Creative thinking can generate ideas that can revolutionize organizational performance by accelerating problem solving and radically improving productivity. Google’s success is based on one simple creative thought: how to simplify search so that browsers can find answers to their questions with the input of a few words. Tony Buzan’s mind mapping techniques help students to make study productive by cutting out the background noise of too many words leaving you to focus on key concepts.

Thinking creatively helps shift paradigms. Thinking logically all the time may not work, because if you are thinking logically in the wrong area you will be going round and round in circles and will be unable to move forward.

Pakistan has a problem educating its massive and fast growing population. Its solution is to spend money building schools and training teachers. The reality is teachers don’t turn up and training sufficient teachers to meet the monumental demand will take forever. The answer lies in making a paradigm shift by using technology to bring world-class knowledge to every Pakistani student. Other countries are doing this but we seem to be stuck in the treacle of our logical approach. Many countries have made interactive learning part of their curricula. They’ve turned learning into fun activities incorporating play, music and self-testing into bit-size learning programs. The role of teachers has changed from monitors to facilitators.

Creative thinkers employ their right brain, which is one the most under used parts of our brain. There are many ways to stimulate your right brain such as listening to music, indulging in art, poetry, play and humour and adopting a positive and constructive approach to problem solving rather than criticizing.

Some tips for improving your ability to think creatively by stimulating your right brain: use humour in your problem solving, go for nature walks, appreciate the beauty around you, listen to music, focus on appreciating rather than criticizing, look for the good and value in what you hear, and most of all adopt a positive, constructive attitude to your life.

Where are you going today?

How are you going to get there?

Do you know that where you are going is completely up to you?

Speaking of where you are, how did you get there?

Did you have a plan, a road-map, or are you where you are today by happenstance? Did you just wake up with no real idea of how you got here?

Whether you know it or not: your freedom of choice has brought you to be where you are.

You have the freedom of choice and because you have chosen each and every circumstance of your life: your success and failure is completely within your grasp, your happiness and unhappiness, your present and future.

Everything that exists in your life exists because of you, because of your behavior, words and actions.

Here are a few examples of that:

1. Kate, a young woman from Russia. Six years ago Kate emigrated to this country. Completely unable to speak the English language, she now has a better command of the language than people who grew up here. This spring, she is starting college to get her degree in Accounting.
2. Aloha, a young woman in Florida, who is working as a waitress at a Waffle House. Aloha dropped out of high school because she had gotten pregnant. Now, with 2 small children, she hopes to someday get her GED and grow a better life for herself and her children.
3. Susan, a middle aged woman who did finish high school, but soon afterward had two children. Working smart and planning her trip, she retired from a career that culminated in an upper-level management position with a major national corporation.

Over 400 years before Christ, Socrates came up with what are known as basic laws of human life. One of them is called the Law of Cause and Effect. What that means is that for every effect in your life, there is a cause.

Let me explain: if you want a certain effect (end result), then you have to take certain steps (causes) to get that effect.

In our examples above, you see that each of the three women showed responsibility for their lives in different ways: Kate has a plan to make a new life for herself here in the States. Aloha has no real defined idea of where her life is, or is going, and Susan knew what it took to get where she wanted to go and followed that plan. She also has a plan for even greater success and achievement for the rest of her life.

Responsibility is the basic necessity to having the life you want and deserve.

When you accept that you are completely responsible for yourself and also that no one is coming to your rescue is the beginning of your road to success.
After you accept that, there is very little that you cannot do or have. “If it’s to be, it’s up to me!”

Success, achievement, motivation all come from your responsibility to yourself. Happiness and self-actualization are the end result from your responsible choices and planning.

Responsibility: It’s the absolute minimum requirement for everything you could ever really want in life.

What is your plan?

Goals, a bucket list, a place where you want to be in your life? You deserve a wonderful life, what are you doing to grow the life you deserve?

Think about it and tell me what you are doing to grow your life into the one you want and deserve?

Translate this with Babel Fish

It’s our nature to spend the last days of a year looking back at what we accomplished – and what we didn’t quite manage to finish – during the previous year. And while it’s valuable to give ourselves a pat on the back for what we’ve done, we often end up berating ourselves for our “failings”. And yet, how often did we expect something from ourselves without a realistic plan for how we’d get there? How often did we end up realizing that we didn’t have the needed skills, assistance, or time to reach our goals?

Most often, we create our goals like we create our New Year’s resolutions. “I’m going to lose 20 pounds before Memorial Day”, we say. Yet this isn’t a plan; it’s a dream. “I want to gain four more clients in the first quarter of the year”. “I want to double my sales by the end of the year”. Wonderful goals – and we certainly know when we’ve achieved them, as they’re easily measurable. But how manageable are they?

I invite you to consider this – if a goal is worth setting, then it’s worth planning and working for. Want to lose that 20 pounds? Fantastic! What will you be doing to get there? Do you need to find someone with more knowledge to help you, like a nutritionist, or a personal trainer? Do you need support from a coach, from a group like Weight Watchers, or from friends? How will you break your goal down into smaller, measurable chunks?

So your goal is to get more clients in 2010. Awesome! What number would mean “more” to you ? And how much support would you have to have in place to take on those new clients? How can you attract these clients? Do you need to try some new techniques, or do you need to put more effort into your existing outreach? How can you break down this goal so that you can celebrate your accomplishments along the way – will you set a goal to talk to three new people each week about your work, or will you commit to calling one old contact to network once a day? Explore how this can look, broken down, on your calendar.

Unfortunately, we often don’t get the guidance and training we need to set – and reach – our goals. This is where a great consultant, coach, or mentor can come in handy. Finding someone that understands what you want to accomplish and can help you get there is important to your eventual success; getting a cheering section of mentors, friends, and colleagues can help you stay motivated and keep moving forwards on your path to your goals.

With all the talk of doom and gloom over the past year I was surprised when, a few weeks ago, a local art gallery had a sign in the window saying, “Closed for Refurbishment”. ‘What a time to choose to spend your cash on a refurb – for an art gallery’, I thought to myself. Slowly but surely it dawned on me that it was not a refurb for the art gallery but one for the expansion of the neighbouring bistro/cafe. It got me thinking about what makes one business do so well it expands, in a recession, whilst others struggle or close down?

I went in the other day and all was revealed. I nearly fell over when a normally more reserved waiter announced, in excited tones, that the expansion was complete and would I like to go in and take a look. I duly obliged and, equally enthusiastically, said I thought it was great.

This bistro is busy (mostly full), quite literally, morning, noon and night. The clientele are from all life stages; local business owners, young mothers, retired seniors; men, women and children. It is in a leafy suburb with a village feel.

It opens in the morning for breakfast and, until recently, had a very expensive lunch menu. At the start of the downturn the owner acted quickly and started to open at night offering a special menu deal of two courses and a glass of wine for €20 per head. The menu offers enough choice to the customer but is narrow enough to be manageable to accommodate two sittings 7 nights a week. Recently, he added a special lunch offer thereby appealing to more customers and helping to pay for the expansion no doubt.

Meanwhile, over the road just a few streets away, another restaurant offers mediocre food, grumpy staff and higher prices. It’s empty most of the day and offers three courses for €30 but who wants three courses most of the time they go out especially during the week? I and a few friends have, independently I might add, given it one last chance ages ago! The last time I was there I complained about the food and they just shrugged. Verdict: Lovely surroundings, poor food, poor price point and poor service.

So why is the former business expanding without any marketing or website, whilst the latter (part of a small, well known group) is losing customers hand over fist?

Well, in my opinion it’s this (and it applies to any business, product or service). It offers:

• Superior and consistent customer service, delivery and presentation
• The right price point for the various clientele at the right time of day
• The right/most appropriate menus for the time of day
• The wisdom to invest in the business in a way that engages both the customers and the staff so that it feel like a pleasant, positive place to be

The customers will pay for the extension, whilst the staff is willing and happy to serve. The owner, meanwhile, seems to be behind the cash register less and out talking to his customers more. So it’s a win/win for everyone.

In your business or workplace you don’t necessarily need to build an extension or spend enormous amounts of your budget to make improvements that can have a long-term effect. Sometimes it can be as simple as standing back and looking at what you are cutting, spending and the impact it will have on your customers, staff and long-term prospects.

Wishing you all Season’s Greetings and a Peaceful and Prosperous 2010.

IdeaFisher Business Software Offers Full Suite of Powerful Business Management Tools – http://bit.ly/IdeaFisherBusinessSoftware

Complete Business and Creativity Software Suite

IdeaFisher provides business management tools for Startups and MBAs by asking 1000s of expertly targeted questions. Provides creative support with a unique 8 million-element association engine and a 3,000,000+ image database. 250 man-years in development, with input from some of the world’s most highly-degreed and well-known talent. Now this powerful business companion lives on in the form of ThoughtOffice.

Portland, OR December 16, 2009 (PressReleasePivot) — Business Process development and management are important topics right now. A number of software solutions have been developed to meet the current demands of helping business improve their bottom line by improving their business processes. ThoughtOffice Business Software meets this demand effectively and elegantly. According to Mark Alan Effinger, founder and CEO of ThoughtOffice, “The brainstorming software products offered by ThoughtOffice Corporation are specifically designed to support both startups and established firms by applying 16 separate and extremely focused question & answer modules (containing a total of thousands of questions), coupled with a 9 million+ word and phrase reference system. The system has been proven to reach into a user’s long-term memory, helping them solve problems faster and more naturally. This technology, with its clean, straightforward approach, is proving remarkably valuable to the new breed of business people who are expected to have a working knowledge of many different disciplines”.

ThoughtOffice Business Software works by asking the business person hundreds of questions on various topics related to key areas of business. ( http://bit.ly/BusinessSolutionsProgram ) A complete bundle of software containing all modules is currently available as ThoughtOffice CEO. The modules cover all major components of business including developing effective business plans, developing and implementing an effective advertising an marketing campaign, PR, product development, conflict resolution, business strategies, and more. Each module contains anywhere from 300 to over 2000 key questions that guide the user from the foundational basics to more in-depth processes. By starting with an intelligent framework of questions prior to tackling the problem at hand, CEOs, MBAs and managers are able to drill-down to solutions much faster, and spend more time refining solutions and implementing effective business processes.

“The second part of the ThoughtOffice program is where you really create the answers,” says David Lockman, Product Specialist for ThoughtOffice. “Having access to over 9 million elements in the Associative Word and Phrase search engine allows you to delve deeply into the mind to resolve issues, and develop radically distinctive responses. General Motors, NASA, 3M, Xerox, Mattel, Chiat/Day, IBM and Apple Computer all use our program to resolve their business process challenges creatively. We have users at every Ivy League university, and we’ve received very exciting reports of CEOs and grad students learning the process of creative thinking faster and better than ever before. If it works for them, then it can positively help others in need of effective solutions to their problems.” ( http://bit.ly/CompleteBusinessSoftware )

ThoughtOffice CEO Business Software works by providing an organizer in which to collect images, ideas, concepts, and questions. Content can be added directly on the page, or pulled in from one of two additional palettes: the Topics Browser and the IdeaBrowser.  The Topics Browser is loaded with modules that you either purchase separately or as a bundle which are packaged to meet your specific business needs.  These modules contain anywhere from 300 to 2500 questions each.  By simply adding just 10 to 20 thought-provoking focused questions from one of the 16 topic modules, you can easily drill down on a problem to find effective solutions, or come up with new creative ideas.   Brand it.  Then share it with your colleagues or clients.  ( http://bit.ly/ExpertBusinessCoach ) The second palette is the IdeaBrowser that provides access to over 9.8 million words, images, lyrics, definitions, synonyms, quotes, associations, rhyming words, etc… These elements are placed into a Queue, then added into the main ThoughtOffice interface.

ThoughtOffice business software packages begin at $97 for the entry-level suite, with one module, to $497 for the ThoughtOffice executive suite, equipped with all 16 available expert modules.

About ThoughtOffice:

ThoughtOffice Corporation is a Portland, OR firm focused on innovation and creativity solutions for 21st Century business. The company is founded by a one-time Inc. 500 company executive and nine-time serial entrepreneur. Past development projects include IdeaFisher, QuickyMart eCommerce software and ThoughtOffice, the next generation brainstorming software. The management team and advisors are focused on helping companies innovate faster, better and with real purpose. Call 360-450-6888, e-mail info@thoughtoffice.com, or visit http://www.ThoughtOffice.com for more information or to connect with management, sales & support staff.

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Looking off across a landscape that is at first glance both stunningly beautiful and incredibly daunting is a bit like looking at our days sometimes.

In that first glance, we see either the absolute beauty before us or the challenges that lie ahead.

Now…

If you put those challenges in perspective, the beauty is still there, but the challenge isn’t quite as great.

Go take a new look at the challenges before you. Look at them, not as the whole wide panorama, but as that first tree you have to simply walk around to start conquering your challenge.

A brilliant ad by The Sun newspaper.

The Quality of Your Business=The Quality of Your Questions

To remain innovative in today’s marketplace, you need radical approaches to existing problems. The new ThoughtOffice Innovation Software, an extension of the popular IdeaFisher program, provides several proven processes for vertical and lateral thinking.  It also comes equipped with an organizer to speed the creation of real, useful ideas. This program is built on the principles of creativity to productivity, a proven method that moves ideas out of the ether and into the market as real-world solutions.

Portland, OR December 13, 2009 (PressReleasePivot) — Business Innovation Software can be the key to breakthroughs that drive your bottom line revenue, enhance your brand message, and polarize your customers. It can drive vertical process by systematically “drilling-down” on a concept while also applying Lateral Thinking.  A newly updated product from a Portland, Oregon firm called ThoughtOffice Corporation combines both elements in a fast, simple to use program. One that can help you accelerate innovation to accelerate your creativity to productivity in as little as 30 minutes.

“We believe the innovation process should go from the very germ of an idea through the point at which the idea is proven in the market — at least in terms of a business innovation,” says Mark Alan Effinger, CEO of ThoughtOffice Corporation, a Portland, Oregon based innovation software firm. ( http://www.thoughtoffice.com ) “We call it ‘Creativity to Productivity’ or ‘Concept to Cashflow’ when it comes to the product innovation process. Good ideas should solve problems and create real revenue opportunities.”

ThoughtOffice Innovation Software works by providing an organizer in which to collect images, ideas, concepts, and questions. Content can be added directly on the page, or pulled in from one of two additional palettes: ( http://bit.ly/ThoughtOfficeTopicsBrowser )

• The Topics Browser - a set of 16 Topic Modules containing from 250-2,500 questions each. These modules provide series of questions and topical “setups” along with accompanying images to help systematically drill down on any given subject. Modules available include Advertising, Marketing, Conflict-Resolution and Evaluation of Ideas.
• The IdeaBrowser - a palette that provides access to over 9.8 million words, images, lyrics, definitions, synonyms, quotes, associations, rhyming words, etc… These elements are placed into a Queue, then added into the main ThoughtOffice interface.

By simply adding just 10 to 20 thought-provoking focused questions from one of the 16 Topic Modules, you can easily drill down on a problem or come up with new creative ideas and solutions. Brand it. Then share it with your colleagues or clients in as little as 30 minutes.

“Brainstorming and innovation software should get out of the way, so the user can explore ideas quickly and effortlessly. We believe the way ThoughtOffice works helps accomplish that goal, while still delivering significant creative input,” according to Chipp Walters, lead developer of the ThoughtOffice architecture. “By separating the lateral thinking engine from the systematic engine as palettes, we’ve reduced the noise and improved the user experience. Clients such as Homeland Security, NASA, Apple and Novartis have responded well to the way the program works. And we’re continuing to develop the process. Innovation Software is a moving target as we constantly learn more about how the mind works.”

ThoughtOffice owes its origins to the work of Marsh Fisher, founder of IdeaFisher, and interviews conducted with over 800 business and creative leaders worldwide. The program is infinitely extensible, allowing the incorporation of new Topic Modules and IdeaBrowser Search Tabs at any time. ( http://bit.ly/IdeaFisherSoftwareUpgrade )

ThoughtOffice programs start at $97, with plug-in Topic Modules beginning at $29. The program comes complete with 9 IdeaTabs and the Evaluator Topic Module, as well as the complete ThoughtOffice Brainstorming System.

About ThoughtOffice:

ThoughtOffice Corporation is a Portland, OR firm focused on innovation and creativity solutions for 21st Century business. The company is founded by a one-time Inc. 500 company executive and nine-time serial entrepreneur. Past development projects include IdeaFisher, QuickyMart eCommerce software and ThoughtOffice, the next generation brainstorming software. The management team and advisors are focused on helping companies innovate faster, better and with real purpose. Call 360-450-6888, e-mail info@thoughtoffice.com, or visit http://www.ThoughtOffice.com for more information or to connect with management, sales & support staff.

# # #

Realize the potential of a good website

Early in the life of South Hills we realized the need to have a good website, and as our church has grown, so has our website adapted to meet our needs.  Our website is a priority to us at both South Hills and Celera Group, as a website will often be someones first impression of your organization.  If you have a poor web presence (or none at all) it could be a huge detriment to your church.  The following is an excerpt from an article found at www.internetevangelismday.com/church-growth.php I encourage you to visit their website, as you will find much more detailed information there.

Making church sites into evangelistic tools

1.Most church websites are designed entirely for their members, or unwittingly exclude non-Christians because of their choice of language and content.
2.A good church site must communicate with three very different target groups:
3.This ‘three-way stretch’ is a challenge, but can be achieved.
4.Take time to consider the needs and viewpoints of non-Christians.
5.Avoid all ‘churchy’ jargon and ‘Christianese’ language throughout the site, especially on the homepage.
6.Non-Christians may have negative images of Christians: boring, killjoys, judgmental, etc.
7.Christian outreach often fails because Christians do ‘megaphone proclamation’ from behind the protecting walls of their ‘ghetto’.
8.A primary task of the website is to convince non-Christians of these four things:
9.Do not think of your church site in isolation, merely as a stand-alone online brochure.
10.Church is people: the home page should have at least one photo of a church member. This is absolutely foundational to good communication, yet infrequently done.
11.Internal pages on the site can include photos of both outside and inside of the church building.
12.Include some ‘meet our members’ pages.
13.All links, page titles, and sub-headings should sound enticing.
14.If testimonies are used, they should be completely free of religious jargon, exaggeration and sentimentality.
15.Consider a ‘New to this site?’ visitors link on your homepage. This enables you to offer a particular welcome to an outsider.
16.Games and fun stuff are attractive and make a site sticky.
17.Consider adding some ‘bridging’ pages to the site.
18.Involve your church members in praying and supporting the web design team, and ‘owning’ the site.
19.Demonstrate a specific welcome for people with disability.
20.Summing up: the overall impression of the site must of a gentle, loving, enticing welcome. But…
21.Sadly, it is this issue of welcome and assimilation that frequently breaks down.
22.The context of your country, area and culture may lead you to apply these principles in different ways.
23.Church websites are not the only form of web evangelism.

Design

24.Your church site will be the first point of contact for many people in your community. First impressions count.
25.Do not place too much information on your homepage.
26.And all important information should be ‘above the fold’.
27.Avoid ‘churchy’ graphics – open Bibles, stained glass windows, doves, candles. And appeals for money.
28.Use at least one graphic of a person’s face on the homepage.
29.A 3-column layout is often the most suitable for a church site.
30.Never use an introductory ‘splash page’.
31.Every page should display the same overall appearance, with the same navigation options in the same place.
32.All links, menu options and buttons should be clearly identified as ‘active’ – they should change color when hovered.
33.If you use Javeascript for any effects, ensure everything on the site still works for those with Javascript disabled.
34.Don’t use frames for site design.
35.Learn how to use ‘include’ files – a great time-saver.
36.Also learn how to use CSS.
37.Use colors correctly: understand how to choose a color scheme, how colors relate to each other, and what mood they communicate.
38.Don’t use patterned graphic backgrounds behind body text.
39.Consider a ‘liquid’ page design: the content should flow naturally and fit together, at any screen resolution (i.e. size of the monitor screen measured in pixels) or reasonable font resize by a user.
40.And don’t put ‘best viewed at resolution’ or ‘best viewed in browser Y’ on your website.
41.Don’t include ‘mailto’ email addresses in plain coding on the site.
42.Your site need not be large or complex.
43.Don’t leave out-of-date content online.
44.Use several people to proof-read for typos and poor grammar.
45.Make your pages printer-friendly.
46.Take time to assess your target audience, their interests, needs and circumstances.
47.Not least, pray – both for planning and implementation.

Your church webmaster/team

48.A church webmaster or team needs a clear job description.
49.What if there is no-one technical in your church, to take on the webmaster role? You can use a pre-designed template system. These also answer the problem of what to do if the only technical person in the church moves on, leaving a website that no-one really knows how to update. Follow ‘Extra’ for a listing of providers and how to assess the features they offer.
50.A larger church site can benefit from ‘CMS’ – Content Manegment which enables multiple users to keep the site updated.
51.Learn from others. Help is only a mouse-click away.

Readability

52.For normal body text, use black font on a white or near-white background.
53.Do not used fixed font size in your coding.

54.Therefore make all font sizes relative, so that users can resize text if they wish.
55.Choice of fonts is important. The Verdana font is designed for computer monitors, and is widely perceived as the most readable for body text.
56.Understand how to make your site user-friendly to color-blind and visually-impaired visitors.
Testing
57.Test your site from a technical viewpoint in different browsers, and at different screen resolutions.
58.Also test your site with real first-time users. Remember, you know your site backwards. They do not.
59.Find non-Christians to critique your site. Yes, non-Christians! They are your primary target audience.

Navigation and usability

60.Good navigation allows a first-time non-technical visitor to move round your site easily.
61.Good navigation gives visitors constant clues to fulfill the vital requirements: ‘Where am I, where have I been, and where can I go’. Many websites, of all types, fail to be effective because they lack a good intuitive navigation system.

62.Do not offer too many links in your navigation menu.

63.You can use ‘paper prototyping’ to plan different ways of structuring links within the site.
-evangelism.com/resources/starting.php]
64.Make sure your pages download quickly.
Being found – online and physically
65.The title tages  in the head of your homepage, which should contain the full name of the church, plus town, state and country.
66.Your church name, street, town, area/state, country and phone number should also appear in unabbreviated form in a small font in the footer of your homepage (or preferably every page).
67.Submit your church site to main search engines and secular directories.
68.Make every page of your site a logical entry point to your site.
69.Framed Pages present problems to being listed in search engines.

70.Ensure the church URL is easy to remember. Take every opportunity to give it a high profile.

71.Make full use of press releases to local newspapers and radio stations. These should always include your URL. Larger churches can consider publishing regular news using an ‘RSS’ feed.

72.Include clear directions for finding the church. Give details of parking, public transport links, and a map.

Responding to emails

73.Ensure that every day, someone reads incoming emails to the church.
74.Some people may be emailing for help on serious life issues.
75.It need not necessarily be the pastor or pastor’s secretary that does this, especially out of hours.

One last thought… A good website does not have to cost a fortune. A good website can be very simple,and there are great website templates out there, and designers who will give a church a break. Remember, since it is the web, you don’t have to limit yourself to designers in your area.

Until next time,

Chris Sonksen

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Visitors are increasingly checking out churches online before walking into a service.”
– Tom Harper of ChurchCentral.com

There was one thing on which this world has been built. That one thing has been the back bone for the development of many civilizations. That single thing has been the reason that one country with all its latest technology in warfare could colonize another primitive country.

That single thing was responsible for all the riches of successful men and women who walked on this planet since the recorded and unrecorded history!

This one thing even helped the cavemen and women.

What? Even the cavemen and women! Yes cavemen and women. If it weren’t for that “One thing” we would still be like them, this whole world.

And that one thing is, simply put: “IDEA”. Yes “ideas” are the most important “Magic Aladdin carpets” that takes you to enormous heights and make your life ride an enjoyable one by the way of large compensations in all forms for you in addition to a sense of contribution in you.

Ideas are the biggest capital for any success aspiring man or woman.

Everything around us are once ideas in the minds of some people who took the pain and “action steps” to translate those ideas into realities.

Microsoft Windows was once just an idea that was sitting expectantly in a corner in Bill gates mind.

“Airplane” was an idea before it pounced and attacked the paper to be recorded and thought about by the Wright Brothers!

“Youtube.com” was an idea that was a small blip of an idea in the minds of its founders Steve Chen, Chad Hurley and Jawed Karim.

Before these men accomplished the big things they generated ideas that could take the country by storm and after generating the ideas they acted upon them to develop them, to perfect them and importantly execute them successfully.

“Generate potential ideas first and then wait for your ideas to generate you many life rewards”

You have the same kind of imagination to generate any number of ideas. You are no inferior to anyone and could do marvelous things when you start to think of your business or job in terms of producing great life-changing or life-enhancing ideas.

When you become a man or woman who always generate ideas, your life would unfold in such a way you had least expected. You can create new ideas in your business or job, in your personal relationship, in the way you live, in the way you raise your kids, etc. Every improvement comes from a better idea.

Innovation and inventions have benefited by millions and millions of ideas from millions of people all over the globe. And the “Idea generation” has become more crucial than ever before today.

What we have seen so far in this world would be surpassed by new ideas that are going to be generated in the days to come. So let us start contributing our part by generating new innovative ideas in every area of our life.

Japanese are renowned for their innovative strategies. They were the country which nobody thought could give a comeback after they had been hit by the “Little boy” the atomic bomb. However… how could they give a miraculous comeback like a phoenix bird reviving itself from ashes!

They had faith in themselves first… then they worked as a unit… and finally they generated ideas after ideas to make their country a world leader once again.

Did they make it? You bet!

If you want your country to be a great nation in the world let your country’s each citizen realize the importance of new ideas and let it start from you, now!

Not only you’ll become a successful man or woman in your life but your country would become a much developed nation as a whole and that’s 2-in-1 victory! For you and your country!!

For the last 2 centuries  the thinking intensity and generating ideas among the people all over the globe have been on a gradual decline. This means the number of people who think independently has been always successful and small in number when compared to the huge population who have chosen to “think superficially”.

But you can join the high ranks now and start making full use of your brain power to generate ideas after ideas for earning and for good life!

That’s what Socrates did, Andrew Carnegie did, Charles Schwab did, J.K.Rowling did and every successful people did on our planet.

One great way to capture ideas is to keep a journal handy so that we could enslave an idea when it shows up. Also there are lots of books that teach how to generate ideas which could teach one how to generate limitless ideas in every area of their life.

All you need is a good idea to transform your life and it may come in any form from any source. Who knows today may be the day that you generate that great idea!

Wish you all the riches to come with God’s blessings

Peter Anand

Last week I downloaded Wale’s first full album, Attention Deficit, and I think it’s great. Apparently, it’s a “backpacker’s” album (says my hip hop head friend), but I think it’s really catchy. If you don’t know what a backpacker is I suggest looking it up, because I don’t even REALLY understand it all. I enjoy hip hop a lot, but I’m not a hip hop head.

Anyways, back to Wale.

I think the album is great. I downloaded his mixtape a while back and listened to it all summer. There isn’t anything too special, but I find his songs pretty catchy and fun to listen to. One song off Attention Deficit that caught my auditory cortex was Mirrors. It’s got a great beat, a fun hook, and just a strong tone – especially for someone looking for a good running song. It’s a great running song.

So for my post on this frosty Friday morning I would like to introduce you to Wale and his album, Attention Deficit.

Have a listen to Mirrors and let me know what you think.

Happy Friday!

By Dou Ribu, Urban Designer, Brisbane City Council

Urban designers are faced with a constant fact: unused or leftover spaces litter our urban environments. Some are associated with large pieces of urban infrastructure, others are the backs (and sometimes even the fronts) of buildings, and some are found in parks and places that should be full of people.

As our cities grow, the highest priority seems to be creating housing for the continuous influx of people.  This diverts our attention from creating new communities, revitalising older areas and managing the systems and infrastructure that support them. Such is the focus on these that there is a tendency to overlook our unused spaces. What we, as a society, don’t often consider is that these spaces can contribute to or strengthen public places, increasing the vibrancy and economy of communities. It just requires a level of commitment and a healthy dose of creative thinking.

The Rebecca Walk

Rebecca Walk is, or at least used to be, one of these places. Located on Batman Park at the northern bank of the Yarra, Rebecca Walk represents the latest creative utilisation of unused space in Melbourne. As an integral part of Northbank Place, Far Eastern Consortium worked closely with the Melbourne City Council to plan, design and build this extension of the development under the elevated railway lines connecting Southern Cross and Flinders Street Stations.

Retail demountable "pods" underneath the railway line

Rebecca Walk is defined by its built form: the precinct consists of 16 tenancies in architecturally-designed retail/service demountable pods, all opening out onto Batman Park and the Yarra River. The pods, ranging from 24m² to 232m², are marketed towards start-up and established small commercial retailers, specialty food shops and, especially, small creative businesses that would benefit from a prominent shopfront with low rental rates. According to its developers, the Northbank Place and Rebecca Walk precincts will “look toward changing the pedestrian patterns…through the extension of pedestrian access from the Princes Bridge and Melbourne Aquarium to Spencer Street.” No doubt the development will do this. The implication however, in terms of establishing precedence for the use of urban space is much greater!

The Rebecca Walk at twilight

Rebecca Walk represents a new step in how we manage leftover and unused spaces in our cities. The idea of using demountables to occupy and activate spaces is not revolutionary, but the way Rebecca Walk is designed and built demonstrates what careful planning and ‘outside-the-box’ thinking can achieve.  The implication of this project is indeed considerable. Its design is definitely not limited to Melbourne but carries significant relevance to how we use our own urban areas in Brisbane.

Photos are copyright Glenn Hester www.glennhester.com.au 2009

With some intelligent cost-cutting and creative thinking, Christmas need not drain your wallet this year – or be any less satisfying than in years past.

Read on and apply these 12 tips for enjoying a great Christmas on a small budget!

Source:
http://www.billshrink.com/blog/christmas-on-a-budget/

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein

As humans, we tend to do all we can to suppress negative emotions. We do this because we don’ t want to

• focus on what scares us
• unleash our own anger
• admit we are wrong
• be responsible for sorting things out

We therefore blame others. By transferring our negative thoughts about ourselves onto others, we can justify our own behaviour.

We have to start forgiving ourselves for being human and making mistakes because there is not a human alive who does not make mistakes.

If you keep doing what you have always done, you will keep getting what you have always got.

You have to change in order to get something different.  Only you can change you.

Lets make it our motto to “Stop Blaming and Start Living”. Take responsibility for your actions.

National Geographic has revealed the winners for its 2009 International Photography Contest.

As someone who recently took an interest into photography I think this is pretty cool. My two favourites are the peppermint shrimp and the manatee. Cool lighting, difficult shots, and awesome colours.

Check it out.

Okay, so before you freak out and think that I’m some sort of stalker – I’m not. Or maybe I am.

With so much potential to be in the know today you have the ability to find and follow creativity, inspiration, and individuals to learn from. Which is why I have a twitter account (typeads) and it’s why I use it to follow some pretty cool people and websites.

One person I follow is thecoolhunter, who is a group of individuals that find cool stuff online, in the street, and around the globe. One post this morning was this really cool Coke Cola spot from Ogilvy, Sydney. It’s very summery and leaves you feeling pretty happy about the brand. Cool spot. Check it out.

Caught this sight from The Cool Hunter – a must follow for all trend geeks – and it is pretty neat. Imagine how cool your street would look if garbage bags had nice pictures on them? A little more pleasant than stinky, I feel.

I wonder how advertisers could use this media. Definitely something to think about for a cool guerrilla campaign. Too bad Toronto started making us use those plastic bins.

Check out the pic below!