It’s all about results. If you think to yourself ‘I should be or could be a great artist’, but do nothing with that thought, the result is exactly the same as if you’d never thought it at all. You’re just some guy who works in a bank, or manages a phone shop, and occasionally catches some half-remembered wisp of happiness thinking about how it feels to be up to your elbows in oil paint. I don’t want that for you. You don’t want that for you.

However, if you dream of being a great artist; if it gives you joy to be covered in paint, or creating beauty from nothing, then please, go and do it. You owe it to yourself & you owe it to the world. As the genius Barbara Sher puts it; ‘what you love is what you are gifted at.’ If you have been given a talent, who are you to not use it?

I say this to all my clients (actually, I say this to everyone), if you have a dream, something you’d really love to do ‘someday’? I have news for you – ‘someday’ isn’t coming, it’ll never get here. If something makes you smile every time you think of it, then do something about it, and do it now.

Action is crucial.

It doesn’t matter what you do, how large or small the action, it’s the actual doing that matters. You want to be a great artist? Take a sketchbook with you everywhere, paint everyday. You want to travel the world? Book a trip to somewhere you’ve never been before. You want to write a book? Commit to writing 500 words a day, no matter what.

Start small, but start anyway. Do not allow yourself to be limited by anything – No money to travel? Sign up for couch surfing, sell some of your stuff, hold a fundraising event. No time to make art? Get up an hour earlier, stay off the Internet & stop watching tv.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat.

If you feel limited by anything standing between you and your dream, sit down with a piece of paper, alone or with friends, and write out 50 solutions to your problem. They can be as crazy as you like, such as writing to Bill Gates and asking if he would like to sponsor you whilst you spend a year photographing beetles in Cambodia. Or they can be as simple as asking your mum if she would mind taking the kids for an hour on Saturday mornings so you can get your 500 words on the page. Once you have 50, write 50 more. Allow nothing to stand in your way. 

Ev Bogue puts this very well in his post How to Be Successful (Like James Franco) : look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself ‘you are going to die. Get out there and do some great work’. You are not immortal. You will die. Get out there and give your gifts to the world, do your great work, leave your legacy. 

Because if you don’t, well, you haven’t really lived at all, have you…

If you’re feeling the pressure to be brilliantly, creatively, mind-numbingly fabulous and only produce work of the finest quality then why not let yourself off the hook, give yourself permission to do it badly and just see what happens!

This is a technique I first discovered in a book called Wishcraft by the phenomenon that is Barbara Sher. I try to use it as much as possible with my writing, even when doing my degree and facing essay paralysis, my mantra became: “it doesn’t matter if it’s good as long as it’s done!” An odd sentiment for a degree student, you might think, but I got the words on the page quickly and easily. Add a stringent editing process and I managed to get marks in the top 20% every time. Despite my initial perfectionist panicking!

Here’s what one of my clients had to say about this little trick: 

“Having followed the advice about doing a week of Bad Drawings, I can vouch for this as the ONLY THING that has EVER worked for me in terms of getting to the drawing board/easel/writing page!

 It is the best discovery I have ever made.  The Pomodoro Technique is BRILLIANT for the tailoring etc. which uses a different part of the brain and emotions, (i.e. I know how to do this, I just can’t get going) but the Bad Drawings works for the fear of being shown up as a crap artist.  OK, it says, BE a crap artist and do it anyway – you don’t have to show anyone. 

What happens is that you lose all the angst about making a fool of yourself because you have the wonderful excuse of “it doesn’t matter if it’s crap because it’s SUPPOSED to be crap – yay! I’m off the hook!” and within a very short time (5 days in my case) you see that the work has improved in spite of your brief, and by day 8 I had changed the title from Bad Drawings to just Drawings, because the fear had gone and the work could no longer actually be called Bad.”

Next time you’re facing the horror of a blank canvas or an empty page, just make up your mind to deliberately do it badly, and see what magic happens when you take the pressure off.

Good luck and please do let me know how you get on in the comments.

Accepted wisdom says that trust is something that must be earned. For many people – especially those who have experienced broken trust in the past – this is a slow process that begins with a drip feed of trustworthiness ‘tests’. Starting at a superficial level and gradually becoming more intimate in nature as the relationship develops.

There is also something to be said for instinctive trust. Many of the people I asked about this said they had a ‘gut feeling’ about whether a person was trustworthy or not, and it was nearly always right. So, where does that come from? Why and how can we sense what a person is like before we know them? Is it some kind of sixth sense? Are we subconsciously reading body language, or making assumptions based on the fact that they remind us of someone else (a friend of mine can’t stand men with beards because they remind her of a nasty ex-boyfriend).

Personally, I am open to trust. I prefer to see the best in people and consider them worthy of trust until they prove themselves otherwise. I always ‘trust’ my gut instinct, and it rarely lets me down.

It is interesting to note that many people blindly trust in that which has been proven untrustworthy time and time again, simply through lack of choice. Most of us still trust banks to take care of our hard-earned cash, despite living through one of the worst banking crises of the last century. We tend to trust anyone official without even thinking about it – another one of those pesky assumptions! There’s an old joke which states that you can go pretty much anywhere unchallenged as long as you’re carrying a clipboard… Make of that what you will.

I sent out a request on Facebook recently, asking for people’s ideas about trust, and had some really interesting responses:

How do feel about trust? Is it something to be earned over time? Do you trust everyone until they prove themselves unworthy? Or do you go with your gut instinct?

“Truth unifies, it never separates or divides. Trust encompasses all humans into one big happy family! The more you dole out, the better you feel (and more you get back!)”

“I go with my gut but sometimes it is very wrong…but when it’s right it’s right forever…does that make sense!!??”

“I think I go with my instinct. We have to trust other people all the time, in everything we do – and mostly it’s natural and easy. So if ever something doesn’t feel right, I take it seriously.”

“This is such an interesting question. I think it all goes on instinct. I don’t think we can choose who we trust. It’s uncontrollable I think, who you do and don’t trust. Not trusting is easier to control, you can choose not to share things with others and to behave differently, although I guess it’s down to controlling wanting to trust which is the hard part. Tricky, tricky stuff, you’ve certainly got me thinking! I go on gut, to be honest, which usually means saving things until your gut tells you they can be trusted. Maybe it’s learning through trial and error growing up. Sorry that’s all a bit muddled.”

“Trust can come from the mind, which is to measure and compare situations and make a decision – am I safe? This is bargaining with our fear, and ultimately to be ruled by it.

Trust can also be unconditional, where we release ourselves from fear and surrender the illusion of control – we trust life’s flow to bring us what we need, we also trust ourselves to respond appropriately and do whatever is required of us in the moment. Now we can be at peace and feel true love and connection with the people around us. A space opens up where joy and peace can arise naturally.

The issue of trusting a person becomes less important because our happiness does not come from outside, it does not depend on how another person treats us – it arises naturally when we let go and stop trying to control external conditions.

Trust is faith, faith is love, love is our true nature.”

“Definitely different aspects to it – you trust someone instantly/instinctively, or you come to trust someone over time, or you rule risk factors out and decide to trust… Anyway, trust is GOOD for you ”

“Trust is a good thing but ultimately has to be earned. If someone says to you ‘don’t trust him or her’, it takes a very strong person to instantly trust them. You can trust in your friends, your family and yourself. On the other hand it can be good to not trust because of possible dangers to yourself or others.”

“What about different kinds of trust. There is friendship and first impressions, of course, but what about political trust? For example, you vote for someone and trust they will do their best to fulfill promises. Or you trust that your boss will make the right decisions to keep you in a job, even if you do not trust them on a personal level. “No choice but to trust” – is that true trust?”

How do you feel? Does your basis for trust come from a rational decision or is it more visceral? How important is trust to you? Have you ever really thought about it? Please do join the conversation by leaving a comment.

It’s this time of year, rather than the traditional New Year’s Eve, that I feel lends itself best to a process of clearing out the old and making room for the new.

So, it’s time for a jolly good spring-clean! Here we go:

• Physical clutter – it’s time to pare down your possessions. I’m going to concentrate on your workspace because that’s what I’m all about, but you can find some excellent tips for some full-on decluttering action here. Go through your workspace from top to bottom: do your filing; throw out (recycle) old papers; clean up; fix things that need it; throw away, recycle or donate the things you no longer need. Finish all those odd jobs, clear your pin boards/white boards and start afresh.

• Money – Sort out your accounts and get all your paperwork in order for your accountant whilst your financial year is still fresh in your head. Chase up any outstanding invoices and pay any left over bills. April heralds the start of a new tax year so make sure everything is ship-shape by the end of March.

• Dreams & goals – take a good long look at your goals from last year. How are you getting on? Have you achieved what you set out to achieve? What worked for you last year? What didn’t work? What do you want to achieve by next April? Chris Guillebeau of Art of Non-Conformity fame has a fantastic annual review process I recommend you take a look at. Don’t forget to plan new goals for the coming 12 months as well.

• Emotional clutter – what’s holding you back? Are there niggly things in the back of your mind like fear, guilt and shame? Make this year the year you finally get a hold of yourself and get rid of old emotional baggage. If you can’t do it alone, get yourself a coach to guide your way. I can’t recommend mine, the wonderful Cathy Dean of Colour in Your Thinking, highly enough. She sorts people out better than any other coach I have ever met!

• Your business – whatever your business does, is it still meeting your needs and helping you to have the best possible life? If not, it’s time to re-evaluate. Look at your daily schedule; your business goals; your financial projections and, most importantly of all, how happy it makes you. What are the areas that need improvement? Which bits are working beautifully? Which bits trip you up over and over again? What do you want from your business by this time next year? How are you going to make that happen. REMEMBER: It’s YOUR business, you created it for a reason. If it no longer fits you, you are free to make as many changes as you like, or even drop it altogether and start another one!

By wiping the slate clean, physically, emotionally and mentally, you can prepare yourself for the next exciting instalment of your life, whatever that may be. Taking a couple of days to evaluate where you are and where you want to be is the first step to achieving more than you ever thought possible. And what better time to prepare to blossom than Spring!

Good luck, and do let me know how you get on in the comments.

At this point, some of you will be thinking, ‘Yes, that’s me – I’m like that’, and the rest of you will be thinking, ‘Oh, I wish I could do that – I’m always struggling for ideas.’

In my view, which way you think is all down to perspective and habit. Some of you will pay attention to the idea generation process and play with those overhead lightbulbs (I’m speaking metaphorically here, please don’t actually play with overhead lightbulbs unless you fancy a nasty shock!), they will seek out the things which inspire them and look for new ideas everywhere.

Those in the other camp will blind themselves to sources of new ideas and inspiration and promptly shut down any idea that comes to them by dwelling on why it could never happen, or how ridiculous it seems.

Truly creative people understand that the trick to having more ideas is simply to have more ideas.

Idea management

Now, having lots of ideas can only be a good thing, right? Well, yes and no. Too many ideas can lead to complete paralysis as you struggle to decide which ones to pursue and bring to fruition and which ones to discard or save for later. How you manage your ideas can be a make or break situation for many people.

Here a few things to bear in mind: 

• Ideas are alive. They have wings and should be allowed to soar. Some will keep flying and some will naturally fall to the ground. If you pay attention, the easier it becomes to tell them apart.

• Do not sit on your ideas. This is important, so I’ll repeat it. Do not sit on your ideas. Write them down, play with them, let your imagination run riot, think about all the permutations of this wonderful idea. Then either DO SOMETHING about it or pass it on to someone who will.

• Design a process for which new ideas are judged. You do not have to act on every single idea you have! If you are swimming in brilliant ideas it can be incredibly useful to have a set of criteria which helps you to determine which ideas to act on and which ones to let go. Simple questions such as: how does this fit into my overall plan? How much time would it take to implement? Am I the best person to do this? Would doing this enrich my life and bring me closer to my ultimate goals? 

• Do not hoard your ideas. This is something I come across time and time again and it really drives me nuts. People say that they can’t do anything because if they tell someone about their idea then it might get stolen. How curmudgeonly is that? Chances are that at least a million people have had the same idea, in fact, there are probably a few people having it RIGHT NOW (ideas are terrible flirts). The first thing is, 99.9% of those people will never act on it, and action is what makes it so. The second thing is that what makes your idea original (the only thing that makes your idea original) is YOU. Only you are you, which means that only you will be able to make your idea happen in the exact way that you envision it. If your idea is precious to you then ACT on it (copyright it if you feel vulnerable), if not then tell somebody else and let THEM act on it.

• It’s okay if people share your stuff. In fact, I would encourage it! Who cares if someone prints one of your poems from your website to read at a wedding or a funeral; who cares if someone downloads an image of your latest painting and uses it as their desktop wallpaper; who cares if someone uses your latest blog post for inspiration to write their own? That’s great – it means they like what you’re doing and are essentially doing your marketing for you. (By the way, I’m not condoning people who blatantly pass off your stuff as their own work – that’s a completely different kettle of fish and the reason copyright laws were invented)

On that note, Peter James Sinclair, who writes the Motivational Memo blog, has this lovely alternative to a copyright message at the beginning of his ebook:

I am a non believer in the word copyright in the online world – so all my blog content is not accompanied by a (c) but rather an (s)

The (s) stands for two things:

1. Share – take whatever you read in this blog and share the riches revealed with others. If it helps you, it can certainly help others.

2. Send – and if you have enjoyed anything of what I offer in my Motivational Memos/e- Books – that are designed to remind, energize and activate – then please send your family, your friends and your colleagues to this site so that they too can discover their individuality, their uniqueness and a pathway to the fulfilment of their passions.

How do you manage your ideas? Let me know by using the comments function below – I’d love to hear your stories!

Thanks to the wonderful Thomas George Clarke for the beautiful photograph for this post.

His problem was clear to me after just our first consultation: here was a gifted artist, selling himself short by undercharging, trying to fulfil too many roles, and not having a clear idea of who his audience was or what they wanted. In short, he was in a terrible muddle. His true dream, his calling, if you will, is to be a professional photographic artist. However, he was so bogged down in trying to make ends meet with his day jobs (photographing school portraits, weddings, events etc) that he wasn’t even allowing himself the time to go out and take his own pictures. This had led to a vicious downward spiral of self-recrimination, doubt and confusion. He wasn’t allowing himself to work on what he really wanted to do because it took time away from the stuff that was making him money, but at the same time he wasn’t giving his full attention to the stuff that made him money because he wasn’t sure what it was he needed to do in order to make the money!  

What did we do about it?

After spending a couple of hours talking about what his dreams and aspirations were, what he was doing at the moment, why he felt it wasn’t working and how he wanted his life to be, I wrote him an action plan breaking down the things he needed to be doing into weekly tasks. The plan covers both his money-making stuff and his ultimate dream stuff and ensures that every week he does something to move both his business and his dreams forward.

The tasks aren’t complicated, huge or too time-consuming, for example, his task for the first week was simply to physically block out one day per week in his diary to work on his artistic work. The point being that by allocating a whole day to this and actually writing it down, he makes a deal with himself to take his dream seriously. Every time he opens his diary, there it is in black and white.

How does this apply to you?

If you are feeling stuck, miserable and find yourself procrastinating or even paralysed; why not take the time to sit down and figure out if what you are doing is the right thing. Are you neglecting your true calling because you need to make money? Are you trying to be all things to all people? Do you have a clear idea of who it is you’re trying to attract? Have you allowed yourself to be distracted?

If you’d like some help figuring out how to get where you really want to be, and you’d like your very own action plan, please do give me a call on 07507 528996.

So, no – it’s got nothing to do with the wobbly stuff, but is in fact, a resource for freelancers and the like who usually work alone and/or from a home office. It’s basically a ‘co-working’ day, where a group of homeworkers/freelancers meet in prearranged venue with their laptops, and proceed to do their usual day’s work. Only this way, they have the company of other like-minded people.

I am the organiser of the Bristol chapter of Jelly, which means I find and book the venues, and let everyone know when and where the events are held. When I was first setting up my business I found Jelly days to be hugely useful; in terms of meeting people and finding out about other businesses, opportunities, answers to questions etc, as well as being a fantastic way to combat the isolation which so often goes hand in hand with working from home. Needless to say, when the opportunity arose to organise it, I jumped at the chance!

Through Jelly I have found clients, participated in some collaborative projects, raised the profile of my own business, had a whole host of useful and informative conversations and met some fantastic people!

Bristol Jelly now runs once a week (usually on a Tuesday) and is held in various venues around the city. If you’re interested in coming along, make sure you’re on the mailing list or follow @BristolJelly on Twitter.

Click here to hear a little interview I did recently about Jelly.

My morning routine has become a thing of legend amongst those who know me, and I have become rather evangelical about it. However, I have also received dozens of comments from people saying that I seem ‘calmer’, ‘more together’ and, of course, ‘happier’.

So, what’s my secret? It’s simple: rather than dashing straight from bed to laptop amid a flurry of curses and self-recrimination I have created a ritual which eases me into the day gently and starts me off in a quiet, calm and productive way. By the time my work day starts I am already fully awake, alert and ready for action. I use the word ‘ritual’ because it has become sacred to me.

My morning ritual consists of coffee, candlelight, journaling, yoga, a bath, a proper breakfast and a few minutes planning out my day. It takes me about two hours in total and they are fast becoming my two favourite hours of the day! If, for any reason, I’m unable to wake up slowly in this way I feel sluggish and grumpy (which I now realise, was how I spent most of my days before). Most importantly, for a small business owner, it has sent my productivity through the roof. I am now able to work in a much more efficient and productive way, which in turn means that I’m able to take the odd day off during the week without worrying about my work load – absolute bliss…

Do you have a morning routine or any special rituals? I’d love to hear about them! Do let me know by using the comments function below.

Many thanks, once again, to the fantastic Thomas Clarke for the great ‘Coffee Cup’ image.

I am TERRIBLE at mornings. There, I said it. I am a night-owl through and through, and I firmly believed (until recently) that nothing good really ever happened before 10.00pm. Night-times are seductive; full of possibility; both peaceful and exciting, beautiful and thrillingly sinister. Day-times are just… well, day-times.

However, over the last couple of months it has dawned on me that actually, I am at my most productive and creative between the hours of 8.00am and 12.00pm. If I’m at my desk during that time I can get a whole day’s work done just in the space of those few short hours. Not only that, but if I get up early and start the day well I’m also generally happier and more content.

Mornings (apart from the odd virtuous attempt where I arose at 5am, only to crash at 8am because I’d been up till 3am the night before) had generally consisted of me waking up in a panic at 10 or 11am, having overslept the alarm by about 4 hours, swearing like a trooper as I dashed (still clad only in pyjamas) to my desk, and spending the rest of the day playing catch-up, cursing myself all the while and vowing to do better tomorrow. Every single morning.

This is not conducive to a calm, productive life.

So, I decide to conduct an experiment. I came across the blog of personal development guru, Steve Pavlina, and there, lo and behold, was a post entitled How to Get Up Right Away When Your Alarm Goes Off. Intrigued, I read on…

Steve’s theory is that the pressing of the ‘snooze’ button on your alarm and snuggling down for the perennial ‘just 5 more minutes’ (and yes, you can do that for 4 hours) is basically physiological response. Muscle memory, if you will.

If you make a deal with yourself before bed that you will get up early in the morning; your 5am self will override that decision because staying in bed is infinitely preferable to getting up, especially when it’s cold and dark outside.  However, if your conditioned physiological response is just to get up as soon as the alarm goes off; you’re out of bed before your sleep-addled brain has a chance to realise what’s going on.

So, how do you generate this response? It’s so easy it’s silly – you practise. But not in the mornings, during the day. I know it sounds ludicrous but it really works. You get ready for bed, set your alarm for 3 or 4 minutes later, then lie down in a darkened room and pretend to be asleep. As soon as the alarm goes off, you take a deep breath, stretch and get out of bed, heading for the first thing you do in the morning. For me that’s putting the kettle on for gallons of coffee. Then you do the whole thing all over again. For full instructions have a read of Steve’s original article.

I did this bizarre practise 5 times on the first evening, and overslept the following morning. Undeterred, I practised 3 times the following evening and it worked! Imagine my surprise and delight as a chronic oversleeper, when at 7am the next morning I woke up to the sound of the alarm, took a deep breath, stretched and leapt out of bed before I realised what was happening. I have now been able to do this every single morning, without fail, for the last 3 weeks. The beauty of the programme is that it is self-perpetuating – every time you manage to do it, you reinforce the conditioning. 

Steve suggests that you wake up with an alarm every morning (even weekends) for the first month or so, but by then you should be so used to it that you can take the odd day off without breaking the pattern. And if you have several days off and lose the habit, well, you can just do the practise again.

Being able to do this has revolutionised my life, I now have the time and energy to start my day in a calm, healthy way. I have developed a morning routine (more on that next week) which I now have two restful hours to perform before sitting down to my day’s work; dressed, fed and ready for action, at 9am. Plus, I’ve seen some incredible sunrises.

If you struggle with oversleeping, or would like to take advantage of those quiet moments before everyone else gets up, then I cannot recommend this programme highly enough. It’s bonkers, but it works.

Do let me know how you get on in the comments.

Many thanks to photographer extraordinaire Thomas Clarke for the beautiful ‘Sunrise’ image.

Each month the team at Valuable Content pick a Valuable Content Hero for their newsletter, and their Hero for December was yours truly!

I am chuffed to bits to have been chosen, if you receive my newsletter (What? You don’t? Sign up NOW!) you will remember that I recently made a pledge to produce more interesting, useful and informative content. In the wake of that decision came my three-part series on Email Marketing, and it was that which won me the prize. If you’d like to have a read of what was said about me in the December issue of the Valuable Content newsletter you can click here.

Who on earth are Valuable Content?

Valuable Content is the brainchild of Sonja Jefferson; business book editor, project manager and content marketer extraordinaire. She has recently teamed up with copywriting queen, Sharon Tanton.

They firmly believe that content marketing is the way of the future, and to get anywhere in business today you need to be useful, informative, engaging and valuable to your customers. You can read about their approach in this great article by Sonja.

So, thanks hugely to Sonja and Sharon for choosing me and spurring me on to write more and more valuable content!