RANA FLORIDA/UPGRADE: From Ordinary to Extraordinary 09/18/13

What could a graffiti artist, eminent neurologist, star athlete, celebrity chef, fashion designer, rocket scientist and Grammy award-winning musician possibly have in common?Julie Ann's ConsciousSHIFT guest, Rana Florida, author of UPGRADE: Taking Your Work and Life from Ordinary to Extraordinary, shares their formula with you, giving you the tools to achieve unimagined success in work and life. Julie Ann and Rana will explore the best practices - not just from CEO’s and business executives, but from entrepreneurs, innovative thinkers, and creative leaders - and their philosophies in simple and actionable terms that you can put to good effect immediately in your professional or personal life.Despite their vastly different backgrounds and skills, Rana's research shows that there are seven key principles to achieving your business and life goals.1. Envision the future2. Find your passion3. Get creative4. Design your time5. Collaborate6. Take risks7. Embrace failureUnfortunately, Rana highlights, this is exactly what the majority of us don’t do. Instead of developing a real strategy to upgrade and optimize our lives too many of us just slog through life in a state of ‘managed dissatisfaction’.The good new is, it is never too late to envision an entirely different future —or to actively upgrade your life. It’s not about finding more time, money or resources. Anyone can do it.Join Julie Ann and Rana to delve deep into these principles, giving you the insights, tools, and inspiration to take your life from ordinary to extraordinary.Rana Florida is CEO of the Creative Class Group, whose approach centers on the research of the urban theorist and CCG founder Richard Florida, a world-renowned thought leader on issues such as economic competitiveness, demographic trends, and cultural and technological innovation, and whose clients include BMW, Starwood, IBM, Philips, Zappos, and Johnson & Johnson. Rana writes the Huffington Post column, “Your Startup Life” and is a regular HGTV contributor. She has appeared on The Today Show and in The New York Times. She lives with her husband, Richard in New York, Toronto and Miami.