Have you ever gone to a blog and noticed that all they seem to do is rant and rant and rant some more.  About what you ask?  About anything that will create controversy. 

Does this help anyone?

Yes.  The person who is ranting has gotten what they want- audience.  But does it help you? - No.  In the end, all they are doing is lowering their blog to the level of a second rate forum.  You know the type of forum that does something called, “flaming,” to new users who are inexperienced.  Or they start a topic that they know will create a heated debate.  This isn’t conversation, constructive, or even productive- it’s childish. 

Again, keep the ranting to your bedroom and buy a book on anger management.  Don’t dirty your blog with your negative attitude.  If you don’t like something, be constructive and only offer advice.  Don’t tell me how much you hate, despise, etc…  I left your blog in an instant when I noticed how much you complain.  I like most people am not here to listen to someone complain.  When I surf the net, I do so to find inspiration, creativity, innovation, and like minded individuals. 

In the end, negativity in any form will only push people away.  People enjoy positive people and the presence they create. 

Solitude is the ultimate creative environment for some people.  In the silence of seclusion you can produce much more than in the presence of others, but again such an environment is only good for some. 

Being alone while creating something is good for productivity, but has many downsides if you are not careful:

Television

               If you leave your television on while you work, you will find that you don’t get much done in the process.  When your TV is on, you of course have it on something you like to watch.  This of course causes you to continually watch the show or movie instead of working on your project.  In order to stay on track, just turn off the TV and set aside time for it later.

Internet-Fun Websites and E-mail

               When you are working on a computer, the internet is loaded with distractions to get you off track.  From e-mail to video, you can find many ways to waste hours upon hours away before you even realize it.  To make sure that you don’t waste these precious hours of work, don’t navigate for entertainment and close your e-mail. 

Phone or Cell-Phone

               Sometimes you will get a call from a friend, you answer it.  And if that call just so happens to ring in while you are working on something, you could spend any amount of time talking instead of getting something done.  Instead of answering the call in the first place, don’t answer it and call the person back later when you have time.  If you do have to answer the call, give yourself ten to fifteen minutes to talk, end the call and then get back to work. 

So you see, continually interrupting your work will slow your progress and possibly cause your project to eventually fail.  For many, finding ways to not get off topic is a never ending battle.  If you are going to finish your project, the best way to do so is to set aside time for only one thing.  I will describe this in more detail in the future…  Some call it The Power of Concentration (link will be added here when the article is written).

I talked about motivation last week and also creating amazing ideas, but now I’d like to progress further into the idea process. At some point that many do not keep track of, an idea goes from being only a thought in our mind, to an actual working concept that we can show the world. I believe that there is a lot going on in what seems to be just an automatic transition. I also believe that without proper guidance, the entirety of the original idea can be lost forever.

You’ve just written down that amazing new idea, and now you want to push it a little further. You now want to see the idea become something more than just words on a piece of paper or pixels on your computer screen. But where do you start?

First of all, the best thing to do when you have created an idea is to clarify that idea completely. Type or write out everything you know, think, care, and plan for that concern the idea. Make sure you document all of your thoughts about the idea entirely. This step is important because you not only need to be able to come back to this document for reference, but also need to get all of your thoughts out. Of course the later makes room for your mind to tackle other problems or questions that might arise during development.

After you have emptied the contents of you mind, it’s time to go back and organize everything into a sort of, “game plan.” You can also think about it like a business plan in a sense. What you are going to do now is outline the entire development of this idea. Sound daunting? – It really isn’t. Here you are basically defining what you are specifically going to do in order to bring this idea into reality. If it helps you can even answer some of these questions:

You can even take some questions from business plans if you’d like…

• What your objectives?

• What do you plan to accomplish with this idea?

• Why you will be successful?

As you can see, you just want to figure out the goals of your idea. After this you can break the goal down into micro-goals for more order or organization.

So now you have a plan for you idea and you are half way there. Completing this plan shows you dedication and desire to seeing this idea take its full form and shape. The only thing left to do, and that is to act out your steps and plan created previously.

Now you have an understanding of why it is important to creating a plan when you have an idea. The plan gives you steps to follow until the idea is fully formed and your dream is achieved.

Working as a group can be very difficult for some people. For me personally, I also find it challenging at times. When you work as a team, you have to make sure that your teammates are, “on the same page,” in a sense, or things will quickly unravel.

I’ve talked about brainstorming ideas collectively in the past, but after that I never really wrote much about my joint projects. Today I’d like to touch upon a few things that I feel are crucial when working with another person or even a group of people.

Management of Tasks

This is usually the first thing that people do when they start a group project because of the amount of work that has to get done. However, if you don’t do this, two or more people might work on the same thing. One person might do nothing. Then again, and it’s highly unlikely, everyone will do what they need to reach the goal.

So the first thing that you have to do when starting a group project is to layout or outline every task that needs to be done. The process is quite easy and I don’t think I need to go into it in too much detail right now. Just make sure that you write down everything, and then make a task out of it. A simple example is, “The website needs a better design.” Let’s have someone work on the logo. Get the point? You just want to make sure at this stage that you have tasks. It doesn’t matter what the tasks are, just as long as you and everyone else know what they are.

Deadlines

I read an old JohnChow post awhile back about success and dreams. Even though I have lost the link to the post, I still remember the basic idea he was trying to get across. If you don’t set deadlines on your dreams, then they will remain dreams and never become goals. The same goes for any project you are working on, even a group project. Don’t set a deadline on that logo, and it will remain a dream that may never reach completion.

Setting deadlines is a lot easier than people think. Deadlines are already all around us in our every day lives and we usually are so used to abiding by them that we forget they are there. If you work for someone else, then you know how to follow deadlines, and that is the best place to start and even learn.

The simplest way to set a deadline is to be completely realistic. In your head or on paper, layout everything that you are currently working on, then place the item you want to have a deadline with all the others. Will it take a day, a week, a month? - It’s up to you. Pull up a calendar and write down that event on that day and stick to it.

communication

We work in groups to get things done more quickly than we would if we worked on our own. Another advantage to working in a group that should be fully exploited is the fact that you have multiple minds converging on one goal and should have a much richer, fuller, and developed product. Communicating with your fellow developers is the key to reaching the ultimate goal and also staying on track. Without the necessary means of communication, your project will reach a standstill while you sit around and wait for someone else to give you their input.

Here are a few tips on communication within a group:

• Find an efficient way to communicate. Use Gmail and Google Documents to share information easily.
• Be clear, concise, and to the point. Using e-mail is just like any other form of communication, you have to learn how to express yourself effectively.
• Pick up the phone or get on a video chat. You’re still a human, so why stick to written forms?
• Break down confrontation and conflict before it even starts. This is actually a lot easier than most people think. Conflict usually occurs when you didn’t take care of a problem weeks ago. So stay on top of problems and deal with them as they arise.

Do you have any experience working with other people on a project? I’d love to hear what you have to say…

Today I had all four of my wisdom teeth removed and was scared to death all week in anticipation. Not anticipation of the actual procedure, but the fact that I would have an IV in my arm as a means of anesthesia. I must admit that I have always had a fear of needles and was never really able to explain to myself on a logical level why.

This past week or so has opened my eyes to the way I was creating this fear. I had lost all my reasoning for why I feared having a needle stuck in my arm, and instead had relied on fearing needles just to fear them. I cannot truthfully say if I had a traumatic experience in the past, but what I do know is that discovering such no longer matters. All that matters to me is that I was able to overcome my fear and receive an IV in my arm today. This may not seem like a great feat for some people, but for me it was a test of my ability to overcome what I feared most.

A fear is something that all of us possess. We all often think about a fear as something that we should avoid because it poses a real danger to our well being. Yet, many of us never really take time to decipher our fears and in turn never overcome them. I believe that understanding and facing your fear is the only way to tackling it and setting a precedent in your mind that you have done so.

Do you fear any type of needles like I did? Do you fear losing something? Do you fear losing money? Whatever you fear, you can overcome it and grow from the experience. It sounds so simple, and it really is. I’m not going to tell you that the process is either easy nor difficult, because that places some type of restraint or prejudgment on what you are about to do.

All I want you do to do is ask yourself these questions:

• Taken to its extreme, what would this fear do to me?

Would I die from this fear? Of course not, you can’t die from a fear alone, but you can die from a danger- there is a very big difference.

• When did I start fearing this?

As with my case, I have forgotten completely about why I feared needles and had in a sense, “hard wired,” a response into my brain. If you actually do know when or where the fear began, then it is time to ask yourself another question…

• Does what happened to me even apply to my current situation anymore?

You are older, more knowledgeable, and generally experienced that ever before- shouldn’t you have the ability to prevent such from happening again?

After going through a mental process about your fears, you will discover that your fear is more than likely a result of, “hard wiring,” or programming your brain to respond in a specific way to a specific event. The problem you will see with this, is that you are no longer conscious of your decisions when you do this. For example, if a dog bit you when you were a child, and you have feared all dogs ever since for fear of being bit, you are only limiting yourself. You will never again experience the companionship of a dog all because you had one traumatic experience with one animal.

I’d like to leave you with with a thought…

Is there any time when it is reasonable or beneficial to fear something? Or should we learn to become fully conscious of everything that happens to us?