I recently learned a startling fact about gold mining in the 1800s that I think is equally as applicable today.  It is a lesson that if learned will improve your income or if you’re unemployed, help you find a good job.

When you think of the “great gold rush”, what comes to mind?  If you’re like me, you think those old salty miners who traveled from the east coast to California and Arizona to search for gold.  They caught “gold fever” packed up their families and took off.

It makes sense in a way; to pack up and go to where the gold is.

However, thousands of people overlooked one crucial point.  They forgot to look in their own back yards for the gold they sought.

Due to ignorance of what gold looked like, how to mine it or perhaps the wild stories being passed back and forth, these miners took unnecessary journeys west when gold laid right under their feet.  They faced harsh wilderness, starvation and cold in the new location when all along, what they desired was back at home.

Some did find gold out west, but more did not.  Fast forward 100 or so years and you’ll see that many of the most productive mines were not on the west, but on the east coast!  Just last month, the Haile-Brewer gold mine in South Carolina was estimated to contain 2 to 4 million ounces of gold.  At today’s prices, on low end, that’s $2.7 billion!

By the way, you may remember me telling you way back in 2008 you should buy gold.  Hope you were listening!

I too have often dreamed of panning for wild gold riches.  Actually, treasure hunting is just a hobby of mine – but who knows?  I may hit the mother lode.  In the past, I admit dreaming of the day when I retire I can go out west to find my lucky strike..

But in recent months I did a quick search of mining maps and found no less than 11 lode bearing gold mines within 20 miles from my house.  I’ve actually panned in some of the nearby locations and found gold.  Not enough to live on, but it shows a move out west would have been a waste if I wanted to find gold.

Applied to our current employment, I think gold mining is a good metaphor.  How often do we search wide and far for something outside when we already have what we need close?

We are all masters at something.  Maybe you are a computer wizard, maybe you are great at painting.  You tell me.  But once you’ve developed a special skill, you don’t have to travel 1000 miles away.  There are people right where you live who need you.

Happy digging!

Taking notes can be very difficult for people like me. My attention is always torn between the speaker and what I am writing. Often times, I write too much of the not important stuff and miss the important stuff while I write the unimportant. 

“Uhh… what did she say while I was writing ‘The restrooms are up the hallway to the left’ ?”

It’s frustrating to me and apparently many others out there. I found out that for me a better technique is Mind Mapping. By simply jotting one word thoughts and branching them out, I could write faster, keep the ideas straight while also maintaining attention.

Below is my interview with my friend Gina Trapani over at Fast Company where Gina gives her method and I describe mine. Which one works best for you? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post by James Adams whose ideas on building a better brain are top notch.

Brainstorming is a valuable method for rediscovering your creativity. Some days, you are drowning in an ocean of ideas. Others, you are looking at the desert and hoping for an oasis. You are creative, your brain just needs a bit of priming. Here are ten methods for brainstorming to get the idea river gushing.

1. Free Writing

Stream of consciousness writing is one of the most unpredictable forms of writing. You do not know where your brain will lead you, but you can be assured that it will be interesting. There is no special preparation for this method. Open a new Notepad window or pick up a sheet of paper and start writing.

2. Wordplay

Start writing poetry about your favorite topic. Use words that rhyme. Write the song that is going through your head. Pick your favorite prefix or suffix and start listing all of the words within which that fragment resides. Attempt to be as silly as possible.

3. What If?

Most novels are written on the premise of ‘what if?’ What if there were no water on our planet? What if there were too much water on the planet? What would happen if our feet were digitigrade instead of plantigrade? Ask some what if questions and see where the answers take you.

4. Mind Map

Mind mapping is an exciting method of generating ideas because you are building on the idea of ‘and then?’ You are mapping out those tangents that your mind takes. Take a concept or idea and write it in the center of your page. Write concepts and ideas around that idea until something interests you. When you exhaust the options for one of the topic, elaborate on one of the subtopics.

5. Analogy

Take two unrelated topics and attempt to connect them. Start with the question ‘How is _____ like a ______?’ and see what happens. Your brain is geared toward answering questions, so you will immediately start finding answers. Write down your list and see where it leads.

6. Role Playing

How would someone else handle the situation that you are in? What would someone else have for dinner? This exercise is all about looking at the alternative perspective to a problem. How would the person that you dislike the most care for their pets?

7. Escapism

Start with a common problem or situation that everybody has. Write a list of surreal solutions. There can be no reasonable or completely feasible answers on this list. Once you have your list, search for items which can be altered to become viable.

8. Outlining

This brainstorming technique is perfect for analytical people. This is like the mind map method. You are using writing instead of drawing to convey your ideas. Start with a broad subject and break it into subtopics. The outline method is very useful for writing non fiction.

9. 77 Storms

When you are brainstorming, aim for a specific number and do not stop until you have reached the number. Do not judge the ideas, merely fill the page. This will give you ideas and directions.

10. Questions

Look at the items which surround you and ask questions. What is the history of this object? Why is the mantlepiece made of faux wood? These questions are intended to be childlike because it will spur on your brain. Search for answers to your questions after ten minutes.

Using these creativity techniques will help you to get your ideas once again flowing like a river. Brainstorming will add that extra push to your writing and take you in exciting directions.

By day James writes reviews of products such as the HP 300XL ink cartridge for an online print cartridge supplier based in the UK. By night he indulges himself posting about design and media on their blog.

A reader asks “Brad in your blog post 26 Major Advantages to Reading More Books you make a strong case for reading more. But what type of books should I be reading?”

I believe your first choice in reading material should be books that will improve your work. A chef will become a better and higher paid chef by reading many books on varied cooking techniques. A programmer would become more efficient and successful by reading more programming books.

But I think we’re leaving out an important point. Everyone should own a Kindle? Nope that wasn’t it. The point is we can’t just read we must also apply what we learn in the books we read.

You’ve probably heard a million times “we learn from doing.” That’s true. Doing sets successful people apart from those who just read about it.

However, there are downsides to applying what we learn. One it takes effort. We have to close the book and get to work. That can be hard compared to the task of reading. But we are different. We can do that.

Another downside is often while applying what you’ve read you find the writer was a maniac. You discover his methods are pure nonsense.

To combat the nonsense writers, we attack that problem with discernment. And the only way to build effective discernment is through experience. And how do we build experience? Well, one powerful way is by applying what we’ve learned from the books we read. cue song ‘Circle of Life’…

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What motivates you?  What motivates your family?  What motivates your employees and coworkers?

You might be surprised.

After watching the video, what changes to your personal plan will you make?  Do you see how you can get leverage on yourself? 

Post ideas in the comments below:

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here.” – Richard Dawkins

I’ll grant Richard Dawkins‘ views on life and death are controversial, but I still love this quote.

To me, it asks several important questions. Only the naive among us will never consider them and what they mean.

What is life exactly?

To me, life isn’t just waking up, breathing, eating, and muddling through your daily work. I think of that as stagnation.

Where life is the act of growing.

One may say “I’m growing. I grew by 20 pounds last year.”

That’s not the type of growth I am talking about, fatty. I mean growing in mind and developing your natural talents…Becoming more than what you are today — Getting smarter, stronger and becoming an expert in something.

If you aren’t growing, you are stagnant. Stagnant by definition means not advancing or developing.

When we talk about stagnant water, what do you think of? Water that is sick, murky, possibly infected with tapeworms. You don’t want to be infected with tapeworms do you?

Stagnant humans have their own murkiness. They might drink too much alcohol, suffer from depression, or worst of all settle for much less than they are capable. Much of the unemployment and recession woes are a symptom of people becoming stagnant. Not all can be blamed on stagnation, but a good portion can. People simply became too comfortable and trusting that what was easy would be there forever.

Becoming comfortable is a quick way to stagnation. The story goes as follows: He got a job. Liked the job. Did his work. Went home and watched TV for ever and ever. Amen.

Now, aside from that being the second most boring story on the planet, only eclipsed by The Great Gatspy, what can he expect if the company he works for is downsized? What if he gets laid off? What if his retirement account is raided like what happened with Enron? I guarantee, comfort will be the furthest from his mind. Panic will be the new best buddy.

But aside from avoiding calamity through growth, there is a joy we can experience too. Advancing our knowledge in our strong areas can be a lot of fun as well as lead to job security and advancement.

Increasing our expertise often leads to internal self worth and the respect of other people. Try it for a month and you’ll see. Pick up a challenging book that would increase your knowledge in your chosen field. Study it like you are preparing for an important test. Then come back and comment about how you feel.

I guarantee, if you study you won’t get tapeworms!

Those of you who have followed Tom Peters over the years know how much he’s contributed to the growth of excellence in businesses worldwide.    His book In Search of Excellence he co-authored with Robert Waterman is considered “the greatest business book of all time” by many and indispensable by most.

Well, Tom has a new book called The Little Big Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE.  I am thrilled and honored Mr. Peters included of my essays as one of the ways to pursue excellence!   Mine is pursuit #50 starting on page 136 about how you have to show up to move up.  You can read my contribution by downloading the Acrobat pdf of it here (posted with permission):  Show Up! (It’s a Start.)

My copy of Little BIG Things arrived last week and it is indeed a BIG book – a whopping 576 pages in all.  But it isn’t the type of book you read cover-to-cover in one sitting.  All of the 163 pursuits are condensed nuggets of excellence building tips and strategies.  Pick one, read it, think about it and digest it.

There is a lot you can take out of just one of the tips.  If you employ all 163 you’ll be unstoppable!