action, adventure, change, creativity

Inspired: When the going gets tough, go further

When the going gets tough, go further
When the going gets tough, go further

A breakthrough requires the tough work of internal change. Breaking through is difficult and painful. If we can endure, if we can push through difficulty and keep our heads up, the rewards are incredible. A breakthrough is an act of faith, faith that all we know in any moment is the very next step. The rest of the path is wholly uncertain. If we are committed enough to look fear, rejection, and disappointment in the face and keep going no matter what, then we’re ready for a breakthrough. When the going gets tough, go further.

action, change, creativity

Inspired: Prepare to be fortunate

Fortune favors the prepared mind

“Fortune favors only the prepared mind.” ~Louis Pasteur

2014 taught me to expect, and be prepared for, the unexpected. We have to be prepared to recognize fortune when it comes our way and that takes training. Fortune commonly arrives neatly disguised in ways we don’t anticipate. We spend so much time steeling ourselves for disappointment and disaster that we often forget to equally prepare ourselves for remarkable good fortune, too. Be brave. Be positive. Be prepared to be successful.

 

action, choices, creativity

Inspired: Action is motion with purpose

Action is motion with purpose.
Action is motion with purpose.

“Never mistake motion for action.” ~Ernest Hemingway

It’s important to keep moving forward, no matter how slowly. Sometimes I find I’m moving forward rather aimlessly and that’s when I stop to reassess. Where am I trying to go? And why? And how? And with whom? These kinds of questions ensure that I’m not just in motion but that I’m taking action. Action is motion with purpose. And if I find that I’m moving in a direction or along a path that lack this definition of action, or that the action isn’t authentic to who I am and who I want to be, I change direction. My path is winding, but every step is meaningful.

action, creativity

Inspired: How to transform an ending into a beginning

“Amidst the worldly comings and goings, observe how endings become beginnings.” ~Tao Te Ching

There’s a lot of talk about making endings in beginnings, but how does it actually happen? Here’s what’s worked for me:

  • I spend some time to consider what actually learned in the goodbye so I can use that knowledge in my next hello.
  • I take the emotion out of it. I let myself feel all my feelings about the ending, and then I really let them completely pass. I don’t take those emotions into my next beginning.
  • I trade fear for excitement. There’s a fine line between the two, and I try to focus on the positives of a new journey.
  • I remember the tough parts that caused me to say goodbye to the old.
  • I ask for help. I have a small circle of people who really encourage me along my new paths and their belief in my gives me confidence to keep going.
  • I have faith in myself and in the journey. There’s a Buddhist teaching that says every moment contains exactly the lesson we need exactly when we need it. I’ve embraced that philosophy. The Universe works undercover in ways that I don’t always understand in the outset. But when I look back on my life I’m able to see the purpose for everything. I have faith that this will always be the case. Life makes sense in reverse. I trust the timing of my life unconditionally.

Have you turned an ending into a beginning? How did you do it?

action, adventure, dreams, New Years Eve

Inspired: An impossible vision will serve you well

Alice in Wonderland - my inspiration to believe in the impossible
Alice in Wonderland – my inspiration to believe in the impossible

On Friday, I had a meeting with someone who explained his definition of vision: “It’s something that keeps us constantly reaching; a place we never really get to. And if by chance, we do reach our vision then we know that we haven’t dreamed big enough.” His idea intrigued me. I’d never heard it put quite that way before. It caused me to think that maybe I’ve been selling myself short; perhaps I haven’t dreamed big enough. And maybe it’s time. Can I make 2015 a year of wonderful and inspiring impossibles? I guess I won’t know unless I try.

action, creativity

Inspired: When I’m 80, please let me be like these seniors

Carmen Herrera, painter, 99, in her Manhattan studio. Herrera sold her first painting at age 89. Today her work is in the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern.
Carmen Herrera, painter, 99, in her Manhattan studio. Herrera sold her first painting at age 89. Today her work is in the permanent collections at the Museum of Modern Art and the Tate Modern.

I have no desire to go back and be younger; I’m psyched to meet my older self! Active seniors knock me out with their awesomeness. This weekend The New York Times Magazine ran an interactive piece that showcased seniors 80+ years young across a number of professional disciplines who are now at the top of their game with no sign of slowing down. Their secret: work they love and exercise. Please, Universe let me have their energy, determination, and passion to make good use of every moment I have in all the years I’m lucky enough to live.

To check out these movin’ and shakin’ seniors, click here.

action, choices, work

Inspired: The only thing I want to be

Way to be
Way to be

The purpose of my life is only this: to be a proliferator of good-a** vibes. Everywhere I go. Everything I do. I want it all to add up to this. That feels like the best possible way to spend my time. It helps me. It helps the world. Everyone wins.

action, change

Inspired: Change starts with choice

Make choices
Make choices

I was in a funk. I blamed lots of external factors, some deservedly so, but at the end of the day it was me that needed to ignite change. I needed to take back the reigns on my mood and keep marching forward. So I got up, danced around to Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” (judge me if you will but I like the message of that song), took a very cold shower, and got on with it.

Change is tough, but I’m tougher. I am my thoughts. My world is my own creation. I am responsible for what goes right, what goes wrong, and what needs fixin’. Life is a choice.

Change your mind and you change everything.

action, art, creativity, writer, writing

Inspired: I practice method writing to get into character

Choose your own adventure
Choose your own adventure

Writers spend a lot of time writing, and they also need to *really* live to infuse life and authenticity into their writing. Writing is theater; it’s a one person show and the writer plays all the parts. To help me get into character, I practice method writing. Like method acting, I imagine how the characters in my writing would act when they experience events in my every day life. I read the news with their eyes. I consider how they’d make the decisions that I face. As an author, I live life many times over; it’s like skipping ahead in a choose your own adventure story to see which ending I like best. Despite deadlines, all writers need a life. Your characters will thank you for it, and so will your readers.

action, dreams, time

Inspired: Your time is now

Go for it now. The future is promises to no one.
Go for it now. The future is promised to no one.

Every once in a while, usually in the middle of the night, I question everything I’m doing. “This is insane to try to be a full-time writer given my business background and education,” I think. It is insane, and it’s also necessary. I have to do this or for the rest of my life I’ll wonder what I could have done if I had just had the guts to try. The future doesn’t make any promises to anyone. It doesn’t owe us anything. It won’t work for us, nor against us. It’s going to just be, and what we do with it is entirely up to us. If you really want something, the time to go for it is now.