Scott Jeffrey » creative professionals

Attention and Focus

Scott Jeffrey — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 12:30:11 +0000

Anyone reading this blog with consistency has observed an emphasis on attention and focus: the ability to maintain your attention on a task for a given length of time and focus on completing the task or result.

We also emphasize how technology and the digitally-driven world makes maintaining attention and focus difficult. For creative professionals, it’s prudent to understand what distracts us—the mechanisms behind distraction—and develop strategies and disciplines to rise above our tendency toward busyness.

If you doubt that our Western culture lacks focus, open almost any nonfiction book published in the last two decades. Notice how the book is typeset: the relatively short length of chapters and paragraphs as well as the frequent breaks in the text with a torrent of subheadings and other forms of spacing.

Now, open a book from the 1950s. The text can scroll for pages without as much as a new paragraph. Although today’s format may be more reader-friendly, the changes necessarily addressed the limitations of the general reader. Publishers realize that the reading public has a short attention span. (Surveys have shown that most people never get past the second chapter in a given book.)

And what happens when we fully adapt to social media, becoming accustomed to messages of 140 characters? (We have an entirely new generation relying on text messaging as a dominant form of communication.) What happens to our focus and attention then?

We all possess the capability for attention and focus, but it’s a faculty that needs consistent training and practice. As our fast paced information-intensive, media-driven world doesn’t promote or facilitate this vital faculty, it’s up to us to set the agenda—to commit to increasing our mindfulness, our contemplative practices, and our overall focus.

Otherwise, our perception gets more and more fragmented. Greater fragmentation has a tendency to weaken our values and show us a world of less meaning, leading to greater emotionality and stress. Attention and focus, in contrast, helps us expand to a larger vision of the world (and even of our businesses), giving way to steadiness, inner resilience, and peace. That’s reason enough to cultivate these vital assets.

Your Creative Identity

Scott Jeffrey — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:58:55 +0000

Creative professionals and knowledge workers thrive on their ability to generate ideas and operate in a state of effortless flow. A consciously developed Creative Identity can help strength your connection to the creative impulse.

A creative identity is your internal representation of how you see yourself, a composite of your imagination, resourcefulness and genius.

The person who consistently comes up with great ideas usually has a strong creative identity. Those who struggle to be creative or don’t even attempt to do so, usually have weak creative identities.

Regardless of your profession, however, you can always enhance your creative identity by re-inventing yourself—by consciously designing a creative persona.

How do foster your Creative Identity?

1) Answer the following questions (and record your answers):

How would you define yourself?
What are your beliefs about your creative abilities?
Do you believe ideas are hard to come by or are they abundantly available?
Do you have the ability to contribute and positively impact others?
What do you do (have you done) that you are most proud of?

2) Take the answers to the above questions and create a statement about your Creative Identity—a paragraph that states your creative intention and ability.

3) Upon rising in the morning, put on some inspirational music, get into an energized state and read your Creativity Identity statement. Try to feel the words as you read them.

4) Repeat this exercise for 14 straight days or until you feel your identity shift. You’ll begin to notice more ideas arising at unexpected times.

Your creative identity can help determine future decisions and projects.

Until now, you may have been unaware of limiting beliefs about your creative capacity. Clarify who you want to become, grab hold of your creative powers and manifest the unimaginable.

Reading with Purpose

Scott Jeffrey — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 11:30:23 +0000

Creative Professionals are usually avid readers, as the written word offers a wellspring of ideas that lead to learning and growth. We have at least one book we’re currently reading, and oftentimes we have a stack of nonfiction books in constant rotation.

As a consequence of the culture’s obsession with the new, however, we often read a book with the intention of getting to the next book. This objective lacks purpose and is often a waste of time.

Alternatively, we can read with more meaningful intention and purpose, asking questions to ourselves that challenge our understanding as we read. What’s your driving purpose for investing many hours into the book? What are you looking to learn? What are the questions you’d like to answer? Do you agree with the author’s assertions? Do you have enough information to develop a well-informed perspective?

Determining your objectives or purpose in advance will help you stay focused on your task instead of aimlessly flipping from page to page. If you’re seeking those nuggets of truth within the written word, you have to read mindfully and actively.

If you have a clear purpose when reading a book, you’ll be more likely to read the same book more than once. You may sometimes feel that there’s a reading scorecard—you want to check your current book off your list. But what if you only comprehended 10% of the book’s material? If you determined that the book was important enough to read in the first place, why jump to the next book when you’ve only assimilated 10%?

Of course, not every book requires such close attention. Chances are, however, that the most challenging books will offer the greatest long-term rewards.

Keep in mind why you’re reading a particular book. We generally read nonfiction books to acquire specific knowledge and apply this knowledge to our lives. Learn to ask meaningful questions as you read a book as if you’re opening a dialogue with the author. Challenge yourself to further your understanding and re-read the material until the information is assimilated.

Do you run an Enlightened Business?

Scott Jeffrey — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:30:32 +0000

Enlightened Businesses are not enlightened and they are not defined solely by ecological awareness. Enlightened Businesses are simply more aware of themselves and the role their business plays in the lives of their employees, customers and community. They are aware of the intangible elements of business, taking seriously things like values, culture, vision, mission, loyalty, service and brand.

You run an Enlightened Business if you …

Operate every aspect of your business with integrity.
Listen to your customers and are aware of their needs.
Innovate around the needs of your customers.
Demonstrate a genuine willingness to serve your customers.
Find ways to give back to your community.
Foster a distinct culture committed to a set of core values.
Are conscious and concerned about your business’s impact on the environment.

You are an Enlightened Business owner if you …

Play to people’s strengths instead of focusing on their weaknesses.
Value your employees as team members and respect them as human beings.
Accept the nature of competition and continue to operate with high integrity.
Combine analytic reasoning with subjective experience to understand what drives your customers.
Hold a deeper meaning of the role you play in positively influencing others and inspiring growth and contribution.

Enlightened Businesses and Creative Professionals keep a unique perspective about what business they are really in. This requires an understanding that transcends a myopic view of your business and your industry.

Ultimately, the willingness to serve your customers is the hallmark of Enlightened Businesses. Let’s commit to growing more Enlightened Businesses for the next generation of consumers and the overall community.

Classics in Personal Growth

Scott Jeffrey — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 11:45:33 +0000

Creative Professionals are committed to constant growth. The self-help movement born in the 1970s continues, but many executives and professionals have become jaded and critical of what often turns into New Ageism or a rah-rah show. Still, there is great value in improving oneself and learning to master the world (in whatever way seems appropriate to you).

Different books are appropriate for different people at different stages of development. But if you’re interested in self-improvement, the following books will likely serve you well:

As a Man Thinketh by James Allen

English essayist James Allen expounds on the power of our thoughts to influence and shape the environment around us. Allen’s moving prose can be read over and over.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Carnegie’s classic on how to interact with others should be on everyone’s must-read list. This mega-bestseller offers practical advice on how to effectively approach communication with others, emphasizing the importance of focusing on the other person’s needs instead of your own.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

Hill’s study of the principles of success elucidates the elements one can master in order to build wealth. The chapter on “Autosuggestion” is excellent and highly useful.

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie

Carnegie provides easy-to-apply advice and clear perspectives to help you live worry-free.

The Greatest Salesmen in the World by Og Mandino

This short, inspirational classic should be read until it’s lived. Follow the instructions and read the scrolls daily. Everyone I know who did this is living a remarkable life.

The Traveler’s Gift: Seven Decisions That Determine Personal Success by Andy Andrews

In a similar spirit to Mandino’s Greatest Salesmen, Andy Andrews’ New York Times bestseller is quickly becoming a modern classic. The main character is swept up into a metaphysical adventure where he meets seven influential historical figures like Harry Truman and Abraham Lincoln at critical moments of decision. Read the Seven Decisions daily, and reap the benefits. (There’s also a nonfiction version titled Mastering the Seven Decisions of Personal Success.)

Read these personal growth classics well. Live the principles they contain and you will grow as a consequence.

Dialogue Instead of Debate

Scott Jeffrey — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:00:44 +0000

Many meetings turn into debates where each person tries to persuade the other into his way of viewing things. Debates drain creativity and lead to resentment and grievances among members.

Quantum physicist David Bohm wrote extensively about how our minds are fragmented and how fragmentation leads to perceptual distortion. Our perception, filtered and tainted by limiting beliefs, distorted memories and experiences often shows us an inaccurate view of reality.

In an effort to better understand ourselves and move toward wholeness, Bohm introduced the idea of dialogue. Engaging in an open discussion, group members suspend their assumptions and normal reactions to a diverse range of ideas. The objective of a dialogue is to find shared meaning among group members.

No one tries to win in a dialogue. The spirit of a dialogue is radically different than most meetings and group discussions. A dialogue is not a game; no one tries to gain points. In dialogue, there is common participation where either the entire group benefits or no one does.

Bohm’s style of dialogue might seem impractical to businesses at first glance. Bohm explains, “In the dialogue group we are not going to decide what to do about anything … Our purpose is really to communicate coherently in truth, if you want to call that a purpose.”

Bohm isn’t suggesting, however, that every group gathering should be a dialogue. He offers dialogue as a more effective means of tackling big problems.

Leadership teams comprised of sophisticated creative professionals will benefit from scheduled dialogues. Without hidden personal agendas, dialogues can produce a free exchange of ideas that lead to more holistic thinking, higher levels of creativity and more meaningful discussions.

(I highly recommend reading Bohm’s On Dialogue. It’s a little book packed with powerful perspectives.)

A Penny for Your 50,000 Thoughts

Scott Jeffrey — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 11:00:26 +0000

According to psychologists, we each have approximately 50,000 thoughts per day. (If this sounds inconceivable, close your eyes and try counting all the random thoughts that float through your consciousness in 60 seconds.)

Like the Indy 500, most thoughts race through our minds, zoom across our psyche, making an occasional pit stop on our radar of awareness.

Pondering this staggering number, it’s amazing we’re able to communicate coherently or accomplish any task at all. The array of thoughts zipping through our head isn’t necessarily the problem; generally, we function fine.

The greater challenge lies in the quality of these thoughts: Out of the 50,000 thoughts you had yesterday, how many are different from the 50,000 you are having today?

We have the tendency of locking ourselves into patterns of thinking reinforced by beliefs, behaviors and habits. Although each moment is unique—a whole universe within itself—by default, we unknowingly engage analogous thoughts over and over.

Precision focused with positive intention, these thoughts can be powerful allies as you fashion your future. Alas, too often we contemplate the injustices of our unforgiving work environments, replay nonsensical arguments and simmer in ongoing competitive crises.

The qualitative sum of your thoughts defines your experience. Your level of happiness, enthusiasm and centeredness is a byproduct of those racing, aimless thoughts flashing through your psyche.

Gravity tends to pull us toward a lower common denominator. If we remain unaware of our thought patterns, we end up like the vast majority of people who never learn how to craft and live their vision. There are few truly effective Creative Professionals in the world.

Obviously, the power of positive thinking isn’t a new concept. We know. We get it: What we focus on becomes our reality. But with 50,000 whirling thoughts to manage, even our best efforts will likely fall short. So why not try something different?

Find a sacred space within yourself and uncover a land beyond worry, anxiety and anger. Deep in the uncharted corners of your mind await hidden treasures of love and tranquility. Once you unlock the chest, a pool of newfound energy and ideas springs forth.

So what are you thinking about?