Month: July 2012

creativity, luck, meditation

Leap: Meditate to Prepare for Chance

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” ~ Louis Pasteur, French chemist and microbiologist

If Woody Allen is right and 80% of success is showing up, then the other 20% is how you show up. And not just at an audition, an interview, or a big meeting, but how you show up in life. Your lucky break isn’t somewhere down the road; it’s right now because opportunity is everywhere. Many times it’s up to you to make your own opportunity. And you can.

One interaction can change the entire course of your life and that interaction almost always happens at an unexpected time and in an unexpected place. So how do you prepare so that you can recognize that moment when it arrives and make the most of it? How can you be prepared for chance?

Take 10 minutes, as soon as you wake up, while you’re drifting off to sleep, or right now. Close your eyes. One hand on the belly and one hand on the chest. Just follow your breath. Take it in and imagine that you are extracting opportunity right out of thin air. Exhale it all out and imagine that the strength of your exhale is super-charging your internal batteries. The breath has every answer you need to every challenge you will ever have. It’s all there. Your only job is to get quiet enough to hear its wisdom.

But don’t take my word for it. I’m not asking you to believe a single word that anyone has ever written about meditation. I’m only asking you to give it a try so that you can experience the benefits for yourself.

There’s no trick to meditation. There’s no magic formula and you don’t need an invitation to practice. If you breathe, you have everything you need. Now all you need to do is follow its lead. It will prepare you for everything that is coming.

adventure, choices, courage, strengths

Leap: You Are Your Best Navigator

Christa Avampato

It’s about choices. It’s all about choices.

Every morning you wake up, you have the opportunity to stand in the midst of life, take it all in, and then decide what to make of it. You figure out where you are, where you’d like go, and the path you’ll take to get there. There’s no map. It’s just you, your desire to make a unique contribution to humanity, and your gut. Those are the tools of this grand navigation. They’re all we have and they are enough.

business, entrepreneurship, relationships, yoga

Leap: Business Lessons from an Adaptive Yoga Program for People with Cerebral Palsy

Christa Avampato

Yesterday a lovely and important email showed up in my inbox out of the blue. The United Cerebral Palsy of New York City chapter found the Compass Yoga website through our work with the New York Public Library and on Monday I am meeting with them to discuss the possibility of creating an adaptive yoga program for their constituents. I am passionate about serving differently-abled people and have been talking about this passion with all of you for years.

I tell you this new little tidbit for a variety of reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with this exciting and wonderful opportunity and everything to do with you as you build your own brand and business. Within this story are a number of incredibly valuable lessons for all of us.

1.) Figure out who you want to serve. I cannot stress this enough – you cannot and should not be all things to all people. There is a well-reasoned tendency for you to try. You don’t to miss an opportunity, particularly if it is for a worthy cause. People ask for your help. You’re good and kind person, and you have a whole lot of wonderful gifts to give. Now put all of that aside. Decide what you want your specific contribution to humanity to be. It’s not written in stone. You can change your mind down the road if you need to / want to. What you can’t do is run in every direction. Choose and go for it!

2.) With your direction chosen, put it out into the world. Write about it. Talk about it. Take pictures and shoot video about it. Tweet, FB, Pin it, Google+ it. Whatever it takes. You made choices and you’re ready to get out there and give the world your best version of you. Tell all of us that you’ve arrived – we want to know. And keep telling your story, over and over again to anyone and everyone.

3.) Straddle the line between impatient and patient. Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is your reputation. However, you can’t rest on those lovely laurels of yours either. You’re reputation is a series of actions over a long period of time. You are literally swimming in opportunity. Pick up the bits and pieces that interest you, roll up your sleeves, and give them a whirl. You’ll see your small steps turn into big leaps if you stay focused and consistent.

Okay – stop reading and start doing. The people you are meant to serve are out there waiting for you. Go meet them.

business, dreams, entrepreneurship

Leap: The Secret Thrill of Incorporating Your Own Business

Christa Avampato

I’ve spent the last month teaching the ducks I put in a row to march to the beat of my drum. After taking my leap into my own business, I’ve gone about cultivating leads and working to turn those leads into tangible projects. As the Founder of a new business, it’s the best place for me to spend my time at the moment.

To get the administrative wheels turning, I received a recommendation for a great accountant who makes his living helping freelancers. The first week on my own, I took myself over to meet him and 15 minutes later he got to work filing my papers of incorporation for Chasing Down the Muse:

Today, I stopped by his office to pick up the finished package and my heart did a little dance when I saw my:

Certificate of Incorporation

Stock Certificates (seriously!)

Corporate Seal

It struck me that I didn’t just leap out on my own into the abyss when I left my corporate job. I walked out one door and through another, a door I designed with careful attention to detail that is framed by the work I love. Now its official – there’s nowhere to go but up from here. Now I begin to build. Now I unleash my craziest, wildest, most incredible dreams and see if they have wings. It’s now or never, and I prefer now!

adventure, choices, commitment, community, creativity, dreams

Leap: Go Out on the Edge

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“You’re not going to have a lot of people you can talk to about this. There is never a crowd on the leading edge.” ~ Abraham Hicks

My friend, Trish, had this quote on her Facebook wall last week and it captures a truth that can be tough for us to hear. Opportunity is glaring at us and growing bigger by the moment. We want to believe that everyone can see what we see and when they don’t we get frustrated, discouraged, and uncomfortable in our own skin. We begin to doubt our own abilities.

Don’t despair. Out on the Edge there is something beautiful and miraculous waiting for you – your kindred spirits. They are a small but mighty crew. They think like you think, believe what you believe, and understand what you understand. They will inspire, encourage, and support you. You are all in the same boat, paddling around looking for each other, and you’ll come together out on the Edge. It is better out there than where you are now. This time, the grass really is greener elsewhere.

But here’s the trick of it: you have to go out there. This is one of the few things that you can’t do virtually. You have to go there fully – mind, body, and soul. The only way to realize the gift of the Edge is to be there. And to make the journey you will have to trust your gut more than you trust the opinions of those around you.

Commit to the Edge and the Edge will commit to you. Now start paddling.

business, creativity, entrepreneurship, work

Leap: Today is the 1 Month Anniversary of My New Life

Christa Avampato

A month ago, I began living a life of my own design. I bid a fond farewell to my corporate job in favor of working for myself. I had planned the leap for over a year and once the final puzzle piece fell into place, I fell in line right along with it.

On the first day of my freelance life, I launched my new creative consulting firm, Chasing Down the Muse, which allows me to focus my energy on the three pieces of my career that I love most – product development, freelance writing, and teaching yoga and meditation to creative professionals.

It’s been an incredible gift to wake up every morning to do work that I love. Everywhere I go, I go with my whole heart. I work many more hours now than I did when I worked for someone else. The income is not as stable (yet) and there have been moments of great elation and some moments of disappointment. And still the feeling I get from calling my own shots and relying on my own sense of judgement to move forward on different leads and opportunities is well worth all of the challenges.

I’ve had a few twinges of “Oh God, can I really do this?” but they pass in a few breaths, which is as big a surprise to me as it is to anyone else. There used to be a small voice inside of me that can only be described as the biggest worrier on Earth. That valid voice has been soothed and replaced with a quiet strength, a calm and resonant voice that now says, “Keep going. Don’t worry. Everything will be amazing.” I like this new voice much better.

business, dreams, entrepreneurship

Leap: Turn Around The Negatives

Christa Avampato

When you’re starting your new business, you may hear a lot of negatives. People will tell you to do more of this and less of that. They will tell you that your ideas and dreams are too big for someone just starting out so you better scale back. You don’t have enough experience, contacts, or education. You will have people point out to you, over and over again, what you lack.

Here’s what I want you to do: take all those negatives and turn them into assets. Simplify – not your dreams but your message. Focus on who you serve and why and with what and talk to those people. You will learn on the job, which is the very best way to learn, and through those learnings you will gain experience. You will make connections because you are excited about your life and your work and nothing, and I mean NOTHING, attracts contacts as much as someone who is enthusiastic and happy.

Those people who are pointing out what you lack are likely dreading Monday and praying for Friday. In the words of my wise mentor and former boss, Bob G., “they’re just trying to get to 5:00.” You are building a life of your own design and that work has no beginning and no end. You are it; and it is you. Take their feedback and turn it into kindling to feed your own fire.

Turn it around. Develop. Reach. Grow. Show them that you’ve got this and there’s no way to stop you. The late great Babe Ruth said it best – it’s tough to beat a person who never gives up.

future, history, learning

Leap: You Have Two Choices – Run From Your Past or Learn from It

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past.” ~ Agathon

My sister, Weez, pinned this picture on one of her Pinterest boards last week. I love it because I love the story of The Lion King and I also love it because it is so damn true. I know you’ve had really crummy things happen to you. I have, too. Unless you have access to a time machine, you can’t undo what has been done. (And even if you do have access to a time machine, I wouldn’t recommend monkeying around with the past – history is a chancy business.)

What we can do is carry the lessons of our past, and the pasts of others, forward into our own future choices and decision-making. We can run from the past but we will never outrun it. It has a sneaky way of coming back to haunt us if we don’t honor its power to profoundly affect our future.

I know sitting with the past and accepting our own wrong-doing and the wrong-doing of others is unpleasant. But if we don’t do the work to excavate and understand what happened and why, then a) it was all for naught and b) we are bound to repeat those same mistakes again. What’s worse, repeat mistakes are more painful than they were the first time around.

None of us are alone in this process. Even the person with the perfect life on the outside has things in their past that made them crumble on the inside. We’re all scared to death to have our hearts broken, our dreams dashed, and our spirits crushed. That’s a journey we all take together every day. We all have a past. We all have baggage. And all of us wish it had been different, but it wasn’t. Our past went down the way it went down. The only story we can affect is the one moving forward.

Take those painful, heard-earned lessons and make them mean something. Take them into your own life and share your story so that other people can take these same lessons into their own lives. The only way any of us are going to advance and evolve is if we get together, share, and learn. Don’t let this learning go to waste. It all happened for one simple reason – we needed it.

creativity, dreams, inspiration, work

Leap: You’ve Waited Long Enough

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

We wait for signs. We keep our eyes peeled, hoping for a clear and directive sign from the Heavens to tell us what to do.

Here’s the sign: the Heavens have already weighed in.

They gave you all of the gifts you need to make your own opportunities. Pull your dreams down out of the sky and plant them firmly under your own two feet. Don’t let anyone or anything deter you. Stay the course set by your heart, roll up your sleeves, and get to work.

No one else is ever going to live your life as well as you can live it, so don’t let them even try. Everything you’ve ever done has been to prepare you for this moment – it’s yours for the taking.

Let’s move some mountains!

business, creativity, SXSW

Leap: My 10 Commandments for Living a Life of Your Own Design

Christa Avampato

This weekend I put together my SXSW 2013 speaking proposal. In a few weeks, public voting will open and you’ll be able to see all of the details of my proposal. As part of the application I made a one-minute Youtube video that details my 10 Commandments of Living a Life of Your Own Design.

I was inspired by Steve Jobs’s 10 Commandments which is pinned up at my desk. Months ago I promised you I’d make up my own and here it is. I had a good time making it and I hope to be doing more of these clips soon. Let me know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgHMC009-JI&feature=plcp