Since we started at school and evolved up the levels and grades, we have been familiar with a certain way of thinking. This way of thinking is called “critical” thinking and it emphasizes the skills of analysis rather than creative thinking and creative problem solving. Our formal education systems are using teaching models that are focused on how to understand claims, follow logical arguments, figure out the answer, eliminate the incorrect paths and finally finding the correct ones.

There is however, another type of thinking, which is much more focused on exploring ideas, which has the possibility of searching for and generating several great answers rather than just one. This is the creative way of thinking. Both of these ways of thinking are crucial to a successful career or working life, relationship issues and self improvement. The strange thing is that the latter tends to be ignored and neglected in the education system; the system that should prepare us for the real life.

What distinguises the Creative way of thinking from the critical way?
While the critical way of thinking…

• is analytic by nature
• aims to provide you ‘the answer’
• is convergent, fact or standard oriented
• is stricktly focused
• is validated by judgment
• belongs to the left side of the brain
• consists of a line of deductions
• has an objective nature
• empazises probability - which can be quantified
• is based upon reasoning
• is verbal

the creative way of thinking …

• is more generative; it’s purpose is to generate new answers for already known problems
• is aimed to give you one or more possible answers among a set
• is divergent, which is the opposite of the former
• is more diffused
• only functions when judgment is suspended

• belongs to the right side of the brain
• is more associative which means it can make ideas by associating other ideas
• is much more subjective
• is more focused on what is possible whether it can be quantified or not
• is based upon richness and novelty
• is visual

When we try to solve problems, both ways of thinking are required. The process of problem solving utilizes an alternation between the creative and critical way of thinking. - they operate together. Another good thing about our fantastic brains are that we don’t have to think too hard about when to use which method - the brain takes care of it automatically.

Terje Brooks Ellingsen is a writer and internet publisher. He runs the website 1st-Self_Improvement.net. Terje is a Sociologist who enjoys contributing to the personal growth and happiness of others. He tries to accomplish this by writing about self improvement issues from his own experience and knowledge. For example, making a successful career and relationship issues

Phil Ashforth of Synergy Coaching argues the case for using a Business Coach.

The first thing that many business owners will ask is, “What is a Business Coach?” and the second, “Why would I need one?”

When you ask most people, they will rightly associate coaching with sports, athletics or football. It has only really been in the last thirty years or so that coaching as a profession has really developed into a serious industry, and that the world of business has fully adopted coaching alongside many other business support functions.

Often, businesses fear approaching business coaches due to concerns over competence, (there is no formal regulation in the UK currently) and the costs involved, which can vary greatly between companies.

That said, there are some excellent training and private accreditation companies for coach’s, that come with stringent standards and ethical codes of conduct. It is well worth checking an individual coach’s qualifications and experience before appointing and obviously, checking on costs at an early stage.

A Business Coach is usually a very experienced person within business, but does not necessarily have a specific industry expertise within each clients’ sector. This is how coaching mainly differs from mentoring or consultancy.

Essentially, a coach will assist in the setting of challenging goals in certain ‘topic’ areas and ensuring that agreed actions are prioritised and taken by all members of the team to achieve these goals.

A coach will also often have many strategies that can be offered to companies, these allow for structured processes to be created, and regular reviews and measurement to be applied.

Business Coaching can be effective, when compared with traditional training and consultancy as it is real-time, it is a living partnership that allows the business owner to have full ownership of decisions, to constantly reinforce successful behaviours and practises until they become engrained habits.

One of the main complaints amongst business owners is that they simply do not have the time to work on their businesses, this can be defined as taking quality thinking time over the ‘bigger picture’ elements that can move the business forward. Far too much time is often spent on day to day tasks, meetings, travel and dealing with interruptions.

The recognition that the business is not getting this vital attention, leads to stress and personal frustration, multiply this to the directors and senior managers of an organisation
and the effect on the whole workforce can become obviously de-motivational over a period of time, reflected in a potential decline in performance.

A Business Coach will work closely with a client to identify areas of possibility and improvement, but it is the client who ultimately decides on, and takes full ownership of the solution. This can seem unusual, but the reason is, that it is much more likely that actions will be taken, if the client has, albeit with careful coaching, originated the solution for themselves. This forms the basis of most coaching relationships.

Business Coaching is now a part of many organisations’ strategy to ensure many individual business areas are progressing to a structured plan that takes into account personal motivational drivers and a holistic view of the business overall.

As the world’s second highest growth sector after IT, according to the UK Coaching Academy, it looks as if Business Coaching is a profession that is here to stay and can add a tremendous amount of value to most businesses if they partner with a reputable coaching organisation.

Phil Ashforth DipM, DipINLPTA MCIM, is a Director at North West coaching company Synergy Coaching Ltd, see their site at www.synergycoaching.co.uk/bg telephone +44 (0)1772 641234.

Phil Ashforth

Phil Ashforth has been involved in sales and marketing for over the last twenty years. Within that time he has held senior positions, assisting both large and small-scale enterprises with their sales and marketing strategy and implementation.

He holds a recognised marketing qualification (CIM) at post-graduate level and is a member of several marketing bodies and attends regular seminars for his commitment to continual professional development.

As a qualified and experienced business growth coach, Philip has been trained by and is part of the Peter Thomson International Plc (PTI) network. PTI is the uk’s largest business growth consultancy. He has also been trained by, and is a member of Europes leading coaching organisation, The Coaching Academy.

For more information see http://www.synergycoaching.co.uk

Successful companies have innovation in their blood. The single most important element in an innovative company is the creativity of their people. Creative thinkers don’t win by conforming to a given set of rules. Rather they reinvent the game by asking the 20 challenging questions and following 20 breakthrough strategies.

20 Challenging Questions to Ask:

1. What if….?
2. What do you think about….?
3. What’s the next step?
4. What can we do better?
5. How can we streamline?
6. What should we modify?
7. What should we replace?
8. What should we add?
9. What should we eliminate?
10. Can we make any new assumptions?
11. What will make it work?
12. What other ideas do you have?
13. What issues should we explore?
14. What patterns can you see?
15. How can we simplify?
16. How can we improve?
17. How will the customer benefit?
18. Have we forgotten anything?
19. What else?
20. Why?

20 Break Through Strategies to Follow:

1. Innovate for today as well as tomorrow.
2. Focus on what you can reasonably do…and stretch a bit.
3. Make innovation part of the day-to-day operations.
4. Develop a company-wide innovation process.
5. Assign responsibility to one person or team for the innovative process.
6. Provide incentives if you want your people to be creative.
7. Reward the whole team, not just individuals.
8. Train everyone in your company’s innovation process.
9. Focus innovation efforts on market needs & opportunities.
10. Target value and results instead of novelty.
11. Abandon old and the obsolete ways, but do so systematically.
12. Set high goals, but reward small improvements.
13. Focus on “new and different” as well as “better and more.”
14. Ask, “Is this the right opportunity?”
15. Establish specific accountabilities and targets.
16. Understand that innovation can require long lead time.
17. Accept innovation is an absolute survival skill.
18. Keep innovating; today’s success is built on yesterday’s results.
19. Remember, innovation is both hard work and fun.
20. Start small, but START.

Marcia Zidle, the ‘people smarts’ coach, works with business leaders to quickly solve their people management headaches so they can concentrate on their #1 job - to grow and increase profits. She offers free help through Leadership Briefing, a weekly e-newsletter with practical tips on leadership style, employee motivation, recruitment and retention and relationship management.

Subscribe by going to
http://leadershiphooks.com and get the bonus report “61 Leadership Time Savers and Life Savers”. Marcia is the author of the What Really Works Handbooks - resources for managers on the front line and the Power-by-the-Hour programs - fast, convenient, real life, affordable courses for leadership and staff development. She is available for media interviews, conference presentations and panel discussions on the hottest issues affecting the workplace today. Contact Marcia at 800-971-7619.

There is no sure fire route to commercial success but the probability of success can be increased. This is important for at least two reasons:

a) Resource Management. The Economist (2003) states that 3000 bright ideas result in 100 worthwhile projects, which are winnowed down to four development programmes. And four such development programmes are required to stand any chance of getting one winner.

b) Time Management. Whilst it is often the case that sufficient time is not taken to develop a product fully, there is always time to go back and fix mistakes. The cost of product re-engineering varies from the low to high billions.

There are a number of techniques that allow better problem identification and idea generation (creativity) and better idea selection, development and commercialisation (innovation).

Innovation strategies include:

a) Valuing ideas according to their type. Random ideas and those resulting from solution spotting have the highest success rates.

b) Measuring strategic, technical and competency fits with the organisation.

c) Measurement of ideas according to their impediments. A new type of cell phone will be infinitely easier to produce than a time machine. The Internet has a far lower take up in Africa than in Europe because of infrastructure deficiencies.

d) Carefully selecting what criteria is used to allow or disallow an idea at various stages of the development pipeline. Not allowing an idea (or releasing it too early) may not give that idea a chance to blossom. However, keeping it in the pipeline takes away valuable resources that may allow another idea to bloom.

e) Adequate consumer benefit analysis. Many ideas are simply developed before focused, practical and appropriate end-user needs are thought through.

These and other topics are covered in depth in the MBA dissertation on Managing Creativity & Innovation, which can be purchased (along with a Creativity and Innovation DIY Audit, Good Idea Generator Software and Power Point Presentation) from http://www.managing-creativity.com

You are free to reproduce this article as long as no changes are made and the author’s name and site URL are retained.

Kal Bishop MBA, is a management consultant based in London, UK. He has consulted in the visual media and software industries and for clients such as Toshiba and Transport for London. He has led Improv, creativity and innovation workshops, exhibited artwork in San Francisco, Los Angeles and London and written a number of screenplays. He is a passionate traveller. He can be reached on http://www.managing-creativity.com.

Have you forgotten what it is you want to become and have? Probably you have made a few attempts, found that your strategies didn’t work and lost yourself along the way.

Why not give yourself another chance to realize your goals?

It all starts with the goal.

Define and describe it. Write down when you want to achieve it. Write down the reasons why you want it. Write down how it would feel like when you have achieved it.

Plan it.

Planning counts. Plans, strategies and actions steps show you the way. Plan what you want to do and how you want to do it. Break down the tasks. A good map makes navigation easier.

Work hard at it.

Work harder than you ever did. If you don’t get the result, try something else. If that something else does not work too, modify and try doing it differently. You may have to spend many hours, days and nights but as long as you persist, you will get it right.

Visualize it.

Use your imagination to create it first inside even before you can have it on the outside. Picture having your ambition realized in your mind. Put in the sounds and the feelings. Rerun it over and over again.

Listen to your internal dialogue.

What you are saying inside affects you physically, emotionally and mentally. Is your defense system inside trying to make you stick to your old limiting beliefs and perceptions? Take over and challenge your inner critics.

Focus your attention.

Don’t get swayed easily with the noise and happenings going on outside. Put your attention on what you are trying to achieve. Remember the goal and you will have control over the discomforts and difficulties.

Seek help.

Find the information, skills and knowledge that you need from other people, books, and audio or video programs. Speed up your learning process by emulating what other successful people have done. You save time and get results faster.

Many of my clients are working harder than smarter. This is not a put-down of their intelligence. It is a statement about the conventions of the way most of us live and work. Without a concerted effort to step back and take an objective look at how we function day in and day out, we find ourselves subject to old ways of doing things without periodic checkups to see if they are working.

The first step to changing the high stress road to burnout approach to your work day is to build in “joy breaks” or mini refreshers. It is not true that you get more done if you don’t stop for lunch or other refreshing breaks during the day. On the contrary, I always remember the days I sat at my desk searching for a solution to a particular problem. I tried very hard to come up with the answer and was not successful.

In the afternoon of the second day, I threw my hands in the air, exasperated, and went out to pull a few weeds from my garden. That’s when the light bulb went off and I had the answer.

In order to have meaningful joy breaks a plan is necessary. Start by making a list of things you consider fun and refreshing that can be done in 5 or 10 minutes, a half hour, an hour or more. Then list the supplies you will need to have on hand when you want to do that activity: magazines, puzzles, a musical instrument, books, CD’s, running shoes, Legos, phone numbers of friends or family, gardening gloves, crayons, paints, jelly beans, yoga instructions, a basketball, a movie schedule, etc. Make sure that your breaks have NOTHING to do with your work.

You will experience even more benefits than feeling refreshed. You will start thinking out of the box, be more creative, productive, and make better decisions. You will also notice that there are more facets to your personality than are reflected in your work. You may remember old interests you forgot about or discover new talents you would like to develop. Your joy breaks will bring more joy to your daily life and make you a more pleasant person to be around.

At some point you may want to take a closer look and examine in greater depth how you are spending not only your work life, but your whole life. Are you actually doing what you are supposed to be doing in the world? We will take a deeper look into that in the future.

Master your next level and enjoy the journey.

About The Author

Dorene Lehavi, Ph.D. is principal of Next Level Business and Professional Coaching. She coaches Professionals and Business Partners and teaches teleclasses on techniques to break through barriers to the next level. Dr. Lehavi offers a complimentary coaching session so you can experience how coaching can work for you. Contact Dr. Lehavi at DL@CoachingforYourNextLevel.com or on the web at http://www.CoachingforYourNextLevel.com Subscribe to Mastering Your Next Level monthly e-newsletter at http://www.coachingforyournextlevel.com/newsletter.html

Borderline personality disorder: A serious mental illness characterized by pervasive instability in moods, interpersonal relationships, self-image, and behavior. This instability often disrupts family and work life, long-term planning, and the individual’s sense of self-identity.

Originally thought to be at the “borderline” of psychosis, people with borderline personality disorder (BPD) suffer from a disorder of emotion regulation. While less well known than schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness), BPD is more common, affecting 2% of adults, mostly young women. There is a high rate of self-injury without suicide intent, as well as a significant rate of suicide attempts and completed suicide in severe cases. Patients often need extensive mental health services and account for about 20% of psychiatric hospitalizations.

While a person with depression or bipolar disorder typically endures the same mood for weeks, a person with BPD may experience intense bouts of anger, depression and anxiety that may last only hours, or at most a day. These may be associated with episodes of impulsive aggression, self-injury, and drug or alcohol abuse. Distortions in cognition and sense of self can lead to frequent changes in long-term goals, career plans, jobs, friendships, gender identity, and values. Sometimes people with BPD view themselves as fundamentally bad, or unworthy. They may feel unfairly misunderstood or mistreated, bored, empty, and have little idea who they are. Such symptoms are most acute when people with BPD feel isolated and lacking in social support, and may result in frantic efforts to avoid being alone.

People with BPD often have highly unstable patterns of social relationships. While they can develop intense but stormy attachments, their attitudes towards family, friends, and loved ones may suddenly shift from idealization (great admiration and love) to devaluation (intense anger and dislike). Thus, they may form an immediate attachment and idealize the other person, but when a slight separation or conflict occurs, they switch unexpectedly to the other extreme and angrily accuse the other person of not caring for them at all. Even with family members, individuals with BPD are highly sensitive to rejection, reacting with anger and distress to such mild separations as a vacation, a business trip, or a sudden change in plans. These fears of abandonment seem to be related to difficulties feeling emotionally connected to important persons when they are physically absent, leaving the individual with BPD feeling lost and perhaps worthlessness. Suicide threats and attempts may occur along with anger at perceived abandonment and disappointments.

People with BPD exhibit other impulsive behaviors, such as excessive spending, binge eating and risky sex. BPD often occurs together with other psychiatric problems, particularly bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, and other personality disorders.

Group and individual psychotherapy are at least partially effective for many patients with BPD. A new psychosocial treatment termed dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed specifically to treat BPD, and this technique appears promising. Pharmacological treatments are often prescribed based on specific target symptoms shown by the individual patient. Antidepressant drugs and mood stabilizers may be helpful for depressed and/or labile mood. Antipsychotic drugs may also be used when there are distortions in thinking.

Are your afraid of risk? Many people are horrified by taking large or small risks, so you are not alone in such fears; yet without some risk there is no progress and without progress no innovation and without innovation no advancement and without advancement only stagnation of a civilization, society or even individual.

Risk is not something to be afraid of or fear, it is something to understand. Indeed the chaos, which is associated with such crisis that causes one to fear is also bathed in opportunity. Such opportunity is your for the taking if you dare to confront your fear and size up the advantages, possibilities and potential of taking such a risk and pit that against the downfall if you fail to accomplish the task and the consequences of that failure.

Then and only then can you overcome your fear of risk and we all know that taking such risks can in fact end in tragedy, yet we also know that without them, we would have never stepped foot on the moon, never flown faster than the speed of sound and never gotten to the new world or crossed the ocean or expanded our horizons.

It is important for mankind to boldly go where no man has gone before and it is equally important in your life to accept challenges, take risks and press on. I certainly hope you understand; sometimes you have to fight when you’re a man. Think on it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Pain. Immense pain. Sometimes unbearable, and sometimes incomprehensible. So many of us live life in pain. The pain of decision-making. The pain of thinking about life. The pain of keeping dead relationships alive. The pain of memories that haunt us. The pain of fear. The pain of getting up in the morning and the pain of sleepless nights. The pain of loss of someone most dear and the pain of waiting for them to return. Pain, and more pain in everything. While most of us live in some or the other pain, the nature is blissful. Look at these mountains and rivers. Watch the joy.

But our life is different. The life of pain. Look at your own eyes in the mirror and many times you will see the pain of tiredness. The pain of trying to run away from pain. Why? Because, we all live. Yes, pain comes because we live. Only dead have peace. Or very small children or saints. Rest of us are in some pain at all the times. Pain becomes such an essential part of life that many times, we tend to forget that we are living in pain. We become unaware of a life of cheer, and a painless life.

Is there anyway to counter the pains? Sometimes, when we begin losing our balance, we do approach psychiatrists. But if the choice is wrong, that may lead to bigger pain. Is a president of a nation without any pains? Ask him/her and you will get a basketful of surprises. Is a young teenager without pain? Ask and you will get another basket. Keep on listing and keep on asking. CEOs of companies, students, junior executives, shop owners, movie makers, celebrities, poor people…The list will be endless and so will be the story of pains.

Any way out of pains? One can reflect about what is happening in one’s life that is killing the essence of living. But that exercise will not take away any pain, unless we change ourselves totally. How to do that? Let us begin with reflecting and finding out what gives us pains. Count even the smallest pain. Let the journey of making enquiries begin. Coming out of pains will only follow that exercise. Take the first step. After reflecting about and counting all the pains, you may realize that some pains are totally inescapable.

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Have a to-do list a mile long? An in-tray that’s about to collapse? Closets that are jam-packed with junk and a stack of family photos?

Now school is starting and things are just going to get worse! How can you deal with it all?

Often when we look at all there is to do, it can seem and is overwhelming. But if we chunk it down into smaller tasks the world starts to look a lot brighter. Try this 4S strategy.

Sort it. First review the four areas you want to tackle and determine the following: 1) tasks you enjoy and only you can do such as attend to personal appointments; 2) the things you don’t like doing and can transfer to someone else; and, 3) those items you’ve been meaning to do.

Start it. Stop procrastinating. Start doing what you find fun and only you can do…now. Don’t undertake everything at once or set unrealistic deadlines. Just do one small task to build momentum. Baby steps will turn into giant leaps. Remember make it fun. You’ll have a good time and feel a sense of accomplishment.

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