Doing what’s meaningful to you brings joy; doing the meaningless wastes time.

The ability to effectively discern, select, and prioritize projects and activities in your professional and personal life is of paramount importance.

Most of us were not graced with a high level of discernment through the course of our normal development. Even if we were, social programming and the pressures of modern life often robs us of our ability to make effective decisions.

Most of us forget we even have a choice, convincing ourselves that all things are equally important and urgent, and that there simply isn’t enough time.

But with practice and conscious observation, we can reclaim our ability to choose—our ability to discern what is meaningful to us.

Take reading, for example, a topic we discuss quite a bit here. We have limited time available for reading, so how do we evaluate what we’re going to read and at what level of inquiry? Do you evaluate a book before you dive in—before you commit many hours of your valuable time?

How about taking on new projects? Do you evaluate what you’re going to enjoy doing, what you have to do, what you want to master, and whether you’re better off either declining or getting outside assistance?

Realize, too, that when you make a commitment to do something, you’re making a pledge with yourself. If you don’t honor those inner pledges, your self-image will shrink while your shadow grows—all the more reason to take discernment seriously.

Again, your available time is fixed; how you invest your time is variable.

Choose consciously. Choose carefully. Choose wisely.

Related posts:

1. Five Strategies to Improve Reading Effectiveness

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.

Related posts:

1. Creative Geniuses Surrender to the Moment
2. Moving Beyond Perceived Limitations
3. Five Ways to Become More Creative at Work

The hero is reluctant to enter the special world. But the adventure can’t begin until the hero makes the decision to engage this new realm.

Joseph Campbell explains in The Hero with a Thousand Faces, “The adventure is always and everywhere a passage beyond the veil of the known into the unknown; the powers that watch at the boundary are dangerous; to deal with them is risky; yet for anyone with competence and courage the danger fades.”

Luke Skywalker isn’t ready to leave his aunt and uncle’s farm and travel with Obi Wan to save the princess. Staring at Morpheus, Neo contemplates taking the blue pill instead of seeing the Matrix.

Your call to adventure may not be so dramatic, but it happens frequently. Your Call is a daily meeting with the unknown—a decision to continually learn and grow.

In Cult Branding Workbook, BJ Bueno asks, “What is your call to adventure?”

Bueno writes, “The adventure is that ‘inner itch’ about your business that has been floating around in your head for the last couple of days, months, or even years. Your ‘call to adventure’ could be an opportunity to transform how products are sold in your industry or perhaps a new wireless delivery channel that’s yet to be invented.”

Business leaders who heed and answer the call are the ones who change their industries.

Are you ready to embrace your call to adventure?

Related posts:

1. Your True Adventure
2. The Last Hero’s Journey
3. Deconstructing the Hero’s Journey

The strongest lens you can look through leads to an obsessive focus on your customers. It doesn’t matter if you’re offline or online, or if you sell products or services—consistent focus on your customers is the best way to effectively grow your business.

Google’s VP of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer explains, “We believe that if we focus on the users, the money will come. In a truly virtual business, if you’re successful, you’ll be working at something that’s so necessary people will pay for it in subscription form. Or you’ll have so many users that advertisers will pay to sponsor the site.”

Revenue is generated as a consequence of serving your customers. Focus on better serving the needs of your customers, not on making the next sale.

Related posts:

1. Ten Reasons to Focus on Your Best Customers
2. The Willingness to Genuinely Serve Your Customers
3. Attention and Focus