May 30, 2011

Fear, Resistance, Stuckness and the Irresistible Draw of the Non-Urgent | Weekly Review #60

Here’s how it works:

1) You flail around for a time, not knowing what you’re doing, wondering if you’ll ever figure it out.

2) The haze lifts, it all miraculously starts to become clear, and you begin to lock in on a direction.

3) Now that you have a clear direction, not only do ideas start to pop like dried out corn kernels in hot oil, but your desire to get down the path already blooms into a breathless sense of urgency. (Insomnia optional, but frequently included.)

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Let me interrupt for a moment here to state that it works this way no matter what you’re creating: a new piece of art, a blog post, a new song, a direction for your business, a Halloween party…

Sometimes the intervals between 1, 2 and 3 above are excruciatingly long, sometimes they’re so short you barely notice them. But they’re always there.

And here’s what almost always comes next:

The Irresistible Draw of the Non-Urgent

Need to get a client project done?

Suddenly the kitty fluffs that have been multiplying on the rug for weeks must be vacuumed now.

Blog post overdue?

Suddenly your toenails, which have been neglected for months, require a pedicure right this minute.

Have a website to overhaul and a big, new thing to create?

Suddenly the rosemary bush out back, the one that’s been threatening to devour the entire rest of the yard for the past ~~6 9~~ 12 months must be clipped immediately!

(That last one? Um, yeah, that was me today.)

But wait, there’s more.

Life is complicated, and those urgent, important, cannot-wait-to-get-them-done projects have a way of layering themselves.

Take the big ones on my plate this week, both Action Studio-inspired:

Now that I have a clear message and direction for my business, I’m rarin’ to go on the new (briefly aforementioned) thingy I’m brewing up to get you off your good intentions and actually doing your creative thing.
And at the same time, now that I have a clear message and direction for my business, I was finally rarin’ to overhaul my website (also briefly aforementioned) to better reflect who I am and what I do.

If you’ve been here before, you may notice that I’ve made a tad bit of progress on the second bullet item above. As in a complete overhaul. (And yes, I’d love to hear what you think!)

Which effectively sucked all of my time and energy away from the first bullet item above.

And yet, I can’t really file this under the Irresistible Draw of the Non-Urgent, because getting my website clearer was actually a more urgent need than getting the new thingy done. Choosing to spend time on Urgent Project A over Urgent Project B is simply part of what I call Life and Business Triage.

Perhaps now that the website is, if not done (a website being always a work in progress), at least in a state of acceptable for now, perhaps now I can return my attention – finally – to the new thingy.

But let’s first return to our ordered list.

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Where were we? Oh, yes:

4) The Irresistible Draw of the Non-Urgent tugs at the hem of your clothes. (You may get a lot of cleaning or purging or other things you normally avoid done during this time, which is a lovely silver lining.)

5) You finally get to work, and hit:

The Wall of It-Will-Never-Be-Good-Enough

And here’s where you get to work on your stuff, as they say.

Hello Perfectionism, my old friend.

Thankfully, I’m getting better at sitting Perfectionism down with a cup of coffee and leaving it there while I get to work.

Affirmations help. In a guest-star matinee appearance for Action Studio last Wednesday, Kelly Kingman reminded us that perfect is the enemy of done. And as an ex-boyfriend of mine liked to say, better is better.

So…

6) Armed with these weapons against Perfectionism, you let go of perfect, get back to work (interspersed with repeated visits to #4 above) and let yourself get to done.

And maybe (in the case, say, of a website)…

7) You keep tweaking to make it better.

Rinse, lather, repeat.

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Fear and Resistance and Stuckness, Oh My!

Perfectionism and the Irresistible Draw of the Non-Urgent are just a couple of the many demons that get in the way. The new thingy I’m brewing up is like chain mail to help you past them – it maybe won’t kill them, but it will give you the confidence to get out of your cave and walk past them.

Or maybe a better metaphor (at least for we fair-weather Californians) is an umbrella or rain slicker. You actually doing your creative thing is like taking a walk in the rain. Without the proper gear, it’s just not gonna happen (at least in my world). But with warm clothes, a waterproof layer and a sturdy, wind-proof umbrella, a walk in the rain can be great fun!

You doing your creative thing, once you get going, is way more than great fun. It’s breathing. It’s love.

But you’ve gotta actually do it to get that.

I want this thingy I’m brewing up to help. (Hell, I’m going to use it to help me! That’s where all the daily art I make and the blog posts I write spring from – my desire to inspire myself!) So if you haven’t already let me know in a comment or email what gets in your way, and where you could use a boost, let me know!

Consider the thingy custom-tailored to your special requirements.

And in the meantime, comments on the new site are welcome too!

May 16, 2011

Insomnia, Action Studio, and Popcorn Epiphanies | Weekly Review #58

So how’m I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?

I just spent a week in a time machine.

At least that’s how it felt. The past seven days have gone by in a flash, but on the other hand it feels like last Monday was about a month ago.

Why? Well, Monday marked the start of Action Studio, an intensive course with Sinclair of Self-Activator to hone in on your brand and build a new income stream in 30 days.

Since then I’ve been immersed in exercises to discover my primary and secondary brand archetypes (Creator, flavored by Caregiver, Sage, Every Woman and Lover, if you’re curious), and wrap my head around how that applies to my business.

All with the support of the most loving, brilliant community of women + one guy I’ve ever encountered.

Did I mention it’s intense? Let me tell you: it’s intense.

As in epiphanies popping like popcorn. As in rethinking every single thing we’re doing, from the ground up. As in “cast members” regularly admitting to liberal doses of tears in between the excited revelations.

Yep, major shifts are happening, and it’s a glory to behold.

Want the inside scoop? Check out the gossip from the set, posted Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays by three of my amazingly talented fellow cast members over at the Action Studio site.

The downside of popcorn epiphanies

All this intensity has me bouncing off the walls with excitement as I bubble over with a new sense of clarity of purpose, direction, and ideas.

It also has me utterly exhausted, because when I get in a super-creative phase like this, my insomnia kicks in.

Insomnia. Sucks.

Sometimes, however, exhaustion is a gift. Kinda like getting walloped upside the head with a 2×4 by the Universe is a gift, if you’re willing to take the lesson such wallops are there to teach.

In this case, I’m getting clear that the overextended schedule I’ve been scrambling to keep up with is simply unsustainable.

Yes, I like being engaged in lots of projects. Yes, I prefer being busy to being bored, but this is ridiculous.

So tonight I made some decisions that have been brewing for months. Decisions I’ve been in conflict about, not yet ready to implement.

All of them aligned with my new, clearer-than-ever understanding of exactly what I want to be doing and with/for whom.

Do you know what it feels like to stand on bedrock? To stand right in your sweet spot?

Thanks to a mere week in Action Studio, that’s where I am on the inside. Finally.

It feels amazing.

Now my job is to bring my outside into alignment with my inside. In other words, I have a lot of work to do.

And given that I already have more work on my plate than any sane human would try to juggle at one time, it’s really, really clear that something has to give.

Destruction makes space for generation

Letting go of something (“destroying”) is always hard, even when you know it’s to make space for a bigger dream. But when your goal is to live the life you really, really want, not just the close-but-not-quite life, it’s gotta happen.

The only way to rock out the great is to let go of the good, dump the “almost right but not exactly.”

Scary, and painful, but true.

So watch for changes in this space.

And now I’m off to see if this is the night I finally beat the insomnia dragon. Hold a good thought…

April 27, 2011

Free Call: 3 Ways Creatives Stall Out Between Their Passion and a Lucrative Business

Note 4/28/11: The call with Sinclair already happened, BUT you can still sign up by clicking here and I’ll email you the recording. Major epiphanies were involved!

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Did you hear the news?

Tomorrow (Thursday) at 5pm PST I’m doing a special call with the brilliant Sinclair of Self Activator, and you’re invited! Register here to join us (it’s totally free, and if you can’t be live on the call, you’ll still get to hear the recording).

Sinclair will be talking about 3 ways she sees creative entrepreneurs stallout between the passion they’ve got, and a strategic lucrative biz that creates the impact they want. (Sound familiar?)

In other words, the stuff that keeps creatives stuck, poor and playing small. (Btw, watch for more on that theme real soon from these quarters… hint, hint…)

Plus I hear the call will reveal some backstage secrets from Action Studio, which is about to relaunch. And who doesn’t like secrets?

Oh, and Sinclair might even “hotseat” somebody – help you pinpoint ways you can get past your own stallouts. But of course you gotta be live on the call for that.

The backstory

(In case you haven’t read it already):

I’ve followed Sinclair over the past year, taken advantage of a number of her free offerings (and gotten enormous, mind-shifting value from them). I’ve watched her grow her business by being totally herself, and totally un-spammy.

I was impressed. More than impressed.

I wanted to be like her!

Or, well, not like her — I wanted to be totally me, but totally rockin’ it as me the way she’s totally rockin’ it as her. Capiche?

So when I decided it was time to level up my business and work with a coach, Sinclair was the one I chose to work with.

The plot

Part of that picture is that I’ll be a participant in Action Studio 2.0. I’m ready to take my creative biz to the next level, and I know Action Studio is gonna help me do that in a big way.

Of course, we’re all on different paths, and that’s cool. Not everyone is going to be in the right place for a course like Action Studio. I wasn’t, when it originally launched some months back. But you can learn a lot from seeing shifts that are happening for other people. Which is, of course, why I share so much about my own journey on this blog!

Plus with Sinclair, you can learn a lot from her free stuff! And she’s giving out free stuff like crazy right now, in the lead-up to the launch.

Including Tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) call. Hope you can make it!

I also strongly recommend you sign up to get your name on the door, so you can get all that free goodness for yourself. Today Sinclair sent a questionnaire that revealed what archetypes you most strongly resonate with, which got the wheels spinning in my head. (I’m a Creator/Caretaker. Surprised?)

The sub-plot

If you are in the right place to do Action Studio this time around, I’ll sweeten the deal by offering 3 hours of my time to drill down into your blocks, uncover your gifts, and strategize how to best use your passions to create total abundance in your life and biz. Plus I’ll include a year of access to the Thriving Artists Project for you or a friend.

At my current pricing, that’s almost $550 in added value. And priceless if you think about how much it will push you and your business forward.

Either way, sign up for the call and be ready to glean some awesomeness from it (and bring your questions). Can’t wait to see you there!

xo,
Melissa