People mistakenly believe that IQ is something that is fixed at birth. In fact, the brain is highly malleable and there are steps that you can take in order to increase your IQ.

At the very least, you can improve the functioning of your brain, and you can adopt learning strategies that will improve your ability to acquire, retain, and apply knowledge.

Below you’ll discover 14 ways to increase your IQ and improve the way in which your brain functions.

1. Walk Around the Block. Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist, argues in his book, “Brain Rules”, that if we were to design an almost perfect anti-brain environment, it would look like our current classrooms and work cubicles.

Why? Because a protein called BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor)–which builds and nourishes the infrastructure of cell circuitry in the brain-is created when you’re physically active.

Referring to BDNF as a brain fertilizer, Dr. Medina equates a group of kids sitting around in a classroom listening to a lecture, or an employee sitting in a cramped cubicle typing away at his computer, with a light bulb that is turned off. However, when the kids are out on the playground, or the employee is walking to work, the light bulb is turned on.

He suggests that employees have “walking meetings” in a treadmill conference room, that they move around the office as they speak on the phone, or that they sit on exercise balls and bounce up and down as they read their e-mails. (Source).

In addition, Dr. Medina explains that in 18 studies of older adults, those who exercised outperformed those who did not in long-term memory, reasoning, attention, problem-solving, abstract thinking, and more. He goes on to say that an active lifestyle means half the risk of dementia and half the risk of cognitive impairment for these older adults.

2. Take Deep Breaths. Low oxygen levels in the blood have been shown to decrease brain function. By breathing deeply through the nose you can improve the functioning of your brain immediately. Deep breaths put more oxygen in the blood and, therefore, in the brain.

3. Keep a Journal.  Catharine M. Cox, author of “Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses”, studied the habits of 300 geniuses — such as Isaac Newton, Einstein, and Thomas Jefferson – and discovered that they were all “compulsive” journal or diary keepers. Also, keep in mind that Thomas Edison wrote 3 million pages of notes, letters and personal thoughts in hundreds of personal journals throughout his life.

You can think of a journal or a notebook as an extension of your brain. Keeping a journal doesn’t just allow you to record your ideas; a journal will also help you to develop and refine them.

4.  Explore New Things. A “smart” person is someone who has more interconnected neural pathways than others. At the same time, as we learn new things, we create new neural pathways. Enroll in an online course, go to interesting lectures you read about in your local paper, and pick up a book on a new subject. Learning new things promotes neurogenesis.

5. Take Frequent Short Breaks. Study for twenty minutes and then take a short break. This is effective because things at the start and end of a study session last in your memory for a longer period of time. Get yourself a simple kitchen timer and set it to twenty minutes. When the timer rings, take a short break.

6. Improve Your Memory. Increase the amount of information that you’re able to retain by applying memory techniques. One of the best ways to remember information is by using acronyms. An acronym is simply an abbreviation that is formed by using the initial letters of a word.

These types of memory aids can help you to learn large quantities of information in a short period of time.  Here are two examples:

• “Every Good Boy Does Fine” is a common acronym used to help musicians and students to remember the notes on a treble clef stave.
• “My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles” is an easy way to remember the planets (just keep in mind that Pluto has been demoted to a dwarf planet).

7. Eat breakfast. Eating breakfast has been proven to improve concentration, problem solving ability, mental performance, memory, and mood. Breakfast is the first chance the body has to refuel its glucose levels after eight to 12 hours without a meal. Glucose is the brain’s main energy source.

8. Use Your Body to Help You Learn. Movement is a key part of the process of development and learning. Brain Gym is a program of simple exercises, developed over a 25 year period by a remedial educational specialist, Dr. Paul Dennison. Brain Gym exercises can help with things such as:

• Comprehension
• Concentration
• Abstract Thinking
• Memory
• Mental Fatigue
• Completing tasks

One brain gym exercise is called “Brain Buttons” and involves doing the following:

• Take one hand and place it so that there’s as much space as possible between the thumb and the index finger.
• Place your index and thumb into the slight indentations below the collar bone on each side of the sternum. Press lightly in a pulsing manner.
• At the same time, put the other hand over the navel area of the stomach and pres gently.
• Do this for about two minutes.

This exercise will improve blood flow to the brain and will essentially turn it “on”. Go here to find two more simple brain gym exercises (Cross Crawl”, and Hook Ups”).

9. Meditate. Neuropsychologists now say that meditation can alter brain structure. MRI scans of long-term meditators have shown greater activity in the brain circuits involved in paying attention.

When disturbing noises were played to a group of meditators undergoing an MRI scan, they had relatively little effect on the brain areas involved in emotion and decision-making as compared to non-meditators or less experienced meditators.

10. Stay Away From Sugar.  Any simple carbohydrates–such as pasta, sugars, white bread and potato chips–can make you tired and lethargic.  Sometimes called the “sugar blues”, this sluggish feeling makes it hard to think clearly. It results from the insulin rushing into the bloodstream to counteract the sugar rush.

11. Cultivate Your Emotional Intelligence. It’s not enough to have a high IQ. High IQ is just potential. The questions is, what are you going to do with that potential? You need to make sure that, whatever your IQ happens to be, you make good use of it. And one of the best ways to make sure that you make good use of your IQ is by developing your emotional intelligence.

For many years a lot of emphasis was placed on certain aspects of intelligence, such as the following:

• Logical reasoning;
• Math skills;
• Spatial skills;
• Understanding analogies:
• Verbal skills; and so on.

However, in recent years, and particularly with the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book, “Emotional Intelligence”, it has become clear that a lot of people waste their potential by thinking, behaving and communicating in ways that hinder their chances to succeed.

That is, emotional intelligence is being recognized as a meta-ability which will allow you to take full advantage of your other skills and talents. Take a free emotional intelligence test here.

12. Use Downtime.  Use down time, time spent commuting or waiting in line, productively. Complete crossword puzzles or sudokus while waiting in line and listen to audio programs while commuting.

13. Engage All of Your Senses.  Researchers have found that the human brain learns best through multi-sensory association. Children and adults learn best when they’re engaged in a learning activity that uses sight, sound, emotions, tactile feedback, spatial orientation, and even smell and taste.

Mike Adams explains in “The Top Ten Technologies: #10 Superlearning Systems” that a child who is given the definition of the word “weightless” in a verbal format gets that information in one channel: the audio channel. Here’s how to increase learning and retention:

• If you show the child a movie of an astronaut floating in space while you’re saying the word “weightless,” you now have a two-dimensional learning experience: the child both sees and hears the word.
• In addition, if you have the child bounce up and down on a trampoline and shout “weightlessness” when the child is up in the air, an understanding of the word becomes even more firmly implanted in his brain.

This also applies to adults. If there’s information that you’re trying to learn, use as many different channels as possible, and engage as many of your senses as you can, in order to make learning and retention easier.

14. Load Up on Antioxidants. Antioxidants protect all your cells, including brain cells. Some of the foods highest in antioxidants include: prunes, raisins, blueberries, blackberries, garlic, kale, cranberries, strawberries, spinach, and raspberries.

Conclusion

Increasing your brain power will allow you to live your best life. Use the techniques described above to help you increase your IQ, improve the functioning of your brain, improve your learning ability, and live up to your IQ’s potential.

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One way you can be more creative–or solve a problem that’s been vexing you–is by doing things the other way around. That is, do the opposite of the standard, reverse things, and flip things over.

Think of the following:

• Usually, walkways are still and people move on them. In many airports, people have to walk long distances to get from one terminal to another. To make things more convenient for travelers, these airports do things the other way around: the people stand still while the walkway moves.

• Think of a television program that starts with a person standing in an elevator covered in blood, and then takes you back in time and tells you the story of how that person ended up in that condition.

• Instead of raising revenue in order to manufacture your product, you can start selling the product before you build it and then use the revenue from the sales to build your product.

• Although Christmas trees are usually placed on the floor, some people have started hanging them from the ceiling in order to save floor space and better showcase the ornaments.

This article will share with you three examples of doing things the other way around. Then, it will show you how you can apply this principle to your own life and business in order to solve problems creatively and generate new ideas.

School Flips Lessons and Homework

There’s a school in Minnesota which is experimenting with switching things around when it comes to math. Instead of teaching math to kids while they’re in school, and expecting them to complete math assignments at home, they’re doing things the other way around.

Lessons are pre-recorded and students are expected to watch them at home. Then, during school time students work on solving math problems alone, or in groups, as the teacher stands by ready to help.

This approach has done the following:

• It has increased the amount of time that the teacher has available to help the students.
• Teachers can sit down with students as they’re solving the problems, observe what they’re doing wrong, and ask the questions that will lead the students to solve the problems on their own.
• In addition, teachers can encourage students who are struggling to try harder.
• Lastly, teachers can team up students who are doing poorly in math with those who have stronger math skills. (Source.)

Organ Dona­tion: Reverse the Default to Opt-Out

There are over 110,000 peo­ple on the wait­ing list for organs in the United States.  The harsh reality is that some of these people will die before organs become avail­able.  Why does the US have such a long wait­ing list for organs?  Because not enough peo­ple donate their organs.

The US uses an opt-in method for organ dona­tion. People have to sign a “Uni­form Organ Donor Card” so that their organs can be donated. And not enough peo­ple sign these cards.

Instead of asking how to get more people to opt-in to the organ donation program, the US could consider applying the flip of opt-in. Of course, that would be to have an opt-out system. That is, people’s organs are donated unless they sign a form to opt-out.

Many coun­tries in Europe, includ­ing Spain, France, and Bel­gium, have opt-out organ dona­tion pro­grams. By chang­ing from an opt-in to an opt-out pro­gram, these Euro­pean coun­tries have elim­i­nated their organ wait­ing list. In Europe, doing things the other way around is saving lives.

Top-Freezer Refrigerators

A lot of people grew up with a top-freezer refrigerator. This simply means that the freezer—in which you place the frozen foods, such as ice cream, meat, poultry, and so on– is at the top, and the refrigerator is at the bottom. For a long time, this was the industry standard. However, this is not the most efficient way to store foods that require refrigeration.

It’s more efficient to flip it around: that is, place the freezer at the bottom. There are several reasons for this, including the following:

•  Frozen foods are often heavier than perishables—think of a large frozen turkey—so there’s less lifting if the freezer is at the bottom.
• Since you tend to open the refrigerator more often than the freezer, if the refrigerator is at the top there’s less bending and crouching over to reach for items.
• Warm air rises, so having the compartment that requires less cooling at the top is better for energy consumption.

You gain several benefits simply by turning the refrigerator upside down: put the freezer at the bottom and the refrigerator on top. What other everyday items would be more efficient if you turned them upside down?

How to Apply this Principle

In order to apply the principle of doing things the other way around in your own life or business, ask yourself the following questions:

• How can I differentiate myself by watching what everyone else is doing, and then moving in the other direction? For example, if your town is being over-run by fast food restaurants, you could open a slow-food restaurant.
• How can I do things in reverse order?
• What’s the normal or standard way of doing this? Now, what’s the opposite?
• Ask yourself what you can do in order to fail, and then do the opposite. Here are some examples: How can I provide the worst possible service? How can I make sure that the customer has an awful experience? What can I do so that no one will buy this eBook? How can I make sure that people won’t subscribe to my blog? How can this system be sabotaged?

Conclusion

Start looking for solutions to problems by reversing things, doing things the other way around, or flipping it. For more ideas on how to be more creative, get my eBook: “How to Be More Creative: A Handbook for Alchemists“.

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Benjamin Franklin–one of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America–was an author, political theorist, scientist, musician, inventor, and the list goes on and on.

How was Franklin able to accomplish so much? The key to Franklin´s amazing success was his continuous pursuit of self-improvement.

In 1726, at the age of 20, Franklin set the following lofty goal for himself:

“It was about this time I conceived the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection. I wished to live without committing any fault at any time; I would conquer all that either natural inclination, custom, or company might lead me into.”

That is, he resolved to always do right, and to avoid any wrongdoing. In order to accomplish his goal, Franklin came  up with a list of 13 virtues which he would strive to live up to. In this post you’ll discover Franklin’s 13 virtues, the method that he used in order to adhere to these virtues, and a plan so that you can follow in Franklin’s footsteps.

The Thirteen Virtues

Franklin developed his list of 13 virtues based on the moral virtues he had come across in his readings. In addition, he wrote down a few words about each of the virtues in order to clarify the meaning he gave to each one.

Here’s a list of the 13 virtues which Franklin committed himself to:

1. “TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.”

The first virtue selected by Franklin was not to overindulge in food or drink. Franklin writes that he selected temperance first because “it tends to procure that coolness and clearness of head which is so necessary where constant vigilance was to be kept up”.

2. “SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”

By adopting this virtue Franklin wished, first, to gain knowledge, which he noted one acquires by using the ears instead of the tongue. Second, he wanted to “break a habit I was getting into (of) prattling, punning, and joking, which only made me acceptable to trifling company”.

3. “ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.”

By achieving order Franklin expected to be able to have more time for the pursuit of his studies and other projects. In addition, Franklin explains that the “precept of Order requires that every part of my business should have its allotted time“.

4. “RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.”

Here’s what Franklin has to say about the virtue of resolution: “Resolution, once habitual, would keep me firm in my endeavors to obtain all the subsequent virtues”. The virtue of resolution can be summed up as follows: if you say you’re going to do something, do it.

5. “FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.”

6. “INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.”

Franklin explains his inclusion of frugality and industry in his list of virtues as follows:

“Frugality and Industry, freeing me from my remaining debt, and producing affluence and independence, would make more easy the practice of Sincerity and Justice, etc.”

In his autobiography Franklin explains that he owes the acquisition of his fortune to frugality and industry.

7. “SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.”

8. “JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.”

9. “MODERATION. Avoid extremes; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.”

10. “CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.”

11. “TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.”

12. “CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.”

13. “HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.”

Of the virtue of humility, Franklin writes the following:

“My list of virtues contained at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud, that my pride showed itself frequently in conversation, that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing and rather insolent, of which he convinced me by mentioning several instances, I determined endeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word.”

The Methodology

Franklin wisely decided not to try to tackle all of the 13 virtues at once. Instead, he would concentrate on one at a time. Here’s the methodology that Franklin developed in order to attain mastery over the 13 virtues which he had selected:

• “I made a little book, in which I allotted a page for each of the virtues.”
• “I ruled each page with red ink, so as to have seven columns, one for each day of the week, marking each column with a letter for the day.”
• “I crossed these columns with thirteen red lines, marking the beginning of each line with the first letter of one of the virtues, on which line, and in its proper column, I might mark, by a little black spot, every fault I found upon examination to have been committed respecting that virtue upon that day.”

In his autobiography Franklin includes the chart which he used:

Franklin then proceeded to do the following:

• “I determined to give a week’s strict attention to each of the virtues successively.”
• “Thus, in the first week, my great guard was to avoid every the least offense against Temperance, leaving the other virtues to their ordinary chance, only marking every evening the faults of the day.”
• “Thus, if in the first week I could keep my first line, marked T, clear of spots, I supposed the habit of that virtue so much strengthened, and its opposite weakened, that I might venture extending my attention to include the next, and for the following week keep both lines clear of spots.”
• “Proceeding thus to the last, I could go thro’ a course complete in thirteen weeks, and four courses in a year.”

Follow Franklin’s Example

Franklin was one of the first people to recognize that recording your behavior helps you to change it.In fact,he turned self-development into a science by observing, monitoring, and measuring his behavior.

If you would like to follow in Franklin’s footsteps, you can go ahead and download his chart of virtues here. Glue the chart to your day planner or to a notebook, and always carry it around with you, just like Franklin did. Instead of using a notebook, you can use your iPhone by downloading the Virtues App.

Conclusion

At the age of 79 Franklin wrote in his autobiography that he never did achieve his goal of attaining perfection. However, he did achieve the following:

“Tho’ I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it.”

Live your best life by following Franklin’s example and adopting his 13 virtues. Or, better yet, come up with your own list of virtues. What virtues would you include in a “list of virtues”? Please share in the comments section below.

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Your beliefs about money are a key element in determining how much money you’ll be able to make, and how much of that money you’ll be able to keep. In order to help you create empowering beliefs about wealth, below you’ll find 35 beliefs about money from uber successful people, from Donald Trump to the Dalai Lama.

Rich Dad v. Poor Dad Mentality

The groundbreaking best-seller “Rich Dad Poor Dad”–written by Robert Kiyosaki–compares the mindset of Kiyosaki’s father-who held several degrees and an important position in the government, but struggled financially–, with the mindset of his best friend’s father-who never even finished high school but left his son a financial empire.

In his book, Kiyosaki explains that the mindset held by each of these two men, his “poor dad” and his “rich dad”, was largely responsible for each man’s financial destiny.  Here are seven mayor differences between the “poor dad” and the “rich dad” mentality:

• The “poor dad” mentality states that your wealth depends on your family of origin: to be rich, you have to be born rich.  “Rich dad” espoused the view that being rich or poor is something that you learn. When you have the right belief system and you acquire the necessary knowledge on how to create, build, and protect wealth, you will become rich even if you were not born into a wealthy family.

• “Rich dad” taught Kiyosaki that he should get a job to learn and to acquire the necessary skills so that he could go on to start his own business. “Poor dad” saw his job as his source of income for life. While “rich dad” taught Kiyosaki to strive to become financially independent, “poor dad” taught him to depend on his employer for his financial well being.

• When faced with an opportunity, “rich dad” would ask himself: “How can I afford this?” This forced his mind to think and to come up with creative solutions to be able to take advantage of the opportunity that had presented itself. Instead, when presented with an opportunity, “poor dad” would dismiss it by saying: “It’s too bad I can’t afford this.”

• While “poor dad” stressed scholastic education, “rich dad” always stressed financial education.

• For “rich dad” the main cause of poverty or financial struggle was self-inflicted fear and ignorance. “Poor dad” blamed the economy and the job market. That is, “rich dad” always took responsibility for himself and felt that he created his circumstances, while “poor dad” often felt like a victim of the outside world.

• As for risk taking, “rich dad” taught Kiyosaki to learn to manage risk. “Poor dad” taught him that when it came to money, risk was something that should be avoided and to always play it safe.

• “Rich dad” taught Kiyosaki that failing was simply part of the process and that he should learn from his mistakes and move on. “Poor dad” attached great stigma to failure and was therefore afraid of making mistakes.

(Image of Kiyosaki taken from here.)

The Dalai Lama: Money is Good

Some people hold the belief that being economically successful is somehow not spiritual, and that it’s wrong to care about money.  The Dalai Lama puts inner peace, health, and relationships before money; however, he considers money to be important.  Here’s the Dalai Lama’s belief about money:

“Money is good. It is important. Without money, daily survival — not to mention further development — is impossible. So we are not even questioning its importance. At the same time, it is wrong to consider money a god or a substance endowed with some power of its own. To think that money is everything, and that just by having lots of it all our problems will be solved is a serious mistake.” (Source).

Donald Trump: Money is Simply a Measurement of How Well You Play the Game

Donald Trump is an American business magnate and real estate developer.  He’s famous both for his wealth and for his outspoken manner.

In the early 1990s his financial problems and creditor-led bailout were widely publicized. I recall having read an anecdote about Trump during this time. Trump was walking down the street with a friend and he pointed to a beggar sitting on the sidewalk. He told his friend, “That man has a higher net worth than I do”.

The late 1990s saw a resurgence in Trump’s financial situation. Today, Trump is on the Forbes’ list of billionaires for 2013, with a net worth of $3.2 billion.

To Trump, money is but “a scorecard that tells me I’ve won and by how much,” he says. “The real excitement is playing the game.” Trump is doing what he loves to do, and he’s having fun with it. This mentality is what has allowed him to amass billions, and what helped him to dig himself out of the hole he was in two decades ago.

Warren Buffett: The Importance of Self-Confidence

Warren Buffett is one of the most successful investors in the world, and is often referred to as “The Oracle of Omaha”.  He’s one of the world’s five richest people. According to Buffett, having confidence in yourself is a key element in acquiring wealth. He once said the following: “I always knew I was going to be rich. I don’t think I ever doubted it for a minute.”

Jack Canfield on the Decision to Be Rich

Jack Canfield is best known as the co-creator of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book series.  This is what he has to say about the decision to be rich:

• You have to make the decision to be rich. If you don’t make that decision, your unconscious mind won’t work on trying to make it happen.
• Once you’ve made that decision, every morning and every night you need to visualize the rich lifestyle that you want to lead. What this does is program your unconscious mind to come up with solutions and to notice opportunities and resources in your environment that you would have otherwise missed.
• The third thing you want to do is to learn how to become rich by reading, attending seminars and lectures, and so on.
• Finally, find a way to get into the sphere of influence of people who are already wealthy. You want to be around those people in order to learn to think like them. (Source).

Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth: T. Harv Eker

The following quote by T. Harv Eker, author of “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”, refers to the concept of a rich person’s mindset: “Rich people have a way of thinking that is different from poor and middle class people. They think differently about money, wealth, themselves, other people, and life.”

Here are 17 ways in which rich people think differently from the poor and middle class:

• Rich people believe “I create my life.” Poor people believe, “Life happens to me.”
• Rich people play the money game to win. Poor people play the money game to not lose.
• Rich people are committed to being rich. Poor people want to be rich.
• Rich people think big. Poor people think small.
• Rich people focus on opportunities. Poor people focus on obstacles.
• Rich people admire other rich and successful people.  Poor people resent rich and successful people.
• Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.
• Rich people are willing to promote themselves and their value. Poor people think negatively about selling and promotion.
• Rich people are bigger than their problems. Poor people are smaller than their problems.
• Rich people are excellent receivers. Poor people are poor receivers.
• Rich people choose to get paid based on results. Poor people choose to get paid based on time.
• Rich people think “both.” Poor people think “either/or.”
• Rich people focus on their net worth. Poor people focus on their working income.
• Rich people manage their money well. Poor people mismanage their money well.
• Rich people have their money work hard for them. Poor people work hard for their money.
• Rich people act in spite of fear. Poor people let fear stop them.
• Rich people constantly learn and grow. Poor people think they already know.

Steve Pavlina – Creating Abundance

Steve Pavlina is the owner of the popular blog “Personal Development for Smart People”.  In 2009 he recorded four YouTube videos in which he discusses how to create abundance.  Here are some of the things he has to say in his videos:

• If you want to create a feeling of abundance, you can do so no matter where you currently are financially. Steve shares that ten years ago he was $150,000.00 in debt.  He had a negative cash flow, was about to declare bankruptcy, and was going to get kicked out of his apartment because he couldn’t pay the rent.  Nonetheless, he was able to create abundance even from that starting point.
• He adds that instead of having an abundance mindset, what you need to have is an abundance heartset.  It’s more of a feeling instead of a thought.  Ask yourself: “If I already had everything I wanted, how would I feel about reality?”  You would probably feel lucky, grateful, and fortunate.  Those are the feelings you want to focus on.
• Feeling like you can create what you want is abundance.  Feeling that you can’t create what you want is scarcity.
• Disconnecting from the things in your old reality and connecting with the things in your new reality–such as taking advantage of new business opportunities–will require courage.  You’re going to have to move out of your current comfort zone and act in order to embrace new opportunities.

Conclusion

What are your money beliefs? Are they serving you well? If your money beliefs are not serving you well, go ahead and change them. You can start by adopting some of the money beliefs you just read about above. Live your best life by adopting powerful beliefs about money.

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Yesterday I was re-watching an episode of the now-canceled TV series, “Frasier”, which is about noted Seattle radio-psychologist Frasier Crane.

Both Frasier and his brother, Niles, are fastidious, snobby, and fussy, with gourmet tastes. They’re obsessed with knowing the right people and climbing up the social ladder (yet they’re both very likable).

In their eternal quest to move up in life, Frasier and Niles sometimes forget that they also need to stop to enjoy and appreciate the here and now. In Episode 11 of Season 10, titled “The Door”, the brothers learn the consequences of always chasing after the proverbial carrot. Read what happens below.

The Allure of Exclusivity

At the start of the episode, Frasier is standing in the living room of his apartment with his dad and with Niles. He’s holding a letter meant for one of his neighbors, Cam Winston, which was delivered to Frasier by mistake. Curiosity gets the better of him and Frasier opens the letter.

He discovers that it’s an invitation to a place called “La Porte D’Argent”, which neither he nor Niles has heard of. In Frasier’s own words, “Yes, but that’s what’s so intriguing, Dad, that there exists an exclusive place in Seattle that neither of us knows about.”

Frasier and Niles decide to go down to “La Porte D’Argent” to see what it is. Frasier arrives first, but the receptionist won’t let him in because he’s not “on the list”. When Niles walks in, Frasier calls him Cam Winston—whose name is on the list—so they’re both allowed in. They discover that ‘La Porte D’Argent’ is an exclusive day spa.

The Silver Level

Once they’re finally allowed into “La Porte D’Argent”, Frasier and Niles are given a folder containing a description of the spa’s services. They sit down to look through the list of treatments that are available and are thrilled by their choices.

After they’ve been rubbed and scrubbed, the brothers are ecstatic and are singing the spa’s praises:

Niles: I knew it was going to be good, but I had no idea it would be this good! I feel like I’ve been rubbed by angels.

Frasier: Niles, I just wish you had tried the vusattasen aqua-treatment. I feel as if I’d had a re-birthing experience. I’ve never felt better in my life.

Niles: I’m so polished my entire body is squeaking.

That’s when an elderly gentleman whom they recognize as Senator Ogden walks by, and passes through a gold door which the brothers hadn’t previously noticed.

Frasier remarks to Niles: “Oh, Niles, this just gets better and better. Balanced skin and social advancement all in one setting.” However, when the brothers try to follow Senator Ogden, they’re denied access to the area behind the gold door.

The aesthetician lets them know that only “gold level members” have access to the gold door:

Clerk: I’m sorry. That area is restricted to our gold level members.

Niles: You have a gold level? How do you get in?

Clerk: You’d have to be on the list.

Frasier: Well, we ARE on the list.

Clerk: The GOLD list.

Frasier: This is absurd! I am a member of every exclusive club in this entire town. You must have a reciprocal membership with one of them.

Clerk: I’m sorry. But you’re more than welcome to enjoy the many
amenities of the silver level.

Frasier: And just how are we supposed to enjoy this!?

In one fell swoop what they had been referring to as “Nirvana” just a few minutes earlier turns into a “hell hole”, because they discovered that there was a gold level which they couldn’t enter. When the brothers arrive at Frasier’s apartment and their dad asks them how the spa was, here’s Frasier’s answer:

Frasier: It was a hell-hole! They had the nerve to call it a day spa, when it’s nothing more than a mere front for a bona fide luxury spa which taunts those kept at bay outside its golden door!

Frasier’s Dad: If you didn’t go in, how do you know it’s better?

Frasier: It had to be! The door was gold, ours was only silver. Gold is better than silver.

Both Frasier and Niles comb through their Rolodexes trying to find someone who can gain them access to the gold level at “La Porte D’Argent”, but with no luck. They’re discussing their plight at Café Nervosa in front of Frasier’s producer, Roz. Here’s what Roz tells them:

“It’s a spa! How much better could it be? I mean, are they gonna carry you around like a sultan? You gonna be massaged by supermodels? And what if you do get through the gold door? What next, the diamond door? And after that a titanium door! And after that a plutonium door!”

The brothers roll their eyes and scoff at Roz’s naiveté as they continue plotting how to get into the elusive gold level.

The Gold Level

It turns out that Roz knows Senator Ogden, who owes her a favor, and she gets Frasier and Niles on the gold level list. Frasier and Niles return to “La Porte D’Argent” and get their “gold level” treatments.

After his treatment, Niles is lying on a gurney wrapped up like a mummy. He has a facial and cucumber slices on his eyes. The attendant lets him know that he’s in the relaxation grotto, which is a plant-filled room with the sounds of the Javanese rainforest playing in the background, and that he’ll stay there while his wrap and mask set.

Just then, Frasier shuffles into the relaxation grotto in a robe. He’s blinking as his eyes adjust from the color-therapy treatment he just received. Frasier tells Niles how beautiful the relaxation grotto is, and Niles asks him to describe it.

Frasier describes the relaxation grotto to Niles as follows: “Well, it’s just paradise. From the rare exotic orchids, to the trompe l’oeil sky, to the perfectly bubbled stream, to the …” And that’s when Frasier sees it: there’s a Platinum Door.

Here’s the conversation that takes place between Frasier and Niles upon this discovery:

Niles: Platinum? Are you sure?

Frasier: Yes!

Niles: Is it guarded?

Frasier: No! It’s just brazenly standing there!

Niles: Then rip the cucumbers from my eyes and let’s go!

Frasier: Right!

[He takes the slices off Niles’ eyes and helps him sit up.]

Frasier: Niles! What are we doing? This is exactly what Roz said! This is heaven, right here and now! Why do we have to think about someplace else?

Niles: This is only heaven to the people that can’t get into the real heaven. The platinum heaven.

Frasier: Niles, why can’t we be happy? Why must we allow the thought of something that at this point can only be incrementally better ruin what is here and now?

Niles: I don’t know. Let’s figure it out on the other side!

Frasier: No! I am through chasing the eternal carrot. Whatever is behind that door shall remain behind that door, unseen!

The Platinum Door (or The Dumpster)

Despite Frasier’s objections, Niles is adamant to see what’s on the other side of the Platinum Door. He manages to get himself off the gurney, but since he’s wrapped up he can only shuffle forward a few inches at a time. Frasier folds and decides to help Niles to the Platinum Door and to “take a peek”.

They manage to get to the Platinum Door, they open it, and they walk through. As the door shuts and locks itself behind them, the brothers realize that they’ve walked out into an alley, and that they’re standing next to the trash dumpster. They desperately start knocking on the door trying to get back into the spa, but no one hears them.

Conclusion

Sitcoms exaggerate because they have to make their point in half-an-hour. However, the lesson from this episode of Frasier is this: you’ll never be happy if your happiness depends on always achieving the next milestone, and always “walking through the next door”.

One of life’s great paradoxes is the following: you should strive to build a better life for yourself, while understanding that the greenest grass is right underneath your feet.

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During the 19th century, French essayist and novelist Marcel Proust–the author of “Remembrance of Things Past”–popularized a parlor game which involved filling out a questionnaire meant to reveal a person’s true nature. Since then, thousands of people have answered this questionnaire.

For many years the magazine Vanity Fair published the so-called Proust Questionnaire at the end of every issue, each time filled out by a different celebrity. In fact, the magazine’s editor gathered the best ones in a book titled, “Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life”.

Follow in the footsteps of Marcel Proust, Bette Midler, Lauren Bacall, Norman Mailer, Martin Scorsese, Aretha Franklin, and many others (including President Obama and the First Lady) by filling out the Proust Questionnaire.

Here it is (I found the questionnaire on the blog Fierce Authenticity):

• What is your idea of perfect happiness?

• What is your greatest fear?

• Which historical figure do you most identify with?

• Which living person do you most admire?

• What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

• What is the trait you most deplore in others?

• What is your greatest extravagance?

• What is your favorite journey?

• What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

• On what occasion do you lie?

• What do you dislike the most about your appearance?

• Which living person do you most despise?

• Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

• What is your greatest regret?

• What or who is the greatest love of your life?

• When and where were you happiest?

• Which talent would you most like to have?

• What is your current state of mind?

• If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

• If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?

• What do you consider your greatest achievement?

• If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

• What is your most treasured possession?

• What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

• Where would you like to live?

• What is your favorite occupation?

• What is your most marked characteristic?

• What is the quality you most like in a man?

• What is the quality you most like in a woman?

• What do you most value in your friends?

• Who are your favorite writers?

• Who is your favorite hero of fiction?

• Who are your heroes in real life?

• What are your favorite names?

• What is it that you most dislike?

• How would you like to die?

• What is your favorite motto?

And here’s a question from me: What’s on your bucket list?

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If you want to get more done and have fun doing it, gamify your life.

After all, if you can make something fun and include elements of play in it, you’ll be much more likely to be able to muster up the motivation to get it done. And that’s what gamification is all about.

When you’re playing a game you usually start at Level One. You’re a newbie, a beginner, a rookie . . . Then, as you take certain actions, you accumulate points. Once you have enough points, you move up to the next level. That is, you level up. You move up–from level to level– and, eventually, you move all the way up to the top level.

As an example, I used to create content for a site that was called Squidoo. At one point, Squidoo added several elements of gamification to their site in order to make it stickier (encourage users to spend more time on the site). Here are some of the things that you could do to “level up” on Squidoo:

• Create new lenses.
• Visit other lenses and leave comments.
• Participate in quests.
• Add your input to polls.
• Take quizzes.

Every time you took one of the actions listed above, you got points. Once you  had accumulated enough points, you moved up a level. As you level up you get rewards, such as the following:

• You got access to more modules;
• You increased your opportunities of being awarded a Purple Star;
• You got Squidoo badges and trophies;
• You got access to a newsletter that offered helpful tips;
• You got a wider variety of templates to choose from, and so on.

You can improve your life by using this same system of leveling up.  Discover how to gamify your life below.

Gamify Your Life

There are eight steps you need to follow in order to gamify your life. The steps are the following:

• Step One – Identify Your Current Level
• Step Two – Don’t Compare Yourself to Those Who Are at Level Ten
• Step Three – You Can’t Leap From Level One to Level Ten
• Step Four – Identify What the Next Level Looks Like
• Step Five – Identify the Action You Need to Take to Level Up
• Step Six – Act
• Step Seven – Reward Yourself
• Step Eight – Keep Leveling Up

Each of these steps is explained in the following sections.

Step One – Identify Your Current Level

Suppose that you’re depressed and seriously overweight. If that’s your current situation, you’re at Level One for the life areas of both physical fitness and emotional well-being.

That’s OK. This doesn’t mean that you’re going to lose the game. It just means that right now–in those two areas of your life–you’re at the ground level. Now you just have to start working your way up the different game levels.

Step Two – Don’t Compare Yourself to Those Who Are At Level Ten

You’re sitting by the pool wearing a t-shirt and shorts because you’re too embarrassed to be seen in a bathing suit. After all, you haven’t been to the gym in months and you’ve been overindulging in chocolates and pastries. And, boy, does it show.

There’s a woman sitting across the pool from you wearing a bikini. She has what appears to be zero-fat, and a perfectly toned body. Let’s face it: in terms of physical fitness you’re at Level One and she’s at Level Ten.

Do you know why she’s at Level Ten? Because while you’re having a doughnut for breakfast, she’s having oatmeal. And while you’re sitting on the couch channel surfing, she’s out jogging. To sum it up, she’s at Level Ten because she’s taken the action necessary to get there. And you haven’t.

The good news is that if you start taking action to level up, you can also reach Level Ten. Eventually.

Step Three – You Can’t Leap From Level One to Level Ten

Remember that for the purposes of our example, you’re depressed. That is, you’re at Level One for emotional well-being. Level Ten in terms of emotional well-being is feeling bliss.

Can you move from being depressed to feeling bliss in one fell swoop? No, of course not. You need to move through many levels before you can go from being depressed to feeling bliss.

The levels from depression to bliss look something like the following:

• Level One – Depressed
• Level Two – Discouraged
• Level Three – Worried
• Level Four – Frustrated/Irritated
• Level Five – Bored
• Level Six – Content
• Level Seven – Hopeful/Optimistic
• Level Eight – Happy
• Level Nine – Passionate
• Level Ten – Blissful

You shouldn’t ask yourself how to move from Level One to Level Ten. Instead, ask yourself how to move from Level One to Level Two. Then, ask yourself how to move from Level Two to Level Three, from Level Three to Level Four, and so and so forth. You just keep leveling up until you get to Level Ten.

At each level the question becomes: “How do I move on to the next level?”

Step Four – Identify What the Next Level Looks Like

Let’s go back to our example in which you’re seriously overweight. You’ve already accepted that in terms of physical fitness you’re currently at Level One. Now, what does Level Two look like? You could decide that you’ll know that you’ve reached Level Two when you’ve achieved the following:

• You’ve lost 20 pounds.
• You’ve lost three inches from around your waist.
• You’ve gone down two dress sizes.

Now that you know what Level Two looks like, you have to identify how you’re going to get there.

Step Five – Identify the Action You Need to Take To Level Up

In a game, there are very specific things that you need to do in order to level up. For example, you need to kill ten snakes and collect twenty gold coins. In much the same way, when you gamify your life you have to be very specific in terms of what you need to do in order to level up.

Again, you’re at Level One in terms of physical fitness. You weigh 250 pounds and everything jiggles when you move. What action can you take in order to move up to Level Two? Here are some ideas:

• Start walking 20 minutes a day.
• Start keeping a food log.
• Switch from white bread to whole wheat bread.
• Switch from regular milk to skim milk.
• Instead of adding a pack of sugar to your coffee, add half a pack.
• Drink more water.
• Have desert after dinner once a week, instead of every day.

However, remember that this is a game. Look for ways to make the action that you need to take in order to level up as fun as possible.

For example, there’s an app that you can download called “Zombies, Run!” which turns your daily run (or walk) into a virtual flee-for-your-life adventure. Each time that you go out for a walk or a run, you’re given a mission. You have to complete your mission without being caught by zombies.

If you want to drink more water, get yourself a funky glass. You can also try adding something interesting to your water, like strawberries, orange slices, or cucumber slices. Tell yourself that your morning cup of coffee is your reward for drinking 8 ounces of water as soon you wake up.

Turn the actions that you need to take in order to level up into a game.

Step Six – Act

Obviously, you gain absolutely nothing by making a list of the things that you need to do in order to level up, and then failing to take action. Once you’ve identified what you need to do, do it!

Step Seven – Reward Yourself

One of the best parts of leveling up is that you get a reward. Of course, losing 20 pounds is a great reward in and of itself! However, it helps if you give yourself a little something extra. In addition, make the reward related to the game that you’re playing.

As an illustration, when you reach Level Two you could get yourself a piece of equipment that you can use to help you with your workouts. Here are some examples:

•  A watch with GPS;
• A stability ball;
• Colorful t-shirts to wear during your walks.

After all, you’re no longer a newbie. You are now at Level Two, and you have the props that go along with being at this higher level. In addition, your rewards will help you in leveling up even further.

Step Eight – Keep Leveling Up

Once you’ve reached Level Two, you’re ready to move on to Level Three. Simply follow the same process:

• Ask yourself what Level Three looks like.
• Ask yourself what action you need to take in order to move up to Level Three.
• Make the action fun (turn it into a game).
• Take the necessary action.
• Once you’ve reached Level Three, reward yourself.

Keep leveling up until you reach Level Ten.

Conclusion

What level are you currently at for each area of your life (physical fitness, emotional well-being, relationships, career, and so on)? How can you move up to the next level? How can you make the action that you need to take fun? Live your best life by living your life as a game and continuously looking for ways to level up. Gamify your life!

Let the games begin!

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Charles W. Eliot was the president of Harvard University for forty years, from 1869 to 1909. He’s considered to be responsible for building Harvard into one of the world’s greatest universities.

During a speech given to a group of working men, Eliot famously declared that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained in one year by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf.

A publisher who heard Eliot’s speech challenged him to make good on his statement and to put together an appropriate collection of books. Thus, “The Harvard Classics”–also known as “The Five-Foot Shelf”–was born. Basically, it’s a portable university.

The Harvard Classics contains 51 volumes. Each volume has 400-450 pages, and the included texts are “so far as possible, entire works or complete segments of the world’s written legacies.” In addition, the works cover the following six areas of knowledge:

• The History of Civilization
• Religion and Philosophy
• Education
• Science
• Politics
• Criticism of Literature and the Fine Arts

Some of the works included are the following:

• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• The Apology, Phaedo, and Crito, by Plato
• Essays, Civil and Moral, and New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon
• Complete poems written in English, by John Milton
• The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
• Aeneid, by Virgil
• Aesop’s Fables
• Faust (Part 1), Egmont, and Hermann and Dorothea, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
• The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

You can see a list of all 51 volumes, and read what each volume contains, on the Wikipedia entry for The Harvard Classics.

366 Day Project

Of course, 51 volumes containing an average of 425 pages each comes to over 20,000 pages. I don’t know of anyone who can read 20,000 pages in one year by devoting just 15 minutes a day to the task.

However, Eliot went further. He offers a reading plan in which he selects the most important segments of each of the works in his collection. Each of these segments can be read in 15 minutes. In addition, Elliot’s reading plan contains 366 entries; that is, one for each day of the year.

You can find the reading plan recommended by Eliot here. Moreover, you can find digital scans of “The Harvard Classics”–which you can access for free– here. (If you’d like, you can also get audio, but that comes with a $45 price tag.)

In a post which I wrote at the end of last year, I recommended that for 2013 you launch a one-year, or 365-day, project. Reading The Harvard Classics is a fantastic one year project. However, you don’t have to wait for the New Year. You can get a Harvard-quality liberal education by reading 15 minutes a day, every day for a year, starting now.

Several people have taken  on this project and have blogged about it. One person who did this is Randolph T. Holhut, the chief editorial writer at the Brattleboro (Vt.) Reformer and a graduate of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. You can find his blog, “The Harvard Classics: Fifteen Minutes A Day”, here.

Here’s an interesting quote from Holhut:

“Read Machiavelli, and you understand the Bush administration. Read Darwin, and you see how utterly wrong the creationists are. Read Plutarch and you understand that political intrigue is nothing new. Read Rousseau, Locke and Voltaire and you see why our founding fathers rejected the notion of America as a Christian theocracy. Read the sweep of human thought from Plato and Homer to Emerson and Mill, and you will ultimately end up with a better understanding of what is going around us and see how little new there is under the sun.”

Conclusion

One of the things that most excites me about The Harvard Classics–and its availability online–is what one author refers to as “the democratization of education”. Anyone, anywhere in the world can have access to this knowledge. All they need is to have access to a computer and to the internet.

With projects such as The Harvard Classics and the lectures from top universities which are being made available online, for free, we can all benefit from the very best education that’s out there. This, in my opinion, can help level the playing field so that we can all have a fighting chance to get ahead in life.

You now have access to a virtual five-foot bookshelf containing the world’s greatest knowledge. What will you do with it?

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In the introduction to my ebook, “How to Be More Creative – A Handbook for Alchemists”, I write the following:

“Being creative can involve cooking a meal from scratch, creating a novel marketing campaign, making up a bedtime story for your child, finding ways to cut costs, or even developing a creative solution to a negotiation impasse. Whatever you do, creativity helps you do it better.”

Here, then, are 25 ways to help you be more creative.

1. Simply begin. Creativity is there all the time. You need to begin, and then inspiration will come to you. When you’re cranky, when all you can think about are all the things on your to do list that need to get done, when you feel that you’re just not “in the mood” to create, when your inner critic tries to dissuade you from even trying, do it anyway.

When Michael Mikalko–author of “Cracking Creativity”–has writer’s block, he simply sits down and writes, “O, lend me to some peaceful gloom,” over and over until his own thoughts and words come. Then he just keeps going.

2. Remember there is more than one right answer. Consider the high school science exam where one question was: “How can you determine the height of a building using a barometer?”

Most students, after recalling the teacher’s lecture on this subject, gave the answer, “Measure the atmospheric pressure at the top of the building, measure it at the bottom of the building, note the difference, and then calculate the height.”

Two students were marked wrong for their answers. One responded, “Take the barometer to the top of the building, throw it off the roof, time how long it takes until you hear a crash, and then use the acceleration-through-space formula to calculate the distance it traveled.” That answer was not what the teacher was expecting; but it works.

Another student answered that he would find the owner of the building and offer him the barometer in exchange for being told the height of the building. This answer would also have worked. (Source).

3. Watch “The Three Stooges”. Laughing has been shown to help people think more broadly, associate freely, and notice complex relationships. One study found that people who had just watched a video of television bloopers were better at solving a puzzle long used by psychologists to test creative thinking.

Edward de Bono writes about humor in his book, “I am Right, You are Wrong”. He explains that humor is based on a logic very different from traditional logic. The significance of humor is that it indicates pattern-forming, pattern asymmetry and pattern-switching. Therefore, humor has the same basis as creativity and lateral thinking.

4. Combine. Combine ideas in a unique way; look for relationships between disparate things; make useful associations among ideas; look afresh at what you normally take for granted. Here are two examples:

• Wheels + gym shoe = roller skates
• TV + Music = MTV.

As Thomas Disch once said, “Creativity is the ability to see relationships where none existed.”

5. Change perspectives. Look at your topic from many different perspectives. How would a mystic approach this idea? How would a rocket scientist look at this? What would a child do? What would a very old person do? What would a really lazy person do? What would Donald Trump do?

6. Be curious about everything. You never know when random, seemingly unrelated ideas will come together to form a new idea. Here’s a quote from Carl Ally:

“The creative person wants to be a know-it-all. He wants to know about all kinds of things-ancient history, nineteenth century mathematics, current manufacturing techniques, hog futures. Because he never knows when these ideas might come together to form a new idea. It may happen six minutes later, or six months, or six years. But he has faith that it will happen.”

7. Drench Yourself In Creativity. Go to museums and gallery openings. Go to the symphony and to rock concerts. Read great works of literature. Go to poetry readings.

8. Challenge your assumptions. A fat, round watermelon takes up a lot of room. Instead of just assuming that watermelons had to be round, Japanese farmers began inserting melons in square glass cases while they were still growing on the vine.

The end result was a square watermelon which fits conveniently in the refrigerators in which they’re transported. What assumptions are you making that are stopping you from finding a solution to your problem? (Source).

9. Play Baroque Music. Baroque music-such as Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” and Pachbel’s “Canon”-has been shown to synchronize brain waves at about 60 cycles per second, a frequency associated with increased alpha waves. In turn, alpha is a frequency of mind associated with enhanced creativity.

10. Exaggerate. What if you were a thousand times smarter? What if you were two inches tall? Make the colors brighter. Now see it in black and white.

11. Shift gears. Take time off and put together a jigsaw puzzle. Follow Einstein’s advice: take a nap.  Isaac Asimov was quoted as saying that when he got stuck writing a book he would simply put the project aside and start writing a completely different book.

Seymour Cray, the legendary designer of high-speed computers, used to divide his time between building the next generation super computer and digging an underground tunnel below his Chippewa Falls house. Thomas Edison, a man with over 1,000 patents to his credit, would go down to the dock and fish. Ray Bradbury would go for a bike ride.

12. Look to nature. Are there any analogies you can draw from nature? Velcro was inspired by nature. The Swiss Georges de Mestral, inventor of Velcro, noticed how the sticky seed heads of burdock plants attached themselves to his pants and to his dog after walks in the woods. This observation led him to invent the product now called Velcro in 1948.

13. Avoid crowds. Take Hugh MacLeod’s advice: don’t try to stand out from the crowd. Instead, avoid crowds altogether. Mad Magazine’s Al Jaffee conceived of his comic strip “Tall Tales” while going through a difficult time financially.

Jaffee managed to break into the business of syndicated comics by doing something different than what everybody else was doing: rather than drawing a traditional horizontal strip that would compete with the existing material, he opted for a seven-inch-tall vertical strip, which gave editors a lot more flexibility as to where in the paper the strip would run. (Source).

What can you do that is different from what everyone else is doing?

14. Wake up your right brain. The right brain is your creativity center. Because the right brain hemisphere controls the left side of your body, you can activate this creativity center by breathing out of only your left nostril, jumping up and down on your left foot, and writing with your left hand.

You can also wake up the right side of the brain by doing something artistic such as drawing, playing a musical instrument, creating mandalas, and so on. In addition, meditation stimulates the right brain hemisphere.

15. Use the Random Word Technique. Start by writing down a description of your problem, challenge or opportunity. Then, choose a random word–you can open a dictionary and choose the first word your eyes focus on–and write down any associations that it makes you think of. After jotting down a number of words or short phrases, review your associations and your problem statement, and determine if you could adapt any of your associations to your current problem.

16. Create a mindmap. Write a topic heading in the center of a white piece of paper and then start writing related ideas on branches linked to the main topic; then add more ideas as sub-branches. Create as many levels of ideas as you want. Use different colors and add illustrations.

17. Disrupt your habitual thought patterns. Take a different route to work, try food you’ve never eaten before, listen to a music genre you normally don’t listen to, read different magazines, and so on.  Explore something new, try something you’ve always wondered about.

18. Re-connect with your inner child. Buy crayons and a coloring book-the big thick kind filled with all kinds of images that you loved as a child–and sit down for an afternoon of coloring. It’s OK if you color outside the lines. Play jacks, draw with chalk on the sidewalk, build a fortress, go to the playground and climb on the swings . . .

19. Break it down. Break a problem down into it’s smallest components and rebuild it from the ground up, questioning at every step whether that’s the best way to do it.

20. Ask lots of questions. Constantly ask: “What if . . .”; “Why not . . .”; “How else can this be done?”; “How can this be improved?”; “What other alternatives are there?”; “What am I missing?”

21. Focus. Great creative breakthroughs usually happen only after we have focused sufficient attention on our subject matter. That is, AHA! moments normally come only after much intense conscious effort.

In 1816, Mary Shelley spent the summer with her husband–the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Shelley–, the poet Lord Byron, and others in Switzerland. It was raining a lot, so they would entertain themselves by reading ghost stories. Then, they decided that they would each write a horror story and share it with the others.

Mary spent her days trying to think up of a horror story to share with the group. Then, in a waking dream, the idea for Frankenstein came to her. That is, although the idea for Frankenstein came to Mary in a flash, it came to her as a result of focusing intently on trying to think up of a horror story.

22. Set a quantity quota. Instead of telling yourself that you’re going to find a solution to a problem, tell yourself that you have to come up with 100 possible solutions. That is, emphasize quantity over quality. This allows your inner perfectionist to relax and to allow the ideas to flow.

23. Make it visual. Learn to draw, even if it’s very rudimentary sketches. Use Betty Edwards’ book “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” to teach yourself to draw.

24. Practice being in a receptive state of mind. Instead of constantly having the television on, listening to your iPod, and surrounding yourself with noise and other distractions, practice being in a relaxed, contemplative state of mind. This state of mind is the one most conducive to allowing creative thoughts to slip into your mind.

 25. Avoid Disruptions. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to enter your creative zone when you’re constantly being interrupted.  Jonathan Franzen wrote his 2001 novel “The Corrections” at times wearing earplugs, earmuffs and a blindfold. That might be too extreme for most of us, but at the very least try to find a quiet place, turn off your cell phone and other communications devices, and then get to work.

Apply the 25 ways to be more creative described above, and start being more creative right away.

Related Posts:

1. Three Unconventional Ways to Find Ideas
2. Nine Creativity-Sparking Tips
3. The Night Before Christmas and Stealing Like An Artist
4. Stuck for An Idea? Try SCAMPER

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