BurstCreativity: Vicki can you tell us a little about your background and about what you do?

Vicki: I used to love writing when I was a kid and thought I’d be a writer … then life got in the way and I stopped writing. But eventually I started listening to that inner voice (which was starting to become a scream!) and 10 years ago, I left San Diego to make a career change … to become a writer. Once I was up and running, getting assignments and meeting people, things evolved and I found other aspects of the work that I was passionate about, such as documentary film. And then radio. I am now a writer, producer, and talk radio host. And also consult on commercial, corporate, and editorial projects both with visual communications and the written word. I grew up in England, moved to the states 23 years ago. Lived in San Diego, California and Seattle, Washington.

BurstCreativity: How did you first get into the field of personal development?

Vicki: I’ve always been interested in the power of human potential—I’ve always wondered since I was a child what motivates people, what makes some successful when others who are seemingly more talented are less successful in their field? What makes some people travel the world, and others stay in the same vicinity of their birth home? But like most people, I really got into it when I experienced a major life event, and as a result, decided that if I was going through this painful life event, I was going to live my life more purposefully. And on my terms. I believe we all have untapped potential and can learn from people who’ve walked their talk, so I particularly look for information from people who’ve ‘been there’ and thrived.

BurstCreativity: Tell us about the most memorable interview you have ever done and how it impacted your life on a personal level.

Vicki: Dr. Jane Goodall instantly jumps to mind for a number of reasons. Not only has she done fantastic work saving the chimpanzee population and educating kids about the environment in her Roots and Shoots program … but she was a pioneer in her field. She traveled overseas to a jungle in a time when single women simply did not travel to those places. (Her mother had to chaperone her.) She was horribly ridiculed by scientists and anthropologists, because at that time she had no formal education; and she faced real hardships, yet never gave up. She’s also the most humble, grounded, gracious person; her ‘public persona’ is no different than her behind the scenes persona. I can’t say enough about her … I just find her so inspirational to listen to, to talk with. The first time I interviewed her I left feeling that anything was possible. That I wanted to do better. To make a difference. And she made me feel that I could and should.

BurstCreativity: What in your opinion was the best piece of advice that a guest on your show gave to the listeners?

Vicki: Oh… the biggie … I actually have two. Trust your instinct. Tune in and pay attention to what your instinct is telling you … that lurch in the stomach, that catch in your throat, that gut feeling. I’ve certainly learned the hard way (more than once I’m afraid) that when I ignore that feeling, I always wish I hadn’t! Another common thread I hear from people who’ve had great, and not so great, experiences in life, and that is that we must be true to ourselves. That sounds somewhat cliché, and it’s something that comes naturally to some, while others have to work at it. But it’s worth the practice because until we are true to ourselves, in every aspect of life, we cannot become our best selves. Which also means, we cannot give our best selves.

To learn more about Vicki and her radio show, or to listen to a stream of her show go to: www.ConversationsLive.net

Technorati Tags: Vicki St-Clair, Personal Development, Radio

In the first part of this mini-course, we learned that listening is very important for effective communication.

Challenge 4

Translate your (and others) complaints and criticism in specific requests, and to explain your requests. To obtain more cooperation from the other, whenever possible, ask what you want from the specific, action-oriented, positive language rather than through the use of generalizations, “why , “” Don’ts “or” someone should’s. “Help your listeners explaining fulfill your requests with a” so that …”, “help me … If you want …” or “so ….” Similarly, when you receive criticism and complaints from others, translate and reformulate the request as a request for action. …. “).

Challenge 5

Ask questions more “openendedly” and more creative. “Openendedly …”:

In order to coordinate our work with life and the lives and work of others, we all need to know more about what other people are feeling and thinking, wanting and planning. But our usual “yes / no” in fact people tend to be closed rather than open. To encourage your conversation partners to share more of their thoughts and feelings, to ask “open-ended” rather than “yes / no”. Open-ended questions allow a wide range of responses. For example, by asking, “How did you get that food / cinema / speeches / doctor / etc.” Promote a more detailed response, “Did you like?” (Who could be answered with a simple “yes” or “no”). In the first part of the Challenge Five, we explore calling for a broad range of open-ended questions.

“And more creative …” When we ask questions, we use a powerful tool for language conversation to focus our attention and guide interactions with others. But many of the issues that we have learned to ask are totally sterile and self-defeating (for example, parents of a pregnant teenager, “Why ???!!! Why have you done this to us? ??!!!”). Normally, it would be more fruitful to ask “how” questions about the future rather than the “why” questions about the past, but there are many more creative possibilities that

Good. Billions of questions one might ask, all are not as successful or insightful, all are not as useful for solving problems together. In the second part of Challenge Five explore we call creative force with the questions many areas of life.

Challenge 6

Express more satisfaction.

Building more satisfying relationships with the people around you, express more satisfaction, pleasure, affirmation, encouragement and recognition. Because life compels us constantly to attend to problems and outages, it is very easy to see in life what is broken and must be fixed. But fulfilling relationships (and a happy life) require us to notice and respond to what is pleasant, excellent, pleasant to work, to food well cooked… It is the appreciation that made a relationship strong enough to accommodate differences and disagreements. Some thinkers and researchers in different fields have reached similar conclusions on this subject: healthy relationships need a basis of mutual appreciation.

Challenge 7

Adopt the “continuing education” approach to life, which makes improving communication an important part of your daily life. To get your new communication skills available in a wide variety of situations, you need to put them into practice in such a variety of situations as possible until, as driving a vehicle or bicycle, they become ” second nature. ” The seventh Challenge To practice your evolving communication skills in daily life, solving problems together, giving emotional support to important people in your life, and we appreciate the way you become a positive influence in Your World. This challenge is learning to see every conversation as an opportunity to grow in skills and awareness, every encounter as an opportunity to express more satisfaction, each argument as an opportunity to translate queries in the complaints, and so on.

Although I have a long road ahead of me to become a master of communication, I think that communication is an integral part of any relationship, be it at home, with friends, or at work. Research has always shown that a deficiency in this skills can completely ruin relationships. The foundation strong interpersonal skills is not just to make you hear, but also an understanding of where other people are coming from.

Technorati Tags: personal development, communication, relationships

Communicating with others is a critical skill in business relationships, family, and romantic relationships, and is an essential part of any development effort. Do you find yourself often scorns others? Do you find it difficult to get your point across clearly? When it comes to communication, what you say and what you do not say is equally important. Being a good listener is absolutely crucial.

I decided to note my own skills with an online test. Here’s what I discovered: “Your results show that you sometimes have difficulty interpreting other people’s words and actions and to see things from their perspective. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings. Remember that knowledge is an essential part of good interpersonal skills, must fit in the shoes of other people and a sense of what they feel, you can better understand them. With a little insight, you will be able to find out if someone does not understand what you are saying or if they are uneasy about a certain subject, and therefore adjust your behavior accordingly. Although you can usually sense what others feel and relatively well thought out, there is some room for improvement. There may be times when you pay more attention to the message you send, rather than how it is received. With a little time and experience, you will probably be able to further improve your vision. ”

Although some of the things said to me this test were hurtful, they are true. I have a lot of work to do in the learning and practice my communication skills - most of us do. Unfortunately, it is easier said than done. As with most personal skills, communication can not be taught. The practice is essential, as you may know what to do logically, but this logic, a lot of time is very difficult. It is possible, however, with a lot of repetitions, change your habits good communication skills. Especially because our personal relations are very important for us, we must be very conscious of how we communicate.

In my quest to become a better communicator, I came across a few things that I will have to overcome before they can:

Challenge 1

Listen more carefully and answer. Listen first and recognize what you hear, even if you disagree with him, before expressing your experience or point of view. For further your conversation partner of the attention in tense situations, be careful when first listening, and give a brief restatement of what you have heard (especially feelings) before you express your own needs or position. The kind of listening here between recognizing recommended approval or acceptance.

Recognizing another person’s thoughts and feelings does not necessarily mean that you approve or agree with the actions of that person or way of life, or that you are going to do what someone asks.

Challenge 2

Explain your intention to invite conversation and consent. To help your conversation partner cooperate with you and to reduce possible misunderstandings, important conversations begin by inviting your conversation partner to join you in the exact type of conversation that you want to do. More conversation will mean for you, the more important it is for your conversation partner to understand the overall situation. Many successful communicators begin conversations with a preface that goes something like: “I would like to talk with you for a few minutes about [material]. When the right time? “The exercise of this step would encourage you to expand your list of conversations and practice from a wide range of them.

Challenge 3

You express more clearly and completely. Slow down and give your listeners more information on what you experience with a wide range of “I-statements. “One way to help them get more from listening to your empathy is to express more of the five basic dimensions of your experience: Here is an example using one of the top five” I-messages “identified by various researchers During the last half-century: What are you seeing, hearing or non-detection? / “When I saw the dishes in the sink …”

Anytime a person sincerely listen to the other, a process of creation is under way in which the listener mentally he rebuilt from the experience. Other facets and dimensions of your experience that you share with easy to understand “I” statements, the easier it is for your conversation partner to rebuild your experience and understand exactly how you feel. This is also useful if you try solve a problem with someone, or attempt to express my appreciation for them. Expressing this treatment can seem to take more time than usual fast your communication style. But if you include all the time it takes to restore the daily lives of misunderstandings, and work through the feelings that accompany them not to be understood to express themselves more fully can actually take a lot less time.

We are halfway in this mini-course. Tomorrow we will continue our mastery of Communication 101.

Technorati Tags: personal development, communication, relationships

I went to personal development seminar once, and one of the concepts that they taught us was: “How you do anything, is how you do everything”.  Basically what they were trying to say was that if you are a person that will simply jump into the cold water, you will also carry that trait into other areas of your life.  If we take starting a business as an example, you would simply go at it 100%, as opposed to doing endless preparation before you actually do anything productive.

The “Simply jump in” attitude has both advantages and drawbacks.  One of the great things about this outlook on life is the fact that it initiates action.  Inaction is the greatest peril in the way of accomplishing absolutely anything.  Unfortunately we are all susceptible to it to some degree.  The flipside of this concept is that sometimes we can act too fast, and that bears a whole new set of consequences.

So what is the best solution to this problem of making our selves take action, but acting at the “right time”? 

I often bring this up in my articles, but balance is very important in anything that we do.   To apply this concept to what we are discussing – we should “simply jump in”, but at the same time we should also be able to stop out selves long enough to do some necessary due diligence. 

The other solution to inaction is a simple piece of advice – “Get over your-self”.  It might be a bit harsh, as a statement, but I believe that it is a vital thing to do in our life in general.  People tend to over analyze a lot of what they do.  Often we simply need to push ourselves to jump into the cold water, so that we can feel less cold after we do.

Last but not least, we should talk about having motivation to be able to “jump”.  It is easy to say that we should “just jump”.  The simple fact is that if we are not motivated to do so, if the reward at the end of the “jump” isn’t big enough to get us to do it, we simply are not going to jump.  This is a very crucial point.  Imagine that you are standing on the shore of a very cold ocean.  Would you be able to force yourself to jump into it if you didn’t really want to swim?  Probably not!  

People, who are exceedingly successful in life, all have one thing in common.  They all live their passion.  What would be a better motivator then being passionate about what you do?  So the very first thing you have to do before taking any action is to ask yourself a question – is what I am about to do what I really want?  And if it is, or it will give you something that you really want, or bring you to that place where your passion lives – don’t think, even if it is unpleasant at first, simply jump!

Technorati Tags: Personal Development, Success, Fear, Self Discipline

So how do we address this situation? 

First of all I would like to say that there isn’t one thing that will allow all of us to become happy and follow our destiny with ease.  I think that the biggest thing we have to realize is that in order for us to find our real purpose in life; we first have to start looking!  I think intention, is the key element in actually achieving our goals.

Next, after we have decided that we want to find our ultimate mission in life, we have to look at what are the things that really make us happy.  I think that it could be most difficult undertaking, because in order for us to find the meaning in our life, we first have to get to know our selves.  Although this process can be difficult, it also can be very rewarding.  For example some people are very good communicators.  So good, as the matter a fact, that people always make fun of them, because they talk too much.  Their personality will work well in the activities that require them to communicate effectively with other people.  So they would probably enjoy profession such as a journalist or a sales person.  Then there are others who are more analytical in everything they do.  They might want to try something like being an engineer.  These seemingly little personality descriptions, can be very important indicators in our search to discover our destiny.

Here is what I did when I was trying to figure out what to do with my life.  First I wrote down all of the things I enjoyed doing (writing, teaching, personal development, trading on the stock market etc.).  Then I looked at that list and prioritized in order of what I would want to try and do first.  You see out of all of the things I enjoyed or wanted to do, I first and foremost wanted to have my own business.  So anything I would do would have to become a business, in order for me to be completely satisfied.  That is exactly how I started BurstCreativity.com.  This site allows me to teach, write, communicate, help people, but also it is an online business that allows me the freedom that I want - perfect compromise between my desires.  

It doesn’t mean that this is going to be the only thing I could be doing.  I could come up with some other activities that would allow me to fulfill the very same needs.  I also want to build businesses for example, so I am also involved in several other ventures. 

The most important part however is the fact that I try to choose what I do based on what I want.  My inner desires dictate what I do – and this is probably the key formula here.  Find out what you want and do it.

Technorati Tags: Career, Destiny, Path in life, Happiness

1.  Make lists.

If you make to do lists and employ other kinds of organizational tools, you surely will benefit from higher efficiency levels of your life.  Time management is one of the most important parts of improving anybodies efficiency. 

2.  Outsource.

This might be a controversial view, but outsourcing all of the things you do on daily basis, can be a great way to free up time and do things more efficiently.  For example if it takes you 4h/week to shop for food, you can find a service that delivers, and use those 4 hours for something much more productive - for example, spending it with your family. 

3.  Learn how to be healthy.

Not everyone would think that health could be an important factor when it comes to improving the efficiency of our daily life, but it really does make a difference.  Just ask yourself if you could be very productive if your health would prevent you from doing what you have to do every day.

4.  Automate your life.

One of the greatest concepts in internet marketing is automation.  Set as many tasks as you can to execute automatically.  This might be a little different in real life, but worth trying.  Our example about grocery shopping can be considered automation.  How many hours does it take you to get groceries every week?  What if you would get a service that would bring groceries to your doorstep every week? 

5.  Leverage whenever you can.

Leverage is a concept that is very familiar in business milieu.  It does however also apply to our regular activities as well.  Do you think it would be helpful to you if you would be able to achieve more with less effort?  Leverage through people - get other people to help you do the things it takes you a long time to complete alone.  Leverage through systems - employ systems.  An example of that could be dividing responsibilities in cooking and cleaning duties in a household.  One person cooks the other does dishes.  It is simple yet very powerful efficiency tool.

6. Plan everything.

It is a lot easier to accomplish anything if you know what it is you are trying to accomplish.  If we don’t plan, we tend to jump from one activity to another, and waist a lot of time.  Write out a clear map of what you are trying to do and follow it.  By the way a plan should never be set in stone.  It should evolve and mutate to best suit your needs as time progresses.

7.  Do all of your banking on the internet.

One of the biggest time wasters is dealing with banks.  I have noticed that those establishments eat at least 1-2 hours of our time every time you go there.  I have done majority of my banking online for several years now and I would say that it saved me at least a hundred of hours of unnecessary waste of time.

8.  Allow yourself to waist 1 hour per day.

We are bound to get distracted!  Most often it happens over and over again, so we actually end up losing quite a bit of real productive time due to distractions.  We also probably tend to get more distracted when we get tired, so over-scheduling can be a real bad thing.  My suggestion is to plan when and for how long you are going to waste time.  If you do, you might start noticing that your attention span actually increases and you are getting less distracted as the time passes by. 

9. Create a flow.

Create a flow of incoming and outgoing items.  Make a place where you would hold all incoming documents and mail.  Put everything that will require you immediate attention in that place.  Alternatively put things that need to go out, such as mail or something you will need to accomplish during the day, in your path.  By that I mean put them in a place you bound to go to on your way out – I often put those things beside my shoes.  This way there isn’t a chance that you are going to forget to do it - you won’t leave without your shoes on, so there is a good chance of you seeing those things you need to take with you.

10.  Set a time for “No Fly Zone”

This is probably one of the most valuable tips I can give.  You will increase your efficiency exponentially if you will put a conscious effort into turning off your phone, internet, locking yourself in a room where no one will disturb you, while you are working.  If you manage to isolate yourself from distractions - you will produce more work.

All these tips are simple and common sense.  We just have to implement them into our life, and the results we are seeking will start showing themselves.

Technorati Tags: efficiency, performance, better productivity, success

It was a very interesting movie, about a topic that I am very familiar with - the law of attraction.  I have used this law many times before, but I am always amazed how something external can bring things into focus with a laser sharp precision.  Case in point, my fiancée ended up on the radio as a direct result of this movie.

This is what happened:

She watched the movie and got inspired - it is a very well made program.  As they recommend, she wrote down her dreams and visualized them.  Actually, she drew a picture of a waterfall of money.  She just started a Chinese medical practice and wanted to manifest clients for herself.

So the next day all of her patients cancelled.  Instead of feeling sorry for herself she made some flyers and decided to go out there and introduce herself to the businesses around her clinic.  One of those businesses was a local magazine.    She walked in, did her spiel, and was ready to leave, when the receptionist tells her to hold on a second.  It turns out that they do a weekly radio show about health.  They were also looking for guests for upcoming shows.  And my fiancée ended up being one of those guests. 

I find that this is absolutely amazing.  All of that happened, because she manifested it. 

This speaks volumes about the power of personal development programs.  Would she have done all of that if she didn’t watch “The Secret”?  I don’t know, probably not.  A lot of these programs give you the power of inspiration, and that enables you to act.  Sometimes we only need a little push to achieve success, and programs like that give us exactly that – a little push that will help us set things in motion.  So go out there and get inspired to act - help yourself, change your life!  My fiancée is a true testament to this.

Technorati Tags: Inspiration, Success, Secret, The Secret

Personal Development

Aaron M. Potts presents Do You Deserve it, or are You Mistaken? posted at Today is that Day.

Shamelle presents Relax and Unwind-Without Spending Any Money! posted at Enhance Life.

Walt presents Focus on the “Solution” not the problem posted at Walt Nation!.

Alex Shalman presents Now: The Time To Start posted at Alex Shalman . com - Practical Personal Development, saying, “Now: The Time to Start”

The Positivity Blog presents Take the Positivity Challenge! posted at Henrik Edberg.

Walt presents Pain is a Highly Concentrated Thought posted at Walt Nation!.

D.A.N. presents Improving Your Life through Personal Creativity posted at Sights & Sounds from the Fifth Column.

Moses E. Miles III presents How to Start Your Day off Right posted at Three Sticks, saying, “A simple plan to help you start the day off on the right foot”

arathi presents Success Step - Blog Archive » Self Knowledge posted at Success Step.

Alan presents Stinking Thinking - Change your thoughts, change your life posted at Made to Be Great.

Albert Foong presents Guide to your Personal Development posted at Urban Monk.

Susan Velez presents Limiting Beliefs We All Have Them posted at The Secret To Life.

Tupelo Kenyon presents Benefits of Music for Personal Development posted at Tupelo Kenyon, saying, “Thank you.”

Rebecca Newburn presents How to Create a Labyrinth posted at Ms. Newburn’s Math 7 Blog, saying, “Labyrinths are a wonderful way to connect with oneself and to relax. Here is a simple labyinth that anyone can easily do. I have my students make them.”

Justin Lowery presents The Secret to Wealth and Abundance - Intro. posted at blog4brains.com, saying, “A series of articles on how to attain personal success and wealth through the use of creation, attraction and projection.”

Moses E. Miles III presents Accepting Change posted at Three Sticks, saying, “Overcome your fear and embrace change”

David Richeson presents How To Define Your True Purpose and Passion in Life posted at 360 Degree Success, saying, “Practical questions to help you live a happier life with passion and purpose.”

Hueina Su presents The Most Important Relationship in Your Life posted at Intensive Care for the Nurturer’s Soul, saying, “Most people are either looking for love in all the wrong places, or entering/staying in a relationship for the wrong reasons. There is one single most important relationship you need to work on, in order to ensure happiness in all of your other relationships.”

Michael Estep, Ph.D. presents Right-Brain Training - Practical Applications Part 2 posted at Intuitive Feeling-Learning.

Self Improvement

Niels Hoven presents Ask Niels: How do I make new friends? posted at Niels Hoven.

Phil B. presents Money Can Not Buy Happiness « Phil for Humanity posted at Phil for Humanity, saying, “A lot of people think that being rich will make them happy, but they are wrong! Here’s why.”

restlessmind presents Enthusiasm posted at Learning the Art of English Conversation.

John Wesley presents Can you sacrifice temporary pleasure for longterm goals? posted at Pick the Brain.

Success

Alan presents Its all about Family - Keys to Unlock your Inner Potential posted at Made to Be Great.

Wanda Grindstaff presents After the Decision - What is the Next Step? posted at Creating Abundant Lifestyles Begin With Abundance Mindset, saying, “How to take the next step in the Law of Attraction”

Alec presents Winning Back the Lost Hours posted at Alec Gullon, saying, “Maximising your time management by noticing what it and isn’t important in your life.”

Wanda Grindstaff presents Fighting the Epic Battle To Succeed posted at Creating Abundant Lifestyles Begin With Abundance Mindset, saying, “Applying the Be Do Have principle in the persuit of success”

Zechary presents What make professional? posted at Zechary White, saying, “What make professional?”

Kim Roach presents What They Don?t Teach You In School posted at The Optimized Life.

Debra Moorhead presents Personal Strategic Planning posted at Debra Moorhead.com.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of personal development burst using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: personal development burst, blog carnival.

If you are wondering what it is all about read this post

This post is totaly about link love. Let’s spread it around. These are people who have contributed to my blog carnival, and hopefully will contribute in this initiative as well.

Thom Singer SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

Jonathan Vida The Loan Clutter

Millennium Mommy Priscilla Ortiz - Journal to Prosperity, Path to Freedom Inc.

Phil B. Phil for Humanity

Michael Cavano SubSun Records . com

Praveen My Simple Trading System

Scott Young Scott H Young

Albert Foong Urban Monk

Brandon Peele GT

Alan Made to Be Great

Aaron M. Potts Today is that Day

Rebecca Newburn Information Age Education

Shamelle Enhance Life

Walt Walt Nation!

Alex Shalman Alex Shalman . com - Practical Personal Development

The Positivity Blog Henrik Edberg

D.A.N. Sights & Sounds from the Fifth Column

Moses E. Miles III Three Sticks

Arathi Success Step

Dean Mr. Cheap Stuff

Susan Velez The Secret To Life

Tupelo Kenyon Tupelo Kenyon

Zechary Zechary White

Justin Lowery blog4brains.com

Niels Hoven Niels Hoven

Restlessmind Learning the Art of English Conversation

David Richeson 360 Degree Success

Wanda Grindstaff Creating Abundant Lifestyles Begin With Abundance Mindset

Alec Alec Gullon

Kim Roach The Optimized Life

Alan Torres www.madetobegreat.com

I would like to take this to a different level and may be improve on his idea.  Not only let’s get some money for charity, but let’s spread some link love around.  I will publish an Apocalypse Link Love post, and it will include everyone whom I am going to tell about this initiative, and of course the urban monk, as he started it all.  I encourage anyone who will participate to do the same.  Let’s spread the love! 

Here is my contribution:

The apocalypse is now and the blogosphere is falling!  Help … save your selves!

These are my last words - “thank you!” 

I probably need to explain this a bit better.  I want to say that I am grateful for the opportunity I have to spread the message of personal development to anyone who is willing to listen. 

I feel that in this life the only real and worthwhile thing we can do, is try and better our selves.  Personal development is a real opportunity to learn how to. 

I actually feel very privileged for the opportunity given to me.  Personal development changed my life 360 degrees and I am still learning. And probably will be till the end of my days. 

The most important thing I learned so far is that if you don’t do anything about improving your situation or yourself, nothing will ever change.  Action is the mother of all change.  So even though the blogosphere is now falling, there is still time to at least change the way we think - and just may be with the power of positive thinking we can stop this apocalypse from happening!  Spread the LOVE!