ORANGE STAR BLOG
Subscribe to Fresh Squeezed, essential ideas on branding, marketing and growing a small business.
Subscribe to Fresh Squeezed, essential ideas on branding, marketing and growing a small business.
Is it stupid enough?
Embed from Getty Images Laurie Anderson has done just about everything a creative person can do.For every piece she’s working on (regardless of the medium — song, painting, sculpture, etc), she asks herself these 5 questions to figure out whether it’s any good or not: Is it complicated enough? Is it simple enough? Is it crazy…
Extraordinary in the Mundane
There is extraordinary in the mundane — if you look closely enough, everyday sights that wouldn’t ordinarily be considered attractive or engaging can suddenly be transformed into art. I often notice things like this when I drive or walk around town without thinking to take a photo immediately… all the more reason to always carry a…
Magnify what matters
I can’t remember where this came from, but this post-it hangs over my desk: I want to hang out with people who help me grow intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually. The amazing Patti Smith says “In times of strife, we have our imagination, we have our creative impulse, which are things that are more important than…
You are what you focus on
“Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.” I’m currently reading Deep Work by Cal Newport and have been thinking a lot about this. “…We tend to place a lot of emphasis on our circumstances, assuming that what happens to us (or fails to…
🤔 Embracing Confusion
The best thing that can happen, if you care about learning and unleashing potential, is for you to get confused.“Confusion is indicative of the fact that you are having an experience that’s different than what you expected, and that confusion is necessary to start to make sense of the world, yourself, and the connection between…
🌟 Be interesting
How to win friends and influence people: Listen more. Talk less. Being genuinely interested in others makes you more interesting. Make people feel important or understood, and they will want more. Hell, it worked for James Bond! Original blackout poem | limited ed. prints
The happy secret 😀
Did you know that when we are happy and positive, intelligence rises, energy rises and creativity rises? Or that the brain at positive performs better than negative, neutral or stressed? In this fast-moving and very funny talk, psychologist Shawn Achor shares The happy secret to better work.
What it takes
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way says: “It is impossible to get better and look good at the same time. Give yourself permission to be a beginner. By being willing to be a bad artist, you have a chance to be an artist, and perhaps, over time, a very good one.” We can’t be a beginner…
Do things because they matter
Traditional rewards and incentives aren’t always as effective as we think. Those if-then rewards often destroy creativity and motivation. Instead of continuing to do more of the wrong things or giving people sweeter carrots, we need to change our way.Scientists who’ve been studying motivation have given us a new approach built much more around intrinsic motivation. Around the desire to do…
Is it Worth Doing?
Four questions can help you determine whether something is worth doing: What is the total time commitment? What is the opportunity cost? What’s the physical and emotional cost? Would I feel bad in a year if I didn’t do this? From The Long Game by Dorie Clark
