On Tom Peter’s site the Renewal 50. Selected favourites:
Go to the nearest magazine shop. Now. Spend 20 minutes. Pick up 20-twenty!-magazines. None should be ones you normally read. Spend the better part of a day perusing them. Tear stuff out. Make notes. Create files. Goal: Stretch! Repeat… monthly… or at least bimonthly.
Go to the Web. Now. Relax. Follow your bliss! Visit at least 15 sites you haven’t visited before. Follow any chain that is even a little intriguing. Bookmark a few of the best. Repeat… once a week.
Take off this Wednesday afternoon. Wander the closest mall… for two hours. Note the stuff you like. (And hate.) Products, merchandising, whatever. Repeat… bimonthly.
Buy a packet of 3×5-inch notecards. Carry them around with you. Always. Record cool stuff. Awful stuff. Daily. Review your card pack every Sunday. (Obsess on this!)
Project stuck in a rut? Look through your Rolodex. Who’s the oddest duck in there? Call her/him. Invite her/him to lunch. Pick her/his brain for a couple of hours about your project.
Create a new habit: Visit your Rolodex. Once a month. Pick a name of someone interesting you’ve lost touch with. Take her/him to lunch… next week.
New habit: You’re in a meeting. Someone you don’t know makes an interesting contribution. Invite him/her to lunch… in the next two weeks.
You run across somebody interesting. As a matter of course, ask her (him) what’s the best thing she/he’s read in the last 90 days. Order it from Amazon.com… this afternoon.
Take tomorrow afternoon off. Rain or shine. Wander a corner of the city you’ve never explored before.
Go to the local Rite Aid. Buy a $2 notebook. Title it Observations I. Start recording. Now. Anything and everything. (Now=Now)
Read a provocative article in a business journal. Triggers a thought? E-mail the author. So what if you never hear back? (The odds are actually pretty high that you will. Trust me.)
Get up from your desk. Now. Take a two-hour walk on the beach. In the hills. Whatever. Repeat… once every couple of weeks. (Weekly?)
[via Esther Derby]
