MESSAGES AS A LEADER? This week focus your body language. It's not just what you say, it's all of who you bring into the room. Here's proof. SHOUT OUT JULIE RAY Here's one of those draw your picture stories. I needed a project manager. I drew this and when Julie signed up formy graphic recording class, she was a seasoned PM willing to do a trade. Thanks universe!

Spook Yourself into Change

SPOOK YOURSELF!! Make today that day of change  This week I met hundreds of you ready to accelerate making change in your life.  #awesomeyou! Some of you lamented that you had been in the same organization for many years, or repeating similar patterns and wanted to shift to doing something new, but... IT'S HALLOWEEN!  PLAY THE "DARK SHADOWS" GAME WITH ME! Today, close your eyes and pretend you are walking down that hallway in the daytime soap,Dark Shadows.  In the hallway are a series of closed doors.  Each door has a sign labeled with one of those things you have always wanted to do, or said you were going to do, but...for some reason didn't. Behind each door is that adventure - YOU in that new life or change you want to make. SPOOK YOURSELF!  Leaving all fear in the hallway, imagine yourself OPENING ONE OF THOSE DOORS and walking into that dream room with your imagination. What's it like in there?  What are you like in there?  What's super cool things are happening?  Dream this dream as fully as you can.  THEN MAKE SOME NOTES ON A PIECE OF PAPER, draw a picture of what you remember - all the good stuff and feelings and creativity and fun in there! THEN GO TRY ONE OF THOSE THINGS you saw yourself doing IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD! Change will only occur when you scare yourself  out of a rut. IT'S HALLOWEEN!  Time to GET SCARY ON YOURSELF! GET YOUR MAP ON CUNA TEAMS ROCKING THEIR MAPS OKAY this organization was unbelievable. They wore the biodots and tested their stress levels while drawing their dreams into reality #excellent CHANGE CONNECT 2013 THANK YOU PEOPLE FIRM Such a great offsite. Interesting people, wonderful insights, great maps and questions from all of you. #seeyounextyear!   SHIFTING TO NEW WE CAN HELP Want to help your people make the shift to the new with that IT implementation, culture shift or strategy? A picture speaks 1000 words.  Let us draw you a picture to help with that rollout. Shoot us an email!

START EXPERIMENTING ON YOU If you won't, who will? I have been in dozens of different rooms this fall, filled with people who are working hard to make change. Yet no matter how hard they try to push things through, get that process, those programs, that strategy, those people whipped into shape, they still feel like they are slowly sinking in quicksand. Why not start experimenting with new ways to trick yourself and your brain to get what you want more quickly? CHANGE WON'T EVER HAPPEN SOON ENOUGH FOR THOSE WHO ARE READY NOW What we know is that the world is filled with resistance to change. Status quo is comfy. no doubt about it, and in some cases resistance is a good thing. Resistance slows us down to consider whether what we are about to do is really going to create expansive change.  Think of some of the ridiculous ideas you have tried or items you have purchased with your hard earned denaro that you wish someone had talked you out of. But there are some cases in which resistance prevents us from making scientific discoveries that can alter the life experience of others who need it.  This week a Rhode Island-based research team won a $1 million prize at the BrainTech Israel Conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning for breakthrough research and innovation in neurotechnology. Out of 10 finalists, the prize went to the Brain-Gate research team, headed by Dr. John Donoghue. BrainGate, which is based at Brown University, helps disabled people around the globe by creating robotic and prosthetic arms controlled by implanted neural sensors. When this idea first came out, people didn't think it possible, given that each of our brains react so differently to stimuli. These doctors are currently recruiting people to advance science through placing an implant in the part of the brain which controls movement. They are linking thinking to actual movement of prosthetics. In their acceptance speech for the award, one of the doctors said, "We are strangers to ourselves," when referring to our lack of knowledge about how the brain truly works. Uh, yep. SO WHY NOT RUN YOUR OWN SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENT ON YOURSELF? Change agent and SPHR coach, Andrea Ballard ran an ad hoc experiment in one of my Vision to Reality sessions last week.  She was wearing a biofeedback dot on her hand during the session. Later, she shared the results from her experiment: "During your presentation, if I was talking in a small group or with a partner or listening to you speaking, I ranged orange/brown on the color scale - which was nervous/unsettled. I think it's because my brain was processing so much info. When I was drawing (and typically I think of drawing as something that makes me anxious - i.e., "I'm not good at this") my dot turned dark green or blue indicating calm/tranquil EVERY SINGLE TIME." Research shows that drawing increases our levels of serotonin and dopamine, neurotransmitters that play a role in increasing happiness and relaxation. Ever lose track of time working on a creative project? This is because our concept of time exists in the left hemisphere of our brain. The creative process exists mainly in our right hemisphere. If we focus our attention to the right hemisphere, we give our analytical left side some much needed time to rest. AND we drop our resistance to and relax into new ideas. Try this experiment:  Next time you or your team are feeling stressed or resistant to change, try drawing a picture of what you are currently experiencing and then doodle how you'd like this whole situation to be going. Shift your perspective and shift your reality. VISION TO REALITY NHRMA 2013 CONFERENCE Amazing drawings from participants in my session at the recent NHRMA conference in Tacoma. A SIMPLE DRAWING CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING You don't need to know how to draw to make change in your world. Download a template for free and get started today. Here's a great example from one of the participants! BROADWAY BOOKS DRAWING SOLUTIONS:  HOW VISUAL GOAL SETTING WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE If you haven't gotten your copy of Drawing Solutionsor one for a friend who needs to make a change, why not stop by Broadway Books at 1714 NE Broadway in Portland and pick one up?  Support your local INDIE BOOKSTORE!

MEMES IN YOUR MAP Why does or doesn't drawing pictures of the things you want more of, help you manifest them in your life, AND how can you accelerate that process? This is my ultimate quest: make change easier.  I downloaded Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's new book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention and he is examining what creativity is and how you can enhance it in yourself and your workplace. In the early part of his book he talks about memes and how they influence and alter a domain (like music, science, art) and subsequently shift culture. He writes, "Creativity is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one. And the definition of a creative person is: someone whose thoughts or actions change a domain, or establish a new domain. It is important to remember, however, that a domain cannot be changed without the explicit or implicit consent of a field responsible for it."  His theory is that new ideas change and alter the environment in which they are created, but only if they are adopted by that domain's field. I became fascinated with this idea when applying his theory to the Vision to Reality maps you and I have been drawing to help us make change. In my most recent TEDxRainier salon talk, an audience member asked, "You talk about the things that do change, but what about the ones that you want to happen, that don't?" I started thinking... what if your brain is one of these "domains" that Mihaly is describing?  If your brain isn't tricked into adopting that new reality you want, it won't embed itself into the culture. On a recent map I drew after I had landed in Portland, in my desired new reality side, there were "new partners" & "keynotes in EU, China or exotica" (aka exotic places).  I also wrote and drew a "new studio person", because I left my secret weapon, Scott Ward, in Seattle. ;-( and he's pretty busy now with his new store, so I have to face the fact that I need someone local. Let's talk about the results, just two weeks later. Speaking in exotic places? New Zealand emailed (CHECK!) and Francine Read here in Oregon has out of the blue started beating the bushes for local and national speaking work. Someone turned me on to OYF, an awesome interactive training company here, so looks like I'll be meetings some potential new partners. (CHECK!) That brings us to the studio artist. I have complete interference here. So this meme is not yet being adopted by the culture of my brain. DO YOU have things you say you want in your life or your work, that you haven't firmly adopted?  I thought so.  SO..What NOW? Unpack that meme.  On a new piece of paper, look at this one element.  Look at what's happening now (in words and pictures on the left side of your paper) what's challenging, what's going well with your progress with it. Then ask yourself, "How do I want this to be different 3 months from today, best case scenario?"  Draw and write it out on the right side of that paper.  Then close your eyes and ask, "What's the boldest step I can take to get myself from here to there?"  See what you learn.  Send me YOUR RESULTS! "Today many American corporations spend a great deal of money and time trying to increase the originality of their employees, hoping thereby to get a competitive edge in the marketplace. But such programs make no difference unless management also learns to recognize the valuable ideas among the many novel ones, and then finds ways of implementing them." - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi Uh yah.  I'm guessing the same goes for your work world.  HAPPY AUTUMN!     ICE BREAKER DRAW YOUR AVATAR Tired of same old introductions? Ask that group of people to draw their avatar and add a super power or stupor power (something that in a facilitated session puts them into a stupor) as their opening check in.  #superfun TEDXRAINIER SALON ULTIMATE VOLUNTEERISM Just a big shout out to Andre Golard & TEAM! The TEDx events are a fantastic way to find out about new ideas and people like Andre put in dedicated hours to make these rock. #thanksvolunteers! SHOUT OUT CORNER THANKS FOR COMING Without an audience...it would be one hand clapping Thanks for coming toTEDxRainier Salon