Motivation Monday:: Looking for Inspiration to Jumpstart Creativity

I woke up this morning feeling tired even though I had a full night’s rest and as the morning progressed, I could not shake the sluggish, unmotivated lag I was feeling.  I had a visit scheduled this morning at the chiropractor and it turned out I am not the only one feeling this way today.  The chiropractor said he woke up tired although he had a restful night’s sleep and the office manager, felt as though she too were dragging.  We all surmised that it had to be related to all of the days we had stuck inside because of the snow/ice storm in Atlanta last week.

It made me feel better to know that I was not the only one feeling this way today.  Monday’s are notoriously the most hated day of the week.  It is the day you typically jump back into the hustle and bustle of work, school and life in general.  I have seen the memes that read, “If you hate/dread Mondays, it’s because you hate/dread your job,” or something similar to that affect.  I sometimes hate Mondays, not because I hate my job, but because I just do not feel like working.  Today is one of those days.  Thankfully, today is a bit of a slow day.  My email is not full of unanswered emails and my project workload is not particularly heavy.  So, I could slack off a little if I wanted.  The problem is that although I feel unmotivated to work, I want to feel motivated to work today.

So off I went to the wonderful world wide web in search of something to help jumpstart my creative juices and motivate me to work.  First stop:  Twitter.  There, I stumbled upon @FCSpotlight’s timeline and this article on Fast Company, “5 Ways We Neglect Our Own Creativity – And How to Bring it Back.”  Dialing back on distractions, telling your inner critic to shut up, and facing fear head on are some of the tips that were given.  Although it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, it did jumpstart a few ideas for a project that is on my bucket list.  I recommend reading the article if you need a few creativity inducing tips.

I figured since I was stumbling, I should visit StumbleUpon next.  It was only fitting, right?  In the graphic design section, I found “10 Awesome Infographics for Graphic Designers.”  Some of these really made me laugh.  Laughter is good for the soul and I actually felt a little more motivated to get back to work.  Plus, I looked at the clock and realized it was almost 10:30 am and I had not really done any work yet.

I know it probably does not seem like this morning’s deviation and search online for a creative jumpstart was very fruitful, but surprisingly it was.  The first article I found on Fast Company gave me a few ideas/tips that I was not already doing.  It also gave me a bit of motivation and an idea for another project I have been contemplating.  The stumbling on StumbleUpon gave me a good laugh and afterwards, I felt ready to work.  It kind of reminds me of the statement about taking time out to smell the roses.  Maybe that laugh and break from what felt like a mundane and drab start was a sniff of roses.

Check out the referenced article on Fast Company for some helpful tips and if you are a designer with a sense of humor, you might enjoy a few of the infographics referenced above.

A Small Success is Still a Success

I did it!  I drew!  In my new year’s resolution post, I said I wanted to make more art that was not business related (graphic design).  Last month, I wrote about how I was failing miserably at doing this.  A reader, Sushant Misra gave me a suggestion to try drawing for a set time limit like 5 minutes and then increase that time each day.  I tried that and failed at that too.  I set out to draw for 7 minutes, but I became so engrossed in what I was doing that it ended up being 10 minutes.  Then, I never made it back the following day…or the day after.

Nonetheless, I am celebrating the fact that I created something.

Last week during the Olympics, I did a few quick figure sketches of speed skater’s in their start stance and as they raced.  I am celebrating that too.  A small success is still a success in my book.  Now, I just need to work on making them a little bigger!

sketch

#TBT: Grateful Reflection

I thought I would do something a little different today and make a play on the Throwback Thursday hashtag (#tbt).  I am in my home base of Atlanta, GA this week and we are currently experiencing a “winter weather storm.”  I put that in quotation marks because by Northern standards, this is a minimal  winter storm.  My visits to my grandmother’s in Chicago as a child and my time spent in boarding school in Pennsylvania have taught me that.  However, for Atlanta, this is really bad weather that they are not really equipped or used to handling.  Here the biggest issue is ice – and this is primarily an ice storm.

I was fortunate to miss the weather even that put us on the national news a couple of weeks ago and I am fortunate enough now that I do not have to go anywhere.  My grateful reflection is that I am thankful to have a career and business that I can conduct from just about anywhere.  If I was still in corporate America, I’m sure I would be stressing about the lost time from work and how I would make it up.  Although it is pretty cold and gray, the upside is that I can stay inside without repercussions.  There are others that are not quite so fortunate.

I am also grateful that although I am currently “trapped” in my home (can only venture out on foot), I have food, water, heat, electricity…and the internet!  Yesterday, there were upwards of 100,000 homes without power in the state and last night and this morning’s snow fall has the numbers fluctuating.  As quickly as they can get people back up and running, another line comes down and cuts off another group of people.  I have been very fortunate.

What are you grateful for?

Free Brand Marketing Review

Negative Nellie: Who, me?

In general I try to focus on the positive side of life and tend to disassociate myself with people that are perpetually negative.  I feel I am happier overall with my life because of this.  However, I find that as I brain dump onto my blog, the tone feels a bit negative at times.  Some of my posts are spawned from vents and/or frustrations I find within marketing and small business practices.  As a result, they feel to have somewhat of a negative tone to me and I want to be careful that I am not using this platform as a negative outlet for my thoughts.  I do not want to become an online negative Nellie.  It is not who I am in real life.

The reality is that anyone that stumbles upon my blog or reads it regularly (not sure if anyone does), will only have the perception of me that they see here.  I want to make sure that perception is truly authentic to who they would meet in real life.  While some would argue that the personal spin that I take with my blog is improper for business, I believe it is proper because I am what I am selling.  Me.  Colleen the designer, Colleen the marketer; Colleen the business person has the same values, ethics, perspective, etc as Colleen the person.

In order for me to show you the real and authentic Colleen that exists in person, I have to accurately portray myself online and in my blog.  If all you read are vents and frustrations with a negative tone; that is who you will think I am.  I want to do better.  I must do better.  I pledge to do better.