blogs, meditations, stories, music and podcasts
a moonthly journal of my creative outpourings, published on each New Moon
Making Time for Excuses
We give Old Father Time a bit of a hard time. We blame him constantly. “There are not enough hours in the day.” “Where did the time go?” “I would write that book if only I had the time.” “Time just gets away from me.”...
Clocks of Money
If you run a business where you charge by the hour, there is a fundamental limit to your annual turnover based on your hourly rate. Let's say you could work for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week and 48 weeks a year and you...
Seven Ways to Encourage Light Bulb Moments
If you read and acted on the last post in this series, Seven Ways to Block Light Bulb Moments, well done - you've set up the conditions whereby light bulb moments to come your way. Rather than waiting for them to come in...
Be Creative While You Sleep
Listen to the latest Moments of Light podcast interview with Davina Mackail, author of The Dream Whisperer. There are so many benefits of using your dream-time to be creative - apart from just being more efficient by...
Maps in the Mind
When I trained as an iMindmap Instructor a few years ago, I was introduced to the concept of limiting each branch of the map to a single word. At first, I didn’t go along with this idea as I thought the application of...
5 Tips for Publishing on Kindle
You would be forgiven to think that someone who has published eight books on Kindle would know all that there was about publishing and Amazon's KDP platform. Well let me disavow you of that notion. Sure I know how to...
What blocks light bulb moments?
There are several states of being that stop light bulb moments in their tracks. I say ‘states of being’ as they are not limited to our state of mind. Light bulb moments are whole body phenomena. The diagram below shows...
Introducing the AlphaZed
The English language, as rich as it is, is somewhat lacking in one major respect. I propose that it is missing something to give it some real zest. The Greek language has 24 letters and starts with alpha and ends with...
Why call it digital?
If you haven't been sitting in a cave, you may have noticed the world seems to have gone Digital all of a sudden. We have a Digital Economy, a Digital Minister and even the new self-proclaimed job title of Digital Coach....
Creativity Blocks #006: Lack of Talent
This is probably the trickiest of all the blocks in this this series so far that stop people being creative as it's the most subjective. For example, one person might love your writing, music or art and another may...
Creativity Blocks #005: Lack of Time
One of the most common complaints you hear nowadays is that there is not enough time. The world is speeding up - we are being bombarded by TV, news, social media - how is it possible to keep up? Well it's a common...
Creativity Blocks #004: Fear of Success
This fear is one that can be the most debilitating. Say for example you are an author and you've cracked all the other fears and finished your book. You may even have it printed and published ... but maybe it's not...
Creativity Blocks #003: Fear of the Unknown
It's natural for us to fear the unknown. Like all fears, this can start at an early age and remain with us for most of our lives. When it comes to embarking on a creative project - or specifically not-embarking on a...
Creativity Blocks #002: Fear of Failure
The second major block to our creativity is the avoidance of failure. If you don't actually do anything then you can't possibly fail. Job done! Somewhat ironically, we can be really creative on how we go about this. As...
Where Do Ideas Actually Come From?
Incredible advances in understanding how our brains work have been made by neuroscientists, yet the place where our consciousness is generated and our mind resides proves elusive. It’s a good guess is that it’s only...
Five Wise Women
So when we have Three Wise Men, why might there be Five Wise Women? Well men aren't all dumb. It's mostly, but by no means all, men that have flown other men to the Moon and split the atom asunder ... but I reckon it's...
Three Wise Men
It is only fitting at this time of year to revisit and revamp myths of old so I thought it would be appropriate to share some messages of wisdom from Three Wise Men. Some thousands of years ago, the Three Wise Men...
Frequently Bought Together
There are many proud moments in an author's career like when you finish your first draft, when the first copy of your book arrives in the post or when you get your first review. I was on Amazon this morning and I felt a...
Light Bulb Moments for Authors
A wonderful and eclectic chat with the inspirational Julia McCutchen from IACCW on how authors can use light bulb moments in their work ... Topics covered : Where do light bulb moments come from? What blocks light bulb...
What’s your meta-strategy?
The latest interview in the Moments of Lights series of podcasts is with Eddie Yu, author of a new book called Speedlights and Elephants. At a surface level you might take it as yet another book on how to make a million...
Innovation is Contagious
I had the great pleasure last week of hearing Dr David Hamilton talking about the remarkable properties of mirror neurons in the brain. They are the mechanism behind how we empathise, emulate, copy and learn. This...
Reclaiming Happiness
The latest podcast in the Moments of Light series is with the sublimely wise and intelligent soul who is Nicola Phoenix. Nicola is a Spiritual Psychologist and yoga teacher with such a simple approach to share by which...
Light Bulb Moments for Authors
A wonderful and eclectic chat with Joel Friedlander on how authors can use light bulb moments in their work ... Topics covered : Where do light bulb moments come from? What blocks light bulb moments? How to use your...
Overstanding
Words are wonderful constructs. They allow us to swap and communicate our thoughts either verbally, in song or by the written (or typed) word. They can educate, entertain and illuminate or, if wrongly chosen, annoy,...
Three Artists with Soul
August has been quite a month for the Moments of Light Radio show on The Barefoot Broadcast. You can't plan this sort of thing, it just happened but my three guests are all wonderful artists with three different takes on...
In Conversation with The English Sisters
Something rather magical happened over the last few months as this amazing force of nature called The English Sisters came into my world ... These amazing ladies are somewhat difficult to describe and encapsulate in...
Twelve Ways to Generate Spin Offs
You will have no end of ideas coming your way when you follow the guidelines in two blogs ... Seven Ways to Encourage Light Bulb Moments Seven Ways to Block Light Bulb Moments Sometimes you can have a great idea and do...
Flavours of Thought New Edition
I am so thrilled to announce that, less than a year since I wrote the original book, Flavours of Thought is now in its Second Edition. The second edition of course includes all the ancient wisdom in the same contemporary...
Seven Ways to Block Light Bulb Moments
Before we explore how to generate light bulb moments and make them happen in your business, it is worth finding out what stops them from occurring in the first place. In my experience, it is the culture of a business...
The Business of Light Bulb Moments
This is the first in a series on light bulb moments in business. More in this series: Seven Ways to Encourage Light Bulb Moments Twelve Ways to Generate Spin Offs Seven Ways to Block Light Bulb Moments It's often...
Circle of Influence
I was reminded recently of the power of gathering a Circle of Influence around you from an email I got a lovely soul in my networking circle, Amanda Goldston. On my desk, I then spotted the book by author Kuumba Nia...
Lightbulbs on the Nook
I am doubly thrilled that my new book, The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments, has now made it on to the Nook platform just after becoming available on the Kindle. What's even more pleasing is how many places my...
Lightbulbs on the Kindle
I am so thrilled that my new book, The Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments, has now made it on to the Kindle platform a couple of weeks after it was available in print. Especially as I have just been reading about how...
Some more Moments of Light
I had the great pleasure of being interviewed about my new book by Mike Quinsey on BBS Radio last week. Listen to it back here ... and if you have a show and would like to chat with me about the book, get in touch....
Some Moments with Lillian
I had the great pleasure yesterday of being interviewed on the Waking Passions show by the wonderful Lillian Ogbogoh about my new book on light bulb moments You can tell the skill of a good interviewer by what they get...
The Door to Creativity
As I have said many times to numerous audiences, writing and publishing a book will open doors for you. The ink is not even dry on my new book, the Art and Science of Light Bulb Moments, and a big one just opened for me....
Creativity Blocks #001: Fear of Ridicule
There are many blocks to being in your creative flow. Here are just some of the things that stop us in our tracks: Fear of ridicule Fear of failure Fear of the unknown Fear of success Lack of time Lack of talent - these...
Steve Taylor : Out of the Darkness
One of the best things about being an author is getting to talk to other authors - especially those writing in a similar field to you. One of the writers I have admired for many years who has been really generous with...
Finding your thing
Many of us go through life feeling we have much to offer but we somehow miss the mark. Our brilliance is not appreciated - our just rewards don't seem to come our way. Lucy Whittington has found her 'thing' and that's to...
140 Characters: a style guide for the short form
If you thought Twitter was a fad or a nuisance, let me disavow you of that notion - it is a pretty useful tool for both business and pleasure and it's here to stay. For one, I have had direct business solely from Tweets...
Analysis of a logo
I am really thrilled to have had a new logo designed by Jackie Newman of BooDesign. The brief was to create something simple and elegant that I could use on the web, in pop up banners that summarised both what I do and...
A month of blogging
So just 30 days ago, I elected to start the Ultimate Blog Challenge and do a blog a day for 30 days. Would I do it again? - yes, but only if I have a game plan as I did for this month Was it worth it? - a definite yes !!...
Something for the Weekend #002
Soulwave Soulwave tells of a fictional account of a possible near-future for the Earth and humanity. It is a sober reminder of how life on this planet is special and to be treasured. It tells of a world where the ice...
Something for the Weekend #001
100 Years of Ermintrude Here's a short 'read' for the weekend - I say 'read' as this one's a listen !! This is the first in the 100 Years of Ermintrude trilogy which you can listen to for free - it tells of the life of a...
Which side are you on?
One of the most amazing feats we can perform is to consciously control which parts of our brain we are using. Once mastered, you can then put this under 'unconscious control' and increase your creativity several fold. A...
Food for Thought
Research has shown that there is a connection between what we eat and how we feel. The biochemical basis of this food-mood link lies in the chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, that relay thoughts and actions...
Mapping your Mind
Mind Maps are useful and elegantly simple devices. In essence, Mind Maps are simple drawings or sketches of associations you hold between things in your mind. They normally start with a central topic, either in words or...
Cross Crawling
Cross crawling is actually something we kind of do naturally when we go for a walk. This is why the simple act of a good brisk walk is such a great way to get inspiration - apart from anything else, it gets you...
The Inspirational Breath
Many people ask me how they can be more inspirational or can experience more inspirations. The answer is perhaps surprising as it doesn’t lie being more intelligent or studying. It involves doing something we all do...