|
|
      |
| The Lounge | Champions | The Wire | Schedule | Audio | Arcade | The Top Ten | Historical | Email | Video |
|
|
|
| The Lounge | Champions | The Wire | Schedule | Audio | Arcade | The Top Ten | Historical | Email | Video |
 |
Make Fear a Nine Day Wonder - Motivate Yourself with Fun!
Have you heard something referred to as a "nine day wonder"? The phrase refers to something that causes a sensation for a brief period of time and then fades into obscurity. The origin of this phrase is usually tied to the nine-day reign of Lady Jane Grey (1537-1554) as Queen of England. This reluctant queen met an untimely fate. More on that later... I added a new Fun Commandment recently to address a very pesky and persistent nine day wonder we all face - fear as a motivator. Fear is a great motivator...for a brief period. Then it does worse than fade into obscurity; fear adds to our load of stress and pressure. So I'm calling for an end to this nine day wonder's reign with my Fun Commandment, Motivate Yourself with Fun Rather than Fear. Motivating yourself with fun rather than fear pays big dividends in myriad ways. Making this choice accelerates your ability to communicate, rests your brain, lowers your stress, increases your tolerance for pain, among other things. In this article, however, I am focusing on one incredibly important and impactful side effect of this Commandment - using fun to motivate yourself increases your creativity. Creativity is an ability highly sought by businesses and employees alike. Creativity is trumpeted in every mission statement and praised by every CEO for good reason - we know that creativity brings breakthroughs! Since the ability to create breakthroughs is both a highly sought after and also a highly marketable skill, creativity gets a lot of deserved attention. Yet there are still many myths to dispel about creativity. One of the biggest myths is that creativity is fueled by time pressure. Time pressure is an example of fear-based motivation because it involves trying to escape a negative consequence rather than moving toward a positive outcome. Deadlines are a reality, but using fear to fuel our creative juices has the opposite effect. The alternative is to use fun as our motivator. Theresa Amabile, head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit at Harvard Business School, has been studying creativity for 30 years. For the past 8 years she has collected nearly 12,000 daily journal entries from 238 people working on creative projects in seven large corporations. She and her team scoured journals for moments when people struggled with a problem or came up with a new idea. The following rules for using fun to motivate creativity are inspired directly from Amabile's research. 1. Deadlines are fear-based; if you want to be creative you must give yourself an "incubation period." Deadlines create distractions that rob your attention, the research indicates. Even with a deadline looming, to get creative you should focus on your work in an environment protected from distractions. 2. Competition is fear-based; collaboration is fun-based. If you want to amplify your creativity, the research tells you to foster the confidence to share your ideas with others. Be open to debate with collaborators and create a noncompetitive environment. You'll hit new heights of creativity! 3. Catching people doing things right, rather than punishing them for doing things wrong, is fun-based. Public celebrations, according to the research, of accomplishments are a boon for creativity. If you want to spark creativity, publicly recognize someone's work or contributions! 4. Sparking intrinsic motivation is what fun accomplishes when you use it as a motivator. Intrinsic motivation, the research proves, is critical to creativity. Anyone, it turns out, can be highly creative - when they become intrinsically motivated! Motivating yourself with fun clears away barriers and allows your experience, knowledge, and skills to foster new, creative ways of thinking. 5. You are more likely to have a creative breakthrough if you were happy the day before. When you're happy, which usually happens as a byproduct of fun-based motivation, the research clearly indicates a great chance of your happiness "incubating" overnight to show up as a creative idea the following day. How about that? I couldn't have asked for more compelling evidence that fun is a better personal and professional motivator than fear. Amabile's 8-year study clearly shows that today's happiness predicts tomorrow's creativity! So start getting happy today by motivating yourself with fun and then re-create your world tomorrow! By the way, Lady Jane Grey was reluctant to take the throne of England because she was only 15 years old and she held unpopular Protestant beliefs. Her reluctance was well-founded; the young Queen relinquished the crown after just 9 days, plead guilty to treason, and was eventually beheaded. Let's give fear, as our motivator, the same fate. Fear becomes a nine day wonder when we replace it with fun today! How to turbo-charge your health, success, and vitality! Clifford Kuhn, M.D., America's Laugh Doctor, teaches people and organizations to be more healthy and successful through the use of fun and humor. A psychiatrist, and the former associate chairperson of the University of Louisville's renowned Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Kuhn now dispenses his unique Fun Factor prescription from http://www.natural-humor-medicine.com/EZA7. On his website you will find tons of fun, free ways for you to maximize your sense of humor, and enjoy a life others will envy and admire.
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
The Time To Start Working On Your Dream is Now - Not Later Most of us are hesitant to start anything because we are afraid we might make a mistake or fail. Go ahead make mistakes! Don't wait for more experience or to be good enough to start. The Dream I Nearly Gave Up Hello again to you my loyal readers. My very first article which I published sometime last year dealt with the topic of positive thinking and success. I'll Do It In A Minute... Or Maybe I Won't 'Procrastination is like a credit card: it's a lot of fun until you get the bill.'Christopher ParkerDo you suffer from distractibility? I do. Ill Put My Money On The Kid! Now, the Fun Part. It is nigh time to find a way to take all the buck out of this bucking bronco we call the internet. Quit Pretending - You Have To Live Whats In You To Succeed Some people, after they reach their mid and upper adult years seem to go through their lives just existing. Oh! They work at their jobs as best as they can. Motivation: The Power of Asking Very shortly, in this paragraph, I'm going to share with you how to get just about anything you want. I usually try to keep things very simple and useable. Keeping Perspective: When Bad Things Happen That Are Not Life Threatening The very first thing to question is how important is this in the overall scheme of life? Compared to all of the things that have happened, are happening, and could happen in my life - how bad is this? Is it something that will impact the rest of my life? Is it temporary? Although the pain may not feel like it's temporary, it usually is. It's important to get a perspective. Letting Events Control Your Life ... Dropping The Negatives And Moving On! It's interesting to note how we sometimes become so inundated with events in our lives that we allow them to become our lives. Instead of enjoying and nurturing the life we have, we fall prey to the fears and stresses that occur as a result of negative experiences. The Art Of Using Effectively A Motivational Quote --Choose a motivational quote related to your goal. Don't have one? Visit http://motivationalcentral. Grit or Grace? The grit of life is hard to swallow. You make a presentation atthe office and someone points out a small mistake. 5 Forgotten Secrets to Beating Procrastination at Home It's not easy to stay motivated and beat procrastination while being at home. Too many distractions and feeling that tasks can always be delayed until tomorrow or the next day can cause procrastination at home to set in. Christian Gladiators? Athletics as a Metaphor for the Christian Lifestyle When Paul first arrived in Corinth in the middle of his second missionary journey, Acts 18:2-3 reports that he joined Aquila and Priscilla in the occupation of making tents. This fits in well with what Paul himself wrote at about that same time. Lights, Camera, Take Action Have you ever had a great business idea?Did you focus & plan out the business in your mind and then write it down on paper?Of course you did "Take Action"? Right?Well most of us have great ideas or talents that we can share with the rest of the world but never do. WHY???Think about how many Jobs you could have created and how many people you could have helped with your idea or business. Ten Major Causes of Failure -Lack of a specific purpose in life. You can not hope to succeed in any field of your life if you don't have a central purpose. Life After Prison - The Road Home, Vanishing Dreams The basic trauma of being locked inside of a penal institution is often overlooked. The effect this system has on a person is very hard to imagine. 4 Qualities of Highly Successful People What if you can be, do or have anything you want, what would you desire in your life?Now do you believe it can happen? Yes? No? In the words of Henry Ford, "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right."Well then what actually happens for those people who do seem to get everything they desire?Let's take a closer look. Overcoming Procrastination What are the reasons that YOU procrastinate?Are you a perfectionist?Do you procrastinate on projects that you dislike?Do you over schedule yourself?Do you have fear of failure?Or maybe fear of success?Perhaps you dislike or disagree with the person delegating the job?Do you lack clear goals?There are many reasons for procrastination, but only one result. Stress, anxiety, and a great amount of wasted time. Half Dome, A Story About Your Future Success The physical journey mirrors very accurately the spiritual journey of your own life. It was one of the toughest things you've ever done. Have You Just Hit The Wall? Have you hit the 'brick wall' yet?No? Well it won't be long.I started tinkering with the internet at the start of 2003, then finished my property maintenance business towards the end of that year and went full time online. After the Big Project: Recovering From Success My older daughter got married 10 days ago. The wedding was a joyous and extraordinary experience, way beyond our imaginings.
|
Section Site Map - Submit News - Feedback - Comments - Advertise with Us Copyright © 2006 Luminati Inc. All rights reserved. 
|
