Month: April 2013

strengths, teaching, yoga

Beautiful: A Yoga Practice Saves and Serves

Christa Avampato

“It’s amazing how strong we are. Just when we think we can’t do anymore, when we can’t try any harder. When life is really tough, somehow within us we find this extra reserve of strength. It’s the beauty of this yoga practice. It both saves and serves.” ~ Douglass Stewart, Yoga Teacher

“Well, there you are!” Douglass said to me in class yesterday. “I’ve been telepathing you. I was worried I hadn’t seen you and hoped you were okay. Actually, I hoped you were in some exotic location teaching your fabulous yoga, but I am so glad to see you.”

Douglass is one of the greatest treasures of my life. He is the first person I ever considered to be my yoga teacher and just being in his presence is a salve for any injury and illness I have. He is my example, my hero, and my inspiration.

It’s been a rough couple of weeks. I came back from a trip and jumped right into a busy work schedule, promptly got the stomach flu, and looked for, found, almost lost, and then secured a new apartment. Now I’m packing. All this lead me to skip Douglass’s class for a few weeks. I was feeling a little low yesterday and wondered if I should just head home, but something told me I needed to be in Douglass’s class. So, I steeled myself up with a Ben & Jerry’s free cone day ice cream cone, grabbed my mat, and headed for the studio.

The moment I saw him and hugged him, I knew this was where I needed to be. Though the class was a bit tough for me – I’ve been practicing restorative yoga almost exclusively the past few weeks – I could feel every cell of my body shouting “thank you!” My mind cleared, my heart opened, and off I went out into the world, renewed.

Douglass is right. This practice does save and serve, every single time. What a gift. What would we do with out it?

career, success, work

Beautiful: Focus Your Vision of Success So That Others Can Help You Make It Happen

Christa Avampato

c596868fa70d40b9f9014790c616de8eYesterday one of my mentors scheduled coffee with me for one clear reason – to help me. He wants to know how I see my career unfolding in the next 3 – 5 years so that he can help me figure out how to get there. I understand how lucky I am to have a mentor who is this generous and invested in my future. It makes me grateful beyond measure.

As I walked home from my meeting, I thought about his question. Where do I want my career go? Am I doing the right things to help me get there? It’s so easy to get in the cycle of doing: to-do lists, meetings, emails. It’s easy to waste time getting no where. It’s much harder to discriminate between opportunities that keep us on track and those that take us off-track. There is no end to the amount of work that others want you to do to help them. But as a freelancer, you have to be careful. The work you do to help others also has to help you, too.

At the moment, I’m doing a lot of things that are advancing my career in the direction I want it to go. I’m also doing a few things that are distractions. It will be difficult for me to cut those things loose, but I know that’s what’s needed. Focus is the path toward and the tool to generate success. It’s also the best way to help others help you.

hope

Beautiful: There is Power in Hoping for and Expecting the Best Outcome

Christa Avampato

Are you waiting for the other shoe to drop? Does the dream of your life seem within reach and yet you are certain something will swoop in and snatch it from you? I was like that, too. And then my friend, Bobby, helped me see that I was selling myself short.

I was recounting my philosophy that I always hope for the best and expect the worst. For 36 years, this worked responsibly well. Or at least it kept me alive. Bobby responded, “Christy (he is the only one who calls me that), how about you hope for and expect the best? If it doesn’t go that way, then you just trust that you’re smart enough and strong enough to figure out what to do next.”

In that moment I was certain that Bobby was channeling the greater Universe and delivering the wisest life philosophy I’d ever heard. And with that, I packed up that nagging voice of self-doubt in the back of my mind and sent it to the far reaches of the Earth, never to be heard from again. Life is sweeter without it.

creativity, inspiration, play, politics, theatre, women

Beautiful: Ann Richards Has Her Day on Broadway Thanks to Holland Taylor

Christa Avampato

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Buenas noches, mis amigos! I am delighted to be here with you this evening because after listening to George Bush all these years, I figured you needed to know what a real Texas accent sounds like. Twelve years ago, Barbara Jordan, another Texas woman, made the keynote address to this convention – and two women in 160 years is about par for the course. But, if you give us a chance, we can perform. After all, Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.” ~ Ann Richards, then-Governor of Texas, at the 1988 Democratic National Convention

The play Ann, now at Lincoln Center through September 1st, opens with this quote delivered via archival video footage of the late great Ann Richards. And though this about sums up her vibrant, spit-fire, take-no-prisoners, gutsy, straight-shooting, truth-in-comedy personality, it is nothing short of an absolute delight to see the brilliant Holland Taylor portray her on stage for two hours in one of the finest one-person shows I’ve ever seen. I was enthralled from beginning to end. Taylor also conceived of the idea and wrote the play, which I find even more remarkable than her stunning performance.

Within two hours, I learned so much about her life and legacy. I laughed. And laughed and laughed. A lot. And then I cried a little when I realized how wonderful she was, how rare she was, in politics and in the public eye in general, and how I will never get the chance to meet her in person. This play made me believe that I did know her, and that’s how everyone felt about Ann. She was exactly who she was, all the time, in front of everyone. From humble house wife to Governor of Texas, she was someone to be reckoned with and yet everyone had to find her charming, regardless of whether or not they disagreed with her. I wanted to have her over for dinner and I definitely wanted her in my corner.

She was a stronger advocate for women, all women everywhere, than anyone else in the public sphere has ever been. And though I’ll never have the chance to know her, I did take away one great comfort. Madeleine Albright once said that there is a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women. I believe that the converse must also be true. There is a special place in heaven for women who do help other women. Therefore, I’m certain that Ann Richards is looking down on all of us, cheering us on, bolstering us up, and encouraging us to fly higher than even our own dreams dare imagine. Even death can’t stop that kind of indomitable spirit. And for that I am both grateful and inspired.

Go see Ann. Two hours in her company, and Taylor’s, and you’ll walk out of the theatre and into the world a little taller, a little prouder, and a whole lot more determined to do something extraordinary. (If you’d like to read Ann’s convention speech in its entirety, click here.)

dreams, happiness

Beautiful: Your Attitude is Everything

Christa Avampato

30ab7cc776e34f5a60e02d480cbbc1e1“Your attitude determines your altitude.” ~ Slogan displayed at the Culinary Institute of America

And what’s true for future chefs is true for all of us. You will do what you believe you can do. You will go to the places you set your mind to and then work your tail off to get there. Belief in yourself alone won’t get you everything you want but it sure is the very best place to start.

childhood, creativity, education, New York City, play

Beautiful: The Virtues of a Life Lived in the Mud

Christa Avampato

I grew up in the dirt, literally. There was (and still is) a tractor crossing sign across the street from the house where I grew up. My rural hometown fostered a childhood that involved climbing trees and making mud pies. When I was little, I was convinced that there was a dinosaur skeleton hiding under the ground in my backyard. I enlisted my sister, Weez, to help me dig and dig and dig. All we found was a small mouse skeleton, but I thought it was clearly a prehistoric mouse! Other kids wanted to be doctors, firefighters, or teachers. I wanted to be a paleontologist. I still do.

My childhood was far from idyllic, but there were some very positive things about growing up in the sticks. I got my hands dirty in the process of making things. I ate organic food because that’s really all there was, not because it was trendy. Animals were my friends and companions, as much as people. Maybe even more than people. I learned to appreciate the Earth, her majesty and her power. Weather was a way of life, and I still watch it with fascination and wonder.

An article in the New York Times last weekend talked about a movement in this fine and fair city I now call home to bring more nature into the lives of city kids not by taking them out of the city, but by bringing nature to them. Brooklyn Forest, a husband and wife startup, “takes toddlers into Prospect Park to promote learning through creative play like building teepees out of branches.” 7 students were in their first class. Now there are over 200. More people are eager to get into mud these days; I was a pioneer.

There’s something to be said for the slow life, the life we build rather than the life we buy shrink-wrapped and delivered right to our doorstep. Creation builds confidence and bolsters the imagination. It makes us self-sufficient. I’m all for it, for our children and for us. There’s a lot of beauty down there in the mud.

career, creative, creativity, imagination, innovation, job, work

Beautiful: Forget Job Searching. Instead, Create the Job of Your Dreams.

Christa Avampato

eb20a4bca686ede0d04a1cc9628f3e6bImagine if college wasn’t about preparing you for the job search. Instead, imagine that it was a 4-year haven for you to grow the skills that most interest you and for you to craft your own business that utilizes those skills. Over 3 million people graduate from 4-year colleges every year in the U.S. That’s potentially 3 million startups created every single year.

Imagine what that would mean for our economy, for our communities, and for education. Tom Friedman did just that in his New York Times column last week. Soon, we won’t have to imagine. This is the reality for our children today, and for their children, and so on. They will be job creators, not job seekers. Our society and our economy are changing rapidly. The paradigm of work and income is shifting, and there will be no turning back. This is a transformation in the economy that is moving full-steam ahead.

Rather than asking our kids what they want to be when they grow up, we need to help them figure out what they intend to build. And then we need to set that example for them in our own careers.

change, cooking, creative process, nurture

Beautiful: Nurture Transformation

Christa Avampato

10928772“We are what we nurture.” – Jonathan Dixon, Beaten, Seared, and Sauced: On Becoming a Chef at the Culinary Institute of America

We are always in a process of becoming.

I could read cooking memoirs all day, every day. There is something so human, so sensual about food and its preparation. There passion in it and it’s relatable. Everyone eats, and therefore at some point every one learns to cooking something. Ultimately cooking and eating are about transformation.

At 38, Jonathan Dixon left behind his work as a writer to enroll at the CIA to become a cook. He gave up all his earthly possessions, moved from Brooklyn to Hyde Park, NY (across the Hudson River from my own hometown), and threw himself into his new vocation. He wasn’t a cook when he started, but he made it his goal to become one. And so he did.

We can do the same. We can reinvent who we are. We can grow our current skill sets and create new ones. We can take up new hobbies, interests, projects, and careers. We can make a new home in a new city. Newness is never beyond us.

adventure, beauty, opportunity, time

Beautiful: Everyday Celebrations

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

If you replaced the cat in this photo with a fuzzy dachshund, this would be me and Phin. Everyday we celebrate something. Even if it’s just the sunshine. Even if it’s a rainy day that let’s us stay in and enjoy some serious R&R. Sometimes, it’s a trip to someplace exciting. Most of the time it’s just the miracle of being alive and in good health.

It’s so easy to let life get us down. Things don’t always go our way. Most of the time, they never work out exactly as we expect or want them to. But in 37 years I’ve learned that I can’t fight life. It unfolds in its own way, in its own time. The mystery of its inner workings is not for me to control, but rather something for me to be curious about. Everyday celebrations remind me that even in the midst of difficulty, there’s always a little light.

entrepreneurship, social media

YCombinator Alumnus, Edward Wu, Wants to Help You Raise Your Social Status

Christa Avampato

YCombinator alumnus, Edward Wu, takes a unique approach to Facebook marketing. His brand new web app, Social Status, is unlike any traditional Facebook marketing app.

Companies have been unsuccessfully trying to make Facebook work for them by using “contests, sweepstakes, giveaways, content curation,” says Wu. “Social Status focuses on the bread-and-butter of your social media campaign and enhances your posts.”

How it works: Social Status transforms your text-based social media posts into stunning images, getting you more Likes, Comments, and Shares. Social Status conducted a study using 500 random posts; half were plain text and the other half were enhanced with the app. The Social Status posts received 60% more Likes, 400% more Comments, and 12x the number of Shares.

Social Status works with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Users can post directly to their Facebook Fan pages, Twitter Feeds, or Pinterest boards, all in a matter of seconds. Before Social Status, there was no simple way to post text on Pinterest; Social Status now makes this possible. Social Status also has an export feature that makes it fully compatible with social media management tools like Sprout Social, HootSuite, and TweetDeck. Social Status has an aggressive roadmap. They plan to add detailed analytics, hundreds more templates, and more social media platform integrations in the coming weeks.

If you want to take it for a test drive, Social Status is free for personal use, and $10 / month for businesses. (The $10 fee removes the watermark and unlocks all the templates.)

About the company: Social Status is based in San Jose, CA. Edward Wu is also the Co-founder of Vidyard (Series A funded startup with over 30 employees).