As much as I respect my mind’s desire to protect me, I also respect my heart’s ability to guide me. Some obstacles are real, most are imagined, and I take time every day to let my mind and heart sort out which is which. The ones that are real obstacles, I turn into opportunities to grow strength, determination, and creativity. Nothing is impossible.
Category: creativity
Beautiful: My Stop Day Results
Some times the very best thing we can do for our work is to not work.
On Saturday, I took the day off in honor of a self-imposed Stop Day. I have only taken a handful of days away from anything related to work since leaving my corporate job and starting up my own business last June. I love my work. It gives me energy and inspires me. I’ve never felt the need or desire to work long hours out of guilt or a belief that working more hours will get me further ahead on some nebulous ladder to the top. I give what a job needs to be done well and starting my own requires a lot of my time to tend to clients, do the work I committed to do, pitch for new business, and research possible future pitches. (See my 3X3X3 article for my system of working.)
Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about how stepping away from work helps make us more efficient and creative. Since I am an efficiency hound and constantly trying new ways to boost my creativity, I decided to give it a purposeful whirl.
It was much more difficult than I imagined. Because I do enjoy my work so much, I found myself constantly coming up with new ideas that I could do and people I should connect with. Rather than act on them, I would make a quick note of these for later and then let them go. I put aside any reading that was even remotely related to any work I do. I stayed off my social media channels (for the most part) and didn’t write anything related to assignments I currently have.
After a couple of hours, I did feel a surge of energy and did a free writing exercise whose results even surprised me. A gush of words flowed out on a subject I haven’t thought about in years. I guess they had been trying to break through the surface and saw that they finally had their chance.
By early afternoon, it was time to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. I went to brunch at Lobster Joint with a dear friend and then we took a several hour walk all over lower Manhattan, reveling in the sunshine. I stopped into Crumbs, my favorite cupcake shop, to pick up some goodies for a cocktail party that another friend had spontaneously decided to throw at his apartment that night. I arrived at the party and then stayed many hours later than I had planned.
It was a truly wonderful and relaxing day. And you know what? The sky didn’t fall down and my business didn’t tank just because I took a day off. In fact, despite daylight savings time, I hopped up out of bed and was excited and inspired to get back to my work without the stress of a to-do list. My efficiency was higher. My energy was cranking even without the zip of coffee. I felt really alive.
Stop Day will make a regular appearance on my schedule going forward.
Beautiful: Storytelling the Pixar Way
I am a huge fan of Pixar’s storytelling and their 2 word business plan – “quality rules.” I found this illustration of their storytelling rules and had to share it with all of you. My favorite is #4 because it so elegantly and simply gives us a way forward in telling and understanding the framework of any story. I hope you find this list as helpful as I do!
Beautiful: You Have All the Magic You Need
“We do not need magic to transform our world. We carry all of the power we need inside ourselves already.” ~ J.K. Rowling
When it comes to the matter of pursuing dreams, we don’t need to hope for miracles or luck. Our own effort is a source of magic in and of itself. We have the power to make our dreams with our heart and our own two hands. Every moment, we make choices that affect the world around us. It’s up to us to decide what that effect will be.
So if you find yourself walking through your day and taking note of things that need fixing, recognize that you can fix them. With enough care, concern, and time, we can repair and renew almost anything. Nothing is ever set in stone; everything can be transformed. We have the ability to choose how and when that transformation happens.
Beautiful: Take the Time to Journey Into Your Imagination
“If you want to know where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders.” ~ Bernard Byer
There’s a little magic moment, a switch that happens, when we’re fully vested in creative work, when we give ourselves the opportunity to travel on a one-way ticket into our imaginations. We’re totally consumed. There’s no separation between us and it. We lose ourselves only to discover that being lost is how we truly find our way.
I suggest taking this little trip every day. Find some time, even a moment or two, to let yourself dream, without a destination and without judgement. It’s amazing what revelations emerge from a relaxed mind. They come straight from the heart.
Beautiful: There Is No Time Like the Present
Yesterday I took a playwriting class. I started my career in theatre management so it’s a genre that I worked in and around for many years. I’d like to get back to it, but in a different way this time. I’m not sure if that means as a writer so I thought I would take this opportunity to explore the option. Also, I have a story I’d like to tell and as much as I tried to put it into narrative form, it’s meant to be seen as well as heard.
There were a lot of nuggets of knowledge in the class. I learned about dramatic structure, character development, story arc, and the role of timing. It gave me enough to get started. And that was perhaps the most valuable piece of insight.
Our instructor urged us to get going and finish as soon as possible. Dump a first draft out on the page in a month, 2 months tops. Don’t worry if it’s messy, disjointed, and rough around all of its edges. Just…get…it….out before it looses steam, before you get too scared to have the story you need to tell stare back at you. This is a time to be hasty, as hasty as humanly possible.
What’s true for playwriting is also true for so many projects in life. I firmly believe that we hold ourselves back far too often. We become so intentional, so purposeful that we lose sight of the joy found in spontaneity. We worry too much about failure, and when we’re done with that we worry too much about success. We have all kinds of reasons for not doing something we really want to do – most of them are rubbish.
There will be time to refine, time to tweak and fix and finesse. But that time is not at the start of trying something new, it’s not at the beginning of the beginning. As hard as it may be, put your perfectionism aside. Calm your mind by reminding yourself that no one has to see your first draft of anything. You don’t even need to tell anyone you’re creating a first at all. Just begin. Start. Try. Play. Make a mess. Now. There is no time like the present.
Beautiful: Creating Photos and Art with The Book of GIMP
It’s more than a book; it’s a tome. Through No Starch Press, Olivier Lecarme and Karine Delvare just published The Book of GIMP, a complete and comprehensive guide on GIMP, a free open-source software program that successfully rivals pricey options like Adobe Photoshop. Visual design software can be intimidating because it has so many bells and whistles, as well as its own vocabulary that is foreign to people just getting started in design. Lecarme and Delvare demystify GIMP without dumbing it down in any way.
The book begins with a 24-page quick start guide that orients new users to GIMP. If you’re already familiar with the software and need help with specific functionality, skip to any one of the well-organized chapters to get in-depth knowledge on photo retouching, drawing and illustration, logo creation, composite photography, animation, and web design.
This book takes you through each area progressing from basics to advanced functionality, providing descriptive screenshots and step-by-step guidance. The mini-lessons and exercises in each chapter build upon one another so they are ideal for someone who just wants to complete a quick task or for someone who wants to know all of the ins and outs of GIMP’s many capabilities.
The reference section and appendices go into deep detail on settings and tools that are available to hone your masterpieces. It even has a chapter on the physiology of vision! And if that’s not enough for you, there’s always the section of additional readings, tutorials, related projects, and connections to the global GIMP user community.
Whether you’re just getting started in visual design or are a seasoned expert, The Book of GIMP is the best creative companion for all of your efforts to Make Something Beautiful.
Beautiful: Hacking Fashion – the Breast Cancer Detecting Bra and Carrie Underwood’s Grammy Dress
“What do I say to people who say fashion is frivolous? I agree with them and then I tell them how many jobs this industry creates, how many people my company employs. That is not frivolous at all…This was always my dream.” ~ Prabal Gurung, fashion designer
As the whirlwind of Fashion Week dies down, I am inspired by two fashion stories that happened far away from the hubbub at Lincoln Center.
The bra that detects breast cancer
My mom is a breast cancer survivor. Early detection by GE Healthcare scanners caught her tumor during a routine mammogram when it was the size of a grain of sand. She was treated with a lumpectomy and radiation. 7 years ago yesterday, she wrapped up her radiation and she has been cancer free ever since. Early detection and capable doctors saved my mom’s life.
In the U.S., most health insurance doesn’t cover routine mammograms until women are 50. Sadly, too many women are developing breast cancer long before their 50th birthdays. Some are not even making it to 50. First Warning Systems is about to change all that, bypassing the healthcare system in favor of the fashion industry. They’ve developed a system that fits inside a sports bra to monitor breast health. They’ve spent 20 years developing this technology and expect it be approved by the FDA next year. The bra costs $200, a fraction of the cost of a mammogram if women can even get one before they’re 50. Learn more here.
Carrie Underwood’s Grammy dress
During Carrie Underwood’s performance at the Grammy Awards, there were two shows – one involved her voice, the other involved her dress. It was something to behold. The dress was hand-sewn with thousands of crystals. Projectors created choreographed, colorful patterns using the dress as the main screen and then extended them throughout the Staples Center. The images were timed perfectly to her music. It was breathing taking.
The images looked as if they were coming from inside the dress. It made me think about the canvases all around us, not just the ones on easels and museum walls. There are so many places where art can come to life. There are so many ways for us to create a masterpiece that boosts our creativity and inspires others.
Fashion doesn’t have to be outrageous to be meaningful. Just like any other creative work, it can have an impact. It can help to build a better world. All that’s needed is the intention of its makers to do so.
Beautiful: You Failed. Now What?
“Make failure your teacher, not your undertaker.” ~ Zig Ziglar
There is a lot of talk about failure. Fail fast, fail often is the creed of many an entrepreneur and innovator. But what do you do about failure? How do you move on after it and what do you do with the experience of failure? Here’s a short list of how I’ve processed my (many!) failures and created something valuable from them.
1.) I learned what not to do. We hear this kind of advice all of the time when we have a terrible boss (and sadly, we’ve all had terrible bosses.) They didn’t teach us what to do but they sure as heck taught us what not to do. This is true of failure as well. We experiment with different ideas, crossing off what doesn’t work in an effort to find what does work. Finding success is largely a process of eliminating ideas that don’t work.
2.) I figured out how to build a team. I never want to be the smartest person in the room. Ever. I want everyone else to be heads and shoulders above me with completely different skill sets and interests that complement mine. I build my teams the same way. The collaborative process of a team is one in which every member contributes something unique so that everyone maximizes their learning opportunity.
3.) Know when to press on in the face of adversity and when to quit. Kenny Rogers may have been talking about gambling but his line “you gotta know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em, know when to walk away, and know when to run” is as true in the business as it is in poker. Failure taught me when to cut my losses and stop throwing good money, time, effort, and attention, after bad. It also taught me when to tough it out and get through hard times for the sake of the success that lies just beyond the difficulties.
There is no playbook for managing failure. It is a process of trial, error, and trial again. We all learn it the same way. We can take advice from others, but ultimately we are the captains of our own ships. We have to steer our own course, and many times that means taking failure and success in stride in equal amounts. Don’t let failure paralyze you. Don’t let it keep you from trying again. Also, don’t waste it. It’s an incredible teacher if we are willing to look at it objectively and use it as fuel to move forward.
Beautiful: Consider Taking a Crappy Job
“What???” you might be saying to yourself. “Christa, the self-appointed evangelist for only doing work you love, is suggesting I take a crappy job?” Yes, yes I am. Under 3 big, fat conditions. It must be: 1.) temporary, 2.) lead to something you love, and 3.) possible to keep your dignity. Let me give you an example.
When I first moved to New York in 1998, I took an incredibly crappy job to follow my dream to work on Broadway shows. (This is more years ago than I really care to admit but since this story benefits you, I’m going to let that slide.) I sat on the floor of a very cramped theatre office opening mail, speaking to screaming customers, getting coffee, and doing just about any horrible job they needed done for $10 / hour.
Taking that crappy job was the best career decision I ever made because it got me inside a theatre which is exactly where I wanted to be. My boss was so appreciative of my work that I was promoted two and a half months later (on my birthday) to a slightly less crappy job managing a box office. In my new role, customers still screamed at me and I got a new boss who was completely awful (which was really unfortunate since I loved my first boss at that theatre), but now I was making $15 / hour and managed a team.
I spent 9 months “in the box” as I affectionately referred to my time there, and on my lunch break one day I ran into a college acquaintance totally by chance who put me on the trail of a job that let me go out on my first theatre tour. On tour, customers still screamed at me and I had a second really awful boss, but now I was making A LOT more money, traveling the country, and running a whole company.
Life was good, until it wasn’t, and then I quit, moved to Florida, and 6 months later got a great job with a great boss and lots of responsibility. There I learned how to be a fundraiser. Unfortunately, it only paid $13 / hour. I took it any way. That was the second best decision I ever made in my career.
My theatre career was a series of trade-offs. I worked my way from job to job gaining experience, making money, then making less money, and then taking my career in an entirely different direction. When I look back, I took those crappy jobs for all the right reasons. They were all temporary (which to be honest is true for every job eventually), they all led me to do things I love to do (working in a theatre, raising money for causes I care about, and managing a team), and I always kept my dignity. Even when customers were screaming at me, I was empowered to help them. Even when my few bad bosses were doing things like throwing staplers around the office and cursing out everyone who came near them, I learned how to stand my ground, stick up for people I cared about, and be confident in the face of great difficulty.
Most of all, those crappy jobs showed me the power of determination and the strength of my own abilities to make a rough situation much better. My presence in those jobs mattered, to the mission of the organizations and to the people around me. And that was a wonderful, beautiful thing. It still is. I’m incredibly proud of the work I did as a theatre manager and to this day I will tell anyone who will listen that it was the very best business training I’ve ever had. It taught me to take calculated risks and go after my dreams.
Your crappy job may do the same for you. If it does, I think it’s worthy of consideration. Sometimes, the very best opportunities aren’t the ones that are shiny and bright but the ones that require our efforts to make them shine.
