Month: November 2013

freedom, happiness, Second Step

Beautiful: We Can Have Both Freedom and Happiness

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I’m blessed beyond belief that I do what I love and love what I do. It wasn’t always this way. For a long time I had to choose between one or the other. Freedom and happiness don’t always go together. I’ve had financial freedom with little happiness and a lot of happiness with little financial freedom. I had to put myself on a course to figure out what I love and then on another course to figure out how to make a living from it. It’s still a work in progress, day by day, month by month. And though I have regularly scheduled freak out periods that always strike on or around 2am, I wake up every morning raring to go on a path that holds freedom and happiness in equal and high regard. The freak out periods are just fuel to stay the course.

determination, dreams

Beautiful: Make Your Own Sign

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

I’m a big believer in signs and I’ve found that they are all around us. We never have to wait for them. We only have to open our eyes and ears to see and hear them. And if at times my signs fail me, if I just can’t seem to find the ones I’m looking for, then I get out my laptop and make my own. That’s what this blog is, for me and I hope for you. Here’s the sign you’ve been waiting for no matter what you’re trying to do. Now get out there and do it. Make it happen.

And a happy birthday shout out to my sister, Weez, another keen eye-spying sign spotter.

fear, Second Step

Beautiful: It’s Okay to Be Scared

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Fear isn’t such a terrible thing. It shows us what we’re made of. What matters. Fear points the way to newness. New heights to be scaled. New things to learn. And ways to grow. Fear is only dangerous if it stops us from living the lives we want to live. If it prevents us from fulfilling a dream. Everything I ever wanted to do, everything I ever did that I’m really grateful that I had the chance to do, started out as something I was afraid of. So when fear shows up, I don’t cower. I don’t turn tail and run. I say thank you. And then I leap.

New York City

Beautiful: I Love to Be The Ambassador of New York City

Christa Avampato
How I feel about NYC. From Pinterest.
How I feel about NYC. From Pinterest.

I am so lucky to be a New Yorker. I pride myself on my intense love for and loyalty to this wacky and incredible city. Every day that I step outside of my apartment, I get a little twinkle in my eye and a pep in my step. I live in New York City.

As I was making my way home from the first day of the ad:tech conference, I stood on the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue waiting to cross the street to the subway. A lot of New Yorkers hate Times Square. I love it. The energy. The lights. The creativity inside every door of every theater. I grew up in that area of the city when I managed Broadway shows in my 20s and so it holds a special nostalgia for me. As Sondheim said in Merrily We Roll Along, it’s where I began being what I can.

As I was waiting to cross 42nd Street, I felt a little tap on my shoulder. I turned to find two British women, probably in their 60s, visiting New York City for the first time.

“Excuse me,” said one of them in her perfectly lovely and lilting accent. “Is this Times Square?”

I smiled wide. “Ladies, you’re looking at it,” I said.

“Oh my!” the other one said. “And this is the real 42nd Street, from the musical?”

“The one and only,” I said as I pointed east. “Take a stroll that way and you’ll be smack in the middle of all of the craziness. It’s wonderful.”

They thanked me and crossed 8th Avenue, as excited as any kids I’ve ever seen on their way to a playground. And I was reminded again, just as I am every day, that this is one amazing town.

business, technology, writing

Beautiful: Covering ad:tech New York Conference This Week

Christa Avampato
ad:tech New York
ad:tech New York

Today and tomorrow I’ll be poking around the hallways of the Javitz Center as I cover the ad:tech New York Conference for Allvoices.com. I covered Advertising Week for this same publication and I’m excited to have a second act with them. Though smaller in scale, I expect the learning at this conference to be every bit as eye-opening. I’m actually counting on it. And you can come along for the ride. Follow me on Twitter through the hashtag #adtechny. Also, read my Allvoices column for breakdowns of the different sessions I attend and the interesting characters I meet. Glad to have you with me. As always, questions, comments, and observations are both welcomed and encouraged.

change, science, Second Step

Beautiful: We Have to Make Inertia Work For Us

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest
From Pinterest

Though I left engineering school after a year, I’m still a hopeless nerd for physics. One of my favorite principles is inertia – a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest until acted upon by an outside force. It’s true for physical matter, and true for the trajectory of our lives as well. We do what we’re doing until there’s a change.

For our lives, that change can be internal or external. We can choose it. We can slow down when we’re going too fast, and we can get ourselves in gear if we feel stuck. It takes a great deal of effort to cause that shift, but it’s possible.

Eventually something in life is going to throw us a roadblock and we’ll have to pivot and change. That is the game. That is the dance. Change within or accept the change forced from the outside. I’d always rather be the master of my own pivot so I keep changing, growing, evolving, transforming. It’s all I know how to do so I keep going. Which is its own kind of inertia. Ah inertia – the force of life that keeps on giving and follows us everywhere.

exercise, marathon, New York City, running

Beautiful: I Caught New York City Marathon Fever

Christa Avampato
2014 ING NYC Marathon - here I come!
2014 ING NYC Marathon – here I come!

Want to run the 2014 ING New York City Marathon with me? 12 years ago I ran the Chicago Marathon with my dear friend, Mark. It was a profound and healing experience and the fulfillment of a dream I’d had since I was a teenage cross-country runner. After I completed the marathon in 4:23:13 on a high, I checked that accomplishment off my list never to run a marathon again. Or so I thought.

Yesterday I woke up early and attributed it to the extra hour from the end of daylight savings time. I quickly realized it was something else. I know what goes into taking all those steps, and I am so proud of these people for making the journey. Watching all the preparations in Central Park this week made me want to join their ranks. I was surprised to feel that tug in my heart, edging me toward the goal of completing my hometown’s biggest race and one of its hallmark celebrations of life. And with that, I decided to run it in 2014. I’ll be 38 by then and it will be 5 years since the apartment building fire that changed everything for me. It’s a bit of a process; I can enter the lottery, raise money for a participating nonprofit, or look at a variety of other options to make it happen.

Have you ever wanted to run a marathon? Does NYC’s race call to you, too? It would be fun to train with people. Whether you’re here in NYC or live far away, we can share our training experiences right here on this blog and encourage each other on the figurative and literal path. And then of course celebrate together at the finish line next year. If you’re interested, let me know. Let’s make it happen.

death, dogs, time

Beautiful: Time is Not Ours to Hold – Another Lesson from My Pup, Phineas

Christa Avampato
Phin thinking up ways to live forever
Phin thinking up ways to live forever

I know we can’t hang onto time though that doesn’t stop me from wishing it were possible. As I was admiring the stunning Fall foliage in Central Park, Phineas was rooting around in the leaves looking for a tasty morsel of something. My pup has a penchant for trash. I was explaining the dangers of eating things off the ground to him when we met one of our neighbors with her flat-coat retriever. This sweet dog was diagnosed with cancer during the summer, started chemotherapy, and then had to terminate treatment because of internal bleeding. “I’m not sure how she’s still alive,” said our neighbor through a lump in her throat.

My eyes started to well up with tears. Losing a dog is one of the worst kind of hurts I’ve ever known. I wanted to let my neighbor have her space and time with her dog so I told her how sorry I was and wished her well. I turned to leave to let my neighbor have her peace and so she didn’t see me cry. Phineas did something else, something I thought was quite extraordinary. He walked right up to his dear canine friend and gently bumped her chin with the top of his nose. Then he gave her a smooch. He knew what was happening. He was saying goodbye since we’ll probably never see this sweet pup again.

When we got a few blocks away and I finally got ahold of my tears, I knelt down on the ground and looked right into Phineas’s eyes. “Look Phineas,” I said, “I know you’ve got a lot on your plate but you’re going to have to find a way to live forever. Okay, buddy?” He gave me a smooch right on the nose, and I think that means he’s accepted the challenge. I can’t hang onto time; I’m hoping Phin can find a way.

art

Beautiful: Voice Overs Taught Me to Be Myself

Christa Avampato

It took me a while to get the hang of voice over work, to really understand how the performance works. Certainly there is a technical structure to how the script is crafted and how it should be delivered. Emotional connection separates good voice over work from great voice over work.

This emotional connection comes down to just one simple point: be who you are. I kept trying to embody a character, to be a certain way that I thought matched what the script wanted. It didn’t work. I just needed to be myself – a friend, a neighbor, someone to rely on. It’s a performance that shouldn’t be a performance at all. Voice over work is for real people who know who they are and what they care about. That’s what commercial voice over work, and life in general, is all about. Hooray for the triumph of authenticity!

commitment, decision-making

Beautiful: The Jedi Code of Commitment

Christa Avampato
Be a Jedi
Be a Jedi

A Jedi in training doesn’t say, “You know I think I’ll do my best to try to become a Jedi.” He (or she!) says, “I’m doing this. I’m committed to this path.”

I’ve got Star Wars on the brain this week because I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of commitment and its vital role in our happiness. And if ever there was an example of serious commitment to a way of life, it’s the Jedi.

That muddy middle of indecision is like a tractor beam and we have to fight our way free. Progress doesn’t live in the middle, and neither does success. When it comes to our future, we have to take a stand and decide to decide how it’s going to go. We have to be the Jedi knights of our own lives. It’s not an easy path, but it’s the only one I know that leads to a well-lived life.