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Clarity, Compassion & Courage for a Creatively Successful 2014
Here’s something to snuggle up with!
This call was chock full of juicy exercises and ways to transform those boring old guilt-producing resolutions into living breathing guides fueled by your inner wisdom, that will kindly lead you into your new life.
Finally, click on the image below to watch the handy video on how to fold a paper crane if you need help completing the final call activity.
Happy New Year you Gorgeous Glimmering Gifted Beings!
How To Value (& Price) Your Creative Work
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5 Keys To Creativity, Courage, & Change
I believe this statement about vulnerability, and I try to live into it. Today is my turn to share some vulnerable storytelling that, I hope, will serve your creative dreams, help your boldness, and nudge you in the direction of the changes YOU need to make.
I got married about a month ago. It was gorgeous, love-infused, and such a gift! Then, we came home and dove head-long back into work. Only a couple of days later, we were both on the verge of a breakdown.
See, I have this TINY tendency to do too many things at once. And, by that, I mean that, in the past five months, we have moved across country, set up and opened a retail store, got married, planned a retreat I’m co-facilitating in a week, oh, and I’m now re-structuring and re-launching all my programs at the same time.
I do not recommend this approach.
But, I have learned from it and hope you can, too. Here are my top five insights from this time (and all that past wisdom I put aside for a while to engage in this wild ride).
5. Be a tortoise, not a hare (plod, plod, plod).
Multi-tasking prevents creativity. Focus encourages it. Do. One. Thing. At. A. Time. Or, as I heard in a wonderful interview some months back (also the name of a play): Here. This. Now.
One of my best work habits (to which I joyfully return this month) is sectioning off my schedule so large chunks of time are devoted to each area of my life, rather than skittering back and forth between them. For example, Wednesdays are for music. (I invite you to call me on this one if I’m getting distracted:).
4. Ask for help (and be willing to pay for it, if necessary)
This goes from everything to taking someone out for coffee (appropriate if you are new in town, want a friend/colleague, or are in a networking group together- not appropriate if you want them to do for a cup of coffee what they usually do for their livelihood) to joining a private coaching program, hiring a graphic designer, a publicist, or other professional.
I’m a recovering do-it-yourselfer (and I don’t mean those gorgeous greeting cards you made last week to send to your family for Christmas- I LOVE those!). I mean, doing absolutely everything myself, because I can figure it out, gosh darn it, and, besides, I’m broke and can’t afford to pay anyone anything. When I was living on less than $10,000 a year for ethical reasons, perhaps that held true. But now, well, really the moment I wanted to ask other people to pay for my help, that was the moment I needed a new story to guide my own actions.
And, I have a good one now, mostly, except for those moments I slip back into the old DIY broke scarcity story. Just like with any big change, it doesn’t magically all work all of the time after the first go. We will slip and fall off and have to gently pick ourselves up, clean and bandage the skinned knee, and lovingly help ourselves back into the new reality.
So, I have paid for coaching, for graphic design, for conferences and retreats, for sponsorship opportunities (tabling), for mastermind groups, for networking, and for training around specific leaps/skills I wanted to take with my work. It’s no different from paying for voice lessons or art classes. And, it tends to all cost less than grad school.
The real reason to do it, however, is it allows you to shine at what you do best while encouraging others to shine at what they do best. You also gain skills, meet people, gain fans, grow as a person, and have more fun doing it. And, you make leaps you could never have made on your own.
3. Cultivate honesty with yourself.
I spoke about this in the last message, but it bears repeating. When I get honest with myself (kind, gentle, but truthful), I can let go of all that anxious energy that comes in not really knowing or admiting what’s going on.
This has looked like re-evaluating my business budget and realizing that my overhead is higher than I thought (which explains why it’s been hard to put the amount we planned into the household account). Naming that and making a new plan around earning that much more was such a relief! No more secret shame spiral for not paying what I had promised to the household. A clear plan to earn the income.
This has also looked like seeing myself as a whole human being again, not just a work machine. Once I got honest that sitting in front of the computer all day wasn’t making me more productive, it was actually making me feel icky, then I could return to my previous holistic vision of myself. I take time to build friendships, take walks, have downtime (without feeling bad about it), and do life-affirming activities, knowing they all feed into my success as a human. And, you know what, it has made my work time more productive! Bonus!
2. Let go when it’s time to let go.
I had an incredible time in the woods with my oh-so-gifted co-facilitator for the Space To Create Retreat last week, but that took some letting go for me to get there.
Why? Well, remember that stunning list of things we’ve done and huge life changes we’ve made in the past five months (while I was planning and inviting people to this retreat)? Well, all that means I didn’t spend as much time focusing on giving you lovely people the chance to know about and attend the retreat. This means we are going to have a tiny, gorgeous intimate group rather than the big round circle of participants we imagined when we began planning.
And, that took some adjustment of expectations, some letting go, and some basic gratitude practice for the people who will be there sinking into the quiet inspiration of the space, the instruction and each other. But, after that I was able to be so excited to have that quiet sinking time myself and to share that with these precious few. It is just what I need.
1. Be bold!
This leads to my number one insight. Be bold! Dare greatly! Step out!
Even if you do it all wrong, you are building the groundwork for future success, and, if you are willing to be vulnerable and in-process about it, you can help others along the way. While I don’t recommend my approach to the last five months, there are many reasons I made the choices I did at the time. And, I don’t regret them. I will not take that path again, but glorious things have emerged from that time and they brought me here, to a beautiful town full of creative people I am slowly getting to know. They have helped my new husband bring his store to life.
They have helped me to be willing to re-invent and improve my programs, so I can offer you things like the:
- 6-week Jumpstart Your Inner Fire Program to launch your creative dreams into the world,
- Love Your Livelihood Program for job-seekers, career-changers, and those ready for their next phase,
- New and improved SPARK Program (click here to join our free open SPARK Creative Community Call this Thursday, October 3rd and to join our list for all the program details).
In the end, I learn best by doing and I have learned a lot this year. That said, I am happy to share that with you, so your road can be a bit easier!
What have you discovered? What questions do you have? I invite you to share your thoughts as comments.
Friends Make Everything Better
It’s true. I’m especially grateful to my friends and family having celebrated my own wedding with them just last week and feeling fully loved and cared for by community.
In honor of that love, I wanted you to be able to get your creativity on WITH the support of a friend. Join us for the Space To Create Retreat and bring a friend along. When you do, you’ll become a new best friend. If you split the cost, you will both save OVER $300 on your registration, room, and board! Click below to get started.
Your Space To Create [Registration Now Open!]
Birth Your Creative Dreams
Thank you for sharing with your friends in southern Oregon and northern California.
Look for details about a juicy retreat that I’ll be co-facilitating in September very soon! Meanwhile, mark your calendars for September 26th-29th and plan to join us. You won’t regret it.
Are Your Creative Projects Stuck In The Womb?
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The Virtue of Change & Stability For Your Creativity
Since I’ve spent the past month and a half in a mad dash to move across country and help my fiancé open a spice and tea store, I’ve been thinking a lot about change, stability and how they relate to our creative lives. If you are in the midst of upheaval or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, worried that your life is too predictable, journey with me this week through the virtues of change AND stability.
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INSPIRATION
As a kid, I never understood how someone could want to live in the same town their entire lives. We moved several times, both in and out of town, and I found it stimulating, exciting and educational- perhaps a testament to my parents’ approach. That said, the town in which I mostly grew up was just such a place that people lived out their entire lives quite happily. Even a number of my friends who went away to college ended up back there afterward.
I took a very different path, headed to college half-way across the country, then moving from place to place, in and out of the country. I discovered stories, wrote songs, met new friends, and stayed inspired. It seemed like the ideal milieu for a rich and productive creative life and, having little if no rent to pay made it possible for me to live as an artist. Only years later, while touring full-time around the country, not spending more than a few days in each place, that I discovered the virtue of stability.
One of the joys of touring as a solo artist is long stretches of quiet in the car. I found myself turning to audio-books. This one, I accidentally discovered in a discount book store in North Carolina. It was Kathleen Norris’ book, Acedia & Me. In this unexpected exploration of an archaic relative of depression, I ran into the monastic virtue of stability. This was not the stagnation of a life lived by others’ expectations that I deplored. It was a kind of quiet rebellion, a commitment to one’s callings despite what the world demands and a groundedness my life was sorely lacking. Something deep within me leaped up in recognition and longing.
It would be a while yet until I began to understand the power of stability for creativity, however. In fact, while I have seen that in the lives of some of my favorite musicians, artists, and writers, it is only now, in the midst of incredible change and transition that I see myself moving into a calm still place, the kind of stability that will allow me to connect to the source of creativity every single day, with a joyous predictability that turns my craft from happy accident to profession. I have had glimpses of this and notice my songwriting increase exponentially during these periods of stability.
The key, then, is stability without stagnation. New research is emerging on how to prevent, if not Alzheimer’s, then at least standard dementia, and going outside of one’s routine, getting together with friends regularly and learning new things are keys to staying mentally fit as a fiddle. These are also the keys to staying inspired and having plenty of mulch out of which your creative seeds can grow strong, tall and beautiful.
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CREATIVE ACTION
You don’t need to move every 9 months or change relationships like outfits to have plenty of good material, though. This is an invitation to go deep.
You may discover that change, while an important virtue to a rich creative life, might not need to be drastic to be powerful.
Oh, and let us know what you discover on my Facebook Page, won’t you?
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5 Ways To Recharge Your Creativity
Whether your creative work is “just” for fun or whether it is your livelihood, you know that making things, whether that is writing, painting, ceramics, jewelry, theater, cooking, or any other creative act is something that RENEWS your energy, REFRESHES your senses and REFUELS your life.
So, what happens when you just can’t find the oomph, the time, the energy, the ideas, the space, the income, the recognition, the fans, the meaning, the impact or the reasons to create? What happens, in short, when February hits?
If you know, right now, that you could use a recharge to re-spark and renew your creative life, move projects along, leap over blocks and get yourself going again, click here to register for the Dream To Done Deep Dive Retreat in Tucson on Saturday, March 2nd. We’ve even created a very affordable rate that’s good through this weekend. Read on for details.
And, read on for ways to loosen up and exercise those creative muscles right now.
5 Ways To Recharge Your Creativity
5. PLAY
Especially if you are a professional creative, but also if you are an expert amateur, it is easy to get into a routine with your work. Regain your sense of play by trying something new, working outside of your medium, looking at it from a new perspective. In short, be a child. Do the unexpected, the silly. Make the beginner’s mistakes. Regain your naive audacity, as one of my wonderful clients calls it.
We will take time to play together during the Dream To Done Deep Dive Retreat!
4. PERMISSION
If you’ll believe yourself, give yourself permission to create. If you won’t believe yourself, call someone and have them give you permission. Some of us know, after hard experience, that we will very nearly go mad (and drive everyone around us crazy) if we don’t create something on a regular basis (at least weekly). If it’s been more than a week, make something! If you’re having trouble, do something completely different than “the project” on which you have been working. If you are a musician, collage a card. If you are a visual artist, choreograph a dance to a favorite song. If you are a parent, write an article on a grown-up subject. It may just refresh you enough to get back to “your” work and, as a bonus, give you a new take on it.
It is so much easier to feel we have permission when we are together! At the retreat, we will give each other permission, celebration, encouragement and move from crazy to creating together.
3. SUN & HEALTH
It’s pretty hard to muster energy for anything if you’re not healthy and winter can be a tricky time for that. Here are some ways to stay healthy, energetic and inspired to create.
Get outside and soak up the sun. Also, be sure to take a well-made Vitamin-D supplement, especially all winter. Eat lots of fruits, vegetables, plant proteins, and whole grains. And, supplement wisely every day. Sleep enough (most people need 7-9 hours every single night). Move your body. Even a short daily walk can keep you healthy, and your ideas flowing. Wash your hands with soap and water. Drink lots of hot tea, water, and other healthy beverages.
We will be practicing these wonderful healthy habits together as well as having lots of fun at the Dream To Done Deep Dive Retreat.
2. SUPPORT
Enough toiling in your tower all alone!! While solo time is invaluable for creative work (and we’ll have plenty of time and space for that at the retreat), having a supportive creative community beyond friends and family is the KEY to keeping going when things get tough, to having folks around who understand you and to getting your work out, increasing your income, fans, recognition and all of that joyfully. Oh, and it also helps to have mentors who can share strategies for getting through the sticky icky tough times and give you tool to take home and use again and again. So, come find your community and your mentors in Tucson. Or, if you can’t make it, click here to claim a chat with me about getting the support you need wherever you are.
1. TIME & SPACE
We have arrived at the number one way to recharge your creativity this spring. It is simple, but not always easy. Claiming the time and space to do your work can often feel like it’s competing with family, other work, relationships, housework, and more. But, without that time and space, there won’t be any creative work. Your voice will be silenced. Your message will not be heard. Your vision won’t be seen. And, perhaps more importantly, your health, relationships, productivity and income will all be negatively impacted.
So, this is important! Convert a spare bedroom or closet into a creative space. Get away to a local library or coffeehouse. Set aside a chunk of time on your calendar every week. Take regular retreats in which you get out of your space and focus on your work. Of course, you are encouraged to join us for the Dream To Done Deep Dive Retreat in Tucson, but I fully endorse lots of other retreat options, including solo and self-created ones. I’ve been building my own retreats for years and there is nothing quite like leaving home, leaving town, and getting time, space and perspective without your family, to-do list and electronic interruptions following you. I’m happy to recommend my favorite retreat locations if you’d like.
Most of all, remember to create, make, envision, bring to life, and share your gifts, your art, your creativity! The world needs it and your life will be better for it.
Happy creating!
PS- That lovely rate I mentioned is only $97 for TWO (you and a friend, love, colleague, neighbor), which includes your lunch, snacks, materials, guidance, space, and a bonus evening session. But, it will go up as of Monday, the 25th, so be sure to register today and claim your spot (because there are limited spaces available).
There is an absolutely stellar group of creatives gathering and I know you’ll want to be among them, soaking up their inspiring, funny, wise, and quirky vibe and sharing yours. You’ll go home refreshed, renewed, excited, connected, supported, celebrated, focused, and with a whole lot done on a creative project or business.
Snoopy On Overcoming Creative Blocks
So, we’ve nearly come to February. The shine of New Year’s Resolutions is wearing thin and the primal grizzly bear urge to hide on the couch under a blanket until Spring is going strong. I’ve been feeling it, too, and not for the first time!
I shared some wisdom with my Inner Fire, Outer Light posse earlier this week and wanted to pass along the love to you as I know we’re not the only ones suffering from the urge to hibernate! Let me know how it goes by sharing on the Facebook Page, won’t you?
“You cannot allow yourself to get overtired, underfed or to lose your sense of humor. If you do, the whole thing will fall apart.
“So even though it might seem backwards, you must rest MORE now, OK?” -Samantha Bennett
CREATIVE ACTION
The key here is micro-action, then celebration. Nothing is too small.
1. Begin with the basics
Eat, sleep, exercise. Don’t neglect any of these. Again, micro-action. If you’ve suddenly become a couch potato, don’t plan to run 5 miles a day. Simply get out of the house a talk a short walk once a day to start. Then, celebrate!
2. Celebrate every action
Find small ways to celebrate. Post it on Facebook or email a friend. Make yourself your favorite kind of tea. Call a good friend. Pet your cat or dog for a few minutes. Say nice things to yourself. Get a good hug. Dance around the living room to your favorite song.
3. Creative Diversion
If you want to lounge and watch TV, instead, try taking down the instrument or pen or needle and make something for 5 minutes. I’m serious, just five minutes. Play one song. Write a stream-of-consciousness poem. Stitch one seam. Then, celebrate!
You may continue if you wish.
4. Micro-burst of Action
If you’re working on the business end of your creative life, it may seem ideal to make a list of 30 potential clients, then pick up the phone and call all of them. Truth be told, you will mostly leave messages, so this might only take 60-90 minutes and if you can do it that way, bravo!
But, for the rest of us mortals, here’s another path.
Make one call.
That’s it. Keep it simple. Use a script and leave that voicemail. Then, celebrate.
If you want to continue, go right ahead, but not before doing a little happy dance :).
I don’t say this to be silly, but because, just in order to pick up that phone in the first place, I want to acknowledge those of you who had to wriggle your way out of the straight-jacket of your fears, self-criticisms, external messages, and so much more. Just to pick up that phone and dial (and then not hang up until you left a message) was a victory! And, victories ought to be celebrated!
Plus, then you know you can do it again and that’s pretty helpful when your goal is to actually SHARE your creative gifts with a world hungry for them.
Ready to share your struggles and micro-celebrations in a Creative Community?
Ready for an advocate and guide for your creative work to finally produce the income, recognition, fans, and impact you’ve been longing after?
I have opened up a few spaces this week (they vanish February 1st!) to help you gain clarity, direction and connection to the resources you need to move your creative life forward. Click here to claim yours today!
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