baby steps Archives - Melissa Dinwiddie | Create the Impossible™

April 24, 2014

Epiphanies, Embarrassing Pictures, & a Big Announcement

A couple of years ago I ran a clutterbusters pilot program, and successfully cleaned out some big clutter “hotspots” in my house, including my closet, my bathroom cabinets and drawers, my nightstand, and several kitchen drawers and cupboards.

Unfortunately, I ran out of steam before I could tackle the Really Big Hotspot: the studio.

AKA the Studio of Doom. It was just too daunting to tackle at the time.

I learned a lot from that clutterbusters pilot program experiment, though. In particular, I learned these two things:

1) For true BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals), if I want dramatic results, I tend to be most successful when I commit to short bursts, rather than long hauls.

(For better or worse, I’m a creator, not a maintainer.)

2) I get approximately 5,000 times more done when I gather a community around me to join in.

(The energy of the group fires me up and keeps me going, and it holds me accountable! When I’m on the hook to show up, and to report back what I’ve done, I actually do it.)

I also already knew that

3) All enormous projects are attainable, if they’re chunked out into small enough baby steps,

Armed with this knowledge, I didn’t need genius powers of deduction to realize that if I ever wanted to tackle the Studio of Doom, I’d have the best chance of success by:

1) Setting a time-limited goal,

2) Chunking my BHAG into digestible tasks,

and

3) Gathering a community around me.

So it was, with these three points in mind, that the Great ClutterBust was born!

The Great ClutterBust: Spring Cleaning on Turbo!

I declared April as my Month to ClutterBust the Studio of Doom, and I invited anyone who wanted to join me, for whatever price they wanted to pay. 31 women jumped in, and we’ve been having a big, ol’ spring-cleaning party!

At least two or three times a week we meet up virtually at pre-scheduled ClutterBust sessions, where we check in to share our goal for the session, then head off to bust clutter, then report back again at a designated time. Plus there are additional ClutterBust sessions inside our Facebook group, as well as lots of “spontaneous clutterbustion.”

It’s remarkably fun (who knew clutterbusting could be fun?), and though we still have a week left, the results have already been astounding!

Watching everyone’s clutter fly out the door has inspired the heck out of me — as expected — and knowing everyone else is watching my progress has kept me on track.

I’m not alone, either; a common refrain in our check-in calls is, “I never would have gotten this done today if it hadn’t been for this call.”

Amen.

The really cool thing, though, is that the impact of clutterbusting has been so much more profound than merely clearing physical space. “I feel like I can breathe again!” people are reporting. “I feel a new sense of freedom, hope, and possibility for my life!”

Amy shared that clearing up her accumulated clutter has opened up space for her to think better about her health — her health, people! — and she’s now taking better care of body, and her whole being, thanks to the Great ClutterBust.

Kristie has experienced similarly dramatic results in unexpected areas of her life:

When I started the Great Clutterbust, I was filled with questions about whether my relationship should be busted as well. Cleaning out brought up some serious relationship questions as well. Turns out that ” taking it off the table” in the physical world helped us take things off the table relationship wise and clear the air as I cleared the house. Much sweat and two big SUV full of get rid of’s later, I feel so much cleaner inside, happier with my self, family/ relationship and home. The emotions and the clutter were blocking me worse than I suspected. It’s been a pleasure to sit together in our clean den and work on our creative projects!

Cool, huh?

Stephanie wrote:

Every time I throw something out, I feel like a pound of weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I feel connected and supported as I declutter, which has turned out to be much harder and more emotional than I realized. Knowing I’m not alone in this has been gold. The activity in the group is also a gentle reminder to keep decluttering a priority, so I don’t give up or put it off YET AGAIN. I’m getting clarity on how I want to transform my space to better support me, both in how I want to live and what I want to accomplish. I am literally clearing out the space to live my dreams.

And Allison shared the following:

For years my office/studio/guest bedroom/exercise room was also the junk room. A cluttered, inhibiting, disorganized space that accomplished none of its purposes. I had committed to cleaning and reorganizing it yet again, and not done anything, out of fear nothing would be accomplished in the long run.
This group gave me the support and impetus to jump in. Once I got going, my husband caught my enthusiasm, and it evolved from a clutter bust to a major repurposing (including some minor renovations).
Now it almost feels like we built an addition. We took two rooms that were ignored and avoided and reclaimed them as beautiful, functional spaces we are spending quality time in developing our hobbies.

These kinds of transformations make me absolutely giddy!

As for me, I had a big epiphany about why I’ve never been able to create the beautiful, inspiring workspace I’ve always longed for.

Yes, strangely enough, the room where I make art (and spend about 90% of my life at this computer!) has always been purely utilitarian, almost entirely devoid of aesthetic intention.

Considering that I’m an artist, and highly attuned to aesthetics, this is weird, no?

As I liberated surfaces and airspace, it occurred that although I have no problem creating beauty and order when others will directly benefit from (my art, music, classes, writing, etc.), I have never given myself permission to create beauty for which I am the only direct beneficiary. It’s as if there were literally no space for me to even think about what kind of space I would like to be creating in!

Perhaps more profoundly, I suddenly realized that surrounding myself in a sea of clutter has been a form of constant self-punishment.

It’s a vicious cycle: clutter triggers hopelessness and self-disgust, which triggers a self-punishing attitude, which triggers more clutter, and so on, in an endless loop.

Interrupting this cycle has finally opened a space for some self-compassion.

Clearing my clutter has liberated a new sense of permission to focus energy and attention not just on getting rid of excess, but on truly beautifying my space. For the first time ever I can actually think about how I want my space to look and feel, and I’ve been having such fun channeling creative energy into redesigning my floor plan, researching air-filtering (and non-toxic to cats!) plants to bring green inside, and brainstorming Ikea hacks for replacing my old furniture with sleek, new pieces that will not just function beautifully, but will delight me in the process.

None of this would have happened without the Great ClutterBust. I am so very grateful to each and every one of the clutterbusters in that group — your energy, ladies, fired me up to do the impossible!

Epiphanies (& Commitment Anxiety!)

As I’ve been clearing physical stuff out of my space, it’s made me think about the mental stuff that needs clearing too. Unfinished business, hanging over my head, weighting me down just as much as the pounds of stuff I’ve been piling in boxes and shlepping down the stairs, out the door, and into my car.

Unfinished business like the book I decided I wanted to write back in 2012.

Yes, I started working on it in earnest maybe (ahem) a year and a half ago, then shelved it “temporarily” while I was building out the content for Your Big, Bold, Creative Life Academy.

Given that the book is essentially the Academy in book form, it made logical sense for me to shelve it for a bit. After all, I’m not a superhuman, and working on two supremely time-consuming BHAGs at one time is crazy. Plus the Academy content would feed into the book content and ultimately help me write the book.

But shelving the book for “a bit” stretched out into almost a year, and is threatening to stretch into forever if I don’t do something about it!

So, taking a page from the Great ClutterBust, I decided to run a similar program, to help me get to “Done!” on a complete first draft of my book.

Egad — it’s making me sweat to state this publicly. I’m literally feeling a hot flush as I write this!

The same thing happened when I announced the Great ClutterBust. “Holy sh#t!” I remember thinking, “What the #*&% am I doing?! Can I pull this off? What if I fail? No! No! NOOOO! I don’t want to commiiiiiiit!!!”

Believe me, I’m thinking exactly the same things right now…

I take this as a good sign. Remember: the most important thing is to get comfortable with discomfort. I pushed through my commitment anxiety with the Great ClutterBust, and look what I’ve managed to accomplish:

Studio of Doom, before (June 2011):

And after:

Studio, after (in-process) — Ta da! Studio, after. Still in process, but waaaaay better. Studio of Doom no more! 🙂

Studio Closet of Doom, before (June 2011):

Studio Closet of Doom, June 2, 2011 — Studio Closet of Doom, before (June 2, 2011).

And after:

Studio closet, after (in process) — Studio closet, after. Still in process, but waaaaay better! Not only can we actually walk inside, but we can put the exercise bike in and pull it back out with ease.

Corner and Shelves of Doom, before:

Storage Desk of Doom, before — Storage Desk and Shelves of Doom, before.

And after:

Mini-desk, after (in process) — Storage desk and shelves, after (still in-process — desk soon to be swapped out for sleek, new storage units!) (And doesn’t that desk look like a furniture painter’s dream? If I were into refurbishing furniture, this piece would be a treasure!)

Taboret Corner of Doom, before:

And after:

Taboret corner, after. Still in-process — soon to be joined by sleek, new storage units to replace the hand-me-down mini desk.

This just utterly delights me!

Taboret top, after. (Wish I'd gotten a good close-up shot of the "before" - it was truly the Taboret of Doom...) — Taboret top, after. Ahhhh! 🙂

Pretty cool, huh? Again, these “after” pics are really “mid-stage” pics, because a lot of this furniture is going away (after I find new homes for them — the artisan built maple computer desk, the fixer-upper vintage student desk, AND my Epson 7600 wide-format printer [not pictured here] are all for sale, in case you’re interested!) Project Studio Makeover continues, and naturally, I’ll share more pics down the road as I have them.

Meanwhile…

Announcing Finishing Blitz!

Starting on May 1, I’m running a 6-week program based on the format of the Great ClutterBust, called Finishing Blitz, and I invite you to join me! This is a great opportunity for you to get to DONE on whatever project(s) you wish. Some ideas include:

Finish the book already (that’s me…)
Get your online store up and running.
Clutterbust your garage.
Finally finish all those yarn UFOs (UnFinished Objects) in your closet.
Pull out those canvases you were never happy with and turn them into something new!
Overhaul your filing system.

Really, anything goes! If it’s been hanging over your head, now’s the time to get it done!

Here’s how this is going to work:

• For the six weeks starting Thursday, May 1, I will be adhering to a regular writing schedule to work on my book. These work sessions will start off as 9:00am-11:00am PT / 12:00pm-2:00pm ET, every day but Tuesdays (and certain travel days). I reserve the right to change these times, if I feel it will result in better work or quality of life. (They may, for example, move to 10:00am-12:00pm PT / 1:00pm-3:00pm ET).

• Anyone who’d like to join me for those regular work sessions will be able to log or dial into a special conference room for a brief check-in/rally. This will force me to be at the computer, ready to go, at 9:00am PT every day (and honestly, it’s hella terrifying me!)

• For those who aren’t available for morning Pacific Time time slots (or for eager beavers who just want more), I will also facilitate hooking people up in small groups according to your schedule. We’ll collect everyone’s available work times, and I’ll create a Master Calendar for everyone to consult. (I expect we’ll tweak this system as we go, fyi. I don’t have this part 100% figured out yet, but I’m sure we’ll make it work! :))

• I’ll also lead a weekly rally — a live call at 4:00pm PT / 7pm ET every Monday — to help you clarify your goals, break your project into digestible chunks, assign time to each chunk, receive support, and celebrate progress; plus an opening rally on May 1 and a closing rally on June 11, also at 4:00pm PT / 7pm ET (8 calls total).

• Rallies will all be recorded. Work session check-ins will not.

• We’ll all be able to connect, share, lend support, cheer each other on, and celebrate victories in a private Facebook group, just for Finishing Blitzers.

• YOU name the price you want to pay. To give you some perspective, Finishing Blitz is 6 weeks, with 8 live rally calls. I run 4-week programs with just three live calls, for $99, so $149 would be a steal, but you get to decide what that glorious feeling of completion is worth to you . (Or what you can afford, if it’s worth a lot more than you’ve got in your wallet.)

If you want to be generous, you might want to pay $199, or $299, or $399. If money’s tight, you might pay $49 or $79. The average payment for the Great ClutterBust was $50, so since Finishing Blitz is 50% longer than the Great ClutterBust, a commensurate average would be $75.

Everything starts next Thursday, May 1, with a work session at 9:00am PT / 11:00am ET, and an opening rally at 4:00pm PT / 7:00pm ET.

Wanna join me? Click here to jump in!

Now I’m off to get some much-needed rest…

PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

October 17, 2012

Tapioca Pudding, Gremlins & Game of Thrones

Last Friday I flew home from two amazing weeks in Turkey, where I made a long-held dream come true.

You’d think that coming home from my Playing Around Istanbul creativity workshop would find me filled with inspiration and rarin’ to go. After all:

I just had a 2-week break from “regular life, in one of the most inspiring cities in the world.
(I should be refreshed and ready to charge ahead, right?)
I just had the amazing experience of successfully bringing to life a project that I and my partner and fellow Poobah of Play, Kelly, have been working on for a year.
(I have proof that I/we can do this, and do it well. My enhanced confidence should propel me forward, right?)
I even had four days of genuine vacation after the workshop was over, in one of the most inspiring cities of the world.
(Sheesh — I had a vacation! I really should be refreshed, right?)

In truth, instead of revved up, I feel like I’m slogging through a vat of tapioca pudding.

The sight of my list of Projects I Really Want To Make Happen exhausts more than inspires me. All I really want to do right now is read Game of Thrones.

I feel pulled in a thousand different directions, unsure of my next steps. I know what my overall mission is (empowering people to follow their creative callings, while also following my own, of course!), but the how and what of it feel like a chaotic black hole.

Meanwhile — ironically enough, after the success of the workshop — my gremlin voices are telling me that I’m a failure, that I’ll never reach the big goals that I have for myself and my business. (Oh, those gremlins are a laugh-riot, aren’t they? [She says in a voice dripping with sarcasm.])

Thankfully, almost 46 years on the planet have taught me a lot of things. [BTW, did you know I’m running a birthday campaign to bring clean water to those who need it? I’m giving up my birthday for charity: water, and I’m giving gifts to everyone who donates! Click here.] At this point in my life, feelings are rarely brand new — whatever the feeling, I’ve almost always experienced something similar before. And I’ve learned that feelings don’t always jibe with reality.

Here’s what I know to be true:

There’s almost always some period of let-down after reaching a big goal.
(It eventually passes.)
The slog/stuckness/black hole feeling always precedes a creative flourishing.
(We think that the stuck is a block to creativity, but in fact it’s an essential part. Getting through the stuck IS the creativity!)
Gremlins get loudest whenever you step outside your comfort zone.
(Anytime you accomplish a big goal, you’ve just expanded your comfort zone, so it makes sense your gremlins would be overexcited, yelling untruths in a desperate attempt to shrink back the borders and keep you in your place.)

Twenty years ago I ~~might~~ would have been paralyzed by my sloggy, stuck feeling and gremlin chatter. I’d have read these feelings as a stop sign.

Today, I know they’re just part of the process. Not a message to stop, but perhaps to yield. I know I have to allow myself space between projects. I get to take transition time and I don’t get to beat myself up for it. Trying to brute force my way forward doesn’t work. But neither does collapsing in a heap, surrendering to the gremlins and giving myself up as a failure.

The key (as in most things, I keep discovering) is self-awareness and self-compassion.

Self-awareness is: “What do these feelings remind me of? What do I know to be true?” (See the three points directly above.)

Self-compassion is: accepting where I am and treating myself with love and kindness, rather than beating myself up for not being different than I am.

When I understand that the let-down and slog and gremlins are all part of the process, it makes it ever so much easier to keep moving forward.

I know the stuck and sloggy feeling doesn’t herald the end of my creative life, but rather the start of the next chapter.

So while I ease back into life in Silicon Valley, I’m allowing myself time to cozy up with Game of Thrones and giving myself space to be slow and sloggy.

I always say that everything gets done baby step by baby step, and that includes slogging your way through a vat of tapioca pudding.

Might as well bring a spoon and enjoy the ride.

PS — Pssst! Know someone who might benefit from seeing this today? Pass it on!

Image by Andrea_Nguyen at Flickr

December 12, 2010

Weekly Review #36: Disassembling My Empire of Slobbishness One Brick at a Time

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?

First, can I just say, vacations are awesome!

After pulling more 18-hour days than I can count getting the Thriving Artists Project (pre- or whatever) launched, it was great to get a (partial) weekend away. And totally unplugged, no less.

When you love what you’re doing, 18-hour days are really not so onerous. But still, a body needs a break after awhile.

I confess, my San Francisco weekend was, in fact, a working vacation, but given that the work I was paid to do was singing, it was about as non-onerous a working vacation as you could ask for.

Add to this a delightful Friends of Calligraphy slide lecture by the amazingly talented and always entertaining Carl Rohrs on Saturday afternoon, and lunch at the Moss Room and a trek through the Rainforest Dome in the Academy of Sciences today, followed by a holiday party for my yoga studio, and really, I couldn’t ask for a better partial weekend getaway.

I did find it rather amusing, though, that, being unable to get online, I dreamed about being online.

Tells you something about my headspace.

So that’s a big thing to be pleased about: I got a really fun little break. Plus I got to dress up all diva-like and perform (I even glammed up my knee brace with a sparkly gift-wrap bow), and I got paid well for it, to boot.

Meanwhile, I’m charging ahead with the Thriving Artists Project, gathering up lesson ideas from my Ground Floor Inner Circle members’ comments and discussions in the Forums, and having fun listening to all the interviews already in the can as I go back and edit them for posting.

And I’m charging ahead with 365 Days of Genius, starting to load up guest posts, my posts and resources, ramping up for the January 1 launch.

But what I really want to talk about is something much smaller… but in the long run much bigger.

How do you build an empire? One brick at a time.

Every big project I’ve ever tackled in my life has been accomplished not overnight, but over time, with a series of tiny little baby steps.

This is true of becoming a gigging jazz singer.

This is true of learning to play an instrument.

This is true of this (continually in-process) website.

This is true of the (also in-process) Thriving Artists Project.

This is true of 365 Days of Genius.

This is true, as I said, of every big project I’ve ever taken on.

And yet, somehow, there’s one project that has until now utterly eluded me.

I’m not talking about my plans for World Domination.

No, I’m talking about something much more daunting indeed:

The Ginormous Studio-Overhaul & Makeover

Confession: I am a slob.

Okay, not a Rotting-Food-On-Countertops kind of slob, or a Collections-Of-Junk-Piled-To-The-Ceiling packrat kind of slob.

Just your garden variety Can’t-Quite-Seem-To-Maintain-Order-In-My-Studio kind of slob.

My mountains of papers-to-file are invariably spiraling out of control; my drawers and cupboards are years overdue for a good purge and sort; my shelves and my desk top are, well, just kind of a mess.

I know that when I’m surrounded by order I feel more productive, more competent, more “together,” and just plain better. But honestly, just thinking about trying to tackle the mountain of disorganization that is my studio makes me so exhausted that I inevitably just give up.

Perhaps the Big One (earthquake, that is, me being in California and all) will strike before I have to deal with it, and solve the problem for me.

Or maybe elves will come in the middle of the night and blowtorch everything, leaving me a hefty check to pay for building a brand new studio (of course).

Yeah, right.

The reality is, if I want an airy, spacious, uncluttered studio space, I’m going to have to create it myself. A task which is as daunting as the idea of building Rome, brick by brick.

Except in this case it’s more like disassembling Rome, brick by brick.

The Chin-Up Bar Method

With Susan‘s help, I came up with a plan that may, I believe, actually result someday in the air, spacious, uncluttered studio space I dream of.

Some background: back when I was taking aerial arts, I installed a chin-up bar in my apartment. Even though I haven’t done aerials in years (alas, money/time issue), the chin-up bar remains, a testament to my ongoing dream of getting back my short-lived ability to do a real-live pull-up.

The problem, of course, is that just having a chin-up bar does not lead to the ability to do a pull-up. You’ve got to use the damn thing.

And when my exercise options were severely limited after my recent knee injury and surgery, out of desperation to keep myself from morphing entirely into a computer chair potato, I instituted the practice of using the chin-up bar, even just for one “shrug” or partial pull-up, every time I passed through the studio door.

To help me remember to maintain this practice, I tied a piece of string to the bar, which dangles in front of my face, right in the middle of the doorway.

This little trick works. The rule is, as long as I’m not carrying something easy to put down, I use the bar every time I pass through the doorway.

No, I’m not doing a real-life pull-up yet, but I’m definitely stronger, and I have hope that a real-life pull-up is in my future again, as long as I keep up this little practice.

The beauty of it is, my pull-up practice is incorporated seamlessly into my day, in tiny little bits and snatches. It doesn’t feel like “exercise” that way, or like some onerous task I’ve assigned myself, but rather “hey, let’s do a partial pull-up!”

It’s actually kind of fun!

The Baby-Step-By-Baby-Step Plan

So what does this have to do with my Ginormous Studio Overhaul and Makeover?

At Monday’s session with Susan, we came up with a strategy, based on my chin-up bar practice, that might just work.

There are two rules only:

4 days a week, I spend 15 minutes purging and sorting my studio. That’s one hour a week, but broken up into smaller, 15-minute chunks, which feel a lot less daunting.
Every time I enter the studio, I deal with one piece of paper. Just one piece. Filing, recycling, whatever. To remind myself, I’ve tied a ribbon onto the string dangling from the middle of my chin-up bar: enter the studio, do a partial pull-up and deal with one piece of paper.

In both cases, I’m allowed to do more than the rule asks for, but I don’t have to.

Will this work? I’m not entirely sure, but I can say I’ve gotten a lot more purging and sorting done this week than in the previous few months, and for the first time in ages I have hope.

I’ll keep you posted.

And now, because I’m at the end of my prescribed 90 minutes of exercycling (yes, I’ve been cycling as I type, inveterate multi-tasker that I am), and I’m endeavoring to learn to take breaks, I’m going to unplug this little laptop and take it upstairs where I will watch Battlestar Galactica (my latest addiction) in bed.

Tomorrow: one more brick.

May 5, 2010

Fear, trust and baby steps (the perfect headstand not required)

Last Tuesday Giselle made me promise to come to her Jivamukti yoga class this week. With the new month comes a new focus-of-the-month (love that about Jivamukti!) and she knew this month’s focus would be good for me.

She didn’t spill the beans about what the focus would be, but it wasn’t a big surprise when I sat in virasana today (propped on block and blanket, since my knees really don’t like this posture), eyes closed, and listened to her opening talk.

Which was all about fear.

Ah, yes, now I understand why she wanted me to be there.

Fear of falling (and busting my sorry ass)

Last week I confessed after class to my great fear of inversions in the middle of the room, away from the safety of the wall. I burst into tears when I almost fell out of a headstand last week.

Guess what we’ll be focusing on this month? That’s right: inversions. Forearm balance, handstand, headstand. Any posture that brings up fear.

Giselle demonstrated how easy it is to fall out of a forearm balance and land on your feet. How easy it is to fall and not get hurt.

And still, I played chicken.

Oh, I kicked my legs up, I did the “assignments,” but even though I know I can do forearm balance and handstand against a wall, even though I’ve actually achieved balance for moments at a time without touching the wall (just moments, but still!), I couldn’t quite get myself to kick up hard enough to shoot for that same balance in the middle of the room.

I knew I was chickening out, and I still chickened out.

So what’s going on here?

Lack of trust

Well, there’s the excuse that I’ve got an old shoulder injury that’s acting up (which is true), and I don’t want to aggravate it (also true). But that’s just an excuse.

The reality is that yes, I’m afraid. I’m afraid I’ll really hurt myself.

Because underneath it all, I don’t quite trust myself.

I don’t trust that I’ll get all the way up and not fall backwards, and (even more important) I don’t trust that I’ll be able to pull off that falling-out-in-a-safe-way trick.

Taking myself where I am

I could have beat myself up about my chicken-ness, but instead I chose just to notice what was going on inside and let it be.

I know that the way to conquer my fear of inversions is to do them. I know that the way to learn to trust myself that I’ll be able to fall out in a safe way is to try falling out. I know this.

And I also know that right now, I’m not quite ready.

And you know what? That’s actually okay.

So I’ll coddle myself for awhile. And maybe I’ll ask Giselle to spot me, or maybe I’ll “cheat” and keep using the wall until I build up a bit more confidence. And maybe by the end of this month I’ll make some progress.

Or maybe not. Maybe I’ll do inversions against the wall for the rest of my life. (And would that be such a bad thing?)

The truth is, although I think being able to do handstands and forearm balance in the middle of the room would be smokin’ cool, it honestly doesn’t matter to me whether I achieve that or not.

What I do care about, though, is growth, and busting past limits. Although I’d love to be Smokin’ Cool Yoga Girl, yoga is just a petri dish for change in my larger world.

I want to push past my limits in yoga, because I have a very strong suspicion that it will help me push past my limits in the rest of my life.

My commitment: baby steps

So my goal is not to achieve a perfectly balanced handstand or forearm balance away from the wall this month. I don’t actually care about that.

But I do care about making progress. I do care about moving forward and learning to trust myself. I do care about proving to myself that I can do things that feel hard. So my goal is to try to go just a bit further than I’ve gone in the past.

Maybe that means kicking all the way up into a handstand in the middle of the room, just so I can try falling out of it. Or maybe that means doing a handstand at the wall (even if Giselle chastises me). Just one tiny bit beyond my current comfort zone is all it takes to make forward progress.

Baby steps.

The Great ClutterBust: Spring Cleaning on Turbo!

Epiphanies (& Commitment Anxiety!)

Announcing Finishing Blitz!

How do you build an empire? One brick at a time.

The Ginormous Studio-Overhaul & Makeover

The Chin-Up Bar Method

The Baby-Step-By-Baby-Step Plan

Fear of falling (and busting my sorry ass)

Lack of trust

Taking myself where I am

My commitment: baby steps

Would You Like Some Cookies?