If You Find Treasure

Garth Beyer

Some treasures were not meant to be found because, in finding them, we reveal secrets, we dig up answers to mysteries that have kept us enticed in literature, in common conversation , and in analogy. We take items that are rich in character and make them as organic as the bones that surround them – sort of contradicts the idea of what treasure is.

My suggestion: turn the treasure into something.

Finding treasure is just like stealing art, it’s not stealing if you mash it up with your own flare and the style of a thousand other artists to create something new, something equally as valuable and treasured.

 

Stay Positive & “X” Doesn’t Mark The Spot, You Do

Garth E. Beyer

This was an old post I wrote, finally publishing. Part of me feels like the idea needs to be credited to someone, but I don’t remember what inspired this post. To that person, sorry for not giving you credit. If this was all my own, self-high-five.

 

Another Reporter Down: Blog-Frigging-Tastic (rant)

Garth Beyer

If you haven’t caught it yet, Shea Allen, a reporter, has been fired.

While, sure, reporters get fired, Allen is added to the group who have been fired from posting on their personal blogs. Which, in turn, adds to the argumentative flame of where we draw the line between work writing and personal writing (and sharing).

Shouldn’t journalists be able to live a double life? One professional and one personal? If not, then why is it okay to have a fully professional life, but not a fully personal one in the world of reporting?

My response is this.

If anyone deeply cared, flat-out hated what she had to say on her personal blog, refusing to watch her professional reporting, are those people a news network really wants to have as part of their audience?

I sure don’t.

By the way, I eat almonds at work, I feel uncomfortable around disabled people, and I’ve had to do an interview without underwear because all of mine were dirty.

So what. Fire me.

Building Intuition

Garth Beyer

Sure, I won’t argue that intuition in some cases comes naturally. You can follow your intuition when lost in the woods or playing a game of chess. However, you can also build your intuition.

Go hiking enough, your intuition becomes a combination of gut feeling and a recognition of signs. A chess player stated, “If I notice a piece is out-of-place (recalling a similar position from my subconscious memory), I’ll adjust my thought process appropriately and evaluate my options. All of this behavior related to pattern recognition is collectively known as a chess player’s intuition.”

I don’t rely on intuition. I rely on building it. And when it fails me, that only means I haven’t experienced enough. Cool thing is, failure is experience.

 

Stay Positive & Check Mate, Intuition

Garth E. Beyer

Seven Billion Haystacks

Garth Beyer

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Italo Calvino notes in his collected insights on writing that, “Senior men and women have no monopoly on great ideas. Nor do Creative people. Some of the best ideas come from account executives, researchers, and others.”

In light of my recent posts about being creative and how straining it can be, it pours positivity in our fountains of youth to remember that great ideas can be had by anyone.

There’s over seven billion people on this planet, seven billion haystacks, all with at least, at least one needle in each of them, at least one great idea.

Anyone can come up with a great idea. Of course, to some, a great idea is only great if it’s put into play. Glenn Llopis has a thing or two or twelve to say about that.

 

Stay Positive & Don’t Just Hold The Needle, Use It

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

What Makes Me Happy

Garth Beyer

Those who say that you can’t find happiness, that it’s something that just happens to you in the moment, obviously were only listening to those before them, and who knows who those people were told by. Happiness can, indeed, be found absolutely anywhere.

When I look at my phone, I feel happy because I think about the conversation I had last night with a friend whom I trust, or the sweet text from my significant other that I read this morning when I woke up, or the hour long conversations I have with my mom. (Often one-sided conversations. She likes to talk.)

aLet’s look at this more broadly. Happiness is associated with two forms of events: new and old.

When I find myself wandering through an oddly lit alleyway in town, I feel adventurous, curious, and slightly anxious to discover what lies around – all feelings adding up to that of happiness. Then, at a later date, I find myself walking through that same alleyway remembering the picture I took of a toy sand shovel that I saw in the parking garage. Unexplainable, but oddly, made me happy to remember it.

See, we live in a world made up of little things, new and old. These little things come from experience and experience has as much to do with happiness as the flame does in a hot air balloon. So, what makes me (us!) happy is experience. There’s a problem with this though. You can have a bad customer experience, or a regrettable experience, or a poor vacation experience. Right? I would argue that you can’t.

Experience involves two variables: noticing and having interest.

Dictionary.com describes experience as “the process or fact of personally observing, the totality of the cognitions given by perception; all that is perceived, understood, and remembered.” I believe that if you were to notice what is happening around you, if you truthfully and personally observe what is occurring, then without a single doubt in my mind, do I think you would feel happy.

The events that people often refer to as negative experiences are actually a subjective reaction to what is going on around them. This reaction is the result of shortened feedback and either always a misunderstanding or the mere inability to understand the situation enough to find the yin in the yang.

Following your attention to the moment, experience also comes from having an interest in something. In one sense, you can view this as the opposite of a negative reaction. Having interest involves reacting to an object or an event in a positive way.

“Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people.” – Henry Miller

Just as you can always find good in the bad, you can always find an interest where you find the good. It’s our inherent responsibility to follow our hearts, to seek out our passion and then, once found, let it ignite our hot air balloons. The higher we go, the happier we are. All from seeing the good in things and having an interest.

I can’t help but end with the note that Abraham Lincoln is purported to have once said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” In short, it isn’t about what makes us happy, it’s what doesn’t make us happy. (In case you were wondering, the following does not make me happy: pickled eggs, when I fail to see the bigger picture, and the memory of playing hide-and-seek with my Dad in Gander Mountain, except he didn’t know he was playing.) Happiness is a choice that after you make often enough, it becomes a habit, a habit definitely worth having.

 

Stay Positive & Do More Of What Makes You Happy

Garth E. Beyer

Why Experience Matters When Creating

Garth Beyer

Yesterday I wrote about how difficult it is to actually create something. The reason being is that to create something that is valuable and successful, you have to think the unimaginable.

One important factor to this way of thinking is that what you create needs to be something that someone, somewhere has no clue they want or need. There are only two ways this can be done.

1. Observe. Obviously the hardest since you are busy, on the go, and trying to be creative. I tend to agree with people like Daniel Pink that before we can be creative, we have to notice others’ creativity.

2. Experience. Jump in the ocean of opportunities life presents you. The more you experience, the more likely a creative idea will hit you. Zipup laces would never have been created by someone who never wore shoes.

 

Stay Positive & Start Swimming, Whichever Direction You Want, Doesn’t Matter

Garth E. Beyer