Attitude can change everything

Following on from the last post on passion, I’m coming from a different direction this post.

Attitude is what it's all about.

Work takes up about one-third of our life. That’s a lot of hours we are giving to someone else. If we like what we are doing, work becomes fun. If we don’t like what we are doing, it feels like someone has slowed the movie and we can't move faster no matter how much the boss is on our back.

The question arises: what are you expecting from your job? Are you climbing the ladder of success or are you working to earn an income regardless of the enjoyment in your job.

If you choose to become passionate about your job, you will reap the benefits of catching your boss’ attention resulting in that much sought after pay rise or promotion. Being passionate about your job is linked to what motivates you. If you are motivated by a bigger pay packet or a step up the ladder then being passionate about what you do will reap the rewards you are looking for. Maybe you are motivated by just doing a great job, then your passion will no doubt be fired enough for you to continue in that job.

When the motivation to succeed isn’t there though, it’s hard to be passionate about a project. If you are watching the clock, working through the tasks with your mind focused on when the next break is can make for a long day that sometimes feels as though it will never end. It’s probably time to take a long hard look at why you are doing what you are doing. Why are you there? Being there for the money is a good reason because it pays the bills, but this isn’t always a good reason to stay in a job.

Step back and look at how your lack of motivation is affecting the other areas of your life. Do you feel as though your job is sucking the life out of you? Do you feel grey inside with no hint of colour on the horizon? It’s probably time for change and it’s a good idea to take time out and focus on all aspects of your life and ask some serious questions. Because if you lack motivation there is no way you are going to become passionate about your job unless you change your attitude.

To change your attitude, look for those tasks that excite you. By focussing on what you like in your job you might find a way to exploit that and turn it into a passion.

Take time today, to find a part of your  job that you can become passionate about to make your work life more enjoyable. Attitude can transform our life overnight and give us a head start on where we want to go in the future. It may just put more colour in your life, too.

Changing your attitude will change your future...

Passion, the centre of your life

Let passion be at the centre of your life.

Do you have a passion? A passion to write, to paint, to create something the world needs? Have you followed that passion?

My passion started in year one at school when I opened my first reader. Who were the people on the page and what was their life like? It sparked a curiosity in me that has been with me ever since. In year four I walked into the library and I found rows upon rows of books. Intimidated by seeing so many books, I stepped cautiously into that world of silence. My pulse raced as the different coloured spines drew my attention. The more spines I looked at the more overwhelmed I became. How I was ever going to read all those books? My teacher assured me I only had to read the ones I was interested in and it would be a good idea to read something outside my interest every now and again as I grew older, she said.

I took her wise words to heart and I lost myself in the world of words, characters and foreign lands. This passion for reading has led me to write and now writing is as much a need for me as breathing. The simple task of sitting at my keyboard and typing words or using a pen, which I often do, puts me into a different level far away from my everyday life. You could call it escape, but that's what I want to do: help my readers escape from their everyday struggles and take them on an emotional journey where they will become good friends with my characters so that they live in their hearts for a very long time.

My next novel, Mr Bojangles is the sequel to African Hearts. I've been writing this story on and off while I wrote Dusty. Justin and Kizza floated into my mind every now and then reminding me their story wasn't complete. I pushed them back saying I wasn't ready, but they insisted it was time, so here I am enjoying being with them as they take the next step into the future out of their village, Gumboli to Bond University at the Gold Coast.

My process with this novel has been different. I've made notes whenever Justin and Kizza have entered my conscious and taken time to write a few scenes. This week I looked at these scenes in detail and discovered they don't fit the story I want to tell. These young people aren't just learning about medicine, they are learning about themselves and growing in ways they had never thought. They are young people with loving hearts and the desire to be loved by their peers. This need for acceptance challenges them in ways that have surprised me. Their presence is so strong now they have overtaken the story showing me their journey into the future instead of me writing the story.

My passion for writing this story is well and truly on fire and is all consuming so that I now can't not write the book. Has your passion taken hold of you and consumed all of your waking time? Is it a passion or is it something you think you'd like to do because you've seen others doing it? A passion will grab you and it won't let you go no matter how hard you try to push it away. A passion demands attention and you had better give in to it and follow it, otherwise you will be miserable. Are you feeling lost and irritable and unable to focus? I used to be like that when I was in the world of numbers. It has taken me a long time to take that numbers shirt off and put on the words shirt. It feels good in my words shirt. I've come home and I've settled in with Kizza and Justin and I have accepted they have as much to teach me as what they will learn on their journey.

So what's your passion? Are you following it? What's stopping you? Start making small changes toward your project and eventually you will find your passion shirt is just the right fit for you. I'd love to hear how well your shirt fits in the comments below.

Dating My Creativity

A grat location for a creativity date.

My passion is writing - on paper and by computer. My writing goal is to evoke emotion, inform, and entertain my reader. I will write and re-write the words until the desired result is achieved.

Each day, I sit at my desk, hunched protectively over my work for six to seven hours. Sitting there for that long is so easy to do. The hours flit by before I know what's happened.

During the writing process my brain never stops. It is a whirl of words and ideas all clambering to the front of my mind wanting to be used. I use many of them, but some have to be relegated to the background to be used at a later time.

Creativity is fun, but what's happening to my body while all that energy circulates in my head? My body, a sagging bag of meat, sits waiting and hoping I'll give it some attention. Sometimes, subconsciously, my feet move restlessly, I scratch my head, my neck or some other part of the body. By the end of the day, I'm sluggish, worn out and absolutely brain dead, but I still sit there because I'm reluctant to move out of my creativity, the place where God and I share some great stuff. We have a fun time, but I'm human. I've been sitting so long, my body becomes stale as a school lunch lurking under the bed during school vacation, and the lethargy and stiffness set up home in the muscles. When I get like this, I know it's time to get out in the real world and get the blood circulating.

I go on a date with my creativity to refill the creative well, and to remind my body it's part of me, too.

There are many ways I refill my creative well. I like to vary the way I do the physical and where I take that time out. Sometimes, I take a morning walk in my suburb. I like the warmth of the newly risen sun on my face, and the smell of the clear moist freshness of a dew-coated morning. The flowers' perfumes and the scent of a gum tree are sharper, and if it's rained overnight there's a raw earthiness blending with those smells promising today is going to be something special. Other times, I head to the beach for a whiff of that salty air to awaken my lungs and purge the stale air that accumlates in there with lack of exercise.

After 4 p.m. is also my favourite time of day. The smells of a day lived is what inspires me. After a day in front of the computer, the open air breathes life into the heaviness that hangs behind my forehead. In the same way as my body gets tired from a day in the gym, so does my brain get tired from a day in the zone.

So I take time out physically and spiritually and develop a sharper and deeper edge to my creativity. I encourage you to do your mind and body a favour - go out and have a date with your creativity. You might be pleasantly surprised how relaxed you feel after the experience.

Remember, creativity comes from the one who created the earth.

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." - Genesis 1:27 NIV

And God rested, too,

"By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done." - Genesis 2:2-3 NIV

God took time out to rest and refresh from his creativity. I want to encourage you today to follow God's example and not only do brain exercise but physical exercise, too. Renew your mind, body and spirit and be ready for the creative work God has set aside especially for you.