Recently, I was speaking to an advisor of mine who told me she perceived that I was a creative person. I grew up avoiding reading and writing because I was criticized and punished frequently by my parents and teachers. Of course, I avoided working on those skills because I thought I was weak in them. I convinced myself that I didn’t like to read, because I read slowly and couldn’t write because I couldn’t spell. This issue really affected my self confidence all through formal schooling and as an adult. As an adult, I was diagnosed with dyslexia. Finally, there was a reason I had difficulties – I hadn’t been making excuses after all.As our conversation advanced, she asked me the “bucket list” question. You know the one, “If you only had 1 week to live what would you do?” I responded by rattling off my initial reaction responses. In the middle of the list was the topic of writing. She asked, why since you had so much trouble most of your life? I commented that I was beginning to enjoy writing because I am having fun and able to be creative while writing my current writing more than ever before.In this article, we’ll explore 13 of the best ways to stimulate creativity. Whether it’s tackling the writer’s block, fear of the blank computer screen (and a deadline approaching), developing new products or programs in your business, or jump starting your brain with new ideas. Your creativity, or lack thereof, may be the key ingredient to what is driving your level of success or holding you back.13 Best Ways to Stimulate CREATIVITY or Unlocking “Brain Freeze”1. Associate with Many Diverse Individuals Getting to know people of different races, religions, cultures, and countries is fun and educational. The more you learn from other people the more you will be open to new ideas and concepts. Don’t be judgmental – just be open to the difference and celebrate it. Having a diverse center of influence will surely enrich your life and broaden your perspectives.2. Spend Time with Children This is one of my favorite things to do. If you watch young children play and play with them, you’ll find that their innocence and lack of fear in life spurs creativity. Adults hold themselves back because of “rules” and fear. Shed rules and fear, play with children like a child. You’ll have some fun!3. Eat and Drink Different Foods and Beverages Have you ever noticed that you can get bored real fast eating the same foods day after day? Try new foods, recipes, be creative if you cook, try foods from around the world. It’s all fun. Food, smells, and tastes all stimulate the mind and can invite creativity to creep in.4. Try a New Hobby or Start a Project Just what entrepreneurs need is a new project, right? Starting a project or researching a new hobby is exciting. Researching and visualizing a new project can jump start your creative mental juices. Give your mind something different to work on consciously so the subconscious can work on solving business issues. Take up photography, paint a picture, or build a pirate ship in your front yard (like I did last Halloween). Whatever it is – do something different.5. Fly a Kite You will be amazed at how relaxing and calming flying a kite can be. If you haven’t flown a kite since you were a kid, try it again. Focus on the wind and the sky and the beauty of nature. This is sure to be a fun activity.6. Exercise Yep, exercise – you knew it was coming. This is my worst disciple right now. When you exercise you stimulate endorphins which give you a sense of happiness and well being. When you take care of your body by exercising you will have more energy all day. While exercising, your mind will work on solving problems with less effort and stress.7. Relax and Review Mementos That Make You Smile Inside Everyone keeps memories in the form of pictures, videos, scrapbooks etc. When your energy level is low and you feel stuck, maybe even a little down, it always helps pop you out of the mood if you surround yourself with mementos of those times and things that made you happy and smile. You know the feeling. Wasn’t that a good time? Feeling happy and relaxing can regenerate the creativity you have inside.8. Meditate Many people meditate daily. Meditation is relaxing and refreshing. Creativity is best raised to the surface through simple methods of meditation.9. Go to a Cultural Celebration Attending an occasional arts festival, cultural celebration, a chili cook-off, whatever it is. The change in sight and textures out of the normal keeps the mind active and stimulates creativity.10. Visit a Museum Think of all of the sights, textures, sound and history available to your senses at a museum. Appreciating where the human race came from, the strides of invention and culture will help break staleness in your thoughts and take creativity up a notch.11. Walk in the Woods, Go to the Beach, Go to the Mountains Another one of my favorite creativity boosts. For me, nothing is more spiritually moving and inspiring than walking in nature, going to the beach and listening to the sound of the waves, or as I did as a child, walking in the mountains. I’d find a special rock by a creek I called my escape rock and listen to the sound of the deer in the woods and my dog, Blue, as she looked for small creeping critters. Sometimes I even take a notebook and begin to write down what I was thinking. I always returned home refreshed and relaxed.12. Listen to Music Music is a wonderful creative spur. It doesn’t matter if it’s Classical, Jazz, Blue grass, pop, country, rap or hip hop. Music will set a mood. Your body will respond to music in an energetic way or a relaxing way. Music can be soothing and therapeutic. Your mind changes focus and creativity can flow.13. Encourage Creativity in Others When you help someone else, doesn’t it seem like it’s easier to be creative just because it’s someone else? The “someone” else can be you… but because it’s not “personal” it seems easier to be creative with someone else or their business. Relate it to a master mind concept. A group of likeminded folks all focused on helping you. Ideas flow with creativity that blows your mind. Creativity breeds creativity.As you may have noticed, the 13 Ways to stimulate creativity could also be the 13 ways to relax and have fun. As an entrepreneur, you tend to be focused but continually moving from project to project, finishing some, ignoring many. You get so overwhelmed by opportunity and the “shiny object syndrome that you exhaust your energy. If your mind and body are depleted of energy, so is your creativity depleted and stagnated.Creativity is essential to the nature of an entrepreneur’s success. It needs to be nurtured. The 13 Best Ways To Stimulate Creativity are suggestions you can use as they are or add your own.

With the dizzying amount of software and internet resources available to help mortgage professionals with marketing, the lowly business card often gets forgotten. But with a little creativity, business cards can be used to generate a stream of cheap mortgage leads. So don’t let those business cards gather dust piled up on your desk (or hidden in your drawers). Put those “little billboards” to good use in order to generate new business.3 Ways To Turn Business Cards Into Cheap Mortgage Leads:1. Write a personal note on the back of your cards. This subtle action can truly keep your business cards alive (ie. keep them from finding the bottom of the nearest wastebasket). Each time you hand out one, be sure to handwrite a message on the back of it. The message itself doesn’t really matter. Just the fact that you went out of your way to personalize the card to that specific individual will make he or she much more likely to hold onto the card. Why? People tend to hesitate throwing away something that has writing on it. A sterile and plain cards rarely gets kept long, but the fact that you included a personal message will make the individual getting the card just slightly more guilty of throwing it away.2. Give your clients extra business cards to hand out for you. This is much easier than it sounds like, and trust me, if you are doing a great job at taking care of your clients, they’ll be happy to give out your cards. Don’t go crazy and hand them a stack of 200 cards. Just provide them with 3-5 business cards and tell them this: “I really enjoyed helping you out with your mortgage, and I’d like to extend that help to your friends and family. If you know of anyone that has a mortgage related question, would you mind giving them on of my cards?” Your cards will get distributed and a few easy and cheap mortgage leads will result from it.3. Get “magnetic” business cards. Too often, even if your cards are kept by potential prospects, they are hidden away out of site in their wallets and purses. Instead of the typical card, get those that have the magnetic strip on the backs. When you give the out, be sure to tell prospects if they could hang your business card on their refrigerators. Getting your card onto a refrigerator means that it will be seen daily and that it will be easily accessible in case anyone has a mortgage related question or issue.Every loan officer and mortgage broker I know has a plethora of business cards. Be sure to maximize their effectiveness with these three tips in order to generate some cheap mortgage leads. Sometimes the most economical solutions are right in front of us.

Business today is led by perception and impressions. Companies are earmarking huge budgets to their marketing and promotional activities, as they recognize the need to make an impact to customers who are wooed by so many. You can work magic with well designed and printed cards to aid your marketing, branding initiatives. Silk business cards are showing promise and can get people to do a double take when they receive it. So what are they exactly? Are they coated with silk or something like that? Well, these creative cards are laminated using a plastic film which is responsible for the luxurious appeal they generate. This is a special process making them unique and giving them more features, absent in other plain cards. These business cards are a great investment due to the long ranging impact they help create. When you give out such cards to anyone, they are bound to be impressed. They will look at you and your business with respect and awe.Some of the more features make them super attractive and very good return on investment for a company of any size. So what are some of these engaging features?
Silk laminated business cards are durable, scratch resistant and hence very long-lasting
They look and feel rich, elegant, chic and very attractive-the sheen gives it the extra panache you cannot get with the general card-stock. They exude confidence among the one giving them out as it never fails to charm the one you are giving it to
Matt laminated cards are very user-friendly as you can easily write or jot something over the coating easily. No other card unless it’s a plain one offers you this benefit
You can easily print business cards with some more finish or treatment like spot UV, gloss etc. which is easy to get done on this variety of visiting cards
They do not tear, stain or get dirty. Their allure is everlasting, making them hot picks for frequent travelers
Silk business cards are one the most creative business cards due to their unique finish, look, feel and overall structure
When you network with so many people, it’s possible that business cards get dirty and people may want to discard them later. But, not so in this case. These look so nice and attractive and of course remain clean so people do not mind keeping them in their card holder or Rolodex
These cards are perfect for companies in the luxury and lifestyle or entertainment sector. The stylish and aesthetic elements mesh well together making them perfectly suited to the glamor quotient attached to these professions
Smooth, silky, seductive – all these wrapped up in a small visiting card. This little marketing tool is like the front-runner for all popularity polls as it delivers much more than what it is expected to do
They are in trend and well coveted so by getting silk business cards or matt laminated cards, you are staying in vogue and hence it helps you to achieve desired visibility.