Category Archives: Creativity

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How My Mail Man Makes My Day

My mail man makes my day every day. You might think it’s because of the parcels and envelopes he leaves behind when he stops by my office. He usually leaves behind junk mail, magazines, or a rare card or note. Those are all fine and well. But every single day he leaves behind something even more important.

Mail box. 3D illustration isolated on white

My mail man barely spends five seconds dropping off our office’s mail. But he leaves behind something far better than a card or letter. When he walks in the door he leaves behind a positive attitude and happy energy. He comes bounding in the door at about 10:00 every morning and says the same thing:

You have a fantastic day!

Sometimes I’m not even in the same room, but I can hear him speaking to others all the way from my office: “You have a fantastic day!” It’s infectious. It’s inviting. It’s positive. It comes from the bottom of his heart. It lights up the whole room and everyone in it.

After my mail man spends five seconds in my presence, my entire day is made. If I am deep in thought or in the inner recesses of my mind, he pulls me out of it and makes me aware of the blessings of the people with whom I work. If I am getting ready to head out and visit people he transfers his attitude to me, and then I, in turn, transfer it to the people I meet. If I am trying to pull myself out of my early morning grogginess, he lights up the room and wakes me up.

Five seconds with five kind and encouraging words can make a person’s day. I’m trying to replicate what my mail man does for me. I’m trying to be an encouraging presence and a shining light in people’s lives.

You can, too. Let’s call it the “Mail Man Effect.” Let’s light up this year’s holiday season with the “Mail Man Effect.” Here are some ideas:

  • Ask the clerk at the store how her day is going.
  • Tip the waiter or waitress more than 20% and add a note of encouragement on the receipt.
  • Buy a few small gifts and give them to random people at unexpected times.
  • Say, “Merry Christmas.”
  • Take some Christmas cookies to your next door neighbor.
  • Drop a note in the mail to someone who has been an encouragement to you.
  • Give a candy cane to a kid.
  • Send an email to an old friend.
  • Throw a party.
  • Invite a friend to church for the Christmas Eve service.

Or, you could even greet your own mail man with the words: “You have a fantastic day!”

What ideas would you add to spread the “Mail Man Effect” this holiday season?

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Creativity Friday (Black Friday Edition)

This week’s Creativity Friday (Black Friday Edition) brings you:

  • Ideas for a fun and productive weekend,
  • An almost foolproof way of getting meeting’s with people,
  • 3 keys to good storytelling on social media,
  • And a Black Friday bonus article. 

Happy reading!

Hello friday! Creative calligraphic card.

  1. Success means being intentional about the way you live life. That includes using weekends in wise, creative, and reflective ways. Check out this article from Inc.: 5 Ways Remarkably Successful People Spend the Weekend
  2. Although this article focuses on getting meetings with people so that you can land a job, it would also work well for networking meetings, informational meetings, mentoring meetings, or creative content meetings. The Muse hits the nail on the head with this one: The Email Template That’ll Get You a Meeting with Anyone You Ask
  3. Let’s face it, wise use of social media is extremely important today, no matter your business or station in life. Fast Company shows us how Stephanie Horbaczewski does it by utilizing community, using the human touch, and meeting your users where they are: Master the Art of Storytelling with These 3 Lessons from Stylehaul’s CEO

Black Friday Bonus: This quick article from Lifehack provides exactly what it says. Use these 20 ways to get a real spike in your creativity: 20 Ways to Stay Ultra Creative

What articles about creativity have you seen this week? Share them in the comments below…

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You’re Welcome on Thanksgiving

As Thanksgiving rolls around once again, I want to thank you for telling me, “You’re welcome.” I’ve been writing this blog for a number of years now (with a significant lay off over the past months). I am now back to writing two to three times a week. It feels good to have the words flowing once again. As I’ve written over these past years, many of you have said to me:

  • “You’re welcome to come into my inbox by way of email.”
  • “You’re welcome to come to my computer screen by way of Facebook.”
  • “You’re welcome to come across my Twitter feed multiple times a week.”
  • “You’re welcome to share your thoughts and ideas with me.”

thank you words written on the sand of the beach

Thank you for welcoming my thoughts and ideas into your mind and into your life. Over the next months I will be introducing some new things at tomeggebrecht.com, and I’d love you to be a part of them. I am finishing a book that will come out next year called, “Fully and Creatively Alive.” I’m also going to introduce a podcast under the same name. I’ll be interviewing people who are living out life “fully and creatively alive.”

If you enjoy or appreciate the things that you see here, I’d appreciate it if you would look to your right and fill in the blank with your email address so that you can receive posts right in your inbox. You’ll also be the first to be alerted when my book comes out and when the podcast starts.

Today I want to say you’re welcome:

  • You’re welcome to take my thoughts and ideas and translate them into your life.
  • You’re welcome to comment on my posts and let me know what you’d like me to write about.
  • You’re welcome to share posts with your friends and social media contacts.

More than that, I want to say Thank You. Thank you for reading. Thank you for responding. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for caring enough for spending a few minutes of your day with me.

What is one thing you’d like to have me write about? 

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Don’t Give Up

It seems like simple and obvious advice, but here’s my advice for today: Don’t give up. I was recently in the presence of a man who has given up. Life has dealt him a great many blows. He’s living in a nursing home. He’s been plagued with diseases that have his body and mind whittled down to a fraction of his former self. In his day he was active, and agile, and very, very smart.

Do not give up on blue chalkboard with the hand of businessman.

But now he has given up. You can see it in his eyes and sense it in his demeanor. I can’t say that I blame him. I hurt for him and hope for him. His life is a far cry from what it once was. I feel helpless when I’m in his presence. I want to tell him not to give up, and I want him to heed the advice with all his heart and have him translate it to his weak limbs.

May it never be said of me that I have given up. And here’s some encouragement that it never be said of you, either. There is to much to learn. There are too many opportunities. Technology has given us opportunity after opportunity to grow, and discover, and even draw or increase income. Information is exploding minute by minute and day by day. And we have access to much of it with just a keystroke or two.

I have recently been avidly listening to a podcast called “EOFire” (Entrepreneur on Fire). I am fascinated by each episode hosted by John Lee Dumas. Dumas interviews wildly successful entrepreneurs seven days a week. Each day he asks the same series of questions to his guest. One question he asks each day is:

What was your lowest entrepreneurial moment?

You should hear the stories. Successful entrepreneurs talk about the times when people swindled them, or they were down to their last dollars, or they had to close down a business. But in every single case the entrepreneur goes on to tell the story of how they didn’t give up. They kept pressing on. If one business failed they went ahead and started another. They knew they had it in them. They knew they could be successful.

One man was doing door-to-door multi-level marketing in Utah. He didn’t make one single sale. He finally realized that his problem was that he only cared about himself and about making money. He didn’t care at all about his customers or what their needs or desires were. So he quit his door-to-door sales and went into a business that focused on the customer. He kept plugging, and pushing, and going until he turned a profit and began to operate an extremely successful business.

There is always something you can do each and every day to work toward your goal. Start small. Keep plugging. Keep going. Don’t stop. Don’t let a day go by without doing something that will get you one step closer to where you want to be.

Don’t.

Give.

Up.

What would be your advice to someone who feels as though they want to give up?

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Encouraging Those Who Create

When was the last time you encouraged someone’s creativity? This past weekend, after our worship services, I had more people than usual tell me that they really appreciated my sermon, that it meant something to them, that it was helpful for their faith life. It may well have had to do with the fact that I preached comfort in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris. A need was filled for those whose hearts were troubled. But the kind words meant more to me than most of them probably knew.

Happy group of people with thumbs up

I get my share of criticism, either first hand or “through the grapevine.” I suppose it comes with the territory. I’m a pretty sensitive person, so even though I know I shouldn’t, I dwell on criticism far more than I should.

So when a kind comment comes along, it takes me a long way toward wanting to create some more. The life of a pastor involves creating something that people will listen to nearly every week. Sundays never stop coming. It’s a challenge to put words together that will inspire, hold attention, sometimes bring humor, draw people in, and help them remember eternally important things.

I believe that outside encouragement is a key ingredient when it comes to helping creative people enhance their creativity. Kind words mean that you listened. A compliment means that you took the time and went out of your way to provide a needed boost. A pat on the back means that someone appreciates the time, effort, blood, sweat, and tears that went into creating. An artists heart is always appreciative of even a couple of kind words.

Here are some ideas for encouraging those who create:

  1. Write a note. A handwritten note mentioning specifically what it is about a person’s “art,” whether it is a speech, a book, a blog post, a painting, or a sermon, will make a creative spirit soar. Drop it in the mail and create the lasting impression that comes when something other than a bill or junk mail is in the mail box.
  2. Post a compliment on social media. Use Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to tell the world how much you appreciate someone’s creativity, and what you appreciate about it.
  3. Pick up the phone and make a call. Can you imagine what it would mean in the middle of business calls, or complaints, a phone call that comes with one, specific compliment regarding a person’s art? I promise you, it would make their day.
  4. Tell a friend. Tell someone else just how much you enjoy or appreciate a creative’s art, and allow them to get in on the inspiration, too.
  5. Purchase art. One of the greatest compliments you can give an artist is an investment of your money so that you can enjoy their art in your own home. If an artist you appreciate has things for sale, make the investment and spread the word. It means more than you know.

What ideas do you have for encouraging someone’s creativity?

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Slow Creativity

Have you ever tried slow creativity? We live in world where everything is fast. It’s so easy to take less than two seconds and Google just about anything you want. If you want to do research for a paper, an article, a book, or, yes, even a sermon, just let your fingers do the walking and access the mountains of information on the internet. You’ll be certain to find what you want.

But you may not find what you really need.

Sometimes creativity has to be slow. That’s what I’ve discovered every Monday or Tuesday evening. Since I’m, um, busy on Sunday mornings, I have to tape CBS Sunday Morning every week. You can be assured that I do. In fact, it’s so important to me that I have made sure that it’s taped automatically every single week.

Most every Monday or Tuesday evening my wife, Tammy, and I watch CBS Sunday Morning as we eat dinner. We are both fascinated. Almost every week there is a story that moves us to tears. With every episode we most certainly learn something new. This past summer we even visited the new Whitney Museum in New York City because we had seen a story about it on CBS Sunday Morning.

What I like about CBS Sunday Morning is that I get to see stories about things I would have never seen or heard before. Not only that, but the depth of the stories is deeper than something I might read in three-and-a-half minutes in a blog post or on an internet site. I get to see it with my eyes. Sometimes I even get to hear music with my ears.

One of my favorite bands in my formative years was the Eagles. I still love them to this day. I covet an opportunity to see them live if and when they ever tour again. I never have. But I got to see this video that brought me up to date with Don Henley, a member of the super group, and what the fascinating things he’s up to these days.

“I have things inside of me I need to get out,” says Henley. Sounds like the heart of a creative to me. In this story he reminds me that a creative has to create. And that was inspiration to me.

This is just one small example of the stories that I cherish every single week. Note that the story about Henley was almost nine minutes long. It takes time to tell stories. And it often takes time to absorb them.

CBS Sunday Morning is my weekly dose of creative fuel. In that one program I get to see, hear, touch, and feel things that I would never run across in my daily life the rest of the week.

So here’s some encouragement to set aside regular, significant time to absorb some art. It’s guaranteed to inspire you and help you create your own.

What kind of “slow creativity” do you practice?

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From Corporate to Creative

Daniel Robinson is a bookkeeping and business kind of guy. He’s not really who you’d think of when you think of a “creative.” But there was a creative spark deep down inside of him that he couldn’t ignore as he sat in his Kansas City corporate cubicle.

Colored wooden toys

“About 2 years into working at my corporate job I felt this restlessness. I wasn’t happy. I could see it when I came home from work in the way I was interacting with people. There was this emptiness that I didn’t really understand. I quickly figured out that it was because I was doing something that didn’t excite me,” Daniel said.  So the not-quite-thirty-year-old heeded the advice of some Nashville friends, quit his corporate job, and moved in with them for five weeks just to clear his head and discover adventure.

He ended up working for a business management company in Nashville. The job revolved around a different process, but it ended up being the same old corporate thing. So he went and got a part time job, and began to help his buddy do business management for a successful singer-songwriter. For a few months he did the work for free. Once the songwriter’s team realized he was pretty dog gone good at what he did, they brought him on to do paid work, and his business management company was born.

At his corporate job, Daniel remembered thinking that he would never use the skills he was learning there in the cubicle. But now he’s using all the skills that he acquired from both of those companies to help other people who are on the creative path. Daniel is passionate about interacting with people and helping them. Now he creatively cares for and loves people by taking on the moving parts of their lives and enabling them to focus on just a few things. His clients include musicians, entrepreneurs, and independent artisans.

You can almost hear the “corporate” Daniel coming out when he says, “Be ‘mindful’ of what it is you’re good at. Hear what people say you’re good at. Don’t ignore it. People don’t just tell you you’re good at things when you’re not. People have told me ‘you’re good at this.’ That’s why I have a little business today.”

But don’t think for a minute that there isn’t a creative side to him as well. Daniel’s encouragement to those who feel trapped in a corporate life is to be creative in  figuring out what it is you’re good at. When you notice that you have some special skills you can start to foster those and press into them. You can do it whether you’re coming out of college or if you’re forty years into a corporate job.

He says, “If you want to do something on your own, take notice of the skills you have that people will pay you for. In all reality I don’t know if three or four years ago I even really wanted to be a business manager. I wanted to be a design guru. But I learned that I’m skilled in this area and people can pay me right now. And out of that has come this really rewarding fun job where I get to work for myself.”

Moving out of the corporate life and into his own business has made Daniel happier than he’s ever been. He says, “I might not be making the most money, or have a home right now, but I’m more happy than I’ve ever been in all aspects of life: work, relationships, being active.”

The next time you drive by an office building, think about all the creativity that’s pent up in those corporate cubicles. Maybe it’s your own. And maybe, just maybe, there’s a “Daniel” inside of you waiting to move from corporate to creative and experience a brand new life.

“I can remember sitting at my old job and wondering what it would be like to be outside, work in a coffee shop, or go get food and not feel pressure about taking a little time to go and get it.”

What skills do you have that people might pay you for right now?

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Creatively Filling In Life’s Unexpected Blanks

What do you do when the sentences of life provide an unexpected “fill-in-the-blank”? I recently spoke with photographer Mikaela Hamilton, who found a “blank” in her life and creatively filled it in with color and light.

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Photo credit: Mikaela Hamilton Photography

Mikaela grew up focusing on athletics, and was an avid soccer player. Throughout most of her young life she was a “closet creative.” She always had an interest in creative pursuits, but never thought she’d be able to chase after them.  Mikaela always found herself boxed into the “athlete category.”

She intended to go to college to play soccer, but injured her knee. More than that, she was burned out on soccer, but didn’t want to admit it to herself. Since she was no longer going to play soccer, she found herself at school with an abundant amount of free time. Knee surgery had removed from her everything she had known. Her family wasn’t around, and she was surrounded by people who knew nothing about her.

Life had given her a “fill-in-the-blank.” She figured she could discover a whole new outlet for herself. She asked for a camera for her 20th birthday, and with it went to the Dominican Republic on a spring break with a group from her school. It was there that she discovered just how she was going to fill in the blank of her life.

In the Dominican Republic she volunteered at an elementary school. There was a little boy there named Sam, who had striking hazel eyes. She snapped a picture of him, looked at it and thought, “I really like this whole photo thing.” She went back to school and started shooting anything she could get in front of her camera: engagement photos, sorority houses, weddings…anything she could possibly put into the form of digital print.

This all led to her getting a job at the university with their Department of Technology and Design. Mikaela started to learn the technical side of photography with the incredible equipment she was able to access in that department. She stopped shooting everything on the automatic setting, and learned about light and exposure.

The sentences of life are almost certain to give a “fill-in-the-blank” every now and then. 

  • The question is what will you do with them?
  • Why not take those blanks and fill them in with the pursuit of passions and dreams?
  • What is it that has been latent in your life and wants to bubble up to the surface?
  • What is it that you’ve always wanted to do but never had the time?

Fill in the blank with something that you’ve always wanted to do but never had the time. Fill it in with incremental pursuits of a passion you’ve always had. Fill in the blank with photography, or art, or writing, or crafting, or making, or creating. Fill it in with color, light, and creativity.

Mikaela did it, and you can see the products of her pursuit right here. You can do it, too. Keep an eye out for those sentences in life that provide a wonderfully unexpected “fill-in-the-blank”.

What have you done when life has provided a ________________?

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How to Make Grocery Shopping a Work of Art

Now that we have a new Trader Joe’s grocery store near us, I have discovered that grocery shopping can be a work of art. Creativity and art happen when random things come together to make a cohesive, beautiful, and sometimes tasty whole. I’m certain this would work at other grocery stores, but Trader Joe’s seems to me to be especially conducive to culinary art.

Trader Joe's

I have a couple of Trader Joe’s cookbooks at home, and I use them as inspiration for my grocery shopping, but I don’t rely on them completely. Instead, I use “art” to create meals that are both fun to cook and delicious to eat. Here’s how I do it:

  1. I don’t take a list. Yes, I know that goes against every budgetary guide and every tip from people like Martha Stewart and her home economics colleagues. Instead, I create meals in my mind and from the inspiration of the items in the store. You may know that Trader Joe’s continuously adds new items and discontinues others. That’s what makes a trip to Trader Joe’s exciting. I see what’s in stock, what items are and are not available, and I begin to create meals.
  2. I criss-cross the store. I like to start in the meat section and pick a few things that will be the centerpiece of a meal. Since most Trader Joe’s stores are relatively small, I then criss-cross the store to pick up the things that will complement the meat, poultry, or pasta. This is where creativity and art really begin to take shape. At Trader Joe’s you can mix cuisines, you can add fresh produce, or you can pick a specialty cheese to add some creamy flavor to your dish. The possibilities are almost limitless.
  3. I create meals. At Trader Joe’s you can come home with a weeks worth of meals for far less than you might at a traditional grocery store. And the items are much more varied and fun. It’s so fun to put groceries away and see a pantry and refrigerator full of meals that will please both your family and your own taste buds. Once the week’s meals are planned the fun begins. Each night I get to bring ingredients together to make a culinary masterpiece (well…it’s a work of art in my own mind, if nowhere else).

Grocery shopping and cooking doesn’t have to be a chore. It can be fun and exciting when you look at it as a work of art, an opportunity to exercise creativity. Give it try…especially if you have a nearby Trader Joe’s.

How do you make grocery shopping or cooking a work of art?

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Honesty Is Not Always the Best Policy

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you’ve probably noticed that recent posts have been fewer and further between. To be honest, I’ve hit a bit of a slump. Oh, I’ve had plenty of ideas for posts. The problem is, those posts would have been far too honest. I have encountered hurts and heartaches, ideas and brainstorms, thoughts and plans that simply were not for public consumption. At least not yet. Perhaps someday they’ll find their way into a post, or into a book.

justice statue with sword and scale. cloudy sky in the backgroun

Honesty is not always the best policy. Sometimes silence is a better policy.

Sometimes it’s OK to be controversial or to post something that draws a great deal of discussion. But there are times when it’s simply better to remain silent. Some of the posts I considered might have damaged already frail relationships or brought more stress where more stress was not what I really needed.

A few lessons:

  1. Silence is sometimes better than forcing content. In this day and age of over-sharing on social media, there are times when we’d rather you remain silent than post something that might hurt or offend.
  2. Honesty, when it reveals more than ought to be revealed, is best kept for another time. Jot notes. Keep a log. Write posts for publication at a time when times change, relationships have been healed, or things are different.
  3. Tap into creative reserves. One of my mistakes through this dry spell is failing to find creativity in areas of life in which I have not been preoccupied. It would have been well for me to do this or this.

How do you deal with creative drought or thoughts that ought not yet see the light of day?