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Do you aspire to live a creative life but are not sure where to begin? It’s a common problem. We look at famous actors, authors and musicians and think: how lucky they are to be creative, passionate – and hugely successful! Just remember though that many of these successful, creative people were just like you once. They had dreams. They had goals. But they also struggled with confidence issues and creative blocks. If you’re willing to commit to reaching your creative pinnacle, then read on. 1. Combine ideas to lift you out of a rut Being creative  does not mean you have to reinvent the wheel (although that would be an impressive start!). Often, the secret is to take two existing ideas and combine them to create something new. As an example, think of the traditional alarm clock. Clearly, someone a long time ago came up with the idea of fusing together a clock and a bell. An incredibly simple idea, but one that has stood the test of time (pun intended!). Now, over to you… what id

It doesn’t matter if you’re new at writing or a seasoned pro, one thing is true: Writing isn’t always easy. But with practice, it can be. Here are two excellent apps to keep your skills sharp, and help you deliver more quality writing. Grammarly If you like to triple-check your work before publishing, Grammarly is your go-to app for that. It’s by far one of the best online editing tools. It finds and corrects errors in grammar, style, and punctuation. It also includes a contextual spell-checker and plagiarism detection. Grammarly is a free browser extension that works across many web platforms. Use it in Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, or WordPress. It works in the background to suggest improvements you can make to your writing in real time. This is a plug-in for Chrome users, but you can use it with MS Office. Import documents of any size and edit them with ease. Hemingway Editor If your aim is to keep your writing clear and concise, this simple but powerful text editor will get you

We ask you a simple question: Are you happy? Do you plan to be, or rather, do you think you’ll be a happy person 10 years from now? If your answer to the first question is no, then the answer to the second question is also likely to be a big, fat nope…  Why? Because putting off happiness for later sometimes makes it disappear… To be happier in the future, decide to be happier today Seth Godin said, “The best way to be happy 5-10 years from now is to do something today you will be happy you did.” And that is so true – we all sacrifice our happiness today in a bid to be happier later. We make sacrifices – spend more time at our office to earn more money, thinking that the money will make us joyful later. But what if by then we lose our health? Or worse, our loved ones? The future is always uncertain We can plan for the future in terms of money, but we cannot plan our happiness or health levels of the future. One way to make sure that we are happy in the future too is to do something

As they say, you can never have a second first impression and most of us feel nervous when trying hard to make people like us. We deem ourselves to be rather funny and witty when interacting with those closest to us, who know us well, and make us feel comfortable in their company. But what happens when we meet new people? Oftentimes, we find it difficult to come up with the perfect joke that will make everyone laugh and perceive us as adorable. We are unsure as to whether the things we say are truly amusing or whether our attempts at humor will leave people staring at us in awkward silence. Those feelings of self-doubt are going to be things of the past if you start practicing these five solid pieces of advice that will make people fall in love with you and make you appear more likable instantly: 1. Make your body language more expressive One of the characteristics of charismatic people is their expressive body language. In moderation, of course. Other people won’t be drawn to you

A lot of people seem to believe that successful people spend a majority of their time working overtime and frequently have sleepless nights. It would be a very big mistake to equate success with that of a person who has a workaholic mindset. It may be surprising to you, but many of the world’s smartest people take their weekends to relax and spend time with their family, themselves, and their goals. Have you ever wondered what some of the world’s smartest people did to help them achieve their goals? Check out these 5 habits to see if you have something in common with them. 1. Adopt a hobby that they can practice every day Successful people know that there is a lot more to life than working, sleeping, and eating. Even they have to be able to relax and enjoy some downtime every now and again. That’s why the world’s smartest people engage in one or more activities that they love. When you’re able to pick up a hobby that you can practice every day it may actually help you become more su

Are you dreading the thought of waking up tomorrow and heading to work? Maybe lately you haven’t felt motivated by your job or even the slightest bit interested in what you’re doing. You probably stare at the clock all day, counting the hours until you’re free again. You’re not alone. In fact, you’re in the ranks of hundreds of thousands of people who aren’t doing what they love. The good news is, it’s never too late. No matter how old you are or what you’ve been doing all these years; you can still follow through with your dreams. You should spend this life doing what you love and believing in what you’re doing. “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” -Farrah Gray Read that quote. Now, read it again. Why are you at your current job? Is it just for the money? When you relegate yourself to a job you don’t feel passionate about, you’re giving up on your dreams. While you are miserable day in and day out, you’re helping somebody else realize their dream

You stand in front of the canvas. You’ve worked for weeks on this painting, and now it’s like you don’t even know it. Even worse, you don’t even care about it. You’re in a creative rut, and you don’t know how to get out. Anyone creative already knows that any craft needs a certain amount of discipline. You can only be called an Artist if you create art, for example. A writer must write. And so on. But this necessity can often lead to creative juices lacking, and this is a good time to shake it up by trying something new. Making ‘ good art ‘ can often be a struggle. Even the most dedicated find taking the time a challenge sometimes—we all have off days. Trying out other creative outlets takes the pressure off of your main creative processes. If you’re a writer who’s stuck, for example, try painting for a month. If you’re a photographer, try learning Japanese, or playing piano. Whatever it is will shake up your usual routine, will fire up your brain in new and exciting ways, remind y

Many times we need to figure out if someone is smart enough, to be on the team or to hang out with. How do we know is someone is intelligent without even checking academic records, social, and career achievements, or having to look for the lines on their forehead? They keep asking questions. But you ask when you don’t know, so how can someone who questions too much be intelligent? Because they ask, and they learn.  The Chinese proverb  of wisdom states it clearly: ‘He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes, he who does not question, stays a fool forever.’ Intelligence is, without question, all about questions. Nobody will know it all. No matter how educated they are, nobody comes close to ever knowing it all. Even if you learn everything from top to bottom, tomorrow changes what you know today. We are all flawed, stumbling through life, with unrealistic expectations. So we need to keep questioning to stay afloat. Intelligent people question everything, after getting answe