positivity

Monday Spark: Stop worrying about bad news.

Published on November 12, 2012 by

sign of bad newsWhen you watch the news on TV or browse your favorite news websites, it’s guaranteed you’ll find some really bad news on page one.

The news media put a lot of emphasis on bad, scary and generally depressing news.

Right now you can take your pick from rising gas and food prices, the looming “fiscal cliff”, riots in Europe, nuclear weapons in Iran and so on.

And if world news doesn’t do it for you, there are plenty of depressing stories you can find closer to home - about bullying in schools, people losing their homes, and whole communities being washed away by hurricanes.

One way or another, whichever news source you look at, you can be guaranteed to be overwhelmed with bad news.

Before you go hide under the bed for the next 10 years, here are a couple of things to consider.

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Monday Spark: 1000 Awesome Things [VIDEO]

Published on July 16, 2012 by

happy momentsIf you haven’t visited Neil Pasricha’s blog, 1000awesomethings.com, you should check it out.

And if you watch the video below you can hear about how and why he started the site.

In brief, he had been through a few tough years, and was looking for a way to bring some smiles and happiness back into his life. He started to write this blog. Each day he wrote about one of the small pleasures of life. Nothing big or special – just a little thing.

For example, he has written about the pleasure of standing at the end of a long line at the supermarket checkout, seeing a new line open up, and jumping over to be first in new line. Nice.

Little things like that happen to us every day. Maybe we get to see the sun rise, or a bird bathing in a bird bath, a sprinkling of fresh snow, or a three year old blowing the seeds off a dandelion.

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Get into a positive mindset before you start writing for your clients.

Published on July 12, 2012 by

lollipop doctorWhen I was a fledgling copywriter in my early 20s, I attacked each project with a tsunami of positivity.

I was totally pumped, screaming with optimism, and just threw myself at every challenge and opportunity. I was like a kid in a toy store with cash in my pocket. I loved every project, even the “boring” ones for industrial clients.

I was on a natural high every time I sat down to work.

Today, 30 years and several mortgages later, that tsunami has lost a bit of its spontaneous power.

I don’t mean I have lost my interest in writing. I haven’t. I still love it just as much. And I’m almost certainly a better writer today than I was back then.

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Monday Spark: Make the most of your upbeat, positive moods.

Published on March 12, 2012 by

positive feelingsAs a freelancer I have my good days and my bad days. And on my good days I am three or four times as productive and creative as I am on my bad days.

So what constitutes a bad day? What are the symptoms of bad days? For me it’s largely a matter of mood. I’m either feeling upbeat and positive in my outlook, or I’m feeling down and negative.

The scary thing is, during a bad day, the cause of the negativity may have nothing to do with my work at all. Its root might lie in something I read in the news, the dream I was having when I woke up, or some bad family news.

In other words, negativity impacts my work, whatever its root or cause.

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