One Man’s Junk is Another Man’s Treasure

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200 words, broken, community, creativity, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, garbage, ideas, imagination, inventions, junk, Life's like that, Purpose

To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk.

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison, quite possibly, was the most prolific American inventor of all time, having invented many things including the phonograph, motion picture camera and the long-lasting electric light bulb. I’m guessing he may have been a bit of a collector too, perhaps even an hoarder.

I stand in awe of his powerful imagination, yet I am also curious about his pile of junk. Junk, by definition is discarded material, items that have worn out, don’t work anymore or are broken.

We need to be imaginative and creative in life, not only to invent, but to solve problems, manage projects and live and work together as families, teams and community. And if imagination is necessary, might we not also have a need for junk, i.e., those broken ideas or materials that did not necessarily work for their original purpose, but with some imaginative creativity could be the answer to some other question?

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

Did you know that before Listerine was used to combat bad breath, it was created as a surgical antiseptic, a cure for gonorrhea, sweaty feet and a treatment for dandruff?

Do you hold on too tightly?

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200 words, believe, courage, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, dreams, holding on, ideas, passion, Purpose, Relationships, vision

Held loosely, with an open hand, the sand remains where it is. The minute you close your hand and squeeze tightly to hold on, the sand trickles through your fingers.  ~ unattributed

The above quote is most often used to talk about relationships.

The theory being, if you fear losing a relationship that’s important to you and over compensate by holding on too tightly, you will likely bring about the very thing you fear.

I have experienced this myself a few times in my life; sometimes as the smotherer and sometimes as the smothered. Neither role is a pretty one.

Could the same principle be true of dreams? Is it possible to hold on too tightly to your own ideas of how things should be and thereby smother the very thing you desire?

Crave Cupcakes is celebrating 10 years of being in business.

They started out making cookies and struggled with achieving any success.

They decided to make cupcakes using their grandmother’s vanilla cake recipe and their business took off. They paid off their debt within a year.

 ~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

What if Crave had chosen to keep making cookies?

What do you hold onto too tightly?

 

Dear Canada Post: WTF?

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beehive mentality, creativity, Diana Schwenk, drone, Hump Day Chronicles, ideas, missed opportunity, narrow mindedness, outside-the-box, rant

Sorry for dropping the *‘F bomb’  but nothing else seems to articulate as clearly how miffed I am!

I’ve been known to say, “If I wanted to just do my job and it leave it there when I go home, I’d work for Canada Post.”

That’s because they do what they do pretty much in the same way they’ve always done it. If everything stayed the same forever, Canada Post has the perfect plan to run their organization.

Their beehive mentality and procedural methods work in a world where there is no change in demand for services.

But HELLO!!! Nothing stays the same forever!

Canada Post recently announced that they are ceasing door-to-door delivery for 1/3 of Canadians in urban areas.

Thousands of postal workers will lose their jobs.

Postage stamps that presently cost $0.65 will go up to $0.85 each when a book of stamps is purchased, and an astonishing, unbelievable rate of $1.00 when purchasing a singular stamp!

Canada Post states that it has lost millions in the last quarter and if they continue this way they will lose billions in a matter of a few short years.

Look. I understand cutbacks, really I do but I want to point out something important.

And that is the words: ‘if they continue this way’

Listen up Canada Post. This situation isn’t something that suddenly happened. You should have picked up this ball 20 years ago. You should have been asking yourself what’s going to happen to us with the dawn of the internet? You should have let your CEO go and hired a mover and shaker!

“The best time to plant an Oak tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is right now,”

Maybe it’s not too late!

Give the old guy the boot. Get a ‘Steve Jobs’  type in there and remind us of the joy we had when we received a handwritten letter. Start a movement that touches our hearts and saves the jobs of thousands! If you don’t do it, someone else will.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

* As you may have noticed, this post is a deviation from the usual uplifting style you have grown accustomed to. I promise to deliver my usual optimism and rose-coloured-glass’ismness tomorrow in a special bonus post! 🙂

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• Canada Post to end home delivery (bnn.ca)

Pendulum

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celebrate, change, Diana Schwenk, happy, ideas, joy, laughter, living in the moment, passion, Purpose, Seth Godin

A generation ago, a clever idea could run and run. We talked about Space Food Sticks and Tang and Gilligan’s Island and the Batmobile for years, even though there certainly wasn’t a lot of depth. Hit movies and books stayed on the bestseller lists for months or even years! ~ Seth Godin

Would you agree that we don’t really take time to celebrate anymore?

By the time a plan comes to fruition

we’re three steps ahead and have forgotten to rejoice in our achievements

or the joyful things that have surprised us along the way.

It saddens me.

A new idea or new way of thinking comes around

and the pendulum swings hard right and we either jump aboard or get left behind.

For example, we know that change can be good.

But has change become an ideal we practice just for the sake of change?

What happened to “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it“?

Ignoring the now…

forgetting to acknowledge the joy of the moment

is robbing us of the sheer happiness of important milestones in our personal and professional lives.

I don’t want the ‘next new thing’ to diminish the significance of the ‘right now.’

Do you?