When we think about pursuing a dream, we often worry about the obstacles, challenges, and difficulties that may lie ahead. I wonder how many dreams never got a shot because the anticipation of those obstacles stopped us from trying before we even started. This quote helps me. I hope it helps you, too: “When the root is deep there is no reason to fear the wind.” Of course there will be obstacles. Don’t let them make you discount your capabilities; those are your roots. You got this.
Author: Christa Avampato
The short of it:
Writer. Health, education, and art advocate. Theater and film producer. Visual artist. Product geek. Proud alumnae of the University of Pennsylvania (BA) and the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia (MBA). Inspired by ancient wisdom & modern tech. Proliferator of goodness. Opener of doors. Friend to animals. Fan of creative work in all its wondrous forms. I use my business skills to create passion projects that build a better world. I’ve been called the happiest New Yorker, and I try hard to live up to that title every day.
The long of it:
My career has stretched across Capitol Hill, Broadway theatre, education, nonprofit fundraising, health and wellness, and Fortune 500 companies in retail, media, entertainment, technology, and financial services. I’ve been a product developer and product manager, theater manager, strategic consultant, marketer, voice over artist, , teacher, and fundraiser. I use my business and storytelling to support and sustain passion projects that build a better world. In every experience, I’ve used my sense of and respect for elegant design to develop meaningful products, services, programs, and events.
While building a business career, I also built a strong portfolio as a journalist, novelist, freelance writer, interviewer, presenter, and public speaker. My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Huffington Post, PBS.org, Boston.com, Royal Media Partners publications, and The Motley Fool on a wide range of topics including business, technology, science, health, education, culture, and lifestyle. I have also been an invited speaker at SXSW, Teach for America, Avon headquarters, Games for Change, NYU, Columbia University, Hunter College, and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. The first book in my young adult book series, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters, was acquired by a publisher and launched in November 2017. I’m currently working on the second book in the series.
A recovering multi-tasker, I’m equally at home in front of my Mac, on my yoga mat, walking my rescue dog, Phineas, traveling with a purpose, or practicing the high-art of people watching. I also cut up small bits of paper and put them back together as a collage artist.
My company:
I’m bringing together all of my business and creative career paths as the Founder of Double or Nothing Media:
• I craft products, programs, and projects that make a difference;
• I build the business plans that make what I craft financially sustainable;
• I tell the stories that matter about the people, places, and products that inspire me.
Follow my adventures on Twitter at https://twitter.com/christanyc and Instagram at https://instagram.com/christarosenyc.
Inspired: A carpenter’s approach to writing
A few weeks ago Seth Godin wrote a blog post about the two questions we should ask before we build anything. I also think they’re worth asking before we begin any creative project and before we start any piece of writing.
What’s it for and how will we know if it worked?
Think of a carpenter. He or she builds a house to provide shelter from the elements. If it keeps out the rain, sleet, or snow, it works. Simple. Elegant. Understandable.
Imagine if we began everything we do with these two questions. Everything we create would have a reason for being and a usefulness that’s clear. Don’t make it any more complicated than that.
Inspired: Just go for it
My beautiful and intensely wise yogi friend, Sara Kleinsmith, sent this to me as I was telling her about my decision to write full-time and to make whatever life adjustments I need to make the writing life a reality. In response, she sent me this quote. And I just love it. And her. And all the people who don’t give a damn about the odds but instead care deeply about happiness and the courage to create. Just go for it with everything you’ve got. We make our own odds. (And if you find yourself in Austin, Texas, then you must go to Sara’s yoga classes. She’s magical.)
Inspired: Don’t wait until you’re ready
“Great people do things before they’re ready. They do things before they know they can do it.” ~Amy Poehler
Lately I’ve been feeling the tug of big life changes. I recognize their knock at the door and I’ve resisted answering for a bit because I felt like I wasn’t quite ready. This week the knock has grown louder and shouted, “I’m not going away so you might as well answer.” And I did, and the message was simple: “It doesn’t matter if you’re ready or not. You’re capable, and you’ll make the best of everything that comes your way. And where there isn’t opportunity, you’ll make it. Have a little faith in you.” Then all I felt was a huge sigh of relief. And I smiled: a big, wide, knowing, peaceful smile. There’s a great, big, beautiful, blank canvas out there just waiting for me and no one can paint it except me. Ready or not (and capable!), here I come!
Inspired: Live your life and forget your age
How many times have you caught yourself saying, “I would do X if I were younger, but…” I used to say that a lot, to myself and out loud. I convinced myself that because I’m no longer in my 20s, I had to take the sensible and practical path rather than the one that pulled at my heart. That kind of thinking only leads to more wasted time. Forget your age and think about this: you still have time left, time to reinvent who you are and to do what you love. The past is gone. Focus only on the time ahead and make the most of it.
Inspired: Write from the ending
Last night I worked out the ending to the novel that I plan to draft in November as part of National Novel Writing Month. While we live and write nonfiction from the beginning, I’m finding that fiction is best started from the end. I tried to write it from the beginning and I kept getting lost. Now that I know the destination, the path to it is easier (and more fun!) to construct. And this makes me wonder: should I take this novel writing approach to living, too?
Inspired: How far will you dare to go?
Last week when I announced that Compass Yoga would dissolve after 4 years of helping students and teachers access and teach community yoga classes, a friend sent me this quote. I printed it out to hang at my desk. I expect to read it many times over in this new chapter of my life and career as a full-time writer. If you are also about to embark on a path that is both thrilling and frightening, I hope this quote bolsters you up as you design and pursue your own daring adventure.
“The credit belongs to the [woman] who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends herself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if she fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that her place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
Inspired: Oprah on the work of finding your calling
“We’re all called. If you’re here breathing, you have a contribution to make to our human community. The real work of your life is to figure out your function—your part in the whole—as soon as possible, and then get about the business of fulfilling it as only you can.” ~ Oprah
Somewhere along the way our society decided it was best to be practical rather than passionate, that we had to be much more concerned with the path of least resistance rather that the path that made us feel alive. It became obsessed with back-up plans rather than making and following the plan that made us excited to get out of bed in the morning.
To hell with those ideas.
If all we ever are is practical, then what kind of world will we have? We’ll become a community of people who blindly follows, who buries their collective heads in the sand and does what they’re told. No thank you. I’d prefer not to. I’ll take the hard knocks and the tough lessons and the massive disappointments that sometimes must be faced in order to go out on the edge and see what I can actually do and make and see. The only work we need to do is find that thing that fills us up—body, mind, and spirit. That’s our calling. We all have one. The fun of life, and its meaning, is to find that calling, to pick it up and carry it forward. That’s why we’re here. That’s what I care most about: that you, me, and everyone else finds what they’re called to do and then makes it happen. That’s what the world needs.
Inspired: Difficulty fuels growth
All clay needs a kiln to be made useful. Disappointment, fear, anger, sadness. That’s your kiln. Don’t think of them as forces that work against you but forces that polish you, that make you brighter, more resilient, and brilliant. Trial by fire shows us what we’re made of. It makes us empathic and compassionate and kind. Soldier on and let it do its work while you do yours.
Inspired: The magic of sleep and its impact on creativity, clarity, and writing
Dan Levitin’s latest research on the power of sleep to bolster and ignite creativity is fascinating. For writers, this research is especially valuable because one of our chief tasks is to connect disparate dots of information to create a cohesive story.
Levitin reveals a number of actionable pieces of advice on how to make our sleep cycles most beneficial to our imagination. The brain prioritizes the thoughts we have right before going to sleep and spends a good deal of its sleep time working on them. I’ve been spending time before bed working on my most important personal projects and challenges. The results of this practice have been amazing for me. I’m waking up with insights and connections in my work that I haven’t been able to see in my waking hours. I’ve also been going to bed and waking up hours earlier than usual and that’s tripped a powerful switch, too.
While we often think of creativity as elusive and unexplainable, I’m fascinated to learn how we can engineer it at least to some extent. At the very least there is much we can do to make room for its arrival and help it to feel welcomed and valued. Sometimes all we need is awareness and openness. Sometimes all magic needs is a space to happen. Get some shut-eye and create.
