The Mindset of an Inventor

I’ll admit it, I’m a chronic planner. Since I was old enough to write, I’ve filled journals from cover to cover with ideas, schemes and plans – belated apologies to my childhood friends who played my unassuming test subjects.

Initially, I thought I wanted to be an inventor (yes, like Professor Floop from Spy Kids or Edna Mode from The Incredibles. They were – and still are – my inspirations.) and to this day I still consider myself one (I’ve just invented a membership called Impossible Incubator, which essentially helps other people invent and live out their wildest dreams).

NOTE: Add ‘Inventor’ to my business card please, Barbara.

But now I’m realising that while it is a great strength to have new ideas and inventions all the time, the greatest strength is in following through on a plan. The greatest plan in the world is no use if it’s never put to work. I have to wonder how many life-changing inventions have never come to fruition because the inventor never made it out of the drawing-room.

Here’s how I made things happen up to this point: I just tried stuff.

And I failed a bunch of times. And I’m sure as anything I will fail many more times in the future.

In 2001 I made an “air hostess bag” (a suitcase with wheels) using a cardboard box and a set of bicycle training wheels and carried it around for 20 minutes before it fell apart.

In 2003 I made an eco-friendly marble run out of toilet roll tubes and a hot glue gun and gave it my friend Tim for his 8th birthday (this was back before eco-friendly was trendy yet. He wasn’t impressed.)

In 2007 I sold homemade cookies on the side of the road and I didn’t even sell one (although I did get invited to join the local baptist church – I declined).

In 2004 I started a ‘makeup company’ with my friend Ruth, it was called Mischief Makeup (or MMU, our secret code at school) and we made blush and eyeshadow from grinding up different coloured chalk with her mum’s cheese grater).

In 2011 I started a 2 man dance crew where the other member almost never showed up to practice.

In 2015 I started a food charity for homeless people in Wellington but it only ran for one night.

In 2017 I started an ethical vegan t-shirt line and I *only* sold two t-shirts.

In 2018 I started a travel blog until I realised I didn’t want to be a travel blogger.

None of them worked.

But who knows what hundreds of other ideas WOULD have worked, if only I’d got them off the paper and into the world?

Like my water-alarm doorbell (2005) or my school cheerleading team (2008), or my treehouse (minus the tree) in the backyard (2007) or my robot suit (2002), or my before-school disco parties (2012) or my alcohol-free party drink (2015) or my thermal-lined jeans (2016) or my online Instagram course (2018)? I’ve got evidence that I spent hours planning out of all of these ideas in journals, and now they’re sitting in a cardboard box in my Mum’s garage collecting dust. Rest in peace, robot suit.

But the proof is in the pudding! According to my definitely not fact-checked source, the original saying is “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” In other words, you’re only going to find out if something works if you try it.

Don’t you just adore those wild and wacky inventors who just TRY stuff, knowing that they’ll probably fail? They are so dedicated to their smell-gun or their time machine or their dog-translator idea that they never seem to give up trying different ways to make it work.

What if you gave yourself permission to just start trying stuff? Start the blog. Write the book. Build the Spy Den. Open the shop. Make the jewelry.

No one wants to hear the story of the inventor who had the perfect plan and it worked the first time.

You’ve got brilliant ideas buried inside you. Bring them to life, watch them die and try again! Enjoy the process. Believe in your magic. Have patience. Never give up.

That is the mindset of an inventor.

The Power of Visualization

Imagine going to your kitchen, picking up a lemon, slicing through it and biting straight into it, juice squeezing out into your mouth.

Can you feel your tongue go tingly?

That’s the power of visualization.

Why does it work? Because the brain can’t tell the difference between reality and imagination.

Researchers have found that the mental practice of a skill can be just as effective as physical practice. How wild is that? You can literally imagine running a race over and over in your mind, and it will help you progress with your running. That’s because the same regions of your brain are being activated.

Athletes can only train for a certain number of hours a day before their body fatigues. So that means two people putting in the same number of hours would have the same shot at winning a race. But then, those who go home and spend another several hours visualizing – their entrance into the water or onto the pitch or into the ring, their action on the starting gun, their last exertion – could have a giant advantage of over their competition (23% according to this study!).

That means that visualization is one of the most powerful tools we have to propel us towards our goals.

David Beckham does it. Steve Jobs did it. Olympic athletes do it. Today I’m starting it!

I have committed to a practice of visualization for each of my impossible goals, with music and my vision board. I’m excited to let you guys know how it goes – stay tuned.

Have you ever done visualization? Let me know in the comments!

You’ve Already Made It

The dream isn’t achieving a certain thing or reaching a certain milestone.

The dream is never giving up. The dream is the pursuit. The dream is the struggle along the way.

“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”

― Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic

The hustle, the struggle, the pain – they are the achievements.

You don’t play a game to win, you play a game to play.

And you’re already playing the game.

You have permission to stop fighting the crippling feeling of ‘not being there yet’. You are already here. Welcome. You’ve arrived! (And you’ve been here all along).

Breathe out.

No matter how far away your end goal seems, there’s no doubt:

You’ve already made it.

What Would Elle Woods Do?

Tonight I watched Legally Blonde for beyond the 15th time (I can quote almost every line, anyone else?!).

Apart from being a funny comedy, Legally Blonde has got an absolutely kick-ass lead role.

Elle Woods is an unapologetically confident, positive person who knows she can handle anything. It doesn’t matter what is thrown her way, she has the self-belief we could all use.

My phone screensaver has been set with this saying “What would Elle Woods do?” for the last few months and as silly as it might sound, I genuinely believe I’m happier. When I choose to take on the identify of Elle Woods in any situation, the decisions I need to make become clear and the way I need to show up is immediately apparent.

It’s essentially a short cut to asking yourself, “How could I be a more positive, loving, kind, gregarious, unstoppable, confident person in this situation?”

I challenge you to set it as your screensaver and see what difference it makes!

Found Until Proven Lost

In the last week I’ve watched several people freak out because they think they’ve lost an item, only to find out it was exactly where they’d put it, or somewhere hiding under something close to them.

And yet every time, panic sets in. “I’ve lost my phone!” we proclaim, the moment we’ve patted ourselves down and checked in barely two different places.

We get hyper-stressed before we even know if it’s actually lost.

That’s why I want to suggest a different solution: don’t panic until you know it’s lost.

Just like in a court of law, where a defendant is innocent until proven guilty, I function under this rule: the item is found until proven lost.

Because 99 times out of 100, the item isn’t gone. But when you set yourself into panic mode, you don’t think straight, and you can’t search for it properly. We’ve all been in the position where we’re so set on an item being “lost” that we can’t see we’re already holding it in our own hand or staring at it right in front of us.

Your new mantra: Found Until Proven Lost.

What if..?

What if you didn’t need anything extra to achieve your goals?

No more money, no more time, no more knowledge, no more influence.

What if you realised you already had everything you need to achieve it?

What if you just got started?

You can be the happiest person in the world

Someone out there is the happiest person in the world. Why can’t it be you?

Happiness is a state of mind that you get to decide.
Therefore, that title is yours for the taking.

The happiest person in the world.

The only condition for you to be the happiest person in the world is for you to believe it.

What would your life feel like if you truly believed you were the happiest person in the world?
What would your relationships be like?
What would your health be like?
What would you career be like?

What is stopping you from being the happiest person in the world? If you are reading this blog post right now, chances are you have all of your basic needs met. Food, water, shelter, warmth. The rest is up to you.

That’s why I have a poster on my wall that affirms that I am, in fact, the happiest person in the world.

Repeat after me: I am the happiest person in the world.

Everything is Figureoutable

The brilliant entrepreneur Marie Forleo has recently released her book, Everything Is Figureoutable and I've been totally engrossed in it on the plane to Tenerife today.

The idea is simple: every problem is solvable. But Marie declares that taking on this one empowering belief can override all of your other unwanted beliefs.

HOWEVER – I would like to take Marie’s mantra one step further.

I now know that there is something even more powerful than beliefs: identity. Ever since I’ve overcome my fear of flying, I’ve been absolutely fascinated by the concept of identity. Your identity is a set of beliefs that define who you are. You have the power to change that identity by changing those beliefs.

I’ve also discovered that our results in life are tightly bound to our identity. Our identity (a set of beliefs) creates our thoughts, which creates our feelings, which creates our actions, which creates our results.

Beliefs > thoughts > feelings > actions > results

That means, not only should you take on the belief ‘Everything is Figureoutable’ – you should adopt the identity of “I can figure out anything.” Everything is no longer just figureoutable, YOU are the kind of person who can figure anything out. It’s not just a belief you hold, it’s who you are.

Everything is figureoutable is no longer just a belief, but an identity.

I can figure out anything!

I am enough

There are 4 words that can describe the root of so many of our problems: I am not enough.

Tonight I went to London to see Superstar, a play by actress Nicola Wren, about her desire for superstardom and her longing for her siblings’ admiration. (One of her siblings happens to be Chris Martin from ColdPlay – and the play is, in part, her “coming out” as Chris’ sister. Highly recommend it, it was brilliant).

The theme “I am not enough” came up time and time again.

From the age of 7, Nicola narrated a story inside her head that the way to get approval from her siblings, the way to receive their love, was to be a giant success as an actress, so they could say “I’m so proud of you!”

And the thing is, famous family member or not, we all want to feel like we are enough. Smart enough, beautiful enough, successful enough, wealthy enough... It’s not a quality we are born with, it’s one we adopt from an early age. Babies don’t come out of the womb believing they aren’t good enough, the feeling of inadequacy is indoctrinated into us. As renowned psychotherapist, Marisa Peer says: Babies don’t think “Oh, don’t look at me! I’m not beautiful enough! I’m not successful enough!” They feel 100% worthy of your attention, even when they cry and poop and make a complete mess. They believe they are worthy of love, just for existing.

And they are.

As time goes on, we begin to believe that we must earn love, by doing or being a certain way. And it’s a horrible lie.

So how do we get out of this awful predicament?

By changing the story in our heads from “I will when enough when...” to simply “I am enough.”

I am enough. I am enough. I am enough.

Be Your Own Lucky Charm

Did you ever see that 2006 Lindsay Lohan film, Just My Luck?

Okay, so Mean Girls gets most of the Lohan fan attention – and for good reason – but Just My Luck is highly underrated. Stay with me here, it’s worth it.

Here’s the deal:

New Yorker, Ashley, is a good luck charm. Everything goes her way, all of the time. Like, always. She’s just always lucky. Voted prom queen – at a school she didn’t even attend, wins every time on lotto scratchies, pouring rain turns to sunshine the moment she steps outside.

Even when it seems like something has gone wrong (aka, dry cleaning mix up right before an important event), it turns out to be a blessing in disguise (aka, mix up was with Sarah Jessica-Parker’s dress, so she gets to wear that instead).

Of course, she has a fateful kiss with a perpetually unlucky stranger (hello, Chris Pine), and ends up switching her luck with him and everything goes horribly wrong. It’s a brilliant girls night in film, watch the trailer if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

I digress. The point is, we should all take a leaf out of Ashley’s book. You know when things just go right? The traffic lights go all green? You find $20 in a coat you totally forgot you had? You get unexpected good news?

For that moment, you feel like the luckiest girl (or guy) on the PLANET.

But guess what? Good luck is happening all around you, all the time, you’re just not noticing it because it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary.

• There’s exactly the right amount of oat milk left for a cup of tea. Nice.

• You were running late to work but your boss was even later. Phew.

• Your phone is on 1% but somehow lasts for another 15 minutes. Yas.

Even things that seem like they aren’t good luck initially can actually turn out to be good luck. For example, missing the bus but meeting someone amazing at the bus stop, or dropping your half-eaten icecream and being gifted a whole new one for free.

I like to imagine that, just like Ashley, I too only ever have good luck. I pretend, for a few hours, that I am the luckiest girl in the world. During that time, no matter what happens, I imagine I’ve just rolled a 6 at life.

Even if it seems bad, I try to feel lucky. Because even the bad things in life can be good if you look at them in a different light.

It’s kind of an alternative way to practice gratitude. Plus, it feels SO good, walking around feeling like the luckiest person in the world – choosing to feel like the luckiest person in the world.

Someone has to be the luckiest person in the world. Why can’t it be you?

P.S. If you need some inspiration for your Luckiest Person in the World Gratitude Practice (I can trademark that mouthful, surely?), check out the whole movie here.

P.P.S. The Luckiest Person in the World Gratitude Practice (man, it needs a better name), is in action in another phenomenal movie, Legally Blonde, as seen below: