There was also talk about how to use social media.  It won’t ‘monetize’ but it DOES help you build your brand.  Right.  Good idea.

So, now I have a whole new business to create.  Kidding.  I’m digesting it all and will do a few reasonable things that feel congruent with the way I do business. I’m not sure I’ll get to be a millionaire but I am OK with that.

Meanwhile, I found this handy chart to help me figure out Social Media:

Thanks to Douglas Wray for the chuckle.

I suppose the Myth of the Happy Genius just isn’t as fascinating.

                                  Photo by mrfitz

Teresa Amabile and her colleagues have good news for all you reasonably content, untortured creative people.  Happiness does more for innovation than does melancholy and ennui.

In a 2005 Administrative Quarterly article they describe research performed by tracking electronic diary entries of employees for 5 months.  Here’s how they defined Creativity: the production of novel, useful ideas or problem solutions.  Amabile describes that “positive feelings–joy, love-are positively related to creativity, and negative emotions-anger, fear, sadness–are negatively related to day-to-day creativity”.  Even better, good moods can increase the flow of creativity for up to three days.

Is anyone surprised?

These and more findings are in Amabile’s latest book The Progress Principle which I’ve admired earlier.

Like many of you I am working to increase my activity for all kinds of reasons.  While I was clearing my office clutter with feng shui I came across an excellent list published by Oprah a few years ago:

12 Get-You-Off-the-Couch Reasons to Exercise
1. Physical activity helps you lose weight by burning calories, boosting resting metabolism, and buffering you from bone and muscle loss that can result if you diet alone.
2. High levels of physical activity can decrease your risk of colon cancer by 40 to 50 percent.
3. Exercise helps you get better sleep. In one study, people who walked more than six blocks a day had one-third fewer insomnia problems than their less active cohorts.
4. Walking 30 minutes five days a week can increase your life span by one and half years. Make that running, and it may add up to four years. That’s the conclusion of a 2005 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which showed that it’s never too late to increase longevity.
5. Half-hour aerobic sessions three to five times a week have been shown to cut symptoms of mild to moderate depression nearly in half. One study suggests that exercise can be as effective as drugs in treating major depressive disorder.
6. Brisk walking for just an hour or two a week can reduce the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women by nearly 20 percent. And for those who already have the disease, walking three to five hours a week may reduce the chance of dying from it by as much as 50 percent.
7. Aerobic exercise, such as a half hour of rapid walking five days a week, has been shown to cut the risk of catching a cold nearly in half in postmenopausal women.
8. People who work out have more energy than nonexercisers, according to researchers at the University of Georgia, based on a review of 70 studies. That boost, on average beats the effect of stimulant drugs.
9. Working out – resistance training in particular – helps maintain, and even modestly increase, bone density to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
10. An active lifestyle halves the risk of developing heart disease. Walking up to 12 miles a week (translation: 30 to 50 minutes a day) significantly improves heart health, according to a Duke University study. And if you’re at high risk for diabetes, working out only about 20 minutes a day, combined with a low-fat diet, can reduce the chance of developing the disease by 58 percent.
11. Just working out 15 minutes three days a week may reduce the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by 30 to 40 percent, according to a study last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine. For healthy older adults, a six-month program of exercise can reverse the age-related loss of brain tissue that begins around age 40 by two to three years, especially in regions responsible for memory and higher cognition.
12. Working out improves your sex life – by not only enhancing self-esteem but also strengthening the cardiovascular system. One study found that women who cycled vigorously for 20 minutes before watching an erotic film had significantly greater vaginal response compared with when they were inactive.

To this excellent list I will add two more reasons:

13) Your brain works better when it’s oxygenated. Christin Anderson, MS, wellness and fitness coordinator of the University of San Francisco, explains that exercise affects many sites within the nervous system, “This is pure science — stimulate your nervous system and function at a higher level.”

14) You get to be smug because YOU exercised.

Last week I attended a webinar by Connie Malamed who is a learning expert.  She’s the author of a nifty little app called Instructional Design Guru and shares provocative information about adult learning,

One of my favorite posts is the Best Productivity Tools for 2012.  I’ve started using the online TaDa list which is accessible anywhere, you can share it and send yourself a copy.  I know I can actually WRITE a list on a piece of paper and have a hard copy instantly.  But I am finding it useful for categories of lists that I don’t want to lost.

Thanks Connie!

So, it’s no surprise how much heat is being generated over an opinion piece by Susan Cain in the NY Times called The Rise of the New Groupthink.

“Groupthink“.  Would we call that a positive label?  The term was coined in 1972 by Irving Janis in his analysis of US military fiascoes–clearly, NOT a good thing.  For years it’s been employed to describe the worst of group dynamics.  Ms. Cain has recently written a book called Quiet: the Power of Introverts.

She makes some valuable points.  Most brainstorming is heinous.  Nobody likes pointless meetings with people posturing for the benefit of superiors.  I recognize and crave the power of solitude in my creative process.  But does she mean that I, a moderate Extravert, can’t ‘do quiet’?  Or worse, that I’ll never be as creative?

Unfortunately, she plays it fast and loose with her research.  For an elegant response to her inaccuracies I refer you to the excellent Keith Sawyer.  He corrects her mistakes and provides a reasonable point-of-view.

I wish Ms. Cain had subtitled her book the Power of Introversion instead of dividing us into right and wrong sub-groups.

The creative process is just too complex to assign superior powers to a specific group.  All of us, regardless of style, can make a contribution and we need to take responsibility for ensuring we occasionally have an environment that fosters our preferred process.

I’ve been thinking that we often approach life as if it’s a prix fixe menu with substitutions politely declined.  You grow up and, ideally, go to college.  You make a living–the better the living the better the life.  There’s a right way to do work.  There’s a right way to be in relationships.  Or IS there another way?  What if we decided to live our lives off the menu?  We can, you know.  Here are a few approaches you might consider.

The Breadth of Possibilities
When I left Intel years ago a good friend gave me the book, 1000 Places to See Before You Die.  What inspiration!  He has a world map up on a wall and he and his partner are having a blast visiting the countries of the world and planning their next adventure.  Elsewhere, on the web, there is a lively movement of 101 in a 1001.  Make a list of 1001 things you want to accomplish and use this website to support your goals.

This approach will lead you to a breadth of experiences and accomplishments.  It’s up to you how wild you want to go or how practical.  Remember, it’s YOUR experience so design the menu that excites YOU.

Your Personal Everest
Another approach is to select one, big, audacious goal.  A goal like this requires massive effort and dedication.  For example, “Qualify for the Boston Marathon”.  I have one friend who had never run in her life and decided that she wanted to run a 10K.  She began from zero but worked with a competent trainer.  Over the months she walked, then did interval running and walking then regular runs of lengthening times.  She lost weight.  She ate right.  She did her first 10K and then her second and so on.  It was a life-changing goal that triggered many behavioral improvements for her.

Life as Process
This approach isn’t about the destination, it’s about the journey.  If you like to set goals this way they might be around Habits and Habits of Mind.  You can look at your life in areas such as:

• Social/Relationships
• Intellectual
• Physical
• Spiritual

In each of these areas (or whatever areas you choose) you can aspire to improvement.  For instance, under the Spiritual category I might try to ‘cultivate compassion and be more patient‘.  I might ‘practice forgiveness‘ because it’s good for me and the forgiven.

However, you approach goal-setting, or whether you do it at all, is up to you.  I do encourage you to think deeply about what you need now and what would please you.  Go ahead and go off the menu.  You deserve to be happy and the world benefits from your happy state.

SoulCollage® uses images, which you create yourself,  to tempt lateral and associative thinking, to discover what’s inside.  My next SoulCollage® workshop is on January.  Stay tuned for the date.

Images are powerful triggers.  I like to simply tear out images from magazines that appeal to me.  Over time you can see trends in what draws you.  If you don’t have stacks of magazines lying around you might be asking yourself, “Where do I get images Maggie?“  Well, here is a little gift of 54 images: the ThirdThoughtImageDeck (beta version).  Simply print them out, cut them up and you’ll have your own little travel deck.

The Goddess Workbook and Calendar is a whimsical planner to invite a beautiful new year. It’s filled with over 100 pages of worksheets & a printable calendar to help you dream, manifest, set your intentions, plan & cultivate your amazing new year. The workbook has been lovingly handwritten & rainbow illustrated by Leonie who lives in Australia.  It’s perfect for you to print out, soak up the rainbow colors of & get thoroughly inspired by!  I get one every year and it makes me smile.

Five is a book I wish I’d worked on.  It’s a little more linear than the processes above and some of the questions are BIG.  Where will you be five years from today?

Happy Dreaming!

                                                                                   photo by Toni Blay

One part of my annual planning for the new year is Time Travel.  As I sit in my comfy chair next to the holiday lights I travel back through the past year and I travel forward to the year to come.

Looking Back

One easy way to travel back in time is to note the events, accomplishments and progress you’ve made over 2011.  I also like to record the spectacular failures–along with the accompanying lesson learned.  Just one long list.  Don’t do it in one sitting.  Add to it over the next few weeks.

Once you’ve got your list you can apply the traditional Stop/Start/Continue filter to it.   Excellent data for your Looking Forward list.

Another approach is to simply look by season.  Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall….what stands out?  What made you happy?  What made you discontented?

Where I Am NOW
Just like Bridget Jones in her New Year diary I like to take stock of my current state.  Weight is one obvious but banal catagory.

Usually this is a Gratitude list for me.  I count my blessings and make note of my world as it is now.

Looking Forward

This activity can take many forms and I’ll elaborate in my next post.  For now, consider what you want to be true at this time next year.  To prepare for this work you might like to read this poignant essay on The Top 5 Regrets In Life By Those About to Die

Don’t be afraid to dig deep.  Your life matters.