Weekly Challenge: Inspire

Ready for your weekly Geek Career Challenge?  Well it's here anyway.

It's hard at times for even the most imaginative of us to find new ideas.  It can be for a story, a database structure, or a marketing plan – we're just tapped out.  We all know too well those moments where inspiration leaves us, even in mundane tasks.

I find that inspiration works best when shared.  We know the power of sharing ideas and brainstorming together as we've experienced it many times in our lives – even when we may forget it.  Sharing ideas brings about new ones.

We can forget the importance of sharing ideas and inspiring each other when we, ourselves, are out of ideas.  Being out of ideas, we crave inspiration or even a good suggestion that might lead to fresh, fiery inspiration. Wanting this, we can get selfish and forget others have the same issues – and miss our chance to inspire them, and thus be inspired in turn.

So your goal for this week is to help someone who needs inspiration.

Look for someone who needs ideas, needs to bounce something off of you, has their imagination paralyzed by exhaustion or confusion or just plain no ideas.  When you find this person (or people), go out of their way to help inspire them by listening, or brainstorming with them or just making a suggestion.  As you make your efforts, go out of your way to do what you can to help get their minds moving.

When you inspire others, you can get inspired in turn, and encourage them to inspire even more people.  Make your contribution to keep brainstorming going in the world.

– Steven Savage

Weekly Challenge – Mirror, Mirror

Here's your weekly challenge.  We're going to get a bit psychological.

I want you to ask yourself, what your complete opposite is like. What's the "you" from the Mirror Universe, Bizarro World, whatever fictional opposite-land you prefer as a metaphor.  Who is this other you? what motivates them? What do they do – and what don't they do? What is their daily life like?

Once you have a good image of this UnYou, ask yourself a few questions:

  • What is it that they do that you wish you did or should?
  • What is it that you do they don't that you're proud of?
  • Is this alternate you happier or sadder than you?  Why?
  • What do they do for a living, and does it work?
  • What do they do for fun, and why?  Does it make them happy?
  • What can you learn from them and what can they learn from you?

This week, take a look in the mirror and find out what you learn.

(Though I won't go into much detail on my experience with this exercise, I realized I was much happier than my opposite.)

– Steven Savage

Frustration Friday – The Secret of Success, Now Yours!

Allow me to express my most heartfelt invitation to those whose lives are not going as planned to try the ultimate cure-all for their problems.  Your life may be depressing, you may not have the job you want, but I have the single, most powerful method in the world to cure your problems.  This solution has worked for untold others throughout the ages and has a long, ancient lineage.

This most powerful technique is called "Getting off of your Butt."

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