On Creativity

Creativity is essential in creating the life of your dreams. If you go through life following instructions, conforming to the status quo, and stifling your creative instincts in favor of safety, then you will lead a mediocre life, at best. If you really want to accomplish your dreams, then you must be creative in your pursuit of them.

Don't tell me, "Tim, I am not creative at all." That is because you don't PRACTICE it! Creativity is a skill! You must practice creativity to become creative. Robert Frost did not write "The Road Not Taken" the first time he ever decided to write a poem. He likely has hundreds of poems that he created which he finds terrible -and are terrible.

I am not saying you must write poetry, paint canvasses, or create ice sculptures. There are plenty of opportunities in your daily life to express creativity! What is your work place like? How can you make it different? What can you do creatively in your room? Your garden? Your voicemail?

Times have changed. It is no longer better to be safe than sorry. Allow your creativity to flow. Every person is naturally creative. I cannot tell you one kid who doesn't enjoy drawing. Let it flow. When you are creative, you are yourself.

On VoiceMails

I just redid my voicemail. I just realized how boring they are by calling my representatives and leaving messages. Also in The Little Red Book Of Selling, I remember Jeffrey Gittomer going on a rant about voicemails. And he is right.

What is the point of a voicemail that says "I cannot come to the phone right now but leave a message." I mean obviously you cannot come to the phone right now... either that or you are ignoring me. I called to talk to you, not to hear why you cannot answer.

Be creative with voicemail. The purpose of this blog is to promote being REMARKABLE and your voicemail can provide that!

Mine is:

"Hello, this is Tim Fenning, I am too busy swing dancing to answer the phone but leave your credit card information and I will be happy to put your order for a Cutco Kitchen through when I am done dancing."

Is yours off the wall?

On My Current Growth

Since I am currently running an office, I am learning SO much about myself. I am only beginning to really grab a footing on the basic operations of the business and really setting my office up for success. Most importantly, I am discovering things about myself that I didn't realize I truly had before. I can be very tough on somebody if I have to be, for example. Also, I am realizing key weaknesses. Not just weaknesses that somebody else can really make up for me. I mean weaknesses in my core character. I am developing these every day. I am trying to gain more integrity and honesty on a daily basis. 

It isn't until you leave your comfort zone until you truly learn about yourself. That is where you can truly grow into a better person. I am extremely excited because I know at the end of this year, I will have grown more than I ever had in previous years. And the goal is to grow more and more every single year.

Side Note: I am so thankful to all those who message me about my blog and thanking me for it. It really inspires me to keep going!

On Mental Strength

Whenever one approaches an endeavor, they must develop the mental strength to overcome the inevitable obstacles and things that go wrong. When overwhelmed with the tremors of adversity, you must remain calm. When thrown into the thrones of success, you must remain humble. These are basic aspects of leadership and how to truly succeed.

When adversity strikes, as we all know it will, if you react through panic then you will never regain your feet. The worst thing you can do is run away from the bear or swim away from the shark. Adversity can sense panic and that is when it clenches its jaws. You must stand your ground with the calmness and certainty that you will pull through, even when staring into the eyes of a tiger in the wide open meadow. You must make yourself bigger. You must make yourself grow. Push yourself past your natural limits and make some noise! Let the world know you are here and you are ready to conquer it. Even if you may think it as improbable as traveling the speed of light. Our mission is not merely to survive, but it is to thrive.

And finally, when success comes in tidal waves, we need not stand on top to show the world how we overcame the mighty wave... or we will fall and fall hard. Remember to be humble. There is nothing wrong with celebrating successes. The thrill is too good not to celebrate. However, it is another to attribute that success wholly to yourself. Nobody succeeds alone. Remember all those that helped you and even attribute your success to them. Then you will not merely attain a quick rise and hard fall story, but you will have your house built on a rock, ready to hold you up through the harshest waves.

How REMARKABLE do you want to be? How far do you want to push yourself to attain that? How much will you grow? How much mental strength will you attain? Will you build your house on sand or a rock? Will you panic or will you strike?

On The Journey

It is proven by positive psychology that achieving a goal provides life satisfaction for an individual. However, it is not the actual success providing the satisfaction. It is the journey of getting there. We are happiest when we are pushing for a goal and stretching our comfort zone to get there. Many people lose sight of this. They settle for mediocrity because they write off a goal before they even start. Yes, a goal creates a struggle to get there (if it doesn't, you're goal is not big enough)... and with any struggle comes frustration and disappointment but overcoming these obstacles and not giving up on something we dream of really makes us feel special. It makes us feel like we have a purpose (other than filing papers).

I encourage you to go for it. What have you been dreaming of?

My friend, Conor Spellane, has been dreaming of becoming a guitarist all his life and he is a phenomenal one at that. He wants to do it for a living. He started a band called Panic In Eden and they are just great. The best part is they are beginning to make some headway in LA! I am not saying they are big yet. They are not close yet. But I am sure Conor is truly feeling a wellbeing in his life despite the struggles and frustrations that come with being a rising musician.

Shoot for your dreams. A college degree is nice but do not just follow the rules of society. Do not just get a job that you hate so you can continue hating your job. Break the status quo. Do what you were designed to do! Do what you dream to do! Do it with passion! You can truly become remarkable. Just be yourself. Shoot for your own goals to find true wellbeing. It is about the journey of getting there.

Do you want a journey to a cubicle or a journey to your life's ambitions?

On A Powerful Sentence

I recently lost some motivation and struggled to get up in the morning for a job that I know I love to do. However, everybody has days where they feel like quitting. Everybody has days where they feel like they are not making progress. Finding an office was one of the most frustrating times in my life.

However, I have since turned it around this week. The way I turned it around was really rooted from my demotivation and asking "why?" Why wasn't everything working properly? Why aren't people coming into training? Why have a couple of my reps gone missing? It came down to the question, "Am I helping others?" My answer was no. I thought I was not truly helping anybody. I even felt like I lost the respect of my friends and family. And I spent hours searching for the answers at night with no ability to fall asleep.

Finally, it came down to this: "If I were to die tonight, what would people remember me for tomorrow?" This is pretty powerful. It induced me into extremely deep feelings as far as who I truly felt I could become and how I should get there, and get there as soon as possible. I started reading again after this question, writing, and continuing this blog now.

I began to tell people my thoughts about life again and what I feel motivates people. I am giving speeches to nobody as I walk around alone at times just envisioning myself preaching to a full arena. Now I realize the sentence that truly motivates me when I feel down.

"Live life as if every day is your last day and influencing people is your purpose."

-----

I laid out my thought process behind this sentence in the hopes that maybe one of you can utilize that process and find your purpose and incite action today.

Make a sentence:

"Live life as if every day is your last day and __________________________ is your purpose."
Read it out loud WITH PASSION every morning.

On Culture

I want to briefly go over the steps I follow to building a culture in my office. This can be applied in other situations such as raising a family, teaching a class, etc.

Step 1:
Define who you are in 7-10 words.
I am the perfect blend of weirdness and intellectualism.

Step 2:
Define your culture by replacing "I am"with "It is" in the previous sentence.
It is the perfect blend of weirdness and intellectualism.

Your culture should be who you are. Do not try to establish somebody else's culture because it probably will not match your personality. Make sure your culture is authentic for you!

Now to build the culture, you need to determine how you will portray this. I have a room dedicated to being remarkable and different in the heart of my office. It will be filled with intellectual things such as self-help books and leadership quotes, accompanied with Dr. Seuss books and cat memes.

Now that you have your why (I believe in the perfect blend of weirdness and intellectualism) and your what (manager, teacher, mother, etc.), you need your how to connect the two. How will you portray why you live through what you do? This answer is the answer to unlocking your culture.

On Ideas

One of my favorite things to do on my free time is thinking of ideas. I just go off and bring in ideas that may be ridiculous but occasionally, I get the ones that work. For example, The Do Good Campaign for my office may be one of the best ideas I execute this summer. Another idea I thought of tonight was the REMARKABLE room. My office will have one extra room that I have previously thought of as a lounge area. A place to hang out. But this is so much cooler! The room will be for REMARKABLE. The best part is: this room is in the MIDDLE of my office! It drives who I am and what I preach! Be Weird! I cannot wait to see all the weird things on the walls in this room! Whatever fills it, will fill it to be remarkable. I want people to leave my office knowing that we are different and we are the place to be!

The reason I share this with you is to promote ideas. Ideas steer our lives. Everything we do comes from the idea of doing it. I want to promote that you consciously think of ideas. Also, since many ideas come during fleeting moments of our lives, I recommend an ideas notepad that you carry with you at all times. You can write your ideas in as you go! (Or use your smart phone to take notes!)

Accept all ideas at first and believe them to be possible. All things that have been accomplished were once impossible.

On Why

The most powerful question in the world is "why do you wake up in the morning?"

Think about that question. Think about it for a long, long time. This is what DRIVES you. Find your why.

My why is "I desire to help others reach their fullest potential."

Your why needs to be short and simple. Don't make it too complicated. You should be able to say it at a moments notice without a blink of an eye.

Find your why. Let it drive you to do REMARKABLE things.

On Shortcuts

It is rare that shortcuts are a good idea. Shortcuts are usually taken with the mentality of, this will get me to my end destination quicker. However, nobody ever picked up a guitar and started playing Stairway To Heaven. Usually they start with something like Smoke On The Water. You need to learn each step as you go along. Even if you tried to learn Stairway To Heaven and that is all you did until you mastered it, you still have not learned the fundamentals like chords, proper finger technique, or scales. After learning Stairway, you will fall because you do not yet know how to create songs. You do not know how to learn songs. And you probably do not even play Stairway To Heaven correctly.

Apply this to other aspects of life. Creating a business: if you try to grow too fast, you will fall since you do not have the people in the organization capable of holding up your company. Being a student: If you do not study throughout the year, your grades will hurt at the end.

Always remember, if a path feels like it will be hard, but it is the correct way of doing it, then do it every time. It is easier in the long run.

On Lending A Hand

There is nothing more powerful than something as small as helping another person in some small way. Little things really add up to big things and people forget this in their every day lives. There are so many opportunities to help other people every day and don't forget it! Keep an eye out every day and if an opportunity presents itself just lend a hand! It is so simple. Just give somebody else a small piece of your time!

On Emotions

During my reading binge over the past few years, I started to realize the subtle message they delivered about emotions, but it really hammered home when I read about Yoga philosophies. First, I want to establish that we choose our emotions. Nobody makes us angry, sad, happy, etc. It is your CHOICE to be angry, sad, happy, etc. 

When I was reading about yoga, one of the things that struck me most about the emotional aspect is the control of your emotions. This arose while I read the Samurai Code as well. You have to control your emotions to drive you to better results. You must be angry when you are supposed to be, sad when you are supposed to be, along with happy when you are supposed to be.

This is an important distinction. It is human nature to let your results drive your emotions. When things go wrong, our emotions go wrong. This will send us in a downward spiral. Also if things go right, we become content... and then things go wrong. 

Also, this means suppressing one's emotions is ineffective as well. You still let results drive your emotions but just because you don't tell anybody about it, does not mean you are not in an emotionally fragile state.

So use emotions to drive results! For example, Jesus used anger in the temple to show it was a place of respect and worship. Gandhi used sorrow to try to unite Hindus and Muslims in a newly free nation. Steve Jobs used excitement to realize his visionary products.

Similarly, you must grieve when you need to grieve and be joyous when you need to be joyous. Just remember, you need to use these emotions to drive results. Choose what emotion you want and utilize it to become REMARKABLE!

On Life Changes

Many times people find themselves in a position where their life will change drastically. Right now many people, including myself, are graduating from college. This is a pivotal time but when you form your life, you have to remember a few fundamentals that apply to every change and you can become successful in whatever you do.

First, whatever you do in your free time defines who you will become. Do not waste time doing nothing or watching too much television. Spend your free time active and doing things. Life will become far more enjoyable and if you do something consistently, like play in your room with physics like Einstein or start a new business or read personal growth books or write poetry or read this blog, you can become a master of that task over time. Do you want to master watching tv or writing poetry?

Second, embrace change. Without change, nothing gets better. You need life to change to move somewhere in life. Always remember to embrace change, even if it is bad, because every change is an opportunity to do something great!

And finally, have a plan. If life is changing, make a plan to handle that change. Many times a plan does not work for the little details but making one helps you achieve the final destination since you already know how to get there.

Good luck in life people! Be REMARKABLE!

Just because you are good at something...?

I recently watched an ESPN 30 for 30 film called The Marinovich Project. I highly recommend it. For those who do not know, Marinovich was one of, if not, the biggest bust in NFL history. He was a QB with perfect form, conditioning, and knowledge of the game. He was raised by his father under the perfect conditions to become an amazing QB. And then, he began to lose his life to drugs and lost his will to play in the NFL. Once he reached the NFL, he asked himself "Now what?" He had nothing left to aim for in football. He accomplished his father's dreams.

He collapsed because he struggled to answer the question that he posed in the documentary, "just because you are good at something, does that mean you have to do it?"

The answer is no.

Jim Collins established that what you do in life should fall inside three circles.

Circle #1: What am I good at? Do something you are good at so you can add value to something someway.

Circle #2: What would people pay me to do? Just because I am good at listening to music does not mean people would pay me to do it. We all need money.

Circle #3: What do I love to do? This is what Marinovich missed in his life and he saw drastic consequences. I, myself, during 4 years at PSU struggled with this. Just because I am good at engineering and I would be paid to do it, does that mean I was born to become an engineer?

What you do in your life must satisfy all three of these circles to truly live a fulfilling life.