by Wendy Loft

Created on: September 07, 2006   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

When nothing's new, be it personal life or business, maybe there are parallel needs to be addressed in order to increase our success in managing those downtimes.

1. Develop your own creativity. Expand your mind and let it wander abit. Look around and assess what is working and what isn't out there. What are the needs of others, presently and in the future? Relisten to the complaints, ideas, and suggestions of others. Sometimes, our thinking becomes very "rigid" and "narrow", focused only on one area. Whether it's something new to stimulate your interest or the interest of others, you'll be more successful in doing that by allowing yourself the freedom to explore possibilities, which in essence also means broadening your focus and opening your mind.

2. Utilize the resources of other people, other cultures, just people or places outside of your immediate environment. Since each of us is, a one-of-a-kind, unique, as are the geographic locations throughout the world, engaging in observation and conversation with others will offer a different perspective or a different idea. Putting yourself in another location will offer you also, another view as you will need change in certain ways to "adapt" to your new surroundings.

Although this topic falls under "Business", I think one could (and I did) at first interpret the topic as relating to one's personal life. When I read "downtimes", I thought of depression or boredom, repetition, and when I read "what to do when nothing's new," I thought of boredom also. It wasn't until I read the other 2 responses here that I rechecked the "topic" and discovered it related to business. I thought about that and considered the similarities between "downtime" in one's personal or professional (business) life. So...I do see some parallels. I'm sure this topic will be better addressed by another writer and I'd like to see what others' think regarding management of "downtimes", if they agree that the solutions to management work for both business and personal "downtimes."

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