That gave me the idea to make these little quote notes myself.

So here is Day 1:

Right click and save it. Print it and stick it wherever you like.

A dent can be pretty

The other day I had a very nice lunch with two very nice, active and activist women. As usual on such a lunch, there is too little time and too many ideas.

We really want to:

• bring the corporate world closer to the non-profit world
• create partnerships with meaning
• start a ‘Foundation for activist women’
• meet for lunch more often…

Above all we were thinking of easy ways to get people to participate in their community. Not that we want to force people to volunteer, far from it! That would be a total disaster besides having the oppositve effect. 

We were more thinking about how can we create projects, partnerships that make this ‘helping’ and interacting automatic, cool and something people would want to do.

I think that any change needs to be driven by someone. A person or a group of people.

I also think this person can be anyone.

But often we wait for that person or that group to come and ask us for help or to show up so that we can identify with it and join them.

What if…

What if we just made the change we were thinking of?

What if you just proposed to the commune to teach English to children?
What if you just asked to help out at the school party?
What if you just hung up a silly, happy poster at our local bus stop?
What if you turned the village phone booth into a small library?
What if you put up little motivational quotes in the bathrooms at work? (yup…that would be me – if you want some to lighten up your company bathrooms, let me know and I’ll get you some!)

What if you ______________________ (fill in the blank)

Helping your community does not necessarily mean you have to join the Red Cross, take care of the disabled once a week or become the editor of another charity’s newsletter.
Although those are very praiseworthy actions, they are not for everyone.

Furthermore, a community is not just the non-profit world. It’s also people (you, me, evvvvverybody…) and companies.

Many changes start small. Small is good.

What small dent can you make in your community?

The greatest gift is to give people your enlightenment, to share it — Buddha

1. Get up ever morning saying “Today is going to be a great day.”
2. Set powerful intentions for the day: I will be happy, inspiring, encouraging, creative etc today.
3. Smile. It’s contagious. It creates an atmosphere. It makes a good impression. It is worth more than words. It’s a free facelift…If you are sad or angry, force your smile and it will start changing your mood.
4. Decide to go complaint free. It is very difficult. But you can start by refusing to join in other people’s complaining. And ask yourself each time “Can I change this?” If the answer is yes, then change it. If the answer is no, then stop complaining about it for it’s not going to change.
5. Be a radiator instead of a drain. Not the most common English language metaphor, but very much to the point here: be someone who radiates energy, dynamism, who is positive instead of someone who is negative, a drain on other people’s energy, always criticizing.
6. Move instead of brood. Say you were humiliated. Will you let this control your life, will you brood endlessly and remain stuck in this moment or feeling? Or can you set it aside and keep moving towards something better?
7. Stop living a life of quiet desperation.
8. Encourage others to be brilliant.
   Show interest, acknowledge what’s important to them, say ‘well done’, say ‘thank you’, return a favour, do something unexpected, ask them for advice or confide in them, offer to help them.
9. Share your knowledge. Do not use ‘knowledge is power’ to justify a reluctance to share information because some form of advantage can be gained through the use or manipulation of knowledge. This seems to be a big issue at many workplaces. Start with giving information yourself and you will see that it is reciprocated.
10. Have a positive influence on your colleagues. Prevent colleagues from taking offense to your intervention, thinking that you are telling them how to do their job or believing that you see them as incompetent and take that personally.
11. Talk about it before it gets too big and starts leading a life of its own. Sometimes problems that seem big are actually really small. It is our emotions that change our perception. Whenever a problem appears, tackle it right there and then. Talk about the feelings you have, encourage others to do the same. Bring in a mediator if emotions get too big.
12. Change your perspective. By creating new perceptions, you can actually create new realities. When entering a situation or meeting a new person, you may have preconceived ideas or feelings. You may have the whole thing figured out already. Take note of this (don’t judge) and consciously change your perspective. Try to look at it from a completely different angle. Say you’re a homeless person. How would that change the situation or meeting this person?
13. Don’t try to stop the negative. Just start doing and seeing the positive. We all have our negative thoughts and actions. We all have a tendency to complain, to not feel worthy. Instead of trying to change this negativism, try to focus on the good. This bad situation or problem may give you the opportunity to start something completely different. If you don’t feel worthy, start by looking at little things that are positive.
14. Don’t judge too quickly. Many situations are not always what they seem at first glace.
15. Just BE a happier you.

Change is the buzzword everywhere at the moment. A Greek philosopher is known to have said that ‘Change is the only constant.’

And while I agree that Change is uncomfortable, it can also be full of opportunities.

There are of course good and bad reasons to change:

It also gives you a whole new perspective.

If you don’t have a 5 year old, try your granny, or your neighbor…

John Cleese – a lecture on Creativity

Cleese says that to get into the open mode you need:

1. Space
2. Time (creating the time)
3. Time (using the time)
4. Confidence
5. Humor

Creating an oasis of space and quiet for ourselves is vital. Setting boundaries of space and time (switching of your phone, locking your door, getting your to-do list off your mind…).

“It’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent. Like thinking.”

Creativity is dithering whether to take the first solution that pops up or sticking with the problem longer until something else (and probably more original) pops up.

This creates anxiety and discomfort of not solving the problem immediately. Those who do not take a decision but can stick with this tension for a while, come up with more creative solutions.

Cleese suggests that you look at the problem and efine when does this decision needs to be taken. And then postpone decision making until then!

And it takes confidence to be uncomfortable. And fear or making mistakes is the worst enemy of creativity. You cannot be playful if you are frightened of something going wrong. So you have to risk silly, illogical and wrong things.

Humor gets us from the closed to the open mode quicker than anything else. Humor relaxes and makes us playful. You can discuss serious things while adding humor.
Cleese says ‘Solemnity. I don’t know what it’s for! It serves pomposity.’

Humor is the key to solve problems, even serious ones. So ‘giggle all you want’.

So once you have done these steps, keep your mind gently around the subject that you need to ponder in a friendly, but persistant way. And ideas will come.

And by connecting two completely different or random ideas together makes them creative. And the funnier or more ridiculous they are, the better.

So when you or people start giggling at the idea – write it down! It might THE ONE!

Have a look – and tell me what you think!

I recently watched this video (because I like to shape serendipity and expose myself to multiple surfaces) which made me smirk.

This guy is real. Himself. 100%.
He doesn’t care if he’s perceived as a goofball. Because he is (a very smart one at that).
He’s jumping up and down the stage because he is excited about his talk, his topic, his life, his message.
He didn’t dress up to go to TED. In fact, he didn’t even comb his hair (I wonder if he ever does).
Instead he wants to touch multiple topics but still get a message across.

To me he managed to pass the message that being yourself is the only way to get the message across.
Whether it’s jumping around like a goofball or holding a serious speech on quantum physics.

Whatever is your topic, your ballpark, your passion, you have to tell the story YOUR way.

And sometimes certain things are expected or can’t be changed (like the limited setup time at TED preventing this guy from showing us the speed of light), but you can squeeze around those and still be yourself.

You just have to be a little creative.

1. Serve at your company’s helpdesk or call center for a day.

• You get the weirdest (most creative) questions to which you have to find the answer, and in the process, you learn a lot (about your company and its services).
• You get to know all sorts of people by referring people to them or calling them to find out things for your caller.
• You get to solve complicated problems.
• You get to have a smile on your face and be patient (hey that’s a change!).
• You get to see things from a different angle.

2. Use your lunch break to paint a picture for your office wall (if you have an office wall).

• Painting completely gets your mind off things.
• You use your right brain.
• It’s fun.
• People will be jealous of your original artwork (or not, but it’s definitely a conversation starter).
• Your office space becomes more likeable and creative and ‘you’.

3. Ask a random department if you can attend one of their meetings.

• You get to meet new people.
• You learn new things and might get some good ideas for your own department.
• You get to be relaxed in a meeting because there is no pressure and no action items will be piled on you.
• It improves inter-departmental communication (management loves that!)