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Simple Tips on How to Stay Inspired

Simple Tips on How to Stay Inspired

Hello my friends…we just had a heatwave in Germany….. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love good weather, but when it’s too hot and humid to move, it’s not for me.

I used to live in California, where it can be sizzling, but at least there is air condition everywhere… which is not the case in Germany….. Anyway I hope you are enjoying your summer no matter what the conditions are 🙂

During the last few weeks I experienced a loss of inspiration, feeling kind of blah….did not feel like writing, making collages or doing anything that’s fun. I‘m just wondering…has this ever happened to you?

Somehow you want to write something, paint something, create a video or whatever it is…But all you can do is stare into space and there is no spark of inspiration to get into action.

Ouch… it’s painful, frustrating and it happens to me so many times, it’s not funny. For writers it’s called writer’s block, but whatever you want to do, it applies to any block regrading expressing creativity and doing the things that you love to do. Crazy isn't it 🙂

Now what can you do when this happens?

One thing that helps me is to have the book the "Artist Way" nearby and read a chapter, it's the "bible for creative people." I also have a list of blogs bookmarked and when I need a “pick me up”, I read some of their material or watch their videos.That helps, most of the time….

When I want to write a blogpost, but feel blah about the state of the world or think… Well who wants to read another blogpost, there are millions out there already…. I listen to Dr. Lance Secretan, a leadership teacher who creates inspired environments all over the world.

Dr. Secretan teaches the "Higher Ground Leadership Course" at CoachVille, my wonderful school…I just watch one of his videos to put the wind of creativity and hope back into my sails. He uses a great tool: Spirit Cards, their purpose is to help you invite spirit into your work and life.

By the way.. Coachville has a free membership available with an abundance of free audios and other great material……. that's also a great way to get inspired…

One other great way to get back into the groove is: Visualize a time when you were totally on fire… working on something, being blissfully absorbed in the activity. Can you get into the movie?

What did you do?
Who were you with?
What exactly happened?
How did it feel

Try to come up with a few situations, be as detailed as possible and try to re-create the same energy, or feeling. This simple exercise will get the creativity flowing…..I promise 🙂

Music triggers the flow of creativity too, so creating a playlist of your favorite music, will be a fun action. What is it for you? Beatles, Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens, Nirvana, Bob Marley, Mozart, YoYoMa?

Whatever it is…put your headphones on and start singing to the music..

Maybe you want to be bold and start moving to the music…. there is nothing better than dancing, to get out of your mind into your body. Feel the movement, feel the joy, let it take you over. One of my passions is 5 rythm dancing…… psssst it's a secret.

Oh, one last tip…Go to a different place to work… like a nice cafe, the library, maybe your garden or the park, sit next to a creek under a tree, listen to the birds and wait what happens.

Ok my friends that’s it for today….Do you have some more empowerment tips? Please share them for all of us to enjoy.

Blessings

Marita

Check out this wonderful video with another technique 🙂

Creating a Vision Board For Your Business

Creating a vision board for your business is a fun, creative and effective way to become clear about your intentions and it will help you discover, focus on and manifest your dreams.

It‘s way more fun than making a boring list and you can turn it into creative play. Playtime is always good isn't it?

Now let’s get started with a few questions!

("Play to Win" is one of my favorite coaching methods, it helps to change the attitude from having to work on something to a more enjoyful way of talking about things: "Play language" is an important part of it: business game stands for business goals, play your game for: work on your business, play to win for: achieve your goals.)

What’s your bigger purpose?

In order to win your game in business, as well as in life, it's good to know why you want to play. Life is a lot better when you can enjoy business related tasks, don’t you think so? Instead of saying: I have to do this social media posting and I hate it; you can practice saying: I will make some experiments with social media and see what happens…. If you find out that you still can’t enjoy it, you might want to hire someone who will do it for you. A positive attitude will help you win your game and have more fun.

What’s your bigger purpose?
What’s your desired outcome?
What actionsteps need to happen in order to get the desired results?

Sorry, I got a little sidetracked here, but now let’s come back to your purpose: why are you involved in this business?

What inspires you?
Who do you want to help,
Why do you want to do it?
How does it make you feel?

To be successful in business requires commitment and to be clear about your purpose will give you the energy to be inspired and motivated to play the game well and be persistant even through challenges.

Inspiration will be the fuel to propel you forward, so the more you can generate, the better it will be. It’s time well spent to be clear about your purpose.

When you have your purpose and it’s right for you, you will feel it in your body. That’s spirit letting you know:t you are on the right track 🙂

Examples for outcome could be:

Financial freedom
10 new clients
A certain certification
$100000 the first year in sales
Many satisfied, happy clients

Just replace this with whatever it is that YOU want to achieve.

Now you need to know what action steps you need to do in order to achieve the results that will get you to the desired outcome.

Talk to people
Make proposals
Hire help
Complete certain projects (website, biz cards etc.)

Now you need to find images representing these items, be creative with it, let it flow.

Materials

Images, representing your purpose, clients, outcomes, activities and more
Posterboard

Gluestick
Scissors
Large marker

Browse through the magazines and rip out the images that appeal to you. This is not a logical process it's more intuitive, go by what feels juicy, it's a subconscious process.

You will find the images in magazines (Money, Oprah, Vogue, National Geographic), books, calendars, online, or use your own images and print them out.

Look for images of people representing your ideal customers. If you want to write a book you can create a cover with a simple image editing software like "pic monkey", or go to fiverr and get something made for $5. Make up your own checks written to you from companies you would like to receive checks from, make them large numbers. Find images of your ideal office space, in the location you would like to be, the view you would like to see…..

On my business vision board I normally paste a picture of myself in the center of the poster board, looking happy and successful, doing my favorite business task.

Once you have the images, lay them out on the posterboard until you like the look of it and start to glue them down.

When all this is done, you can finish up with inspiring and motivating words. You can write them onto the board or you can type the text and print it out.

I make a great living doing what I love to do.
I love my work and get paid royally for doing it.
I am happy and fulfilled with my work.
I inspire and motivate others

When it's all done, hang it where you can look at it; in your office, above the desk would be the perfect place. In addition it's a good idea to take a photo of it, print and laminate a small version so you can have it in your purse. The more you look at it, the more you feel it, the more effective it will be. Remember: it's all energy and we attract the same energy into our lives that we send out.

Now I'm inspired and want to make my next one……….I hope you feel the same way, now have fun with it and good luck and play to win!!

Send me a picture of your vision board and let me know how it's going, if you have any questions, just ask me….. and if you are interested in business coaching let me know and we can set up a time for you to try a session, how much fun is that!!!

How To Turn Work Time Into Fun Time

How To Turn Work Time Into Fun Time

Hello my friends, how are YOU doing? I hope life is treating you well, or if that's not the case that you find a way to make the best of it.

Some people wait for retirement to have fun…. no no no don't do that, make it fun now 🙂

I am self-employed and work out of my home office, which is great, but sometimes I like to be around people. It’s so important to have fun at work and find ways to create an environment that inspires the creative juices to flow.

In the spirit of play I took myself to my favorite bookstore, ordered a cup of Cappuccino, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the old cathedral, the tall trees and the people streaming by below. The cloud formations floating across the sky were like pieces of art……….

All this inspired me to write and I thought to myself: I am so lucky to be able to work like this. It was so easy to write, the words just kept flowing out of nowhere onto my paper.

Other times I go to the library to work on my laptop, which is another favorite place to have "fun at work." It’s a great place to take a break and look at books or magazines to get inspired in between.

Creativity and playtime need to be nurtured and it’s much more fun to work when creativity is flowing, so it’s important to come up with creative ways to do that. Sometimes we can’t draw it out of ourselves, but need to do little things to invite inspiration.

Meditation is a great way to get into the creative zone
Listen to your favorite music
Go for a walk in between to clear you head
Take regular breaks
Talk to some fun people

Some parts of work might not be fun……. period, but instead of complaining about it nonstop and giving it all this nasty, negative energy, try to make the best of it and change your perspective about it. YOU will see that it's a lot easier to just do it and then voila, it’s done. Now you just have to pat yourself on the back big time!

Mastermind groups of like minded, fun people are also a great way to have fun and get more ideas. We are communal beings and need the connectedness and exchange with others. This is a great way to practice connecting and exchanging………………Now I'm running out of ideas, the ball is in your court now 🙂

What helps YOU to have more fun at work? Please leave a comment to share your insight, we love to read it.

Oh, I almost forgot, check out my "Dive into a Great New Life Experience" it's my gift to you.

Two 45 minute coaching sessions, a fun assignment in between and a great follow up.

Just do it! It's never too late to have a great life 🙂

email me at maritasteffe@gmail.com to schedule your appointment

You Can’t Use Up Creativity

You Can't Use Up Creativity

The more you use it, the more you have. Are you creative? Sure you are! Creativity does not mean you have to paint like Monet or write like Ernest Hemingway. Creativity shows itself in many ways and it can be simple things like flower arrangements, table arrangements, your garden, taking pictures. Expressing yourself with how you dress, the jewelry you wear, the make up you choose, the way you communicate, it's all creative.

Continue reading “You Can’t Use Up Creativity”

Bring More Creativity And Play Into Your Life

Why is it important to play?

Our spirit loves to play and if we want to be guided and listen to our intuition, we need to be more playful. Unfortunately we were not taught to play, we learned to memorize and do as we were taught, we might even think of play as “frivolous”.
The other reason is: life is more fun. To be playful is to be creative, to be innovative, to be more adventurous, to be present, to be in the zone, to enjoy life to the fullest.

Routine is a killer to creativity and unfortunately most of us are run by our routines. I would even say that everything beyond the routine is outside of our comfort zone and feels kind of scary.

But with a little bit of awareness we can move beyond the discomfort and try something new. Why not finally take this new dance class, Italian cooking, or maybe go to a meet up group and get together with some new people who share the same interests. You will be surprised how good it feels.

Every time I do something beyond the routine. I just want to jump around and sing, that’s how good it feels. I like to go to the hots springs for a few days, or even simple little things, like going to a museum, a bookstore or a new coffee shop can be refreshing.

Local colleges are a great source of inspiration, they offer so many great classes, there is something for everybody. Sports, Art, culture, spirituality, you name it, they will offer something for you.

Do yourself a favor play more, and inspire people around you to do the same.

Watch this great video by Steve Keil: A Manifesto for Play

How to Live Your Best Life!

“Eliminate something superfluous from your life. Break a habit. Do something that makes you feel insecure”. Piero Ferrucci

I know that there are lots of ways to live your best life. But I am talking about a life of purpose, a fulfilled life, a fun life, an exciting life, a magical life, a prosperous life, a life full of love.

First of all I like to say that unfortunately we do not learn this at home, in school or anywhere. I can only say: Blessings to the people who grew up with wisdom. Instead most of us learned how to fit in, how to memorize, how to endure, how to suffer, how to be small, how to be good. Yes this sounds frustrating and some might say: what’s the use? This is the way it is and there is nothing I can do about it.

Well the first step is to accept this fact and to do something different. The miracle is simple, you learn how to be aware of your patterns and step by step you practice to change your attitude about them. Yes, it is possible, we are not our patterns, we have incredible potential that is hidden inside of us, just waiting to be unleashed. Wow, what thoughts come up when you hear this?

Fear
Disbelief
Anger
Curiosity

Depending on what comes up for you, it will be clear if you accept the fact that you are the creator of your life, or you are not ready to accept it. Accepting it comes with a huge responsibility and not everybody is ready for it. Wherever you are is just fine. If you are curious: I can only say congratulation!!! you are ready for step 2. So what can we do to change our attitudes and behavior?

Awareness
Mindfulness
Give yourself some time before you react
Consciously choose to do something different
Celebrate each success, no matter how small.
Have you heard the phrase: Your mind is a terrible master, but a great servant? Learn how to play in life, how to take every game in your life as an opportunity to grow;
Bring creativity into every aspect of your life,
Start a simple meditation practice,
Surround yourself with positive people
Unclutter your mind and your space.
Do something new
Be grateful for your life.

If you do these simple things repeatedly, you will change your life step by step. Let me know how it’s going, I love to hear your stories. Leave a comment at the end of the post.

All About Mind Power

Marita here, I am obsessed with the power of mind, it is such an important part in the creating and power of vision boards and how to live a great life. If we learn to control our mind and use it to our benefit and not be used by it life will be a bowl of cherries. Great article, thanks to the Author for writing it.

Mind power is the ability to direct and focus the power of mind to create specific outcomes in life.

Mind power is not magic. Mind power is not about being able to make someone else do something they don't want to do. Mind Power is not about controlling another person's mind or imbedding your thoughts, beliefs, memories or images in another person's mind.

Mind power is personal. Mind power is something that you work with personally to create a specific outcome that you want.

When the mind is focused, directed and working toward a specific goal you begin to tap into the power of the mind. This kind of mind power works in conjunction with the subconscious mind. The mind can directly impact the subconscious mind with

thoughts and repeated phrases. This is the real power of the mind. It has the ability to interact with the subconscious mind.

Once you understand the power of the mind you can begin to develop your mind power.

You can begin to work with mind power to create specific outcomes that you want in life. There are specific techniques and methods that you can apply to develop mind power so that you are directing the power of your mind and subconscious mind to help

you achieve specific goals.

I outline all of these techniques in my free mind power e-course. All you have to do is register today and you'll also get my mind power mp3 download – which gives you all the techniques you need to direct your mind power so that you achieve the

success you want.

To work with mind power correctly you should pay attention to your thoughts and beliefs. Your thoughts and beliefs are the real power behind mind power. Because these shape your views on the world and eventually dictate what actions you will take. If you believe it's difficult to make money then you will take actions that make it difficult for you to make money. In this example – you're actually applying mind power to create what you don't want – more financial struggle.

Now you can turn things around and being applying mind power to make it easier for you to make money by changing your thoughts and beliefs.

You see your thoughts and beliefs are picked up by the subconscious mind. The subconscious then goes out and creates the situations that appeal to you that mirror what you believe and think.

The real power of the mind is in the ability to change those thoughts and change those beliefs. When you work with mind power you realize that you are in control of your mind. You have the power to change thoughts that don't help you succeed. You have the power to create new beliefs. Once you plant new thoughts and beliefs in your mind you begin to direct the power of your mind to work with your subconscious so that you enjoy greater success.

I hope this article was useful to you, I would like to end it with this quote:

"Men and women are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

– Franklin D. Roosevelt"

Now get out the poster board and use the creating power of your mind! Leave a comment and let me know how it goes.

Do you have a story you would like to share? I am looking for women over 40 who changed their lives and finally allowed themselves to do do what they love to do, or a good vision board story. Click here for more information.

"Nourish your spirit" is the motto. How to find joy and fulfillment in life.Click the blue link, or the image to join our community of women at Creative Life Now, my new membership site. Are you looking for creative community, ideas, tips, motivation and inspiration, how to find joy and fulfillment in life? Let's support each other and share ideas. A melting pot of experts and women seeking expert advice.

What Makes Your Life JUICY

I am so delighted to present my friend and super talented Designer, Artist, Creator: Holly Emrick. We have a lot in common as my background is also Interior Design and Art. We both love to create beautiful things out of nothing, like scraps of cardboard, pieces of paper, shells, plywood pieces, fabric remnants etc. I hope you enjoy her post as much as I do. In order to be happy we need to nourish our spirit! Let's start now to make our lives juicy!

GOT JUICE?

Friends, family, travel, adventure, music? Mmmm. For me it’s all about creativity. My name is Holly Emrick and I am an Interior Designer, Teacher, Writer, Artist and Creator. I was born to create and nothing makes me feel as good as when I’m doing it. I am so honored Marita has invited me to do a guest blog. Her passion for sharing is such a blessing for us all!

I’m often asked what inspires me in my design and art. All I can say is that I am a master observer. Every day I am bombarded by colors, textures, scenes…..you name it. It certainly isn’t always visual….rather often a composite of different senses. I might catch a scent on the wind that brings forth a vision. Or discover a taste in a dish that inspires creating a new recipe. I feel we are all surrounded with stimulus that can help us create, in fact; perhaps it is that great wealth of stimulus that stifles people. With so much around you it’s possible to feel it’s already been created….or someone else has done it better. Here’s the thing: No one can create or give forth unto the world what you do. Period. And it isn’t all about cooking or painting or taking an amazing photograph. It is as simple as turning right someday where you previously always turned left. It is “allowing” something to come to you instead of chasing after it. It is making a conscious decision to be open and discover.

So I say, step out, hold no preconceived notion about what you can or can’t “do” and release yourself onto a piece of paper…or on the chopping block. Just let go and see what presents itself. It’s fun. It’s magic and it’s your gift back to your creator!

Holly Emrick works as an Interior Designer and Artist in The Rocky Mountain Region. She has been involved in design and art for over 20 years. Last year she debuted her new website http://www.greenhomedesignsource.com in order to share fun and inspiring ways to green your décor and live sustainably. Her newest dive into design and play can be found at http://www.greenyourselfsilly.com a membership site centered around living your best green life with tips on everything from design to desert.

I love Holly's site she has wonderful tips on design and art projects. If you need design advice, or some inspiration you will find it there.