It's great to have options!

Wow! What a week it has been.

I have been wrestling with a problem that has been lingering just a bit too long. It started as a 'crack' in my roadway and now it was becoming a wide crevice.

I needed to take a new approach to solving it.

I put down my usual tools and used the LIFE Model from Life Clubs. Before I knew it ...I had moved from the habitual jumping into 'solutions' mode ... to the energizing zone of brainstorming options. The ideas just kept flooding in. It was great to get the creative juices flowing!

What was once seems like a monkey on my back is now a source of energy and excitement.

Come along to Life Clubs and you too can learn the Key Steps to Problem solving!

Eva-Marie

Mary Portas at my club...

Well... not quite, but almost. That was wishful thinking. I think Mary Portas is great.

We had a creativity workshop last week and, at the end of it, one of my clubbers sat there grinning from ear to ear. She's having a two month sabbatical in South Africa (her hometown) and wants to earn some money at the same time. Her lightbulb moment (and it was a big one) was that she could buy clothes in the UK and sell them in South Africa for a profit. Her goal for this week is to ask her daughters if they want to get involved.

Creativity is amazing and yet sometimes, without help, we don't feel creative. If we don't feel creative then we don't allow ourselves to get all silly and laugh and have creative thoughts and then we feel we're not creative and so don't even try to be creative and on and on the cycle goes.

At Life Clubs we brainstormed and got silly and, hey, businesses were conceived.

See you in the New Year.
I wish you all the very best for 2010.
Thanks for all your support.
Nina
If you're interested on coming on a weekend with me, check this out.
If you'd like to buy my new book, click here

Total chaos...

I am messy. There's no other word for it. From the mess in my car - uneaten sandwiches, half-empty plastic bottles of water and plastic bags littering the floor - to the books, papers and lego lying all over my home, my life is full of clutter.

Monday's Me Day was wonderful. A very organised friend of mine was staying and I asked him to help me tidy up our two office rooms (not my car - I couldn't ask anyone to do that). Of course, it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. A man who likes a paper-free environment, he was a bit upset by my insistence that I needed to keep certain sheets, but we compromised and filed them all away beautifully - rather than shoving them in my usual cardboard box, and put a new shelf in the bookshelves to store materials in. My rooms look wonderful and it was a treat to do them in the Life Clubs decluttering week.

There's something slightly uncanny about being too tidy. If I'm honest, I've felt a little unsettled ever since my rooms looked so organised. I'm left with a 'What next?' feeling. There's no longer a 'I must declutter' at the top of my 'To Do' list. There's now a 'Phone clients', 'Plan new website', 'Write proposal for next book' ...etc and none of those tasks are quite as easy or satisfying as tidying up my room. There's almost a fear of getting too decluttered as I'll have to take serious action when it's done.

That was my Me Day and his Me Day was helping me. The tidying up and chucking out certainly was happy. Sadly I've got a whole year to wait 'til the next Me Day when I can start tackling my car - or is that just an excuse?

See you this week,
Looking forward,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

This is your last chance to come to my workshop this Sunday, Live A More Creative Life, in Central London. It's going to be great. Book now or just turn up.

To read tips garnered from Life Clubs workshops, sign up to our bulletin.

A fresh perspective

This week Anna has arrived at our headquarters. We've already got quite a team, but Anna is here as Head of Sales and Marketing.

As she sat analysing our way of working and coming up with strategies to streamline us I felt almost jealous. I wished I could arrive at Life Clubs with the hat of a stranger on and move it on to the next level. As it is I feel so steeped in the product, I can't see anything objectively. I'd like a little more of her perspective and less of my feelings of maternal pride.

I can't wait until Anna starts really moving things along. She's promised that when she does I can sit and be creative 24 hours a day. I've even been promised my own zone - well away from all the craziness that's in the main room.

I think I've inherited a love of delegating from my father who practically invented multi-tasking. He used to enjoy sleeping best on planes because he said he was then doing two things at the same time - getting some rest and going somewhere. I love having a team because I'm then doing lots of things at the same time - and being allowed to do what I like best - be creative.

More about next week's club in a few days.
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

What's in your box of gifts?

I love this picture of a box. It reminds me of Pandora's box and how, once opened, you can never go back to how you were before.

That's what this week's workshop is about - finding the talents you have buried deep in a box. So many of us were told at a young age that we just weren't creative and it's haunted us for the rest of our life. It's liberating feeling that you're creative and we all are. Imagine how you would decorate that box if it was yours - or would you leave it grungy and mysterious - a nod to previous owners and what they may have kept in it.

Notice what's in your box this week. When can you be like Pandora and open it?

See you this week to discover your talents,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

Get Going

What gets you on to that first step or moves you along to the final one? How do you motivate yourself?

Instead of mentally beating yourself up for not having done what you wanted to, it's a great idea to talk to yourself the way you would a friend who can't get going.

Let's imagine your friend just can't think of anything to say on their blog and phones you up for a little motivation.

Would you be sympathetic: "I know just how you feel. I sometimes can't think of anything to say either, and then I have a shower and relax and a thought pops into my head. I know you can do it, you always write such great posts."

Or would you be all questiony: "What helps you get creative? What usually inspires you?"

Or would you just be brutal: "Oh, get on with it, you're always moaning."

Think about it, because however you talk to a friend is the way that would most inspire you.

And then, when you've written your post, let me have the link - I'd love to read it.

See you at Life Clubs this week where we're getting motivated,
Nina
Founder Life Clubs

Getting Out Of The Box

I came across this tiny mosaic whilst walking through London the other day. It was in Mayfair, the dark blue on the Monopoly board, a totally exclusive area, and there were no signs around as to who had made it or why. It wasn't connected to a groovy sci-fi shop or record store. It was just there.

There are signs of creativity everywhere, but we don't always see, feel, taste or hear them - we're sometimes so in our own world of insecurities and worries that we don't notice the things around us. And when we're in that cut-off zone, the last thing we feel is creative.

I have two remedies for those sorts of moods. One is to physically force myself to take in other people's creativity. To put on some wonderful music or to look at some art. I feel very quickly that there is beauty out there and it changes my mood. The other is to take my little phone camera out and just take photos. It doesn't matter if they're good or 'rubbish'. If I take enough, sooner or later there will be a 'good' one, or, at least, one that I'll keep and treasure.

We are all deeply creative, although sometimes we just don't realise it. But we definitely feel so much better when we do.

Here's to a wonderfully creative week.
Nina
Founder Life Clubs