How to Cultivate Beginner's Mind

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few." ~Suzuki

If you're a perfectionist like me, learning and creating while practicing "beginner's mind" is something you might find challenging. What is "beginner's mind" you ask? Beginner's mind is a concept from Zen Buddhism that encourages the practitioner to cultivate a sense of openness and eagerness. It asks that we let go of prejudgement when engaging in an activity. No matter what your skill level, it is helpful to bring a sense of openness, presence, and childlike curiosity to your creative endeavors.

Despite its name, beginner's mind is not just for beginners. Practicing beginner's mind even when we're "experts" can help invigorate our acting, our creative endeavors, and our everyday lives with a sense of wonder and "nowness." It can help bring us into the present moment.

What are some ways you can begin to apply "beginner's mind" to your creative life?

1) Allow yourself time to transition. Arrive early to a new class you're taking so when you get there you're not in an anxious and harried state. When you arrive, take some quiet time to center and prepare yourself for the experience. This can take many forms. For example, you might find taking a couple of minutes for meditation helpful, or perhaps journaling helps to quiet your mind. Find what works best for you and turn it into a ritual.

2) Breathe. I know it sounds simple, but there's a lot of wisdom in this simple reminder. When you breathe, you relax your body and create more openness. More openness in your body leads to more openness in your mind, your heart, and more openness to the present moment.

3) Have a sense of humor about yourself. Many artists (myself included) have a tendency to take themselves way too seriously. This cuts you off from the enjoyment of learning and also from creativity itself. You can't be fully alive and creative if your inner-voice is prejudging everything before you have a chance to utter the first lines of the monologue, put pen to paper, or wet your paintbrush.

4) Be curious about resistance. If you're feeling anxious about trying something new, ask yourself what is making you uncomfortable. Figure out why you are afraid of committing to the activity. Oftentimes, "This is stupid," actually means "I'm afraid of looking like an ass."

5) Don't be afraid of looking like an ass. As an artist, you have to be willing to risk looking like a fool. This requires some vulnerability on your part. I'm not certain of many things, but I am certain that nothing great was created without vulnerability.

The next time you find yourself in a situation where you're exercising your creativity, notice how you react to it. Do you allow yourself a sense of play and openness? If you do, you are practicing "beginner's mind." If you don't, don't beat yourself up- that only exacerbates the problem! Instead, breathe, take a step back, and remember the above tools. Happy creating everyone!

https://ezinearticles.com/?How-to-Cultivate-Beginners-Mind&id=9229011

Can You Live a Good Enough Life?

I am fascinated by the concept of "good enough" and how it relates to being organized and our many attempts to be what we perceive as "well-organized". What does being organized mean to you? Most likely not the same as it does to your co-workers, your spouse, your best friend or your children.

What if, instead of constantly striving to be more organized, better organized or even, heaven forbid, perfectly organized, we strove for "good enough". According to Sarah Hampson, author of the article, The Secret to Happiness? Live a Good Enough Life, "... when you don't expect much, when you manage the ideas of what you think your life should be, you can be pleasantly surprised - and grateful - for the good fortune that comes your way."

Somehow this sounds like lowering expectations, reducing the standards of what is acceptable, and seems to me like settling for mediocrity. Not acceptable to someone like me who is a recovering perfectionist and still battling with doing my "best" instead of striving for "perfect". So the concept of "good enough" doesn't sit well with me, but I know for many of you, it might be just what you need...

• If your kitchen drawers are organized so that you can find what you need but you don't have those fancy dividers that you saw in a friends' kitchen, that might just be good enough?
• If your clothes are all hanging up but not on matching hangers is that good enough?
• If your papers are all off the floor and in tidy piles on your desk where you can put your fingers on what you need, that might just be good enough?
• If your email inbox is down to 50 messages, instead of 500, maybe that is good enough?

I like the idea of "good enough" as opposed to perfectly organized as it does allow us to lower our expectations of what organized means and move towards a level of organization that is achievable. I think this concept is especially important for those who don't like to spend their time organizing or, even worse, find it difficult to know when to stop organizing.

What we see in magazines and on television is often not realistic and perhaps that is where some of our expectations of what organized means come from? Have you ever noticed the desk in the corner of the living room on a makeover show with a computer on it but not a single cord in sight nor a stitch of paper - no matter how organized you are your space will never look like that so perhaps lowering your expectations is exactly what the doctor ordered!

Everything in life seems to come back to deciding what matters most. As long as your home and office are organized "enough" so that you can function effectively and enjoy your space, forget about what others may think and go with what works for you. I think the summer is the perfect time to try some "good enough" thinking - at least for you my dear readers even if not for me!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Can-You-Live-a-Good-Enough-Life?&id=9392129

3 Ways to Answer ‘What Are Your Weaknesses?’ in a Job Interview

Want to get hired? Here’s what to say—and what not to say—in response to one of the most common questions employers ask potential employees. 

Making it to the interview stage is a huge win during a job search. But what happens when they ask, “What are your weaknesses?” It’s a tough one—because not only is it hard to admit your faults, but you also don’t want to hurt your chances of getting hired.

Luckily it’s one of the most common interview questions, so, knowing that, you can prepare a rock-solid reply before you’re even asked.

Our friends at NerdWallet suggest practicing these three answers to blow your interviewer away, plus they share a few tips on how to prepare your own killer response:

Response No. 1: Show how you overcame a challenge.

Answering “What are your weaknesses?” is a great chance to show how you take initiative and deal with setbacks. Take this opportunity to share how you met an obstacle in the past.

A nice sample response: “At my summer internship, I had a really hard time letting my manager know I was overloaded with work. I was close to burning out at the end of each week, so we came up with a plan to share my duties with another intern. I realized that telling the truth didn’t make me seem inefficient; it improved the quality of my work and of the company’s output overall.”

This is a great answer because you admitted there was a problem, but you ended on a positive note. You snuck in an example of teamwork and working well with management, too.

What not to say: “I don’t have any weaknesses.”

Steer clear of this answer in a job interview. Your employer wants to hear not only what your limitations might be in the workplace, but also how shrewdly you approach such a hard question. A sharp, well thought-out response will win you serious points at this important stage in the hiring process. On the flip side, showing you’re not aware of your own limitations can count against you, says Susan Hosage, a human resources consultant based in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

“Unfortunately, such job hopefuls can frequently be resistant to initial training and ongoing development and, for that reason, often do not make the best hires,” she says.

Response No. 2: Point out a skill you’re actively working on.

As long as you say you’re committed to continuously improving, there’s no harm in pointing out a skill you haven’t mastered yet. Mentioning you could further develop your industry knowledge or your understanding of advanced applications in Excel are both good options, Hosage says.

A strong potential response: “As an English major, I didn’t get the chance to use Excel to balance a budget or manage ongoing projects. But since graduation, I’ve been using it to keep track of my expenses, and it’s really helpful! I’d like to take an online class to get even better at it.”

You’ll get bonus points for adding that you like to learn new things, especially if it shows you’re willing to expand the scope of your knowledge beyond what you studied in school. English major to aspiring Excel whiz is an impressive jump.

What not to say: “I’m a perfectionist.”                         

One approach lots of people take is to answer with a weakness that’s a strength in disguise, like the classic “I’m a perfectionist” or “I work too hard.” But talking about what you could improve on is an opportunity to show you’re sincere. Employers will want to see that you’ll be honest and straightforward in the workplace.

Response No. 3: Choose a weakness that won’t seriously affect the job.

It’s a safe bet to point out a weakness that won’t be a huge obstacle in your new position. If you apply for an assistant publicist job at a public-relations firm that requires you to cold-call media outlets and write press releases, your employer won’t want to hear that you get nervous on the phone or have trouble meeting deadlines. But as a recent graduate, it’s unlikely you’ve had much experience managing others.

So it’s less problematic to say, “Since I’ve never had a managerial role, sometimes I’m uncomfortable asking others to take on a task. But since I’d like to run my own PR firm one day, I’m excited to learn from my supervisors what strategies work best for managing others.” You were able to include a reference to your future plans, which your employer will be glad to hear you’re thinking about.

Talk about your weaknesses the right way, and you’ll demonstrate that as an employee, you’ll be self-aware and committed to your own development—qualities any boss would love.

http://www.success.com/article/3-ways-to-answer-what-are-your-weaknesses-in-a-job-interview

12 reasons people with Type A personalities are unstoppable

Personalities fit into one of two groups — Type A and Type B — it's one or the other.

Type A's typically are extremely motivated individuals with lofty goals and the internal fire to go after anything they desire.

Type B's are typically more laid back, lacking the same level of intense self-motivation that Type A's possesses; they also operate at a much lower stress level.

I'm a Type A personality myself and believe that that's been advantageous for building my company. I can remember my mother telling me, when I was very young, "You're such a Type A, just like your father — you need to learn how to calm down, or you're going to have a heart attack." As an adult, I've learned that Type A personalities are unstoppable, and I've learned the 12 reasons why: 

1. Type A's make their career priority number one.

Making your career the number-one priority and focus in your life isn't necessarily the best choice when it comes to your personal life and relationships — social interaction can drop significantly low, for one thing, and dating can be a nightmare. Yet Type A's are still willing to sacrifice for the best interest of their business and related goals.

2. Type A's have a hard time shutting off work mode.

There is no denying that shutting down and getting away from your business is healthy, but very few Type A's can stay away from their projects. The truth is, they feel more comfortable working than relaxing. 

3. Type A's love to use to-do lists.

Creating a to-do list allows you to attack your tasks one by one without having to stop and figure out what to do next. Over time, this saves an incredible amount of time. Type A's will create to-do lists for everything: As I type this, I have two to-do lists on the desk in front of me. One has work-related tasks and one has personal errands; lists are a habit I picked up at an early age from my father, who made lists for everything.

Flickr / Alan LevineType A's show up on time and expect others to do the same.

4. Type A's are always on time.

Type A's understand that time is the most valuable asset. They show up on time and expect others to do the same. A college professor said something to our class that I will never forget: "If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, don't even bother, because it shows that you're a disrespectful a**hole."

5. Type A's don't waste time.

The thought of procrastination is mind-boggling to Type A's. There is no need to put something off that can be accomplished right now (they believe). Procrastination and putting off the inevitable causes issues down the line. If a task can be completed right away, you can be certain that a Type A will get it done as quickly as possible.

6. Type A's don't accept the notion that something 'can't be done.' 

If something is physically possible, then Type A's are 100 percent confident that they can accomplish it. They have complete confidence in their ability to accomplish anything and everything that they set out to do. 

7. Type A's are perfectionists.

Nothing irritates a Type A personality more than mistakes. They don't set out to be perfectionists -- they morph into them because anything less than perfect just isn't acceptable. That persistence allows them to reach their goals when most would have given up long ago.

8. Type A's are planners.

In order to reach a goal, you need a clearly defined plan to get from start to finish. While others might attempt to try to figure things out along the way, a Type A creates a solid plan that he or she follows religiously. 

Streeter Lecka / GettyType A's are confident they can come up with a workable solution for any problem that might arise.

9. Type A's are great problem-solvers.

Part of the reason that Type A's are such great problem-solvers is that they fully believe in their ability, so much so that they are confident they can come up with a workable solution for any problem that might arise. This confidence allows them to think of a rational solution without becoming worked up and flustered.

10. Type A's are passionate.

When you are passionate about something, you find it a lot easier to go all-in and devote all your time and energy to that project. Type A's don't "half-ass" anything. Their passion allows them to work hard without feeling that their effort is "work."

11. Type A's are efficient.

Because of the reasons listed above — always on time, always perfectionists, never waste time, always planning, etc. — Type A's are extremely efficient. Getting as much accomplished in the shortest amount of time is the name of the game. 

12. Type A's are focused.

When it comes time to getting something done, a Type A can give that something 100 percent focus, regardless of what else is going on in life. The ability to block out distractions and remain laser focused allows these creative individuals to not skip a beat.

http://www.businessinsider.com/why-type-a-personalities-are-unstoppable-2015-11

Your Field Guide to the Perfectionist

Wanting everything in your life to be perfect can produce just the opposite.

While many elite athletes, successful entrepreneurs, and ground-breaking researchers have some perfectionist tendencies, their drive for excellence doesn't hold them back. Some psychologists describe these high achievers as "adaptive perfectionists," although other researchers insist these outliers aren't true perfectionists.

True perfectionists—also called maladaptive perfectionists—actually struggle to succeed. Their need for perfection hinders their performance and prevents them from ever feeling "good enough."

Here are 9 signs that your healthy drive for excellence has crossed over into an unhealthy need for perfection:

1. You View Mistakes as Proof You are Inadequate

Rather than seeing mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow, perfectionists view mistakes as proof that they're not good enough. They often respond to blunders with harsh self-criticism and minor mishaps, leaving them feeling defeated.

2. You Can't Celebrate Your Success

Perfectionists don’t feel comfortable declaring victory, no matter how successful they’ve become. Rather than acknowledge their talent, they may chalk up achievements to luck. At other times, they criticize themselves by saying things like, "I should have reached my goal faster," or, "If I were smarter I wouldn't have had to work so hard."

3. Your Self-Worth Depends on Your Achievement

Perfectionists don't feel good about who they are, and so their self-worth rests solely on what they do and how much they accomplish. Since they never really feel successful, they almost always lack self-confidence.

4. You Demand Perfection from Others

True perfectionists don't just expect perfection from themselves; they also expect those around them to perform at unrealistic levels. Their unrealistically high standards and excessively critical feedback wreak havoc on their relationships.

5. Your Mental Health Suffers

Perfectionism is associated with a variety of mental health issues, ranging from obsessive-compulsive disorder to eating disorders to depression. Studies have also citied perfectionism as one risk factor for suicide.

6. You Avoid Doing Things at Which You May Fail

Perfectionists aren't interested in personal growth. They're concerned with showing off their current skills, rather than learning new ones. They tend to choose less-challenging activities at which they're more likely to succeed, rather than explore new opportunities at which they may struggle.

7. You Aren't Satisfied with Your Life

An intense fear of failure, and anxiety over the future, prevent perfectionists from ever feeling truly satisfied with their lives. Research shows that perfectionists often do well in low-stress environments, but everyday hassles and stressful life events can take a serious toll on their life satisfaction.

8. You Take a Long Time to Complete Tasks

Driven people are hard workers who complete tasks efficiently, but true perfectionists struggle to get anything done. Whether they're re-writing an email a dozen times to make sure it's perfect, or rehearsing a sales pitch so many times they miss a deadline, their efforts to be perfect impair their productivity.

9. You Invest a Lot of Energy in Masking Your Imperfections

True perfectionists invest a lot of energy into masking their flaws. They worry about being harshly judged by others, and in an effort to escape that judgment, work hard to keep up the appearance of perfection.

www.psychologytoday.com/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201508/your-field-guide-the-perfectionist

5 Things You Should be Doing to Have an Insanely Productive Week

A productive week depends largely on what you focus on every working day and how much time you allocate to activities that take up your time (i.e. busy work). Working harder does not necessarily mean you are being productive. There will always be a better way to complete that task. Find it, work smarter and get more done in your working week.  

These are a few things can do to have an insanely productive week this and every other week.

1. Stop planning, start doing. 

It's okay to make time to plan what needs to be done in the week or month but when you get back to the planning table often, you lose precious productive hours.

So instead of plan, just do it. The option to work on a task in the future instead of now seem comfortable but not prudent. While you keep telling yourself you don't have to do it now, that task won't go away. And somebody will have to eventually account for it. So instead of procrastinating, get on with it and check it off your to-do list.

Also, are your meetings really worthwhile? Most people spend too much time in meetings, when they should be working and getting things done. To ensure you are making the most of your time, create a time budget. This will help you realize how much time you are losing to meetings or planning when you should be doing actual work. You will be surprised at how much you can get done every week if you start tracking how much time you spend planning or meeting.

2. You don't have to say "yes" to every request. 

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.” — Warren Buffet.

Saying "yes" to a request seem easier than a simple "no". Yet every time you agree to do something for somebody that brings low or no result, it makes it difficult to have a schedule you can really control. You don't want that. You can achieve more if you know what you have to do, when you have to it and what you expect to accomplish. All that can be done in controlled schedule.

3. Don't be a perfectionist. 

If you keep chasing perfection, it could take you longer to get your tasks done – and you will most likely be less productive than you planned. The reason being is when you activity strive for perfection you spend more time on a single task than required, causing your other responsibilities to get pushed back. This will cause you to lose time and possibly annoy your immediate boss in the process. Perfectionism is even higher when you don't account to anyone but yourself, as the fine tuning never ends.

4. Get everything out of your head. 

Don't rely heavily on your memory. It will fail you when you need it most. Instead, write things down.

There are hundreds of options for taking notes -- everything from the good old sticky notes to applications like Evernote, Any.do, and Wunderlist. By jotting down everything that needs to get done in the week, you will have a better picture of what needs to be accomplished – and set priorities accordingly.  

5. Review and measure your accomplishments. 

Just before you close the week and prepare for next week, review your achievements, along with everything else that needed to be done, to see if you really got work done. Get back to your to-do list and check them off and find out what you were not able to do and why. Celebrate your accomplishments, take note of everything you postponed and learn from your mistakes. You will be better prepared for the following week. 

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237985

Top 5 Procrastination Behaviors + What They Say About You

You have a deadline or an amazing idea that you want to put into action, but it feels like it will take an act of God to get you to sit down and complete your project. Why do you always fall prey to procrastination?

The answer is simple. You procrastinate when a part of you believes that achieving your goal or finishing your project will cause some sort of perceived, imaginary pain in the future. This can be totally not conscious, but it's nevertheless a protection mechanism to keep you safe from your fears.

There are some common methods of procrastination that we fall prey to. Underlying every procrastination tactic is a unique impulse related to how your mind wants to keep you safe from your fears.

Here are five common ways of procrastinating, and what they say about you:

1. Surfing Facebook

Is Facebook an ultra powerful magnet that sucks you in even if you try to set your limits before starting? For instance, do you find yourself saying, "I'm just going to see what my ex is up to real quick and then I'll get back to work"?

If you often get lost in Facebook instead of getting your work done, it's most likely because, on some level, you have a fear of being seen. On Facebook, you are a voyeur: you spend your time looking at others rather than finishing your project. In this way, you risk other people seeing your finished work. You may not think about it in these terms, but they are factually true, right?

Imagine you're writing a blog post and having trouble finishing it because Facebook is sucking your time. It's possible that you're using Facebook to protect yourself from finishing your work of art because after you finish it, the world will see it. That is a scary thought, so you think: why deal with it?

But I'll invite you to ask yourself: Am I hiding on Facebook so that nobody will be privy to my finished work?

2. Getting overqualified

A friend of mine calls herself a "recovering training whore" because she used to collect degrees like Pokémon cards.

Training was a form of procrastination for her. She was hiding out in classrooms and stalling the day when she would have to get out into the world and do the work she was put here to do.

Now, what does this form of procrastination say about her? It says that she has a fear of not being good enough.

Education and training are necessary, but if you are a person who has five degrees, ten certifications and is doing a PhD program right now, I encourage you to consider two questions: 1. Am I collecting degrees and certifications because I'm afraid I'm not good enough? 2. Am I using training to hopefully make me worthy of working in my field one day?

3. Waiting for someone else

Have you ever said, "I'm just waiting for the right business partner to come along" as a way to avoid starting a venture you've been dreaming of?

Support is a wonderful thing and necessary in many cases. We need support to thrive. But if you're not getting things done because you are waiting for the perfect business partner to fall into the office chair next to you, or you are overly dependent on the idea of waiting for something external to yourself to "save" you, you might be dealing with a deep-rooted fear of failure. The insecurity is simple: "I am not good enough on my own."

Consider: Do I fear that I'll fail if I try this out on my own?

4. Developing "Shiny Object Syndrome"

Do new research, innovative business tools, or a barrage of creative ideas and business opportunities constantly grab your attention?

If you're that person who never finishes a project because she starts nine million projects all at once, you are probably suffering from shiny object syndrome, also known as SOS.

What does SOS say about you? If you suffer from SOS, you most likely have a fear of success.

"Fear of success?" you may be asking. Well instead, ask yourself this: Am I starting a new project because I'm afraid to finish the one I'm working on and receive all of the potential success that could ensue? Am I scared of what success will look like or scared that I don't deserve or am not worthy of success?

5. Being a perfectionist

Raise your hand if you have been tweaking your website for years or every time you write something you edit it until it's perfectly...dead?

There's absolutely nothing wrong with being detail oriented, but if you're trying to catch that slippery fellow named perfection, you have a right to know that your perfectionism is a protection mechanism that is sabotaging your work instead of improving it.

If you're not fully reaching for the stars because you aren't perfect yet, probe this question: Do I focus on details so much that nobody ever gets to experience my work because it's never perfect?

If you answered yes, you're procrastinating with perfectionism because you're afraid that other people will judge and criticize you just like you criticize yourself.

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-16306/top-5-procrastination-behaviors-what-they-say-about-you.html