Creative LawNo. 2 - Condition your Mind

In my latest book - The Innovation Gap - Cultivating Creativity in Life and Business, I focused on 10 Creative Laws to help people and businesses transform themselves with creativity. Sadly, many of us have forgotten how to apply creativity in our daily lives. The art of creativity can be applied to so many areas of your business and personal life. Creativity is the root of innovation - problem solving through intuition. When you are getting creative you are demonstrating to the people around you that you stand for a bigger cause. Anything that I strive to do either a workshop, key note, book or branding campaign - I always ensure that the highest level of creativity is injected into all the details. For example - I renamed my workshops to Branding Boot Camps. They are filled with creative enthusiasm, high energy, cool graphics, outstanding presentations that engage the audience. When we launched our creative events - we call them BIG THINK events. Every detail of the BIG THINK events are designed to connect with the audience. From the moment they walk in to the partner suppliers and sponsors that line the corridor. The main ball room is filled with white table cloths, large projection screens, gifts and creative work booklets for each delegate. The BIG THINK events are designed to help people THINK BIGGER.

This Creative law is focused on helping you Condition your mind for excellence. The following summarizes my formula:
- Decide what it is that you want to create.
- Map out with visuals, words and phrases the final result of this big picture.
- Draft up some written affirmations that reaffirm that you have already received it - for instance...I am enjoying living my life creatively inspiring thousands of people to action. These affirmations are key at unlocking your mind and your potential for reaching your goals. It is essential that you read these affirmations every day - morning and evening so just before you drift off to bed and as soon as you wake up. The goal here is to flood your subconscious mind with positive reinforcement for what you want. The key is to trick your mind in believing that you already have it. This art of transformation is referred to by scientists as structural tension. The mind wants to bridge the gap between reality and your realized goals deep rooted into your subconscious. The mind then works hard at bridging this gap by sending out positive signals and attracts people and resources into your life that will help make this dream a reality.
- Rethink your approach to rational thinking. Many times when you feel the need to approach or go after a new idea - your left side of your mind instantly kicks in and wants to hold you back. Recognize this very normal habit and then tell yourself that's the left side of my mind lying to me. I love the origin of words - RATIONALIZE refers to Rational [lies] or in other words the left side of your mind lying to the right side of your mind telling you that you can't do it simply because you have never done it before.
- Build new success habits. So to reinforce the above-noted principle you simply need to replace old habits with new ones. How long does it take to form a new success habit so the mind accepts it as new behavior? In my experience it is 30 consecutive days. So let's say it's waking up 1 hour earlier everyday to work out and get in better physical shape. You simply need to practice this new success habit for 30 days in a row. If you manage to get to day 28 without deviation and decide to take a break - you then need to start all over again -yea sorry but trust me it will be worth it. See the mind will process this new success habit as a new form of behavior and it has been re-conditioned to accept it. It wants to maintain this new form of behavior. You will find that you feel better and look forward to getting up earlier everyday. Imagine all of the new success habits you can create? That is the key foundation for so many successful people - to replace old habits with really great ones. I have seen many of my clients create the following success habits:
- Writing new books
- Attracting a new life partner
- Getting into better physical and mental shape
- Learning a new language or skill
- Networking more
- Watching less TV - Avoiding TV watching all together
- Reading new books
- Improving life skills
- Whatever it is that you want to do - just do it and do it now. It's a brand new day and no matter what stage you are at - you can start now. Don't look back only forward and enjoy the new life you are creating. Remember you are the only one that will get in your way - so get out of your own way. You are the architect of your own life - no one else.
- Practice the art of meditation and visualization every day. Fixate only on the end goal of the thing that you want to create. Learn how to still your mind and not let emotion derail you from your purpose and your journey. Every morning after working out sit in a quiet spot and close your eyes - feel your heart beat - your breath and lungs fill up with air. Fixate on an object in your mind - like a flower. Remove all other obstacles from your mind by pushing them aside mentally. Study every detail of your object in your mind and after about 10 minutes or so of doing this - start to visualize how great you feel about everything that you are creating. This is a very powerful tool that many successful people use on a daily basis. No matter where I am travelling to I am always meditating and visualizing every morning.
- Convert your fear and your emotions by expressing thanks every night before drifting off to sleep. This will also start to shift your energy from what you don't want to what you do want. Remember - Energy flows when your attention goes and the key is to point all arrows towards only the things that you want to create. As you start to feel emotional waves of fear coming about - get back to meditating and focusing on what you want most. Successful people take charge of their lives and do not let emotion creep in. They recognize the origin of the emotion and then channel it away or displace it with new positive thoughts. They counter balance these emotions with its opposite by getting creative.

So to close off - creativity is about seeing the world in a different light - its about the art of creation. We are all born as incredible creators - this is our common thread. Some of us have just learned how to tap into this power more than others. This is your turn and your time to condition your mind and your body for excellence.

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