Many happy people are only good at one thing.

They’re self-aware, they know their limitations and have no desire to take over the world.

It doesn’t mean they don’t spend time improving themselves or staying on top of the latest developments in their particular field.  It’s just that they don’t try to be the everyman.

It can be inspiring to the kindred and disconcerting to the type-A personalities.  Either way, it’s respectable.

Empirically, it’s a great way to be or start to be.  So what are the pre-requisites?

1) Don’t be unreasonable.  Materialism and high standards of living are traps.  Once you start wanting what you all ready have instead of focusing on what you want, you’re in the right spot.  It’s also a great spring board to save money with.

2) Don’t be in denial.  There is still a need for knife sharpeners, but change is inevitable.  The neighborhood market is over. 

3) Don’t setup shop on an island.  You didn’t get to choose where you were born, but you can choose where you move to.  Do a little research and embrace a new adventure.

4) Don’t be impatient.  Good things take time.  Reputation is key.  “If you build it, they will come.”

5) Don’t be cocky.  Some one else likes what you do and has dreams of doing it.  You won’t be around forever, so why not share the wealth?  There’s room for everyone – provided they share your steps for success.

6) Don’t expect others to be you.  There are a lot of talented people waiting in vain to be discovered.  You achieved success by discovering it for yourself.  That’s rare.

7) Don’t lose the love.  Every job has a “job” in it, and it takes most of our life so you’d better spend it wisely.  If you enjoy what you do, you’re successful.  Life is too short not to be.

Don’t soar with your weaknesses.  Align yourself with support to take care of your needs where you can’t.  It’s worth the expense and the time you’ll save can be invested in your true priorities.

The rest is up to you!

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This is a new column I plan to revisit from time to time with the sole purpose of giving lesson ideas to parents, teachers and creatives.  I encourage any of  you to contact me and to even share your ideas as well.  I believe in a creative think tank and it can only help the collective be more inspirational to generations to come.

I used to love Color forms when I was a kid. I only had 1 set but I would play for hours, letting my imagination develop story lines as I arranged the pieces accordingly. A great and cheap outlet for the visual artist in your fold involves a similar project.

It’s amazing the amount of fun you can have with a pad of construction paper and safety scissors. Young artists are big fans of representationalism (i.e. “it is what I say it is”) if you’ve ever seen a first graders picture of their family, you now understand what I mean.

So if your child is anything like I was, they’ll spend hours developing characters, and remembering everything else they need to create for their story. Even costume changes are an option. Have them pick a nice bright background “set” and position the characters and their props to tell the story.

I’m also a big fan of the collage. Little hands develop strength in ripping pieces for a mosaic effect while advanced cutters can develop patience for more precise pieces. You can separate the various colors into separate containers for re-usable collages, or if a static image is preferred, break out the glue stick!

If you’re working with them, keep your (and their) expectations reasonable. Remember, that there’s no such thing as perfect, and let the process take the time the child needs to take. Some kids only need a few minutes, and others can work all day long.

The best things about this lesson: 1) It can work into any time of the year – holiday or not; 2) It’s cheap! ; 3) It’s easy to clean up; 4) It’s “green” – a lot of construction paper all ready includes recycled content.

And, for you career-focusing parents, this form of play has a future in it. It can lead to advanced occupations such as the fine art of paper-cutting (Scherenschnitte) fashion design, or even animation – in fact, break out the stop-motion camera if you’re so inclined and create a cartoon!”

Tags: advice, Life, Parenting, Teaching