In all of the ups and downs of my life, I’ve found this one thing to always be true: fortune smiles on me when I smile first. What I manifest internally, comes to fruition externally. When something isn’t going right for me, I don’t bother feeling badly for myself and searching for answers externally. I close my eyes and look in. The answer is always there and then I am able to make the changes I need to make to have the life I want. They aren’t always easy changes, though they are always possible.
Now that the first quarter of 2014 is winding down, I am reflecting on and re-assessing my business plan for the year. I’ve found that it’s helpful to ask myself these questions and write out the answers to translate into action plans:
1.) What do I really want to do?
2.) What do I have that can help me do that?
3.) What do I need that will help me do that?
4.) How can I get what I need?
5.) How will I know when I’ve been successful?
I realize I have some heavy lifting and changing to do to answer these questions honestly and craft a road I’m proud to build and travel. It’s exciting to see it laid out in writing. It keeps me focused and persistent, the two attributes I find I need in spades these days. Do you regularly reflect on and reassess where you are on your projects, professional and personal? What questions are most helpful for you?
The past is a wonderful place to learn but I don’t recommend making it your home. It’s fun to remember, to be nostalgic, to pay tribute to what we’ve lived through – the good and the bad. However, we have to live it going forward. We have to take everything we learned in our past and carry it forward so that we make better, more informed choices today. We’ve got to learn to keep what serves us well and let go of everything else. In this way we can honor the past without repeating it or being hampered by it.
Let’s try this experiment: every day for a week, starting today, begin your morning by looking in the mirror and saying “Good morning, beautiful.” Say it and mean it. I’ll check in with you next Saturday and see how those three simple words affected your week. Are you game?
I don’t ever feel like I’m lacking anything, though that doesn’t prevent me from working hard to achieve something more. This duality is possible, just as it’s possible to be at peace internally when there is much disruption in our external world. We stand on the edge of effort and ease, fully immersed in both. It’s one of the most amazing aspects of being human – to embrace all that we are, all at once.
In many ways, I have my dream client – me. My personal projects, Compass Yoga, Sing After Storms, and this blog – are the most meaningful work I do. They don’t pay the bills yet so I create content and programs for a variety of other clients, too. That’s also very gratifying work because I choose those clients as much as they choose me. For a long time I wanted to work with Sesame Workshop and with an Olympics-related organization. It’s been incredible to have those experiences with those clients.
I’m not sure how much longer I’ll need to take on new clients, though as long as I do I want them to be people and organizations I admire, respect, and that can teach me something new. I keep a running list of dream clients and here’s how that list looks at the present moment:
– Pixar. I’ve worked for Disney Theatrical and I think it would be incredible to learn about Pixar’s storytelling machine.
– CBS Sunday Morning. My favorite morning program that I look forward to every weekend. I love they dig up that no other news program finds.
– Charlie Rose. He might be the last true gentleman of his generation who’s still so active in news and media. We could all learn something from Charlie Rose.
– A dog-based company or organization. This could be a nonprofit, dog products company, veterinary practice, or canine services organization. Phineas is a great teacher.
– Tea. I’m a bit of a tea-fanatic and I’d love to learn more about the cultivation, processing, packaging, and sale of it.
Do you have dream clients or partners you’d like to work with?
I recently met someone who assumed that I must be permanently giving up all my other professional hats to work on Sing After Storms. I imagine that this will be true to some extent during the month of June. Balance won’t be possible in that month. I have to completely give myself and my time over to that process, and I’m more than happy to do that. I’ll take a break when the curtain comes down.
Somewhere along the way many people felt they had to have balance every minute of every day. That idea feels like a great way to set myself up for failure. I have balance over a much longer time horizon. I work intensely and then I take a break. That cycle happens many times over the course of a year, and I find it makes me grateful for my work and grateful for my breaks. It’s energizing but never exhausting because I understand that balance is a cycle. It’s dynamic. It moves, flexes, and transforms. It’s not something we have to chase. It’s something we can ritualize and build into our lives.
I recently gouged out a piece of the skin on my knuckle on a cheese grater. For the first couple days I covered it with a band-aid, but what really speeds healing is exposing the wound to air. We actually have to see it, and let others see it. My cut kept getting hit every time I reached for something and then it would bleed again. I’d scrunch up my face in pain. I had to learn how to do more things with my other hand. It was annoying and ugly.
This cut on my finger was a good metaphor for any kind of wound, physical or emotional. Why do we stay wounded? Why do we let our failures, missteps, and disappointments get the best of us? Why do we hold ourselves back from healing? Because healing and transcending anything that hurts is an uncomfortable process in the short-term. It’s painful, itchy, and ugly. It’s not linear. We take some steps back before we can step forward.
However, in time, we do heal. 3 weeks into this process and my finger is nearly back to normal. The cut doesn’t hurt anymore. It’s not as ugly as it was and I learned that my other hand is good for a lot more things than I gave it credit for. In the long-run, healing is a gift because we learn so much along the way that we wouldn’t learn if the hurt never happened at all.
To use a hockey analogy: there’s a time to pass the puck and a time to take a shot on goal. Though I initially intended to have someone else direct my play Sing After Storms, a set of circumstances arose that presented me with the option to direct the show as well as write and produce it. In my gut, I immediately knew that this was my chance to live this show in a number of facets, to immerse myself in what I can only imagine will be the most fulfilling creative project of my life to-date. It’s scary and thrilling, and I’m going for it. Let’s see how far this amazing creative team can push the puck across the ice.
Yesterday we had our first round of casting for my play Sing After Storms. I continue to be astonished by the immense talent in this city. I feel like so much of it is locked up, waiting for its turn to be seen and heard. I want to find a way to free it, to give it the space and opportunity to let it unfurl, experiment, and take risks in the pursuit of creating something that affects hearts, minds, and souls on a massive scale. It is such a privilege to see this raw truth up close and personal, to have a hand in crafting its path. We’ll find a way to scale this effort, to bring more people into the fold and give them a way to make significant contributions through the work they love to do. Sing After Storms is just the first step in a much longer journey.
Christa Avampato 