The Imagination Generation

Garth Beyer

Previous generations had it easy didn’t they? Much easier than us anyway.

They didn’t have electronics to take them to a new world. They didn’t have the ability to Google all the things they love, the items they didn’t have or even focus on working hard to get them. They had a simple life. Hard, yes. But simple.

Our generation and any hereafter can Google more and further than our imaginations could previously take us. We Google surreal images, pictures representative of predictive futuristic consumerism. We now Google thinking it will help, yet we do very little or nothing that blogs suggest, that articles advise, that pictures inspire, that the world needs. We waste our time Googling for two reasons.

1. We seek safety, security and the knowledge that “everything is alright”. The same reason, in fact, as why you check Twitter and Facebook 20 times a day to see that everything is okay, nothing serious has happened. We never think that maybe, if something serious were to happen, if our security was breached, if we felt unsafe, that we may just feel it and know? Do we really think Googling, checking News, Twitter feed and Facebook will really be the primary acknowledgment that we are in trouble? No.

(It does good to take a moment to realize that this process is what has put us in trouble)

2. Our imaginations have been released, but not far enough. We search and stretch our minds as far as the web will let us extend them and then we feel like we got there ourselves, accomplished. We feel that since we imagined it, that it is real, attainable and easily reached. The ability to see and understand that which would not be attainable without the web is creating a surge of jobs not filled, inventions not made, and ideas not created. It is as though whatever is on the web is as far as the mind can reach, but this is false.

What you can Google, discover on Twitter, view and share on Facebook can well be used as a bridge to a further discovery. They are not your destinations, they are someone else’s and this means that there is a calling upon you to take what you view and learn to improve it, make it better, and most importantly add your imagination to it.

Or you can simply avoid this roadblock and let your imagination run as wild as possible. Of course, by doing this you will only find out that you can actually go further than what is proposed on the web, what can be dreamt of, created and achieved by another.

 

Stay Positive & It’s Sort Of A Win-Win

Garth E. Beyer

Doing What You Think People Will Frown Upon

Garth Beyer

It was awhile ago when I raised my hand in my Poetry 101 class and asked if we could bring in our own work and read it to the class for extra credit. (Weird that was something I had to ask isn’t it?) The teacher hesitantly agreed only after the class followed suit in making quite the ruckus for approval. The day came and I risked going up to the podium and reading a love poem I had written – but this isn’t about me. It’s about someone else who got up and took a much larger risk than ridicule.

—-

The whole class was smiling, laughing and as I remember it, a few people stood up giving a standing ovation to the girl who did what you may think people would have frowned upon. Now, I never curse or swear on this website (though I may let some words slip in life), let it be known that I am merely going to pick out words that were in this young lady’s poem.

Imagine the following words put into one of the most heart wrenching and fluent poetry you have ever heard: “fu#k”, “w@ore”, “s%it”, “c*nt”, “b^tch” and a few others.

The reaction of ecstatic approval from the classroom made me think how happy it makes people to hear and see other people do what most would frown upon. This lady didn’t risk ridicule, she risked isolation, she risked the repercussions of fighting back the status-quo and following her intuition and heart.

To my surprise, she was congratulated for an epic non-standard performance and begged to share more of her poetry. She sat down with the largest grin on her face, larger than a silver Waning Crescent of a moon turned sideways.

 

Stay Positive & Fight To Be Frowned Upon (You’ll Be Surprised)

Garth E. Beyer

Prep To Destroy

Garth Beyer

Have you ever realized how much you have to prepare to destroy something?

Before a house can be torn down, you have to call two – five different “garbage” companies: one for the glass, one for the metal, one for the wood, one for the crud left inside and one for whatever is left.

Figuratively speaking, you even have to prepare for children to kick down the tower of blocks they made. They need to make sure they hit it at an angle that the blocks don’t go flying and hitting the cat or ending up under the couch.

It takes even more preparation to destroy part of something. If you need to do that, you’re better off starting from scratch. The time and effort you have to invest to prevent the parts you want to keep from falling down with the rest can be better spent building something better, more creatively and with a stronger frame.

A bridge won’t last if you only fix up half of it. That is like putting a band-aid on something that needs to be stitched. It may hold for a short period of time but with too much use it will tear open and bleed.

Simply putting it, destroying half or part of anything; a brand, a business, or a tower of blocks will not make you more successful. It will only postpone the total destruction, if not make it worse when it occurs.

There are two points to the “Prep To Destroy” concept.

1. The more simple and less time you put towards building something, the easier it is for someone to tear it down. The smaller and less stable it is, the less time someone has to put toward preparing to destroy it – survival of the fittest (the weakest are attacked first). Build something stable, don’t just focus on the infrastructure, focus on it all.

2. The time it takes to build something is relative to the time it would take for it to crumble down and be destroyed. It may take you 10 years to write that book you want, 20 to start the business you want or 30 to teach and build a team of incredible people but no one will spend that much time trying to tear any of that apart.

 

Stay Positive & Create Something Indestructible

Garth E. Beyer

What It Means to Be A Minimalist

Garth Beyer

Being a minimalist isn’t entirely about throwing out all you have and settling for less. Ask any minimalist, there is no settling and very few things get thrown out (apart from when you transition from being a stereotypical consumer *see end).

Being a minimalist is about being satisfied with what you have. It’s about living in Zen, not trying to live in it.  After all, you know what they say about Zen. The only Zen you find on the top of the mountain, is the Zen you bring up there.

Being a minimalist does not mean you can’t have wants, it just means that your wants are the same as your needs. The reason so few can become minimalistic is that it takes a powerful mind and an even more powerful understanding of what you need to live, to be content, to be happy or whatever word you want to use for a quality of life.

Being a minimalist isn’t completely about having money, saving money or spending money. A minimalist can save all the money they make but it doesn’t bring them happiness or excitement in having a lot of money. What it does bring is freedom and peace. Minimalist’s think neither of having money saved or spending the saved money.

Being a minimalist is a mental state. A state in which is content  and happy with the avoidance of negativity, arguments and emotional attachments.

Being a minimalist does not mean that they can carry all of their possessions in a backpack or suitcase. It means that whatever the size of case it takes to contain their items, it bears no weight.

Lastly, being  minimalist is about minimizing to a degree you’re comfortable with, a phase in which you are free.

 

Stay Positive & Try Freedom, Not Torture

Garth E. Beyer

“And I Thought About You”

Garth Beyer
I like to leave an artistic impression

Lately, if you have noticed, I have been on a long riff about how information is being shared. After months of observance, I had the experience that gave me the ultimate understanding. I owe this post to every single persons experience because you have had it hundreds of times but specifically this post is the story of mine that happened to me a few days ago. I sent a link with the words “and I thought about you”.

A couple of times a week I stop by MentalFloss. I clicked a post about banana art and thought about my brother who refuses to accept he’s an artist because of what he would have to give up (his bad habits) to have his dream. I saw the bananas and had to share it with someone, someone special, someone whom I thought about immediately after seeing the bananas.

That’s the aim of content isn’t it? Or at least, it’s supposed to be the aim. Great content does good to one person but can only change the world if it’s shared with everyone on it. Whether changing the world is done through banana art or any of the billions of artistic niches, it has to be shared. To be shared, you must have the reader or viewer think of those five words.

Those five words are the most powerful words in the world because they employ action. The moment a person thinks about someone else after reading or viewing some form of content, they are held accountable to share it with that person.

Thinking about it again, this happened the other month when I sent a picture of this tiger to my friend whose favorite animal is a Tiger.

Rawr

As a writer and creator of valuable content, the aim of having it shared is not based off the most Tweets, the most “likes” or the most reblogs. While the content can be shared with thousands of people this way, the connection of the shared knowledge is void of character, void of passion, void of care. The aim of providing invaluable content is to fit into someones worldview and you can only do so when you say or type those 5 words.

 

Stay Positive & I Wrote This Because I Thought About You

Garth E. Beyer

How To Raise A Successful Kid

Garth Beyer

Raise kids by rewarding them each time they take a risk and reward them just the same when they fail.

 

Stay Positive & Do The Same For Yourself While You’re At It

Garth E. Beyer

SocialMediaNoise& White Space

Garth Beyer

The problem at large with social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, is that it is all noise and no white space.

Twitter is averaging less and less on click-throughs and I’m not surprised. Half the content shared is ridiculous (go click a couple of links if you don’t agree). The other half just blends in with all the other feed and the value is lost in noise. As for Facebook, all the content that is shared are pictures rarely offering any insight in which you seek. The terrible part is there is no white space in either.

Social media is about a constant flow of admired information but admired information is meaningless if there’s no white space after it to digest. That is why you may learn an idea, try to share it with someone, forget half of it and forget where you got the idea from. There was no time for it to cultivate and for the source to get credit. The noise and lack of white space is why more people are deleting “friends” on Facebook and unfollowing people on Twitter.

 Of course everyone is still using the constant feed stream, it’s one of the most valuable sources of information…when used correctly. Those who use the content stream properly are those who only click-through on valuable content tweeted, posted and shared by those in their tribe. Content they can interact with and the interaction is what creates white space and a further understanding of the content. The interaction turns the content into an experience which sticks to the memory.

Social media gives too much of an overload of info. If you are looking for something new without an expectation of solid content, then click a few Twitter links. If you want content, stick with Google. If you want an experience, use Twitter, Facebook and any social media with those who connect with you, that interact, that both, you and the person you’re interacting with, can expand and learn. That is why Twitter was held at such a high value, until too many people created too much noise. Curse the followback button

 

Stay Positive &    Make     More     White    Space 

Garth E. Beyer