Creative Ways to Set Good Habits

On 9 April, I was spoke with Naishadh Gadani from Your Career Down Under about “Creative Ways to Set Good Habits” on the LinkedIn Live show that he usually co-hosts with Karalyn Brown from interviewiq

Please watch the replay below.

Natalia Walker of Inner Creative talking to Naishadh Gadani about Creative Ways to Set Good Habits on the Career Care Package LinkedIn Live

We talked about some easy ways to get started and build a habit. And I shared my version of the SMART goals acronym that is equally useful in creating a lasting habit.

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Why the world needs you to share your gifts right now

Inner Creative Blog- Why the world needs you to share your gifts right now

Last week I was called to make some art.

My heart was weary and I had a mild case of hay fever. So I decided to slow down and tune into my intuition as to what to do next. I got out my sponges and broom, put on an uplifting podcast and started to clean my house. The outer chaos started to feel clean and more spacious, and not surprisingly I was able to hear a small voice inside of me. It started to whisper, “make some art”. Continue reading

How many times can you start over?

Inner Creative blog How many times can you start over?
Sometimes starting can be easy.

 

I love starting out on a new project. It can be exiting and fun. In fact, so fun, that it’s easy to get caught up in doing all the dreaming, planning and researching that the ‘doing’ part falls to the wayside until another new idea catches our attention. Shiny New Object Syndrome, anyone? 🙂 But as I’ve recently discovered, it’s the willingness to start again that is so important when the going gets tough.

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The Creative Life of Karen Spencer – Scoobs ‘n’ Lishy

Welcome to the latest instalment of The Creative Life interview series!
The aim of this series is to shine a spotlight on how business owners incorporate their creativity across all aspects of their life, and gives some ‘behind the scenes’ insight into how they started and plan for their business.

Today I’d like to introduce you to Karen Spencer of Scoobs ‘n’ Lishy.

Karen is a mum of three and the creative force behind Scoobs ‘n’ Lishy, where she specialises in making bright and practical essentials for babies and beyond.

Karen Spencer featured in Inner Creative blog The Creative Life of Karen Spencer. innercreative.com.au. Image: Karen Spencer

Karen spencer with her scoobs’n’lishy bibs. Image: Karen spencer

There is more than meets the eye with Karen. Her business of bright baby and children’s goods is just the tip of her creativity outlets and talents. It was so exciting to discover some other hidden gems (but I don’t want to give anything away so you’ll have to read on :-)).

Karen is a true embodiment of her brand – practicality, brightness and happiness. I really appreciated Karen’s pragmatic approach to her creativity and business, especially how she fits it in around raising her family. I loved her ‘roll up your sleeves’ attitude of getting out there and doing something, without making it seem like hard work. If anything gets boring, Karen sees how she can add a sense of fun and enjoyment to whatever she does. So not surprisingly, Karen’s looking forward to launching a new range of colourful hair accessories that will celebrate diverse interests by including things like dinosaurs and trucks, because not all girls like pink sparkly unicorns (although some do, and that’s ok too!).

In this interview you’ll also find out how Karen:

  • avoids making work feel too much like ‘work’, and how being ‘selfish’ helps her break up monotony
  • balances efficiency with being spontaneous and following her interests
  • manages her expectations and gets into the flow
  • deals with risk and has the courage to leap and do what she wants to do.

So if you’re intrigued to learn more, let’s start… Continue reading

Creativity tool – Go random to do your problem solving

Are you stuck for ideas at work? Or have a problem you need to solve?
The easiest way to get inspiration for new ideas is to give our brain some new inputs and stimulation.* 
So go out and expose yourself to different places, people and things. And remember that you can take in this new information through any of your five senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell.

You can also create new ideas by combining old ideas in a new or random way.

One of my common approaches is to use metaphors and analogies to see a problem or situation from a different perspective.

Inner Creative Blog -Creativity tool - Be random to do your problem solving - Image: Paul Skorupskas

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