A couple of days ago, I came across a list of companies owned by Monsanto on Facebook. The person who put it together wanted it to be a sort of easy-reference sheet for people to print off and take shopping with them so that they can boycott Monsanto. I did something I rarely do – I shared the list without looking at it very closely. Within minutes, one of my Facebook friends commented about how at least one of the companies listed (Coca-Cola) is not owned by Monsanto. Then he posted several status updates advising activists on what not to do – and I have to say that each of his points was well-justified.

The whole thing made me think, though, about where I stand when it comes to “activism” and whether or not it makes any difference where I spend my dollars. (It really, really doesn’t. I don’t have that

Be positive!

many dollars to spend.) I realized that my approach is probably a little different than most people’s. Rather than boycott Monsanto, I try to support smaller companies. When I think of Monsanto, I think of seeds because they control and unbelievable number of seeds. Since I plant seeds every spring, and don’t like Monsanto’s tactics, I try to be aware of where my seeds come from. I search the internet for retailers that explain how they obtain their stock. I look for very small growers who harvest their seeds themselves.

In other words, instead of thinking about withholding money from Monsanto, which wouldn’t make a bit of difference anyway, I try to spend money with independent retailers.

But. This is not a post about Monsanto. (Fooled you, didn’t I?) This is a post about how thinking about things just a little differently can become happier, more successful, and more beautiful. Well, that last one might be a stretch, but you can definitely approach the world in a more relaxed way, thereby causing fewer stress-related wrinkles, which would make you more beautiful, right?

Just a slight change of perspective can make a big difference when it comes to lots of issues or problems. I am not an over-the-top, perky, optimistic kind of person, but looking for the most positive perspective in some situations really helps me avoid the deep, dark abyss of depression:

1. Deciding how you want to spend time, instead of bemoaning having to spend time doing some things you don’t want to do.

Instead of thinking about how much I don’t want to clean the fridge, or send invoices, I think about the run I will enjoy after those things are done. This can be a really important, life-changing shift in perspective. It’s pretty much how I ended up running Smiling Tree. I resented spending the majority of my day in an office in my last job, and could only think about marketing to potential freelance customers when I got home. Eventually I realized the only sane thing to do would be to build a plan that would allow me to spend most of my time freelancing. I got laid off before that plan was fully realized, but it was in place and I was working towards quitting my job by then.

2. Create a “done” list instead of a “to do” list.

About once a week or so, I will not go through my morning ritual of list-making while oatmeal-eating. On those days, I will jot down tasks throughout the day as I complete them. Sometimes this doesn’t work because it’s easy lose my way without a list to refer to. More often, though, I end up with a nice, long list of completed chores and a sense of satisfaction – by 2pm or so. There is definitely something appealing about crossing things off a list, but taking the time to notice just how much you get done in the space of a few hours is nice, too. Plus, my “to do” lists grow as quickly as I cross things off and seeing a “to do” list grow doesn’t feel nearly as good as seeing a “done” list grow.

3. During a negotiation, or an argument, take note of what you both agree on, rather than focusing solely on what you disagree on.

If you are arguing with a spouse, your kid, or some other immediate family member, it might be impossible for you to admit there is a single thing in the world that you agree on. Other than in those situations, though, you can almost always find common ground to use as a starting point. When you examine areas of agreement, sometimes you find paths around sticking points. Changing your perspective often activates your creativity, helping you come up with unexpected solutions.

4. Purposefully change your physical environment.

Turn your desk around. Stand up and work. Go outside for awhile. Open (or close) your blinds or curtains for a day. Wear your pajamas all day, or if you are more like me, force yourself to get dressed every morning for a week. You might not notice it right away, but changes in your environment can make a huge difference in your perspective and attitude. I have a heating pad in my desk chair, that warms up my lower back. I turn it on just about every morning while I have coffee and oatmeal. It really changes my morning outlook. Instead of thinking about how ridiculous it is that my back hurts when I get up, I think about how nice and warm that heating pad is. Since I’ve been using it, I tend to get started on working quicker in the morning. Maybe there’s no correlation, but maybe there is.

5. Choose one small thing you can do, and quit thinking about all the things you cannot do.

I cannot fit driving for 20 minutes one way, three times a week, to take a one hour kickboxing class into my schedule. I have to work. I’d really love to take a kickboxing class because it looks like so much fun. I could use the fact that I can’t fit my preferred activity in my schedule as an excuse to do no activity. Instead I look for functional strength work out videos (which generally last 15-30 minutes) on the internet. Burpees and pushups are not as much fun as I imagine kickboxing would be, but they aren’t awful, and they get me out of my chair. There are all sorts of things we cannot do, but if you find something that you can do, and do it, your perspective will move a little more toward the positive end of the scale.

For the last three years or so, I’ve been having breakfast with my grandfather a few times a week. When I told him I was not going to be looking for another “real job” after getting laid off, he approved and told me that it is possible to work for yourself, but it takes a lot of discipline. He was a first class mechanic, with specialized knowledge about hydraulics and welding machines. Even though he hasn’t taken on any jobs at all during the last few years, people still call occasionally and ask for his advice.

A few days ago, he went into a little more detail about why he chose to work for himself, despite the fact he was offered several tempting jobs. He said:

I was convinced that not knowing how much money I would make the next week was the best way to accumulate the things I wanted. And it worked. I did.

This is a whole new way to look at the idea of “feast or famine.” Most people see the cycle of making plenty of money and making almost no money as a barrier to running a business, an aspect of entrepreneurship to fret about and to try to avoid. My papaw raised five children and had many adventures and not only didn’t mind the booms and busts of running a business, but looked at those cycles as an advantage.

He went on to explain that if you know you are going to earn $300 next week, you will probably spend $298, but if you aren’t sure how much you will earn next week, you will most likely hold on to more of your money, just in case. Modern day experts tell you to build an emergency fund, but very few people ever tell you that the specter of a bad week or a bad month could be the way to riches.

Yesterday, I started writing a post to put right here. It was about all those posts that instruct us to be amazing, epic or otherwise phenomenal, and how they make me feel. You know the ones I’m talking about – they encourage ust to go out and do big things, to change the world, to make a difference. They always include some examples to inspire and to demonstrate that it’s possible, if you’re willing to sacrifice enough and to follow your dreams with enough dedication.

Writing it brought me to the realization that I prefer stories that are amazing on a personal scale. I like knowing about people who change their own worlds, whether the rest of us know about it or not. “Average” people put forth Hurculean efforts just to get by, and those stories are special, too.

People who give up jobs to care for aging parents may not be doing something that the rest of the world stands up and applauds, but you can bet that, to the parent being cared for, the sacrifice is huge. Contributing food to a shelter might not be worthy of the national news, but for the person who gets to eat dinner, it’s plenty important.  Overcoming addiction or losing weight or getting a higher education are the most personal kinds of accomplishments, but for the individuals who do those things, the world becomes a different place and thus, they have “made a difference.”

Have you saved a stray kitten recently? Provided dinner for a neighbor? Loaned a friend $10? Contributed to a charity? Donated blood? Complimented a stranger? Let someone go first in line at the store?

Everyday kind gestures and actions might not rock the world on a grand scale, but they do make a difference. Good deeds on a small scale deserve recognition and appreciation. Leave a comment and tell us about something small you’ve done or observed lately and let us applaud it.

You know those people who never quit smiling? Who sugar coat even the worst news and serve it up with a vacant mask of a smile? Those people are just icky. Equally intolerable, though, are the ones who  always expect the worse, can’t stand kids or puppies, have innumerable health problems that they don’t mind talking about, hate their jobs and their spouses – should they be so lucky – and whine about how they just don’t have any good luck, ever.

Most of us fall in the middle of the miserable to happy spectrum and tend to lean to one side more one day than the next. In my life, I’ve been lucky to know two people who were able to gently remind everyone around them to look on the bright side. One was my mom and the other my aunt Betty. They were sisters-in-law, and passed away years apart, but both of them had amazingly wonderful attitudes without being falsely cheerful.

The world is a less shiny place without the two of them in it, but they did leave some lasting reminders to pay attention to the good stuff. People share their favorite stories about those who are gone and a couple that I’ve been told about these two cross my mind regularly. Stories about Mary Ann and Betty almost always bring smiles, just like the two of them did in actuality.

My mom and one of her friends, Nancy, had been shopping one afternoon and were on their way home.  Nancy said that as they were riding

Mary Ann

along, she was complaining about all the stuff everyone always complains about – kids, bills, work, all the things that make life hard. It was right at sunset and my mom interrupted her to say, “Would you just look at that sunset? Have you ever seen anything so pretty? Wow. Just look at that!” We lived on a mountain, so no doubt, the view of the sunset really was stunning. Nancy told me that now, every time she catches herself complaining, she thinks about that day and remembers to look up and see what kind of amazing beauty she is missing.

Betty

Just yesterday, someone told me that Betty gave her a similar reminder. Our entire family, probably 60 or more people, took a camping trip to Dauphin Island one year on Easter weekend. A trip like that is rare for us – in fact, it’s the only one I remember – so it was really special. Nellie, another aunt, said that she got up on Saturday morning, and walked to the bathhouse with Betty, complaining about how her tooth brush got flattened in her bag, how a pine cone poked her through the tent floor all night, how yukky showering in a bathhouse is, and on and on. Betty looked at her and laughed and said, “Well, Nellie, you’re just not a happy camper today, are you?” Nellie said just that simple question reminded her of how nice it was to be with her family, at the beach, camping with a bathhouse and everything else that was good about that moment.

Right now is an easy time to be angry. Most of us have something to legitimately complain about. The ridiculousness of the United States congress, the insanity of the stock market, the fear of a “double dip” recession, and so many more events happening all over the world have many of us on edge. If your business is down, your income is down, and it’s possible that your attitude is down, too – with good reason.

While I don’t suggest that you slap a fake smile on or pretend to feel something you do not, I do firmly believe that your business will benefit if you take some time everyday to appreciate the good stuff. When you do your work fully cognizant of the beauty all around you, every person you interact with notices. It is seriously doubtful that either Mary Ann or Betty was aware of the lasting lessons they taught us just by being themselves.

Small talk is inevitable. What does yours say about you? Are you fearful or angry? Do you have a positive outlook that your customers or prospects can pick up on and feel good about? No matter how tough things are there are still sunsets to appreciate.

I am working on several new projects, that are a little scary and a little exciting. These things have been in the back of my mind for a while. I haven’t really talked about them or thought about them in any kind of practical way until the last week. They are the sort of projects that are in danger of becoming dust-covered clutter in the closet of my mind. The kinds of things you can just put away until later.

We took a short (and wonderful) trip to the beach last week. We left on a Thursday night and came back home

ahhhh....

Sunday. I took along my iPad and a notebook, thinking the time in the car would be perfect for doing some work. On the way there, I just read and napped. Then, on Friday and Saturday, I swam, ate, played in the sand, read a little more, swam some more, went for a very long walk and napped.

Doesn’t sound like much work got done, does it? On the way home, a work-related thought crossed my mind, so I got out my notebook – and ended up with pages and pages of notes. In fact, the skeleton of a plan for a couple of those projects turned up in all those notes. I got further in an hour or two in the car all sun kissed and beach-tired than I had in a month at home.

I’ve never been the kind of creative person who is dependent on some mysterious muse to grant me ideas. Writing is work, and like any work, it’s something you just have to sit down and do. If you need to wait until inspiration hits, you should give up any thoughts of making a living writing.  At the same time, in order write well, you do need what I think of as “mental space.” There has to be room in your mind for your thoughts to move around and connect in new and interesting patterns.

My guess is that any kind of work requires the same sort of mental dexterity. An unusual marketing scheme will attract attention. A creative combination of flavors will bring customers through the restaurant doors. An unusual grouping of plants can make a display in a retail establishment. Creativity is necessary in every business because you have to be original and give your customers a reason to come to you and not the guy across the street.

While a routine is good and fosters creativity in its own way, doing something completely different (and in this case unplanned) can cause those “lightning strike” moments of creativity. I was worried about coming home to a big mess and feeling exhausted and needing a week to recover from a three day vacation. Instead, I came home with a notebook of ideas to implement and a renewed dedication (to make more money so there can be more trips to the beach!).

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a way to predict what will work the best at any particular time. When I’m “stuck” on a garden-variety Tuesday, a hard run or other work out might get the mental wheels turning, but not always. Time outside usually helps, but again, not always. Like last weekend, a short trip can be the key, but other times only lead to exhaustion.

Do you have a need to foster creativity in your work? Is there an activity that seems to spur your mental processes, or a time of day that is more conducive to creativity for you? Have you ever been surprised that something did or didn’t help you think creatively?