A new toy

I have been spending loads of time recently on twitter.

It is the most amazing resource EVER! I assume that the lucky people with loads of followers who tweet questions and get answers, I on the other hand am in the process of growing a pool of followers and much to my great surprise people seem to find me - in one week i have gone from zero to 36!

How does that work for an obscure little twitterer like me? Well somehow people find me and seem to like some of what i have to say enough to give me a shot...wow!

I will admit that when I started I had no intention of contributing, I mean what could I possibly have to say of any importance to the rest of the world. But by chance (and I assume an automatic message) one of the people I was following sent me a message back "Hello and thanks for the follow. I look forward to learning from you."

Learning from me???? Well that sent me into a state of panic, I guess that was the push that I needed to realise that I had to contribute too - not just be a twitter leech!

So when I find some information interesting I figure that other people might too and i tweet about it - the best part is you can do it in only 140 characters, but the worst part is you only get 140 characters...sometimes there is just more to say on a topic and I guess that's where you shift to the blog huh!

So here I am - anybody interested can follow me @artrox and see what my rambling scattered mind has to say about life, art, marketing and education.

Phew! I'm exhausted after typing all those characters....

Alan Fletcher makes Design FUN

Whilst in England in Jan 2007 we went to the Design Museum because it seemed one of the coolest places for a creative spark to hang out and just by chance and stumbled upon the most wonderful exhibition with resources that I still hold in my minds eye!

Don't know who Alan Fletcher is? Click here to see what The Times had to say about the exhibition.

Reading the Times article really showed that Mr Fletcher and I were quite similar,

You’d often catch Fletcher wandering round his neighbourhood, Notting Hill, with a knife, to slice off an L that caught his eye on a cardboard box in the street. He’d rarely go out without returning with something in his pockets, a bit of scrap, perhaps, to metamorphose into a toy for his grandson or a kitchen cabinet.

He called himself a “visual jackdaw”, forever on the lookout for something others might overlook, to take back to his studio and transform.

I too am a complete bowerbird and have a MOST massive collection of visually appealing trinkets and paper snippets - never to be used but to be constantly rediscovered periodically in my 'art room' and admired!

What I found most inspiring was his ability to make these seemingly random illustration connections that I seem to be blogging most about lately. He found a sense of fun in mundane and made the mundane fun!

Ohhh I have just discovered a google search in images for Alan Fletcher (ignoring those of actor Alan Fletcher who plays Dr Carl in Neighbours!) shows me samples of that wonderful work i got up close and personal to in England!

Many of his illustrations were sublime in their simplicity, yet there was so much to them! I highly recommend a google images search and you will see what I mean.

I'm almost inspired enough to start doing some of my own art again....

More on tidy minds

Now I can't say it any better than this post from Mind Power News "Your secret weapon to unlimited wealth"

The real juice starts about half way down with these gems:

Aristotle Onasis, legendary Greek shipping tycoon, (he at one time owned over 200 companies) said:

"Always carry a notebook. Write everything down. When you have an idea, write it down. When you meet someone new, write down everything you know about them. That way you will know how much time they are worth. When you hear something interesting, write it down. Writing it down will make you act upon it. If you don’t write it down you will forget it. THAT is a million dollar lesson they don’t teach you in business school!"

Sir Richard Branson, English billionaire best known for his Virgin brand, prefers to conduct his business the same way he’s done it since the beginning; by writing all of his ideas in a notebook.

Branson says:

"I can’t believe when I see people not writing things down. You know they’re not going to remember everything."

Branson now has a collection of over 125 black ledger notebooks that he’s written in over the years."

And anybody who has listened to Tony Robbins knows that he is a massive advocate of journalling and recording your ideas and using these to create a road map of where you want to go. It's one of the surest ways to get there...

So go find yourselves a journal, it can be as pretty, as silly, as old, as special as you like - and write write write. I keep little books and scrap papers everywhere, including in the car and beside the bed...you just never know when that idea will strike and with our busy little minds always ticking over and making connections you just might get caught out and let that idea slip by unnoticed...and at what loss to the world? We will never know....

Creative Connections

A quote from Charles Handy "The modern economies will not be constrained by lack of resources but only by lack of creativity & ideas.” and as observed by John Kao it is actionable ideas that will be our future.

The greatest contributor to GDP in the US in recent times has been intangibles - brain power, things that cannot be bought or made - ideas!

So how do you find those creative actionable ideas? By making the best use of our truly creative scattered and untidy C21 minds and those wonderful messy brainstorms those thoughts create.

Seth Godin is a master at making connections between bizarre and weird stuff and making it relevant to business problems. Think Purple Cow or Meatball Sundae and he has really got some great talks going on You Tube - just search for him and see how he makes connections. One of my favorites is his talk at the 2008 TED conference on sliced bread.

The ability to 'indulge' in daydreaming is creative thinking and making connections. This is the future for our children's success.

It is businesses that cut brainstorming time from their schedules as a cost cutting measure that do the most damage to their innovation.

Leave time to daydream and make some wonderful connections - see where those storms take you and your C21 mind!

Tidy Minds

Sir Martin Sorrell said in a Forbes interview (sometime in 2008 I think ) “The 21st century is not for tidy minds.”

How interesting. I think this is fiercely apparent in watching Gen Y & Millennials as they maneuver their way through the various communications media simultaneously.

It's a good thing - this multi tasking, but all that jumping around can make one's mind get messy.

Surely having all those thoughts bumping into each other and all those conversations buzzing is going to either lead to creative connections that might not otherwise have eventuated or complete disaster!

So here's to C21 messy minds and the creative brainstorms that rain out of them!

Be Like Douglas

I have a small green model frog, a friend bought him back from Port Douglas for me, hence his name is Douglas.

Have you ever noticed how happy frogs look? Their big mouth and wide eyes? They always look like they are smiling.

So Douglas sits in an inconspicuous place in my car and when I feel road rage or car crabbiness or just general poopy-mood I look at Douglas...and yep....smile!

We all need reminders of the simple things, (I also have a bracelet that says follow your dreams but that's for another day...) they're called emotional triggers.

We have good triggers and sometimes bad - but what matters is that we can control them once we are aware of them. Set up some happy triggers in your life that remind you of the simple pleasures and, well, be like Douglas!

Have a smiley day...

Curious behavior

I was driving through the city today and saw the strangest thing. A man walked part way along a crossing in front of the stopped traffic, put his Gloria Jeans coffee cup on the bitumen, looked up and down the street - raised both arms in the air, first 2 fingers held out in a Victory sign, then picked up his cup, continued crossing the road and strode off without a glance back!

I pondered on his curious behavior for a while - what did it mean? Was he a little touched by the excessive Melbourne heat we have been experiencing? Did he care that people were watching or was it his own private ritual? Was it a peace protest for a cause, if so what cause?

Then I started thinking how much like marketing that behavior was. We create ads, posters, banners, promotional items, brochures, blah blah blah - we walk around, put down our coffee cup, undertake some bizarre attention seeking behavior and hope that people get it and are moved to take action.

Hmmm, curious indeed. There is so much buzz around interactive marketing, and I may have heard the term 'me-kerting' bandied about, or did I just make that one up! If so I think it is perfect for what we really need to do now as marketers - it's about ME not the ad or the copy or the company or the product.

So then the question remains, how do we get our curious behavior noticed by the people who are going to be most curious and then engaged to do something about it? And the final message from my peace loving coffee drinker is that we need to be sure that our message is dirt clear...not masked in obscurity.

Happy New Year!

Nearly 2 months

Well so much for regular blogging! No I did not get sucked into the Facebook vortex. Call me old (no I'm not revealing any more about that statement!) but I just don't see the point.

Anybody I want to keep in touch with I do via private forum, and I truly don't like the idea of my personal photos there for anybody to see....I am a little nervous about all these young people with their entire lives exposed there. Hmmm future implications?

Who can say just now.

So facebook was fun for a while.

Where have I been? I wish I could say working furiously creatively but the honest truth is working, not particularly creatively and with a dreadful draining cold.

NOT flu - just a miserable cold.

So I've been wallowing in self pitty - but with Christmas on the boil it is fun times ahead, nothing a creative spark needs more than some tinsel and trimmings huh!
Smile, laugh, enjoy, and live for now....

Facebook fun & wasted time!

Well I have taken the plunge and joined facebook! Not sure of the implications of this for me just yet, but so far I have wasted 30 minutes on a word game trying to beat my best score!

Is this the best use of my time? I'm not sure!

Is this a good place for me to find people I have lost touch with? Maybe, I've looked up a few people and worked out who they are and that I might know them....maybe next time I will get the courage to ask them to be my friend.

On a creative note, it is always good to take on new experiences and see what comes of them, so ultimately this has to be a good thing to do if all I ever get out of it is a new fun experience for a while...

Plus there are some great groups there that might be worth being part of! Stay tuned....

Look after your ideas

How do you look after your ideas?

Do you keep them in a special box? In a book to treasure?

Do you store them on scraps of whatever is handy to be surprised and delighted by them when you stumble upon them later?

Whatever your method, don't let them go!

Don't let them journey back to unconsciousness, hold on to them so you can enjoy them again later. Who knows there may just be a seed of a real treasure waiting to be cultivated...

Look after your ideas, they are a gift!

What is love, anyway?

The best relationship is the one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.

I read this recently....and I love it! Think about it and it makes perfect sense.

Love you, dear reader....

What choice?

My my time does fly!

I have been thinking over recent weeks on the idea that we have choice. How we exercise that choice to move forward is entirely up to us.

There is a fantastic quote going around by somebody much more famous than me who says something along the lines that the worst decision you can make is nothing, the best is the right one.

What does that mean? Well doing something is better than doing nothing and that means making a choice....hurrah!

Here's to making the best possible choices.

Happy New Year!

Feeling overwhelmed, be the fish....

I bought some new fish the other day. I love watching them swim around I find it inspirational, however for some reason when we buy groups of fish, they gradually 'move on' to warmer waters and we end up with one or two lingerers that the rest of the family lose interest in and continually beg me to buy more, newer, brighter fish.

My response is always the same, it wouldn't be fair on 'Gobbo 8' and 'Harry 10' (yes, creative blog aside, my children seem attached to particular names for their fish....good thing really since it makes their fragile little lives more replaceable with Gobbo 9 and Harry 11!).

Anyway, my creative point is that sometimes staring into the watery surface at glistening fish scales, coloured rocks and uneaten goldfish flakes one finds the positivity of life (and the cycle of death).

Those little guys swimming around, and around, and around, is a bit like a positive pick-me-up. Sometimes you feel overwhelmed like you are swimming around and around and around, but take some time to reflect on the ripples of life and the coloured rocks below and let go (a 3 second memory helps!). You could even try breathing with an open mouthed guppy fish face if you wanted a laugh!

Watch, lose yourself for a few moments, come back refreshed and ready to collect your thoughts so you don't have to keep swimming around and around and around.

When you get overwhelmed - pause, change your thoughts, reassess your priorities and move forward again.

Celebrate your success

You know the funny thing, we set our goals (if we are the clever ones...we even write them down and focus on them!!!), but we never set our success measure.

It is vitally important to know where you're going - we've all read the analogy about getting in the car and driving on a whim and arriving anywhere, or getting in the car and looking on the road map to know exactly where we are going to make sure we get there the best way possible.

Well your arrival is your success - but in goal setting do we celebrate our success and our arrival at our goal appropriately? Do we take the time to set small and achievable goals and celebrate the achievements along the way? If you don't then you might just lose momentum for the next goal....

Keep your momentum by celebrating your success!! Hurrah....

Are you on the Energy Bus?

I have just finished reading Jon Gordon's book The Energy Bus, 10 rules to fuel your life, work and team with positive energy.

One of my most expensive habits is buying books and reading reading reading ~ it means that I am constantly infused with new ideas and thoughts to think.

This is one of the quickest, but most meaningful reads I have picked up recently and as always seems the case for me ~ timely. Do yourself a favor and beg your library to order one or buy one to have forever...the message is delivered in a way that is not trite or sappy and really resonated with me.

Best quote? "Do not focus on the future because the future brings only what the present gives it. Rather focus on the path. Keep your head up and your heart full of joy." We only have one life - live it joyfully! That's not to say that bad things don't and won't happen but it's the meaning you attach to them and the way you move forward from them that determines the path ahead.

So what will it be? Henry David Thoreau suggests that most men "lead lives of quiet desperation" ~ do you chose desperation or joy?

Feeling the urge....

I created this blog to inspire me to think about being creative more often, only problem is that I think creative thoughts at odd times, and when I sit down and decide to do the biz I find myself high and dry.....but as with all new things it is also a matter of forming the habit to blog daily.

For now I'm taking the pressure off and writing when I feel the urge, I may even tweet instead but I have to investigate that one!

But one habit that has been brewing in our house is for me to spend 5 minutes with the kids at the end of the day and get them to write 3 things they achieved that they were pleased or proud of over the course of the day, one thing they didn't handle so well and how they could have done it better, and 3 things they plan to achieve the next day.

It's had mixed reactions. Miss 9 3/4 loves it, Mr 12 1/2 is not so keen and was practically in tears the first night (yep it erupted into some kind of power struggle) but after 4 nights of it he knows the routine and that avoidance is not an option....he also seems to be enjoying it just a little.

I am hoping that my little social experiment will prove that reflecting on your achievements will set a nice precedent and that they can look back when they've had a not so good day and see that it's not always doom and gloom. So far so good......

What are yours??????

Consider me your fairy godmother.....make 3 secret wishes, write them down in your journal.....keep wishing and take steps towards creating them.

Oh yeah did I mention that bit? You gotta do the work towards your goals - but journaling them helps make them real. I promise it does!

Problems Problems Problems

Problems happen - there are always going to be challenges in your life. The key is to deal with the issue as best you can, but from a place of calm not stress.

Identify it, break it down and create strategies to solve it. Once the problem has been solved you might want to journal about it. Just a few line about what happened, how you dealt with it, how to stop it happening again if appropriate - and then.....LET IT GO!!!!

Holding on to negative thoughts and feelings benefits nobody - least of all yourself.

So have your problems - they are a sign of life - deal with them and journal it away.......ahhhhhh after the day I've had I know I will be writing a HUGE journal entry tonight......technology can be a joy and a curse all at the same time - but that's for another blog!