4 Ways to Hack Your Inner Creativity

(Note: As with this newsletter, the Pinkcasts will be freeIf you haven't guessed - I love Daniel Pink and what he has to say!  Here's his latest: Welcome to the latest edition of our irregular and irreverent newsletter. Thanks for being one of more than 100,000 people around the world who subscribe. Let’s get started.   4 WAYS TO HACK YOUR INNER CREATIVITY What do Thomas Edison, Frida Kahlo, and Michael Jackson have in common? No, they haven’t all recently launched a podcast. Instead, they grace the pages of a terrific new book that tries to reverse-engineer that elusive quality/trait/skill known as “creativity.” In Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind (Buy it atAmazon, BN.com, or IndieBound), University of Pennsylvania psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman and writer Carolyn Gregoire enlist psychology and neuroscience to examine some of history’s finest “messy minds.” The result is a fascinating look at the often contradictory habits and practices of the most creative people. I asked Kaufman to share some advice with newsletter readers. Here are his 4 tips: 1. Make time for solitude. For all the hoopla over collaboration, open offices, and constant connection, we can easily forget the value of solitude. The benefits of solitude are many, including the opportunity to find flow, daydream constructively, and think about the meaning of your life. For optimal creativity, set aside time for solitude -- from taking a walk in nature to carving out moments when you’re fully removed from social distractions. 2. Think differently – intentionally.  Creative people are nonconformists. The most original contributions in any field don’t result from efforts to please the crowd. Research by Emory neuroscientist Gregory Berns suggests that iconoclasts “bombard the brain with new experiences,” which scrambles existing categories and forges new connections. So take a different route to work. Spend time abroad. Listen to a new genre of music. And the more intentional we are, the better. One study of more than 3,000 entrepreneurs and business executives found that innovators spend 50 percent more time trying to think differently -- and these intentional efforts sparked new ideas and associations. 3. Try open-monitoring meditation. We’ve all heard the benefits of meditation. But research by Italian cognitive scientist Lorenza Colzato and her colleagues shows one type of meditation is particularly effective for creative thinking. It’s called “open-monitoring” meditation – in which you are receptive to your thoughts and emotions without focusing intensely on, say, your breath or a mantra. By contrast, the more traditional focused-attention meditation was better for “convergent thinking” (coming up with a single best solution to a problem). So depending on where you are in the creative process, try to make time for at least a 15-minute meditation. 4. Embrace adversity. History’s creative geniuses weren’t tortured souls. But they were adept at finding meaning and guidance from their setbacks. Some of the greatest creators had a seeming disadvantage -- a disability, mental illness, or loss of a parent -- which they channeled into their art, writing, or entrepreneurship. To help with your own creative growth, view every setback as an opportunity to reflect: What can I learn from this and how can I put this into my work? More info: Wired to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind |  NY Times review of the book    HELP WANTED: BETA TESTERS FOR A NEW PROJECT What comes after the podcast? I’ve got a guess, but I need your help. I’m playing around with an idea that I call “Pinkcasts” — informal, 60-second weekly videos designed for people to watch on their smartphones. The topics for each Pinkcast would vary — from productivity and travel tips to reading recommendations to behind-the-scenes glimpses of cool events to whatever whacked-out idea I happen to have on my mind. But before I go crazy and commit my limited time (and even more limited brainpower) to something like this, I want to test the concept. So I need a few beta-testers. The only requirements are the willingness to receive 4 weekly 60-second video missives and to offer some very brief feedback.  of charge and free of advertising. And I won’t sell, trade, or share your email address in any way at any time.) If you’re interested in helping me test this idea by watching and reacting to 4 Pinkcasts, please sign up here: http://www.danpink.com/pinkcast/ More info: Pinkcast beta test   10 ARTICLES WORTH READING From my Instapaper account to your inbox, here are 10 articles that made me think or laugh (and sometimes both): One-Sentence Financial Rules — 61 nuggets of incisive advice from Motley Fool’s Morgan Housel. Tech Companies Need English Majors Just As Much As They Need Engineers — Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson channels A Whole New Mind. We Like Leaders Who Underrate Themselves — Harvard Business Review supplies empirical evidence for why humble bosses are more effective. How to Manage Your Time: 5 Secrets Backed by Research — Some great advice (as usual) from Eric Barker. 20 cognitive biases that screw up your decisions — Business Insider scores with this excellent list and nifty graphic. The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy — "'Take my wife … please' is the Platonic ideal of a joke," says this epic, video-packed piece from Vulture. What the rest of the world wonders about America, according to Google — Search engine data reveals those outside the US want to know why Americans love guns, hate Canadians, and have such white teeth. 40 Inspiring Workplaces of the Insanely Creative — I prefer de Kooning’s space - but in a pinch, I’ll take E.B. White’s. 10 books every new manager should read — I’m a tad biased, but I do like this list. Phil Jackson, Pat Summit, Mary Karr, and a special triangular connection — From the Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins, a spectacular piece about basketball, poetry, Alzheimers, and life.  ONE LAST FREEBIE Over at danpink.com, we’ve got a new free resource. It’s a 20-page PDF called “20 Books That Have Mattered To Me” — and it describes, well, you’ve probably figured it out. You can get it here. That’s it for this edition. Thanks for reading our humble newsletter. Cheers, Daniel Pink

What is TRID?

There seems to be a lot of questions about TRID.  You know  the new “Know Before You Owe” or TILA RESPA Integrated Disclosure rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) which was implemented on October 3, 2015. 

The idea was to simplify the process for the consumer and to allow the buyer opportunity to shop for their  “best loan”.

Remember the old adage:  The best buy  for the buyer and seller is determined by  “what a willing seller will sell  for and what a willing buyer will buy  for”.  We (Loan Officers, Realtors, and Escrow Staff ) simply need to work through  this  new  process.  It’s not difficult, just different.

Over the past 90 days I’ve  been exposed to lots of “learning opportunities” through  classes, seminars, and plenty of  one on one discussions.

For your own background resources check out:

The CFPB  http://www.consumerfinance.gov

The MBA (Mortgage Banker Association)  https://www.mba.org

The NAR (National Association of Realtors) www.realtor.org

Plus there are numerous state and local business partners  to discuss all the ins and outs with. 

But here’s a simple understanding.  We have:

New forms

And New timelines

Buyers can help the process by staying in constant contact with their lender, their Realtor, and even the title company.

When we all work together we can accomplish a lot - together. 

The key is as it has always been: communication. 

For years escrow has explained to consumers  “lenders are going to tell them before they give you information what they are going to give you.  They will then tell you what you got and what they still need.  And finally on the day of closing the escrow officer will give everyone one more copy of the documents, just to make sure everyone has all the paperwork.”

So really not much has changed, it is still all about communication.  Communication and working together - that’s what gets the job done.

After all, we all want the buyer to have their keys and the seller to have their money!

So jump on board, and we’ll all finish learning together!

Common Sense & Discernment

I was curious kid and regularly got into trouble! 

A favorite story Mother told about me was “The Truck Story”: It seems one particular truck just could not keep its wheels on.

Mother would look at me and say, “Carolyn Sue, what did you do?”.  My response was, “I boke it, I fix it”.

Common sense told me just reverse the action.

Sometimes we simply lack “common sense”. 

There is an old proverb which says, “Don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment.  Hang on to them for they will refresh your soul.” 

Frequently, my soul needs refreshing!

Just out of curiosity (you know that kid in me) I looked up common sense and discernment. Mariam Webster defines common sense as “the ability to think and behave in a reasonable way and to make good decisions” while discernment is “the ability to judge well.”

Put them together and you’ve got: the ability to think, behave, and judge well. 

That’s my definition of a team leader. 

Leaders  need time to think, learn how to respond reasonably, consistently make good decisions and moderate discussions well.

Leading is work. It is a moment by moment, day after day, planning your week, building on the prior month; analyzing quarterly, while projecting and implementing all those new and progressive annual plans.

None of this is easy.  Simple yes, easy no!  There are books to study, videos to watch, lectures to attend, hours spent in both individual and group forecasting sessions.  Simply stated it is a lot of  consistent constant work to build a business.

It reminds me of that relentless acronym:  CANI   For those of you who may not know what CANI stands for it’s Constant And Never-ending Improvement.

That’s what today’s world is all about.  It doesn’t matter if you are talking about business, family, health, finances, friends, or even how you serve others; it takes common sense, discernment and CANI --- with the formula you will get there.