I’ve been spending a lot of time with Brené Brown lately.
(No, not in person; on my computer, thanks to a Udemy course.)
If you’re not familiar with Brené Brown, she’s the best-selling author of Daring Greatly, and an incredibly engaging speaker, with a couple of wildly viral TED videos.
Before she wrote her first book or spoke on the TED stage, however, she started out as a qualitative researcher, which means she interviews thousands of people, then analyzes her data to find patterns.
Over several years of research and a grillion interviews, Brown noticed that some people seemed to have a better capacity to engage more fully in life, to live with authenticity and embrace their imperfections.
In other words, instead of living in black and white, they were living full-color lives.
Brown set about to find the commonalities among these diverse people, tracking patterns with sticky notes all over her walls.
In her book, The Gifts of Imperfection, she shares what she discovered, laying out 10 Guideposts to Wholehearted Living — the behaviors, practices and approaches that Wholehearted people work to cultivate, and the corresponding behaviors, practices and approaches that they work to let go of in their lives.
Brené Brown’s
10 Guideposts for Wholehearted Living:
1. Cultivating Authenticity: Letting Go of What People Think
2. Cultivating Self-Compassion: Letting Go of Perfectionism
3. Cultivating a Resilient Spirit: Letting Go of Numbing and Powerlessness
4. Cultivating Gratitude and Joy: Letting Go of Scarcity and Fear of the Dark
5. Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for Certainty
6. Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison
7. Cultivating Play and Rest: Letting Go of Exhaustion as a Status Symbol and Productivity as Self-Worth
8. Cultivating Calm and Still: Letting Go of Anxiety as a Lifestyle
9. Cultivating Meaningful Work: Letting Go of Self-Doubt and “Supposed To”
10. Cultivating Laughter, Song and Dance: Letting Go of Being Cool and “Always In Control”
Did you notice numbers 6 and 7? (Yes, I bolded them for you. 🙂 )
This is important!
Wholehearted people cultivate creativity.
They practice letting go of comparison in order to cultivate creativity.
Wholehearted people cultivate play.
They practice letting go of exhaustion as a status symbol and productivity as self-worth in order to give themselves permission to play.
This is Research, Guys!
Remember, Brown did not pull these guideposts out of the air.
They emerged from her research as what Wholehearted people do.
Following these guideposts is how people become Wholehearted.
In other words, if you also want to live a wholehearted, full-color life, you cannot ignore or suppress your creative urges and stay mired in the Comparison Trap. Nor can you dismiss play as frivolous and lodge your self-worth in your productivity.
This is not easy.
When you’re immersed in a soup of “Go! Go! Go!” and surrounded by people who don’t value creativity or play, it is very hard to swim against the tide.
One thing that helps a lot is to have a community of kindreds.
A circle of people who get you, and who can reflect back to you that yes, it’s important for you to make time to create and play!
A circle of individuals, each modeling for everyone else, inspiring each other, encouraging each other, supporting each other.
When you know you’re not alone, and when you’re surrounded by people who are all doing exactly what you most long to do yourself, it becomes so. Much. Easier.
And when you see everyone else being vulnerable, sharing their creative work and their ideas, it makes it so much more inviting to start to share your own!
That’s why, as a Happiness Catalyst and Creativity Instigator, I prefer to create programs with a community element, rather than just selling DIY downloads.
(Believe me, the latter would be a lot easier. But it would also be a lot less satisfying.)
The reason I’m sharing all of this with you is that…
My next program is coming up on Tuesday:
Creative Sandbox 101
It’s just a week long, and the regular price is just $37 (or scroll down to the PS to see how you can get it for just $10!), but don’t let that fool you.
This little course has transformed hundreds of lives.
Over a thousand people have gone through it, in fact, and many have sent me raving thank-yous, like this one:
Thank you for what you gave here. It felt like being taken by the hand and being led past the shadowy places that sabotaged the joy of creating. My views have changed and helpful habits are now in place. You are an inspiration. Thank you!
-Antoinette
Isn’t it time to start living a more Wholehearted, full-color life?
Creative Sandbox 101 will help you kickstart Brené Brown’s guideposts #6 and #7, all in the span of a single week.
The next session runs Tuesday, July 14 through Monday, July 20.
It doesn’t take much time — I designed it to fit into busy schedules, so it doesn’t have to take more than about 15 minutes a day.
And remember, it’s only a week out of your life.
(And if you can’t put in 15 minutes a day for a week, you’re making an excuse, my dear.)
Plus you’ll have access to all the materials through the end of 2015.
If you want to join this session, though, don’t delay — register right now. The doors close at 6pm PT on Tuesday. Until then, you can snag a spot right here.
I hope to see you inside! Here’s to Wholehearted, Full-Color Living!
PS – Want to save $27? Listen to episode 001 or beyond of my new podcast, Live Creative Now, to find the secret link to get Creative Sandbox 101 for just $10!
PPS – Remember, class starts on Tuesday, and the shopping cart will close at 6pm PT.
