INSPIRING MAX

Weekly Photo Challenge: Express Yourself

January 24, 2015January 24, 2015 inspiringmax

We can’t wait to see what you do with the theme: “express yourself!”

A few years ago we had this beautiful fruit “cake” delivered to work. I was so inspired by the idea I thought I could express myself by creating my own for my daughters up coming birthday.

I was pleased with my results and it tasted yummy. I used white, milk and dark chocolate to coat the apple, marshmallow, pineapple and strawberries.

To my surprise, the fruit kept for several days without deteriorating. While I don’t think I’ll give up my day job yet, the love and caring was there.

Next time I will plan it better and see if I too can create the floral fruit display made by the professionals.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/express-yourself/

Create Yourself

January 23, 2015 inspiringmax

It is now more than half way through the first month of 2015. How are your New Years resolutions or goals going? One way to help them happen is to take control and create a plan.

The more one understands and is guided by the above George Bernard Shaw quote, the easier success will be. Let’s look at difference between the two key words—find and create.

According to dictionary.com Find means

to come upon by chance
to locate or recover
to discover or perceive after consideration

Create however means

to cause to come into being
to cause to happen to evolve from one’s thought or imagination as in a work of art or invention

The way I see it, using the word create infers that you are empowered, taking control and ensuring your New Year’s resolution or goal happens. The word find has a more hit and miss feel. While the result may be the same, I believe the more direction one puts into achieving goals—the greater the chance of success.

For me—I plan 2015 to be the year I complete my dream of becoming a published author. To achieve this goal I decided to follow George Bernard Shaw’s advice. I created opportunities to write. I also created opportunities:

to find my voice
to learn my craft
to connect with others writers
to receive feedback
to understand the process

It is both exciting and scary to see the creation of my dream come together. Are your currently finding or creating yourself? How is it working for you? If it’s not working for you, change the steps you are taking and make your dream happen.

Rideau Canal

January 21, 2015January 22, 2015 inspiringmax

What was the last picture you took? Tell us the story behind it. (No story behind the photo? Make one up, or choose the last picture you took that had one.)

We have just returned from six weeks in Canada, where we took literally thousands of photos. It was a fun time. However a little disappointing as the lack of snow meant many of the things we had planned were not doable. Our last planned event was to skate on the Rideau Canal—the world’s longest skateway. It opened 4 days after we left, so we only got to see the preparation and dream.

Oh and experience our coldest temperatures ever, -18 feels like -29. The other problem we had to content with was the frostbite warning. We were attempting to take photos but had to limit them because our fingers were going numb and the cameras couldn’t cope with the cold. One passerby heard our accents as we were taking our last photos and stopped to advise us get inside as quickly as possible. Our solution as it was a bright sunny day despite the cold, was to stop taking photos regularly and as long as we were warm to continue exploring what Ottawa had to show us.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/moment-in-time/

Connecting With Naure

January 20, 2015 inspiringmax

Tell us about the last experience you had that left you feeling fresh, energized, and rejuvenated. What was it that had such a positive effect on you?

I love spending time with nature. It energises me, makes me forget my troubles and grounds me. Nature is everywhere. Living in the city doesn’t mean I can’t connect. There are many ways within 15 minutes from my house or work place I can connect with nature. These include:

Walking barefoot on green grass anywhere
Enjoying the flowers in a local park
Sydney Harbour
Wetlands
Swimming in the harbour beaches and pools
Parramatta river
Mindfully walk around the neighbourhood looking and listening for wildlife

If I wanted a day out I could travel to the beach, bush or the mountains. Both of these are favourites of mine and I enjoy both in all seasons. In one of my early posts I discuss getting back to the beach for the first time in many years in late autumn.

Other ways I like to energise myself is to get amongst mother nature herself. I love watching sunrises and sunsets, playing in the rain, watching thunder storms particularly over the ocean and recently in Ottawa walking in the snow storms. So when I feel I need for a little or big pick me up, I connect with nature, energise myself and get on with the day.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/re-springing-your-step/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Serenity

January 19, 2015 inspiringmax

For this photo challenge, publish an image that conveys serenity.

Last month we enjoyed the serenity and pristine beauty of Pourvoirie Du Lac Beauport, Quebec. It was so different to life in Australia. An amazing experience.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/serenity/

Hand Brain Connection

January 18, 2015September 20, 2015 inspiringmax

When was the last time you wrote something substantive — a letter, a story, a journal entry, etc. — by hand? Could you ever imagine returning to a pre-keyboard era?

I hand write my first draft of just about everything. I find it helps my flow and connects better with my thinking. When I was editing my book, I would rewrite sections from scratch to help my clarity. From this exercise, I discovered I would often write the same information twice—without realising it. I would use the same words, in the same order and in the same place in the paragraph. This confirmed to me they were correct. I have attempted this same exercise typing it instead of writing the second time and I get stuck. I didn’t know what I want to say. For me there definitely is a hand brain connect.

As a Toastmaster, I hand write my speeches—both initially and as a way to learn them. Once again this helps with my flow, but I think in this case it also helps me—write like I speak. Once I am happy with my hand written first draft, I type my speech and make any necessary changes. After I have my completed my speech, I learn it by writing it out by hand several times. It works for me. This process helps me to remember the main points in the correct order.

Today I learnt why this is so. In our brain is a collection of cells called the Reticular Activating System (RAS). They act as a link between our sub conscious and conscious mind. The RAS’s job is to filter all the information the world has to give us on a second by second basis, only drawing our attention to what we want to focus on. By writing things down we trigger the RAS into action. It begins to focus on the topic we are writing about. This definitely helps to explain why for me hand writing before I type gets the job done much quicker than staring at the computer screen.

Personally, I would never want to go back to a pre-keyboard era. Today with the keyboard comes many new options like the internet and self-publishing. But I am not voting hand writing off the island any time soon either. Variety is the spice of life—I’m using both to get the best result.

http://youtu.be/QCnfAzAIhVw

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/pens-and-pencils/

Take The Test

January 16, 2015 inspiringmax

Thanks to Priceless Joy for the idea to run a fun quiz to see where everyone is at in the left brain/ right brain mix. These are the qualities/skills I posted on Using My Brain this morning. I always knew I was more right brain than left although I was still surprised when I had 30% left brain skills in my tool box. I had 19 right brain and 7 left brain. I would love to know everyone else mix as I think it gives great insight into the person. The more we understand each other the easier, it is to connect and work together. So just for fun—leave a comment below indicating your left brain /right brain mix and if you were surprised by the results.

Left Side Brain	Right Side Brain
Analytical	Believes
Classic Music	Big Picture
Control	Can Be Absentminded
Critical Thinking	Cat Lovers
Details Oriented	Colour
Dog Lovers	Creative Storyteller
Facts	Creativity
Language	Dreamer
Logic	Emotions
Mathematics	Fantasy & Mystery
Order	Good at Arts
Organised	Good at Sports
Past & Present	Images
Patterns	Imagination
Perception	Intuition
Practical	Listen to Music /TV While Studying
Prefers Verbal Instructions	Passion
Rarely Absentminded	Prefers Visual Instructions
Rational	Present & Future
Reason	Recognises Faces
Safe	Risk Taking
Science	Rock Music
Study In Silence	Spatial Awareness
Structure	Spontaneous & Unpredictable
Write Non-Fiction	Thinks Better Lying Down
	Write Fiction

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/brain-power/

Using My Brain

January 16, 2015 inspiringmax

Let’s assume we do, in fact, use only 10% of our brain. If you could unlock the remaining 90%, what would you do with it?

I am unsure I could cope with using 100% of my brain, although I do believe I use more than 10%. I have images of it constantly going and not giving me time to catch up. My brain sometimes seems full now, so how would using more of it change my life. Irrespective, I am up for the challenge and would like to further develop skills using the left and right sides of my brain as they are responsible for different things.

Left Side Brain	Right Side Brain
Analytical	Believes
Classic Music	Big Picture
Control	Can Be Absentminded
Critical Thinking	Cat Lovers
Details Oriented	Colour
Dog Lovers	Creative Storyteller
Facts	Creativity
Language	Dreamer
Logic	Emotions
Mathematics	Fantasy & Mystery
Order	Good at Arts
Organised	Good at Sports
Past & Present	Images
Patterns	Imagination
Perception	Intuition
Practical	Listen to Music /TV While Studying
Prefers Verbal Instructions	Passion
Rarely Absentminded	Prefers Visual Instructions
Rational	Present & Future
Reason	Recognises Faces
Safe	Risk Taking
Science	Rock Music
Study In Silence	Spatial Awareness
Structure	Spontaneous & Unpredictable
Write Non-Fiction	Thinks Better Lying Down
	Write Fiction

Going through these lists, makes me realise I do use both sides of my brain. I am mostly a right brain person however, I use more of my left than I first thought. My goal is to develop my current skills further and see where they takes me. Afterall,

“Who knows, but you have to be in it to win it.”

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/brain-power/

Weekly Photo Challenge: Shadowed

January 13, 2015 inspiringmax

Our cat, Yoda’s favourite place to spend the day was supervising all the comings and goings of the street from the shadows of the Wattle tree.

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_photo_challenge/shadowed/

Information Overload

January 12, 2015 inspiringmax

“Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense.” — Gertrude Stein
Do you agree?

From my experience never a truer statement has been said. I am pretty good at processing information and controlling my chaos however, occasionally it takes over. During these times it is usually obvious to everyone by the mess around me. My desk reflects the state of my brain. And suddenly, I don’t make sense. I say and do stupid things. My natural calm disposition has melted away along with my common sense—I don’t think I am alone here either.

So, what do I do?

When I am suffering from information overload, I recognise it quickly. I don’t feel in control. I take myself to a quiet place—even the toilet ill do, stand tall and make big circles with my hands. This centres me and works well. I attribute it to the science behind Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk—Your body language shapes who you are. I love that fact that our mind gives us ways to control information overload—if we let it. Next time you find yourself suffering from information overload —give it a try.