The thing is though, they really are important, and really can get you some awesome achievements if you stick to them. But how to stick to them? Sometimes it’s hard to motivate ourselves towards goals.

The reason for this is probably that you haven’t set your goal posts wide enough, and you’re simply not aiming for something that moves you. Another reason could be that, even though you’ve set yourself a big goal, deep down you lack the belief that the goal really is for you.

To get round this, and to really motivate you, create a ‘career-shifter goal’.

This is a major goal that, were you to achieve it, it would noticeably change your own career for the good. Such a goal might be to write a best-selling book, get on the radio, work with a particular dream client, and so on.

This is the kind of goal that will re-kindle any sense of excitement you have about what you do.

Spend some time thinking about the goal. Make sure the prospect of achieving it is something that really excites you and make sure it has a specific deadline. Often this one goal will help you reach other goals associated with your business too.

Here are some more ‘career-shifter’ goal ideas:

• Have a solo gallery exhibition of your work by Sept 13th 2013
• Host an event by 1st January 2015
• Sell 50 products in a month by March 1st 2014
• Win a BAFTA by January 30th 2017
• Write a newspaper article by Sept 1st 2014
• Work with a fortune 500 company by February 3rd 2015
• Get 5000 hits on YouTube by December 24th 2012
• Receive fanmail by July 23rd 2016

Best of luck! What career-shifter goals will you set?

Is it doing your admin? Is it promoting your work by calling up people? Is it exercising in between long desk-based creative sessions? I’ll be willing to bet doing absolutely noting at all is actually something you barely do.

When was the last time you stopped everything you were doing and just stopped thinking and doing?

Sit there. Relax yourself. Be with yourself. Observe anything that comes to mind.

See how you feel when you do ten minutes of this. You will be motivated.

’9 Steps to Being Your Most Powerful Creative Self’

The book has received a great deal of praise from major players in the creative industries and elsewhere.

“Alex’s book gives vital focus to those that create in the blur between chaos and creativity. An important guide for those looking to take risks and dream big.”

Fabien Riggall, Founder & Creative Director, Future Shorts, Future Cinema

“I admire Alex for making it a priority to organize his creative insights in long form. It’s an uncommon practice these days, to make time for writing, and I’m better because he shared his with me.”

Zach Klein, Founder and CEO, Vimeo

I’m sharing the book with you at a specially 30% reduced launch price until the end of Friday this week, September 9th only, so you need to be quick to take advantage of this.

Go here to read more about, and purchase the book, along with some hugely valuable free bonuses.

Enjoy it and best of luck!

–

Want to earn some money from helping me promote the book?

If you’d like to become an affiliate and make earnings of 50% on each book you can sell, have a look here.

Obviously, as creative people, stunted creativity, and the lack of productivity, and strength of mind and character that come with it, is something to address and reduce.

Buy the book, available from Wednesday, September 7th, here.

Here are ten ways that we are harming our creativity, often without even knowing it:

1. Lacking belief in the value of your own work

If you are not confident, not only about yourself as a person, but about your own work, your own brand and the style you do things in, you will not be able to attain a level of creativity that many true creative masters and successful creative professionals have reached.

“An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail.”

Edwin Land

2. Failing to work with your strengths

A lot of people spend far too much time trying to fix their weaknesses and the problems they already have, instead of looking to one’s strengths to move forward on various projects.

Finding effective creativity is difficult if you are ignoring what you can do well.

3. Not knowing your style

It would seem that only working within a specific style would restrict one’s creativity. For creative people who haven’t found their style, whether that be an illustrative style or musical style, for example, one’s ability to be creative and original actually becomes limited.

“Out of limitation comes creativity.”

Debbie Allen

4. Being surrounded by distractions

Distractions inhibit our ability to spend quality, unobstructed time on creative projects, as well as clouding our mind and reducing our ability to concentrate on tasks. This is an obvious one, but only requires some quick changes to put right.

5. Thinking too much

The analogy that is often made about one’s mind being like that of a garden is very true. Without a certain amount of control and ‘weeding’, our thoughts can get the better of us and fuzz over our ability to think clearly.

Clarity of thought with less conscious thought is a crucial element to powerful creativity.

6. Not managing our physical energy

It’s very easy to neglect our own bodies, and lower energy levels in the process, through, for example, prioritizing actually doing creative work without break and staying idol over developing positive habits that our bodies benefit from.

Staying in all day to work on a project whilst drinking coffee and eating cake ring any bells?

7. Not regularly training your creative brain

Creative growth, and thus a powerful creative mind, come from constantly pushing one’s ability out of its comfort zone. A lot of us might think that when we are being creative through working on our various projects or painting a picture, for example, that we are exercising our creativity.

To an extent yes, but for the most part, if the work you do is similar to what you do a lot (and feels comfortable), you’re not developing your creative mind properly. This requires active participation in things, not passive.

8. Restricting your network of creative people

The saying that two brains are better than one ring true here, in that having a network of people you can refer to, ask questions of, share and collaborate with will add a great deal of clout to your creative power and confidence.

This idea is something that is often ignored as anything of value, but in a world in which people are more connected than ever, its potential to increase your own power is massive.

So that’s it, and hopefully you have some things to think about (obviously not too much or it’ll harm your creativity!).

Buy the new ebook, which talks about how to be a bolder, more focused, more innovative and more productive creative genius in much more detail.

Here’s an early review from Senior User Experience Designer at Microsoft, Darwin Yamamoto:

Be a finisher.

It isn’t working hard that causes fatigue over time. Not completing your projects is the real source of fatigue and energy loss because through not finishing, the sense of satisfaction and reward is lacking that we require to boost us up.

Get used to finishing things and being aware of the importance of doing so. Set smaller projects within projects to help you gain a sense at least, of finishing more.

Prioritize the need to finish whatever project you set out on, and you will be driven to succeed.

Paul Thegard at the University of Waterloo’s Department of Psychology holds that creative thinking involves combining neural patterns into new ones that are simultaneously useful and novel.

He does admit, though, that the scientific community has little understanding of the mechanisms that allow people to be creative. This mystery adds to the enjoyment found in discovering one’s own creative potential.

Any human mind could be harboring a musical genius, a beautiful writing style, a charismatic magnet, or a brilliant artist and not even know it. Exploratory techniques must be employed to bring these talents to the surface.

Narrowing It Down

Chances are that if a person possesses hidden creative potential, it has made itself known from time to time in little ways.

Something as simple as an eloquently written letter to a business that surprised even the writer or an elaborate doodle drawn during a long wait in the doctor’s office that brought forth compliments could have caused the person to wonder if, just maybe, they had hidden talent.

Educating the Genius

Though a talent is defined as “a marked innate ability,” a bit of education can go a long way towards helping this talent reach its full potential. With just a few simple art classes, a person who drew quite well before could suddenly become a painter of great portraits or landscapes.

Education gives an artist the tools necessary for a great career or hobby. The amateur photographer whose photos always garnered recognition could, with a few classes, become a professional whose services are in great demand and whose career is set.

The writer who could craft eloquent letters could take creative writing courses and grow into a great novelist. Education is the food on which infant creative potential feeds and the transforming agent by which it matures into fully developed ability.

Invisible Talent

Innate abilities or intuition must be developed and used in order for the creative potential of an individual to be realized. The details of why an individual possesses certain abilities do not have to be understood in order to be appreciated.

Unlike Paul Thegard’s combined scientific neural patterns, the necessity of education and action for creative development is no mystery.

This guest article was contributed by Jennifer Bell from Health Training Guide. Check out her site to learn more about medical billing and coding training and other exciting health careers.

Do you ever wonder whether you have the inner power, the steady hand, the outstanding talent, the self control, to be truly great at something?

By the word ‘great’, I’m not talking about it in the overused, watered-down sense of the word ‘great’, but in the sense that will allow you to reach a point in your life where you feel glory, real triumph at what you have achieved, when you look back at the trail left behind you.

This does not necessarily mean fame and fortune, but could just mean you reach a level of unmatched excellence in the work you do.

The fact is, if you do want a shot at true greatness, your talent, your superior communication skills, your parents, and your strong marketing sense alone will not get you there. As much as you may find comfort in the thought, other people will not get you there either.

Undoubtedly, a commonality shared amongst those that have achieved greatness in some way, whether the architect Lord Foster, painter Pablo Picasso, or daredevil Evel Knievel, is the possession of an extremely clear vision of what they want in life.

This is a defined vision, or aim, that stands above all others, and so guides most, if not all, of what you do. Without a clear picture of greatness in your head, it becomes very difficult to achieve it. Without it, you lack the sense of progress you are making towards the vision, and you become aimless.

To define what I call your ‘chief aim’, which can be reduced down to a single written sentence, you need to ask yourself a few questions.

These include but are not restricted to:

• What do I want my life to look like?
• What do want to be doing day to day?
• How would I want to be remembered?
• What would I like to be doing 5 years, 10 years, 20 years from now?
• How would I like people to think about me?
• What would I like to say I truly know about myself and about my life?
• What specifically would I like to learn during my life?
• How much do I need to be able to do the things I want to do?

The purpose of these questions is to allow you to gather all those things that excite you and motivate you so that you can formulate your own ‘chief aim’ sentence. Once you’ve answered these questions, don’t get rid of them, because they will act as motivators in their own right. Your chief aim should be detailed, but kept within one sentence. For example:

I want to be respected and known within my industry, wealthy, yet with time to enjoy the world, creating work that inspires and changes the lives of others.

The trick is to keep reminding yourself of this one sentence so that you stay on the right track.

Good luck on your path to greatness!

When we are at the point of requiring to come up with a new idea, be it for the design of a building, writing a screenplay, illustrating a character, or composing music, it often proves a difficult task, simply because we are trying to be creative.

We are putting effort into creating something new, searching for inspiration online, in magazines, procrastinating, hitting ‘mental blocks’ and simply struggling.

So when we do eventually give up trying to generate a big idea, it is during those unexpected moments we so often claim to reach them. These moments may be lying awake at night, in the shower, whilst cooking food or out for a run.

It is in moments like these that we can be at our most creative, simply because we are not trying to be, and this is the contradictory nature of the game we are in.

“Mental clarity will eventually lead to strong idea generation.”

More often than not, we are constricted by time in coming up with new ideas in ways that work, especially when we are faced with work deadlines. If this is the case, there is a way to generate ideas in minutes through the process of simple meditation.

Forget any preconceptions you have about meditation being religious, spiritual, ‘for hippies’, and so on. We are talking about just getting comfortable and focusing on breathing for at least 5 minutes. Meditation will allow you to become detached from wandering thought and, interestingly, can reveal to you new ideas in the process.

Here is how to do this:

- Sit upright somewhere that is comfortable, and distraction free.

- Relax the entire body, but keep the spine straight, to prevent you from falling asleep if you are drowsy.

- Focus on a point directly in front of you slightly above eye level or close your eyes.

- Commit to coming up with an idea for anything you like, it might be for the project you are working on. Just commit to it.

- Now spend at least 5 minutes focusing on your breathing, becoming aware of any thoughts that come up and allow them to wash past you.

If you become engaged with any thought, simply drop it and let it pass. The object of this exercise is to be unattached to thought.

-  Do this for as long as you like, focusing on your breathes and being aware, but detached from any thought.

- You’ll find that such mental clarity will eventually lead to strong idea generation.

When an idea does pop up, just acknowledge it and move on or end the meditation.

You’ll see by doing this that true creativity really does come when we are not trying, but simply staying focused.

Good luck!

This article should provide you with a large resource of software tools to help you block out distractions and get more done.

“Man must shape his tools lest they shape him.”

Arthur Miller

Keep in mind that these suggestions are not necessarily the solution to your lack of focus, but tools to help you build momentum in blocking out various distractions that can affect the quality of your work.

Here are 18 tools for beating distraction:

Mac

Freedom: An extreme tool, but an effective one that disables your entire Internet connection for a time period set by you. Perfect when you really need to focus for an hour or three at a time.

SelfControl: Disable access to mail servers and websites that distract you. For example, you could block access to Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and your favorite blogs for 90 minutes, but still have access to the rest of the web. Once started, you can’t undo it until the timer runs out.

Concentrate: Create an activity (design, study, write, etc) and choose actions (launch or block websites, quit applications, speak a message, and more) to run every time you concentrate. When ready, just click “concentrate.” All your distractions will disappear and a timer will appear to help you stay focused.

WriteRoom: One of the best, distraction-free text editors. Goes full screen so all you have is your text. No formatting, just writing text. Beautiful program, copied by many others.

OmmWriter: A beautiful app just for writing. Has a serene backdrop with background music, perfect for creating the distraction-free writing environment (especially if you use headphones).

Ulysses or Scrivener: Two great programs for writers, many more features than WriteRoom but great for longer works such as novels, screenplays, academic papers and more. Both feature full-screen text editors.

Megazoomer: A cool little app that allows you to put almost any Mac program into full-screen mode (ala WriteRoom) using a system-wide keyboard command or menu item. Requires you to install SIMBL — both programs are free.

Think: Little utility that will fade out everything but the app you’re working on at the moment. Allows you to focus on one document at a time, clearing the distractions.

Browser Plugins/Extensions

Leechblock (Firefox): Specify what sites you want to block in Firefox, and when to block them.

StayFocusd (Chrome): Choose certain sites to block, and you get 10 minutes total (by default) per day to go on those time-wasting sites. You can change the time allotted for time-wasting sites, and you can also “nuke” (block) all sites for a time you specify.

Readability (bookmarklet, Chrome extension): clears the clutter on any web article or blog post you want to read. Removes everything — ads, icons, widgets, and more — and just leaves the content in a nice, uncluttered, readable design. Quietube does the same for videos.

Windows

Dark Room: A WriteRoom clone for Windows.

CreaWriter: Distaction-free writing tool inspired by OmmWriter (above), with a peaceful background, full-screen writing, soothing ambient sound, and not much else.

Q10: Full-screen text editor with a timer for focused writing, typewriter sounds as you type if you want them. Freeware.

WriteMonkey: A new entry into the full-screen editor field. In the words of the makers: “Zenware for full screen distraction free creative writing. No whistles and bells, just empty screen, you and your words. WriteMonkey is light, fast, and perfectly handy for those who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter but live in modern times.”

Other

Emacs: One of the classic text editors (vim is a good alternative and we won’t into which is better here), Emacs runs on all platforms (PC, Mac, Linux) and can hid the menu bar (M-x menu-bar-mode) and tool bar (M-x tool-bar-mode) in any operating system, and can hide also the window title bar in most Linux window managers.

Typewriter: A minimalist text editor that runs in Java (which can run on most operating systems – Mac, Windows, Linux). All you can do is type in one direction. You can’t delete, you can’t copy, you can’t paste. You can save and print. And you can switch between black text on white and green on black; full screen and window. Perfect for writing without stopping, and getting out that first draft.

Many thanks to ‘Focus‘ author, Leo Babauta for these resources.

Any other ideas or suggestions? Comment below!

Therefore, I’ve got together some useful tips for dealing with the negative effects (including eye problems, weight gain, and repetitive strain) of working at your desk for long periods. Obviously I’m not a doctor, so only take these tips as suggestions and not official advice.

Sit Properly!

The most important tip for staying healthy at your desk is to maintain a correct posture.

Be sure that your body is directly in front of your screen, so you are not twisting your torso.  Keep your feet on the floor or on a footrest and try not to cross your legs. It’s easy to slip out of a routine in sitting well, so get something to remind you to sit up on your desk, like a big fluffy banana.

Invest in a Good Chair

The first step to achieving good posture is finding a good chair.  It is wise to invest in a chair known for it’s good support for desk-workers such as the Aeron.

Think of how it will help you in the long run. Be sure to choose one with plenty of lumbar support and one that has wheels so you can turn in your desk without twisting your body.

Get an Ergonomic Keyboard

If you’re working on a laptop, this won’t apply to you, but if you’re working on a desktop, take a look at the range of ergonomic keyboards on the market.

Ergonomic keyboards are designed to minimize muscle strain and reduce the chances of developing carpal tunnel syndrome, which can be crippling to some computer workers.

Stop and Stretch Regularly

A quick Google search will reveal a plethora of nutty exercises, exercise equipment, gadgets and other ideas that will help keep you fit at your desk.  The majority of them are fairly ludicrous and impractical.  However, the ideas are good and it is important to keep mobile at your desk.

The most important exercises you can do involve your feet.  Stop every hour or so and make circles with your feet to mobilize your ankles and do foot pumps for example. Place your toes on the ground and lift your ankles in a pumping maneuver.  It’s also a good idea to do circles with your hands a couple of times a day to keep your wrists supple.

Avoid Carpal Tunnel with a Wrist Pad

If you’re using a laptop and you are worried about carpal tunnel (yeah, I’d never heard of it either), or you have experienced this at some point, you should think about purchasing a gel wrist pad, which you place just in front of your laptop.

It will help to keep your wrists elevated and comfortable, thus reducing the restriction on the nerves in your hands.

Don’t Eat and Work

One of the greatest problems with desk-based jobs these days is that people are gaining weight through lack of activity and mixing food with working at our desks.  Constant grazing while working is a problem for many of us and the bottom line is we’re simply not burning enough calories to justify the amount of food we eat.

Keep eating separate from work, and you’ll find you eat less. Get out and breathe some fresh air on your snack breaks.

Breaks Away From the Computer

Every hour, stand up from the computer and have a short walk around.  Heck, throw on some music and have a five-minute dance about. It’ll cheer you up too and clear your head. Take advantage of large downloads or installs on your computer to take a few minutes away from the computer.

Just keep taking breaks at least once an hour. Seriously.

Avoid Caffeine

Pumping our bodies with caffeine may help us stay focused for short periods, but you’ll crash after it wears off and you’ll be inclined to keep drinking/eating more. Replace your intake with other things like juice, but ideally:

Drink Plenty of Water

Water is the fuel that will keep you best focused and feeling most vitalized, even though it doesn’t seem so. Water also helps your body stay strong and healthy and will reduce your appetite. Water is gasoline for humans. Drink it and drink it a lot.

Check Your Eyes

Eye health or lack thereof, is another issue facing people who use computers for long hours every day.  To ensure optimum eye health, visit your optician for regular check-ups.  Noticing deterioration in eyesight quickly is key in maintaining good optical health.  If you are prescribed glasses, wear them!

Good Lighting

Our eyes need good levels of light to be able to work properly.  Make sure the area around your computer is well-lit.  If you have access to natural light, use it, but light in addition to the screen is important too.

Look Out of the Window

Every thirty minutes or so, have a look out of the window.  If you haven’t the fortune of having a room with a window, get out and train your eyes on something in the distance to redress the balance of looking at things close up.

Combine this with your break if you can.  It’s important for you to refocus your eyes regularly to avoid eye strain.

Use an Anti-Glare Screen

Some people find that fitting their computer with an anti-glare screen can help reduce eye strain and headaches from computer use.  It will also reduce reflection, which can be a big plus, depending on your working environment.

If you have more ideas for staying healthy at your desk, give us a shout and leave a comment below!