Curious about Ideas: Where Do They Come From and How Do You Use Them?

“Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea.” - Jim Rohn, American businessman

“I'm in constant search of new information and ideas, and I want to make the best of this short time that we're out here on this planet living this nebulous thing called life. And I want to plant a few trees along the way and nurture some minds and watch them grow, as people did for me.” - Joe Henderson, American musician

Ideas have been utmost in my mind, life and work for as long as I can remember. I have, however, even been concentrating more than ever lately. Why? Because I have been working toward the launch of my new e-book, BUSY? Want Ideas that Work? Invest Only 20 Minutes a Week for SUCCESS! Let me tell you about it.

For more than four and a half years I have been publishing a bi-weekly e-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri. Each issue has a theme that addresses Creativity, Powerful Presentations, Storytelling Power and Freelance Living. Newer subscribers have asked if the back issues are archived anywhere, because they would like to read them.

Yes, I have the copies, but they are long. Therefore, I decided to gather, compile and distill their essence, including all 101 motivation, inspiration and idea generators in one e-book. The book is set up for you to read and work on a theme a week. I figure that, at the most, this should take about 20 minutes.

The great news is that this mere 20 minutes will set the tone for the week. And, you will find that as the days and hours fly by, lots and lots of new ideas will fly into your life. Some of the ideas will work and others won’t. But you will never be without them again.

So, what do the experts say about ideas and their importance:

• “Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them.” - Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician
• “All ideas grow out of other ideas.” - Anish Kapoor, Indian Artist
• “Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.” - Walt Disney, American cartoonist
• “I have learned to respect ideas, wherever they come from. Often they come from clients. Account executives often have big creative ideas, regardless of what some writers think.” - Leo Burnett, American businessman
• “One can resist the invasion of an army but one cannot resist the invasion of ideas.” - Victor Hugo, French author

A few more to think about:

• “Exchange ideas frequently.” - James Cash Penney, American businessman
• “The ability to convert ideas to things is the secret of outward success.” - Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman
• “Look at the product pipeline, look at the fantastic financial results we've had for the last five years. You only get that kind of performance on the innovation side, on the financial side, if you're really listening and reacting to the best ideas of the people we have.” - Steve Ballmer, American businessman
• “I believe in communication; books communicate ideas and make bridges between people.” - Jeanette Winterson, British novelist
• “Most of the fundamental ideas of science are essentially simple, and may, as a rule, be expressed in a language comprehensible to everyone.” - Albert Einstein, American physicist
• “In the realm of ideas everything depends on enthusiasm... in the real world all rests on perseverance.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet

Below are a couple of quotations to take with you for the week. I also urge you to check out BUSY? Want Ideas That Work? Invest 20 Minutes a Week for SUCCESS! by clicking HERE.

“The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to its original size.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, American writer

“Believe Big. The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief. Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success. Remember this, too! Big ideas and big plans are often easier - certainly no more difficult - than small ideas and small plans.” - David Joseph Schwartz, American businessman

Let me know about your ideas - big and small - but especially BIG!

Curious about Planning: How Much Time Do You Devote to It? Is It Worthwhile and Important?

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning and focused effort.” - Paul Meyer, French writer

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.” - Alan Lakein, American businessman

As you know by now, I am into self-improvement - reading and lots of listening to books, tapes, CDs and teleseminars. Every course I have taken has stressed the importance of planning. We decide upon our goals, intentions and commitments; then map out a plan for achieving them. Once we have a strong and feasible plan, we must start taking the action steps outlined by our plan.

Not always easy - but certainly necessary. Often, the plans get off track and go astray. If you run your own business, as I do, getting control of our time is imperative. I also feel that it is necessary to be flexible with our plans and what we plan to accomplish. This is where the systems that I wrote about last week come in. I feel strongly that taking time to plan is all important, but we must also realize that we must revisit and revise those plans regularly - often daily!

I found many quotations that used planning as the operative word. I think you will enjoy them. Some are wise, some are humorous and many have great lessons to learn.

We’ll start with the general quotations:

• “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.” - Dwight D. Eisenhower, American President
• “My own life planning has always been 10 years ahead. I knew when I was 13 that this was what I wanted to be. Right now I feel about nine months behind where I would have liked to be at age 46. Ten years from now, I'd like to be doing what I'm doing and collecting more interest.” - Chubby Checker, American musician
• “Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.” - Winston Churchill, English statesman
• “If you employed study, thinking, and planning time daily, you could develop and use the power that can change the course of your destiny.” - W. Clement Stone, American businessman
• “Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.” - E. L. Doctorow, American author

For a bit of humor and/or contrary thought:

• “Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It's too controversial.” - Erma Bombeck, American journalist
• “Success is blocked by concentrating on it and planning for it... Success is shy - it won't come out while you're watching.” - Tennessee Williams, American dramatist
• “Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.” - Alexander Hamilton, American politician
• “And I think that still is true of this business - which is basically research and development - that you probably spend more time in planning and training and designing for things to go wrong, and how you cope with them, than you do for things to go right.” - Alan Shepard, American astronaut
• “Meekness: Uncommon patience in planning a revenge that is worth while.” - Ambrose Bierce, American journalist
• “When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary.” - Thomas Paine, English writer
• “Adventure is just bad planning.” - Roald Amundsen, Norwegian explorer

Here are the two that I plan to concentrate upon this coming week - and into the future:

• “Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” - Gloria Steinem, American activist
• “No-one gets an iron-clad guarantee of success. Certainly, factors like opportunity, luck and timing are important. But the backbone of success is usually found in old-fashioned, basic concepts like hard work, determination, good planning and perseverance.” - Mia Hamm, American athlete

“Right on” to two inspiring women! Have a wonderful week, and I would love to hear about your plans.

Curious about Systems - Do You Have Them in Place for Your Life, Your Career and Your Business?

“Once a week, do a thorough review of all your projects in as much detail as you need to. If you do, your systems will work. If you don't, no system will work.” - David Allen, American writer

Yesterday, I hurried home from teaching two fitness classes in order to watch the streaming video of Rich Schefren’s seminar. For two hours this young and incredibly successful businessman shared his ideas about what works and doesn’t work for any business.

He outlined the mistakes entrepreneurs make and gave his suggestions for achieving financial success and business freedom. WOW! It was an excellent awakening for the huge number of us watching the video and those in the live audience.

Schefren stressed the importance of knowing the difference between Systems and Projects. And, the importance of having business Systems in place. This information is what spurred me on to write this week’s blog about Systems. However, when I started gathering quotations, I discovered the wide ranging definitions of a system or systems and the interesting paths they lead us on.

Definitions:

1 : a regularly interacting or interdependent group of items forming a unified whole
2 : an organized set of doctrines, ideas, or principles usually intended to explain the arrangement or working of a systematic whole
3 a : an organized or established procedure b : a manner of classifying, symbolizing, or schematizing
4 : harmonious arrangement or pattern
5 : an organized society or social situation regarded as stultifying or oppressive
Synonym : method

Just to peak your interest - there are not only business systems, there are financial systems, health systems, educational systems, social systems, political systems, governmental systems. The list goes on and on.

So, for fun, I am going to include a variety of quotations to spark your thinking and your understanding of systems.

• “There's a certain logic to systems, and that logic is fairly self-evident. It's very straightforward, usually. It might take a little research, it might take a little bit of industry to prize it out, but it's there to be seen.” - Michael Nesmith, American musician
• “Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which we find ourselves.” - Herbert Simon, American scientist
• “I took about a month long trip through Europe in the early part of '69 and realized didn't have my priority systems straight.” - Herb Alpert, American musician
• “We cannot expect that all nations will adopt like systems, for conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” - John F. Kennedy, American President
• “Today, if you look at financial systems around the globe, more than half the population of the world - out of six billion people, more than three billion - do not qualify to take out a loan from a bank. This is a shame.” - Muhammad Yunus, Economist

And a few more:

• “Transnational, gigantic industrial companies no longer operate within political systems, but rather above them.” - Georg Henrik von Wright, Finnish philosopher
• “There's no reason that we should give up that lever on people's behavior - namely, the inhibition systems of the brain - just because we're coming to understand more about the temptation systems.” - Steven Pinker, Canadian scientist
• “I believe that people everywhere develop or are given articulate moral systems and see moral meaning in life.” - Jeane Kirkpatrick, American diplomat
• “We both support systems that are developed based on community solutions rather than federal government mandates.” - Tipper Gore, American celebrity
• “Any system named Dewey was all right with us. We looked forward to hearing about the Huey and Louie decimal systems too.” - Chris Van Allsburg, American author
• “I realized I had accepted a lot of belief systems that were not necessarily mine.” - Jim Hodges, American politician

Here are three to chew on the rest of the week:

• “I don't value authority. I don't value the systems. I don't value patriarchal religion. I don't value the things that diminish you when you do tell the truth. So I'm not scared of the end result, and that is the biggest asset I have.” - Susan Powter, American celebrity
• “Human beings, viewed as behaving systems, are quite simple. The apparent complexity of our behavior over time is largely a reflection of the complexity of the environment in which we find ourselves.” - Herbert Simon, American scientist
• “We must now view our problems as opportunities - historic opportunities to change the failed systems of the past and do what's right for our future.” - Bob Riley, American politician

Let me know how you feel about the systems in and surrounding your life!

Curious about Focus: How Important Is It to You? What do You Focus On?

“Goals provide the energy source that powers our lives. One of the best ways we can get the most from the energy we have is to focus it. That is what goals can do for us; concentrate our energy.” - Denis Waitley, American writer

“Most people have no idea of the giant capacity we can immediately command when we focus all of our resources on mastering a single area of our lives.” - Tony Robbins, American author

Because I maintain a “Portfolio Career” consisting of a variety of careers, I am consistently advised to focus on just one career (and keep the others as hobbies). When I hear and/or read tips for success, I discover that one of the top tips is to “focus.” Recently, I took part in a great program called the Happy, Healthy and Wealthy Game. A whole class was devoted to the importance of focus.

Yes, I know that focus is important. And, if you have as many interests as I do - and a whole group of people do - it is easy to become scattered and moving in several directions with a total lack of focus. I have found, however, that to be successful I focus full attention on the task or career at hand. Using this technique keeps my days and nights interesting and exciting. I don’t even know the meaning of boredom.

It is time to share a few of the huge number of quotations I found concerning focus:

• “The focus must always be on the task that the person wants to accomplish, to communicate, to learn, to create, to be entertained.” - Jamie Zawinski, American scientist
• “Focus on remedies, not faults.” - Jack Nicklaus, American athlete
• “Instead of focusing on the circumstances that you cannot change - focus strongly and powerfully on the circumstances that you can.” - Joy Page, American actress
• “When exercising, be sure to focus your attention on what you are doing.” - Lee Haney, American athlete
• “It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” - Aristotle Onassis, Greek businessman

Some that are specific to the career or endeavor:

• “I worked with such concentration and focus and I had hundreds of obscure engineering or programming things in my head. I was just real exceptional in that way.” - Steve Wozniak, American businessman
• “I focus on the writing and let the rest of the process take care of itself. I've learned to trust my own instincts and I've also learned to take risks.” - Sue Grafton, American novelist
• “Focus on your problem zones, your strength, your energy, your flexibility and all the rest. Maybe your chest is flabby or your hips or waist need toning. Also, you should change your program every thirty days. That's the key.” - Jack LaLanne, American athlete
• “Be curious, learn and read as much as you can about food. Don't worry about making money. Focus on learning at various venues before you settle down for a steady position.” - Rocco DiSpirito, American celebrity
• “It is really hard to do comedy; it takes a lot of energy and focus. It's rather like music: It's a lot of hitting notes precisely.” - Christine Baranski, American actress
• “We don't focus as much in schools on educational knowledge which requires thinking and application, as we do on acquiring facts.” - William Glasser, American psychologist

How about you? Do you have the ability to focus and use the power of focus?

Here are a few quotations I leave you with for a great and focused week:

• “If you've lost focus, just sit down and be still. Take the idea and rock it to and fro. Keep some of it and throw some away, and it will renew itself. You need do no more.” - Clarissa Pinkola Estes, American poet
• “When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.” - Michael LeBoeuf, American businessman
• “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” - Greg Anderson, American athlete

I would love to read your feedback!