Ron Jacobson Creative Coach

CRAZY?

admin — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 23:48:23 +0000

When a person thinks of crazy, they think of all kinds of things. Mostly things that are not normal, not everyday happenings, and especially something they generally wouldn’t do. That being said, some of the most famous (if not all of the famous), have at one time or another…..been CRAZY!! And mind you, that’s a good thing.

We’re not talking crazy weird. We’re not talking crazy scary. We’re talking just CRAZY!!

I was reminded of the importance of CRAZY in our lives when on The Early Show on CBS, Wednesday, September 10th, Benjamin Mee was quoted as saying; “Often it’s good to do the CRAZY thing”. See Benjamin is the author of “We Bought A Zoo”. It’s a real book, about a real story of him and his family purchasing a zoo that was going to have to close. And they purchased it to help keep it open.

In addition, shortly after they purchased the zoo; his wife passed away from the recurrence of a brain tumor. But he pushed on with the help of his family, and especially his kids jumping in and helping out. (Not an easy task with all the grounds and animals to take care of.)

So what has this got to do with the word CRAZY? Lots. In fact, most inventors, entrepreneurs and many an artist have been labeled CRAZY at one time in their careers. It’s kind of a nature we all take on and those who survive the barrage of cruelty, humiliation and threats on their craziness seem to come out flying higher than everyone else. So there’s something to be said about CRAZY.

Speaking from my own experience; most everything that I do is systematically thought out in my brain ahead of time. It doesn’t discount the fact that the idea might be CRAZY; just more calculated than it may appear on the outside. I think that’s where the bubble is expanded. Where the box is thrown away. And where the comfort zone is eliminated all together. But the ‘creative’ planning and thoughts that go on ahead of a certain task, or project; make the CRAZY situations only look crazy to those who can’t see anything beyond the reality that lies before them.

So for today and all times…..go CRAZY….in a good way!!

The POWER of a goal!

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:52:18 +0000

Well, the Olympics for 2008 just finished last night. And what an couple of weeks. There were quite a number of records broken and some unbelievable performances by more than a few of the athletes. And a lot of them didn’t just show up to Beijing with hopes of winning a medal; they planned and worked for years to get to that point. Which brings me to the points of GOALS! We’ve all heard about them, read about them and even listened as speaker after speaker drilled into us the important of setting goals. But have you really taken advantage of that power? Not just once a year like in a New Years resolution. But every single week….every single day listing, adjusting and striving towards an area that you think will bring you fulfillment and peace. Now peace may be a little far stretching; because those of you who work your goals regularly, know that reaching them is only a small segment of the process.

Most of the work is in the journey. And once you’ve accomplished a goal, you see farther and higher to new goals; so you see what I mean by the ‘peace’ part. For the Olympics, many of these athletes trained for 4 years to reach this point. Many trained longer because they were probably close to making an Olympic team 4 years ago or did make it but wanted to do better. And during this time they had many goals. Some involved how many hours a day they were going to work on their sport. Some involved how many ‘competitive’ events they would be participating in to get them ready for Olympic competition. And many of them won big races and events leading up to the Olympics; but they didn’t mean anything to them as their eyes were set on Beijing and winning an Olympic medal. So you can see what might have to take place in your life to get to ‘your’ GOLD medal. Maybe some sacrifice. Maybe some hard work. Maybe some competitive challenges to see where you stand in relation to others. Bottom line is….you need to set goals so you have something to strive for. So take the time today and at least start. Start with what needs to be done today. Then look ahead for the week, month and year. Then taking your ‘reality’ into mind, add your dreams and wishes. Put them into some sort of goal for 2 years, 3 years or 5 years down the road. If you don’t make a note of it, it will fall by the wayside as everyday tasks and challenges come forth. Look at them daily or at the least, weekly. Let them soak into your mind. Visualize completing each of these goals and the feelings that will be associated with that. Adjust your goals as you complete them and as obstacles come before you. We were meant to have everything we can dream of. So dream big!

Competition….Good or Bad?

admin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:09:35 +0000

This may seem like a very simple question. Is competition good or bad? Now I’m talking about ‘competition’ in general. It might be with an actual competitor or it might be against yourself. See as as photographer and a member of the Professional Photographers of America; we have an International print competition each year. And I’m an example of what not to do. In the early years of my career; I entered and got a few mid-70’s and a couple 79’s. In our competitions, 80 is merit and then there are several classifications above that such as excellent and superior all the way up to 100 points. Prints are judged on a 12 point system, with some of the points being: impact, creativity, style, composition, lighting, print quality, color balance, etc. Basically enough to show you have a good knowledge of your equipment and photography basics and then your ‘artistic’ side takes over on the other elements. So after being let down with my 79’s I dropped competitions for almost 20 years. When I came back in; I had not only watched many a judging session; but had also been on the print crews and served as a print chairman so I knew what the process was, and I thought I had figured out this competition thing. Because as I saw it; my images were just as good as all those I was seeing in the competitions. So coming back; I now had something new on my side…..the computer! See prior to that, everything was film based. The image was captured on film, then processed, retouched, enhanced and printed on photographic paper. Even though our rules said you should have a hand in every part of the printing process for your print; that usually wasn’t the case. We just sent our negatives off and had the prints made by our instructions. So this new computer thing, both taking the image digitally and then printing it out on my own controlling all aspects was what I was waiting for. And I was rewarded for that. It took only 5 years for me to receive enough merits for my Masters Degree and since then I have racked up a couple PPA Photographer of the Year awards and 3 North Dakota Photographer of the Year awards during this process. But the last 2 years I have only gotten 2 prints of my 4 to hang or get merited. While to some it may seem that I am greedy and possibly mad; but in all honesty, it makes me more competitive. And that brings me to this writing today. See, we all have a competitiveness inside of us. Competition IS GOOD! It drives us forward. It helps us be CREATIVE! It feeds our need to succeed. If for some reason there is no competitiveness inside an individual; that individual is usually not a good contributor to either him or herself, to his or her family or to society in general. And we all know people like that. So with that being said; can competitiveness be fueled, nurtured or inspired? I believe so. But it’s not as easy as making somebody eat that’s hungry. Some people are lacking either chemistry or the hardware to effectively see what competition does for them. They would rather just sit back or lazily mope along, letting each day take them wherever it deems fit. Obviously not the best route, but they probably don’t know any better. Only by showing, cheering on or actually pushing can these individuals be FORCED to see why competition can help them. And remember my opening story; we’re not necessarily talking about competition with other individuals or companies. Although that in itself is very good as well. For some THAT can be a source of stress. I’m talking about the competition within. Make an evaluation of where you’re at. Kind of like using a GPS device. It needs to know where you call home; then it can give you directions to where you want to go. You need to evaluate all the areas of your life and find your location. Mark down things like career, family, physical and spiritual, financial, friends, education, etc. Then take a long hard look at where you might want to be in a year, two years, five years or even ten years from now. They don’t have to be solid, concrete goals; just some possibilities as you’re looking ahead in your life. That gives you a map. You can see where you are and where you’d like to be. Some of the maps will be very simple; probably just an item or two to get to your destination. Others may be more complex; requiring you to break the journey into pieces, sometimes even going backwards or sideways before going forward to the final destination. That’s life. Always have a plan B ready; because the best laid plans usually go astray. Now with that in mind, here’s the connection with my goals. To be a better photographer, (which is my profession); I chose to compete in print competitions to gauge myself against my competition, but more importantly; to compete with myself. In the years since I started competing again, I’ve only had one year that I was aced and didn’t get any merits. I’ve also had years where I not only merited on all 4 of my prints; but I also had 2 of them go loan: which is the highest award possible. I continually strive to get all 4 merited and ultimately, all 4 in the loan collection. The results for this years judging were just released yesterday; 2 merited and 1 loan. No, it’s not the greatest; but it gives me a pinpoint of where I am on my journey. I will work hard to correct, learn and adjust what I need to get better next year. Remember, this is me against me. There are no losers when you compete against yourself. ONLY WINNERS!! So my challenge to you is to take a hard look at where you are and where you want to be. Start small. Start now. Look at your roadmap daily and weekly adjust it. You’ll be surprised at how fast you will improve because of this competitiveness and by seeing your goals in a whole new light!

What’s Holding You Back?

admin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 01:02:51 +0000

I know there’s not a week that goes by without me hearing from someone about how they’re not living up to their own expectations. Why is that? Why are their so many unfulfilled people walking around in this world? Give up? Well you’re not alone. Some people put such high expectations in front of them that they’ll never be satisfied. On the other hand; high expectations for some is what drives them. “Shoot for the moon, and even if you miss you’ll still end up among the stars!” It’s all about perception. Set your goals high. Rejoice with every small victory. Remember the journey is to be enjoyed. Have more goals ready for when you reach a goal. But this still doesn’t answer the question on so many unfulfilled people out there. I hear people saying they don’t want to be tied down to goals. But floating where the wind or current will not generally lead to less stress or fulfillment. It’s hard to know if you’re scoring if you don’t have a goal to shoot for. So do a person evaluation. Take inventory of your life. Your successes, your failures. What you love, what you hate. A pattern should be forming. Use this pattern to put together your goals. And goals are not set in granite; they should be flexible. Life throws curves at all of us; so be flexible. So don’t let anything stop you with your dreams. Set goals and

Getting rid of Negative Vibes and Comments

admin — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:55:59 +0000

In todays world, negativism is at the top of most everyones mind daily. We hear of high gas prices, food prices rising, natural disasters and failure on all fronts from real estate to commerce. This is nothing new. Man has had a fetish for ‘bad’ news for decades if not forever. It will never go away; man feeds off of others difficult situations, probably making themselves feel better with other peoples woes. But we are better than that. And we can control what and how we absorb information and ‘bad’ news from others around us.Creativity comes in many forms. And one of the forms is how to control your emotions and reactions to facts and gossip that others throw at you either directly or through public media. Being informed without being ‘transformed’ is hard to do. One must keep in perspective what you hear or see. Information that one can use to help make daily decisions or add to your information storage that can be used for future decisions are needed by us all. One needs to look and listen to all of this information respecting the fact that it’s just information. Once you get yourself emotionally attached, it can take control of you. And pull you in to the overall sentiment of negativism. So use your head, stick to your goals and absorb and use what you want; not letting others infusing their less than positive attitude on you!