Category: creativity

creativity, dreams, imagination, inspiration, music

Step 282: Imagine John Lennon at 70

Christa Avampato

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.” ~ John Lennon

Phineas and I took our morning walk to Strawberry Fields on West 72nd Street in Central Park. Under a great span of American Elms, you’ll find a small space akin to a cathedral for anyone and everyone who loves music, loves the Beatles, and loves John Lennon, who today would turn 70. His legacy is elegantly preserved there in a gorgeous reproduction of a Pompeii mosaic, a gift from Naples Italy, with one simple, powerful word “Imagine”. Just steps away at The Dakota, the singer lost his life almost 20 years ago and we lost a great spirit of peace and creativity.

I stood there this morning, just as the sun started to peak up and over New York City. Already, the memorial was scattered with flowers, offerings, candles, letters, and pictures. He was right – he wasn’t the only dreamer. He inspired a whole world full of dreamers, creators, and people who want to live peacefully. He might not be here anymore, but what he stood for and what he believed are still very much alive in the hearts and minds of so many, especially here in New York City, and most especially in this neighbor that he made his home for 17 years.

Decades from now, there will still be hundreds of thousands of people who will visit this very same spot and imagine, in honor of John Lennon. He lived a creative, passionate life, and the best way for us to pay tribute to his memory is to do the same. I think we should have a national day of creativity in honor of John Lennon, an annual marker that reminds us that our imagination is our greatest, most powerful asset. We could all do with a little more dreaming.

choices, creativity, decision-making, determination, passion, patience

Step 269: Stubborn Persistance Pays

Christa Avampato

“Stubbornly persist, and you will find that the limits of your stubbornness go well beyond the stubbornness of your limits.” ~ Robert Brault

Phin and I head out early every morning for an hour-long walk, and I use that time to hang with him, get my own bearings, and meditate on where I am in life at that very moment. This often sends my mind just out over the horizon, into my not-so-distant future. What is it I’m really trying to do? What really matters?

These morning walks often have me thinking about limitations: financial, personal, professional. Sometimes these limitations really grab a hold of me and just won’t let go no matter how much I try to shake them off. I try every trick in my bag to make my limitations vanish (or at least my perception of them) and very often they just hang on, unabated. They are stubborn to say the least.

This morning I tried a different approach. What if I didn’t try to completely bust my limitations but instead just sat and talked with them? What if I could show them that my dreams and I are even more stubborn and will not be dissuaded? I will work around them and do what it takes to get where I want to go. And what if I could see my limitations as gifts, as teachers, rather than roadblocks. What can I learn from them, and more importantly from my fear of them?

As I considered this idea, I could feel my breathing loosen up and the creativity started to seep back in. Limitations exist to give us some bumper lanes, to actually heighten our creativity and provide some structure in which to build the life we want. It’s easy to get bogged down by them, to wish that that they would just melt away giving us complete and total freedom. The truth is that there will always be some kind of limitation on us. No resource is entirely unlimited, except creativity. Limitations may be stubborn, but they’re nothing compared to the creativity we can amass and put to good use to get where we want to go. Persist. Just persist, and see where that takes you.

care, career, choices, commitment, creativity, decision-making, determination, work

Step 266: Don’t Lower Your Expectations

Christa Avampato

“The reasonable man adapts himself to the conditions that surround him. The unreasonable man adapts surrounding conditions to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

When I was in business school, one of my favorite professors revealed his secret for a happy life: low expectations. He was kidding, a little laughter to break the mind numbing tension caused by information overload. He lives a life of the highest expectations I’ve ever known. And it is happy one, too.

Today, I had a conversation with someone who told me she was concerned about my expectations. I was explaining that certain areas of product development like mobile and social technologies require agile development – fail fast and don’t make the same mistake twice. Involve end-users in the process. Beat it, bureaucracy. And no, taking a year to develop a new product or service that isn’t even keeping pace with competition is not acceptable.

She tried to counter by saying that without a knowledge management system in place, there isn’t a way to lower run times between product iterations. I said that building a knowledge management system also needs to be done quickly, and it’s incumbent upon every one to create it and contribute to it. I was being unreasonable and displaying my very high expectations, and I would not back down. Her response, “Well your expectations worry me.” My response, “We have to do better.”

Uncomfortable conversation? Yes. Would I take it back and change my behavior? No. Progress requires unreasonable, unrelenting expectations, and the ability to back them up with creativity and a strong work ethic. And I mean to be a person of progress, not a person of simple adaptation to someone else’s standards. I’d rather aim high and be disappointed every day of my life, than strive for and achieve mediocrity.

creativity, technology, yoga

Step 231: My SXSW Presentation Submission – Yoga and Creative Focus

Christa Avampato

During my yoga teacher training I spent a lot of time thinking about the link between yoga and creativity. Then I took it one step further and began to wonder if yoga could be a tool to call for creativity at will. To further explore this interest with a creative audience, I submitted a presentation idea to the 2011 SXSW Interactive Conference. SXSW Interactive is a collection of ridiculously talented people in the digital space who get together every March in Austin, Texas to share, learn, and create.

In my presentation, Taming the Money Mind: Yoga and Creative Focus, I would teach conference attendees about getting into the creative zone at will as opposed to waiting and hoping for creative inspiration to strike. Attendees would walk away with answers to the following questions:

1. What is the scientific link between yoga and creativity?
2. Can yoga help us to access our creative inspiration at will?
3. What physical techniques are useful to cultivate creativity?
4. Can I practice these techniques anywhere, anytime, regardless of my physical condition?
5. Can I teach these practices to my team to help them cultivate their own creativity?

A portion of the decision-making process that determines which presentation ideas will be accepted involves voting by anyone and everyone who cares to vote. It does require you to do about 30 seconds of work to create an account and log in, but it’s pretty painless. I’d love (and greatly appreciate) your support!

To read more about my presentation check it out by clicking here. Thanks for taking a look!

creativity, discovery, friendship, innovation, inspiration

Step 220: Life on Our Own Terms

Christa Avampato

“We start off scared, and we stay scared until we’re done.” ~ Ed Catmull, President and Co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios

I wish someone would just eliminate acronyms like BAU (business as usual) and SOP (standard operating procedures). At various times in my life, I tried to live by someone else’s standards. I wince with embarrassment when I think about those times. They landed me in situations that left me supremely unhappy. Those times of living by someone else’s definitions of success and happiness were like death by a thousand little cuts. I lost myself and spent a long time digging my way out of those messes.

Many of my friends are now going through intense times of self-rediscovery. They’re trying new things, exploring, re-framing, and growing. This work isn’t easy. Sometimes it’s painful and scary. They’re unsure where all of it will lead, if it leads anywhere at all. They keep reaching even when it feels like they’re reaching into the dark. I’m right there with them. I get it; we’re in this together. I’m proud of them and inspired by them. I can’t wait to see what they create next.

From the outside it might feel foolish to upset the apple cart, to take our perfectly fine lives and chuck it all for a more authentic, original dream. But I know we’re all right in taking this route. The truly crazy, risky path is to stay in place. Fear is a healthy, helpful feeling to have so long as we have enough courage to put that fear aside and keep going. I’m all for continuous re-invention. It keeps life interesting and regret at bay.

change, creativity, feelings

Step 211: 5 Ways to Improve Concentration

Christa Avampato

“Through meditation and by giving full attention to one thing at a time, we can learn to direct attention where we choose.” ~ Eknath Easwaran

A lot of people want our attention. Take a walk stroll through Times Square without any sense of urgency, and your mind will start spinning with the dizzying number of companies and brands who ask us to pay attention to them amid the chaos. In New York City, distraction takes up residence in every nook and cranny. We spend a lot of energy and time just trying to focus. I’m sure residents of other cities have the same challenge. Not an impossible task, though certainly a difficult one.

The list below details 5 things that help me focus amid the turbulence of New York. I first moved to New York at 22, left, came back, didn’t last long, left, and came back again. In this 3rd stretch, I have lived here for over 3 years – a personal record of staying put in one city. Recently, the winds of wander have come knocking. While in Florida on vacation, I actually contemplated packing it all up (especially since I no longer have that many belongings), and heading for new pastures, even if not necessarily greener ones. Then the Universe, did a funny thing – it made it very difficult for me to physically get home from vacation. Absence, even short and fleeting, always makes me long for New York. The Universe has a deep wisdom and a wicked sense of humor.

5 ways I stay focused here in New York:

1.) Yoga helps. Really. I have a bias here because I am a yoga instructor. Though I got into yoga to reduce stress and anxiety. It gave me the lovely and unexpected side effects of increased creativity and the extremely ability to focus when needed. I don’t use yoga, nor do I teach yoga, to help someone balance all of their weight on their pinky while up in some crazy balance pose. I use it to decompress, and that works for me.

2.) Meditation helps, too. I hated meditation for a long time. I actually thought the whole idea of it bore a striking resemblance to The Emperor’s New Clothes. I spent many years as a critic of meditation without ever giving it a fair shake. Then with my yoga teacher training, I had to have a daily meditation practice as part of the program. Even for just 5 minutes. That regular practice did the trick. Now I have a meditation buddy from my yoga training – we don’t meditate together. We just check in with one another each week to keep one another on the meditation path. No I actually feel the effects of meditation, even during moment of increased stress. It taught me how to calm down and gave me a pathway to a peaceful, restful mind.

3.) Choose your neighborhood wisely. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. People ask me why and my answer never wavers. I like to go to crazy, but I don’t want to live in. There are far cooler, more happenin’ neighborhoods, no doubt. The restaurants in my neighborhood are decent, I have a Whole Foods and a branch of the public library around the corner, and live very close to two huge parks. That meets my requirements. I also live alone on a high floor and have some outdoor space in a quiet building. Those two things remind me just how lucky I am to live where I live. Crazy lives a short cab or subway ride away – good enough for me.

4.) And choose your friends even more wisely. About a year ago, I gave up on negative people. I had a lot of them in my life. People who never get to happy and cannot be happy for others. I serve as blood-in-the-water to those types of people because I have an extraordinary flair for listening to hard luck cases that want no help or improvement. Now I focus my time on those people in my life who give me more energy than they take, people who create and dream and grow. It had made a world of difference.

5.) Get a coach or therapist. The old joke goes that everyone in New York goes to therapy because we are all extraordinarily screwed up. Truthfully, everyone, everywhere can benefit from therapy. We all have issues and challenges and an unbiased opinion really, really helps. I see a social worker who acts more as a life coach than a therapist. If you want his name, I will gladly referred you. He helped me to gain more confidence and pursue a life that excites me. I also recently interviewed Will Meyerhofer, a lawyer turned therapist, for an upcoming freelance piece. He works on a sliding scale and has oodles of integrity and talent. Check him out at http://www.aquietroom.com/.

What did I miss? What helps you stay sane in this crazy world?

art, creativity, film

Step 210: The Role of the Critic and Criticism

Christa Avampato

“In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so. But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends… Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere.” ~ Anton Ego (voiced by Peter O’Toole) in Ratatouille (2007), written by Brad Bird

While on vacation in Florida, my brother-in-law pointed out this quote to me. I had seen Ratatouille before though had not paid this quote nearly the credit it deserves. If someone covered the attribution, I would have assumed a seasoned journalist as its writer. The gorgeous language, the lament, the honesty, and then the sense of purpose have an eloquence and dignity to them. I want to make t-shirts with this quote on them. I will certainly paste it up at my desk.

The new, indeed, needs friends. Supporters. Believers. People who can let go of past ideas and conceptions in favor of something different and out of the ordinary. They must step away from the safe, sure bet, and make their way out to the ledge to join the artist who had the courage to go it alone with only his imagination as his guide. Critics and artists alike earn their true credit out there on that ledge together.

Great artists can come from elite pedigree schools and backgrounds – critics often hold up those examples as the pinnacle of high art. As Brad Bird sees it, a great artist could just as easily come from any far-reaching corner of the globe, no training even required, only friends. An artist needs vision and the ability to bear out her ideas for the world to witness and critique. Making art, putting our hearts on our sleeves and inviting others to view them takes conviction, confidence, and bravery. Artists do and must throw caution to the wind. Their pallets may consist of paints, brushes, pens, computer design programs, clay, performance abilities, and a variety of other tools. The medium does not determine greatness. What makes a great artist, and also a great critic, is the unquenchable desire to make and remake, to believe that their greatest work and their greatest discoveries always lie ahead.

My brother-in-law, Kyle Waldrep, painted the image above. Visit his art blog here.

creativity, determination, frustration, learning, Life, loss, luck, mistakes, presentation, producer, television, trend

Step 199: Why I Hate Reality TV Shows With Elimination Rounds

Christa Avampato

I have a hard time watching reality TV, especially when elimination rounds are involved. I get nervous for the contestants as if I’m on the show myself. I never knew why until my brother-in-law recently shared his view on these shows: “You don’t get judged on the body of your work; one mistake and you’re gone.” This is a horrible lesson to reinforce in our society.

Real success comes from trying a lot of different ideas, taking risks, and learning from failures as well as achievements. To support the idea that one false move means you’re down for the count is just plain dumb. Real life isn’t like that, making the idea of this kind of “reality” TV anything but.

My brother-in-law had an idea: why don’t we let all of the contestants stay until the end and have the judging be on the full season of work, not just one dish, one task, or one song? Have the weekly winners actually win something extra. Let people learn from their weekly mistakes, and actually see what they do with what they learn. That would be a reality TV show worth watching.

creative process, creativity, decision-making

Step 165: 37 Tips from Hugh McLeod

Christa Avampato

I’ve heard Hugh McLeod’s name mentioned several times in the last week. My pal, Amanda, just let me know that the image I posted on my blog earlier this week was his work and I love it. Hugh has a daily cartoon and a newsletter that he sends out. Hop over there and sign up for some inspiration. You can also join him on Twitter and Facebook. In the mean time, here are 37 tips he lists on his website that have worked for his creative spirit.

1. Ignore everybody.

2. The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours.

3. Put the hours in.

4. If your biz plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail.

5. You are responsible for your own experience.

6. Everyone is born creative; everyone is given a box of crayons in kindergarten.

7. Keep your day job.

8. Companies that squelch creativity can no longer compete with companies that champion creativity.

9. Everybody has their own private Mount Everest they were put on this earth to climb.

10. The more talented somebody is, the less they need the props.

11. Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether.

12. If you accept the pain, it cannot hurt you.

13. Never compare your inside with somebody else’s outside.

14. Dying young is overrated.

15. The most important thing a creative person can learn professionally is where to draw the red line that separates what you are willing to do, and what you are not.

16. The world is changing.

17. Merit can be bought. Passion can’t.

18. Avoid the Watercooler Gang.

19. Sing in your own voice.

20. The choice of media is irrelevant.

21. Selling out is harder than it looks.

22. Nobody cares. Do it for yourself.

23. Worrying about “Commercial vs. Artistic” is a complete waste of time.

24. Don’t worry about finding inspiration. It comes eventually.

25. You have to find your own schtick.

26. Write from the heart.

27. The best way to get approval is not to need it.

28. Power is never given. Power is taken.

29. Whatever choice you make, The Devil gets his due eventually.

30. The hardest part of being creative is getting used to it.

31. Remain frugal.

32. Allow your work to age with you.

33. Being Poor Sucks.

34. Beware of turning hobbies into jobs.

35. Savor obscurity while it lasts.

36. Start blogging.

37. Meaning Scales, People Don’t.

37. When your dreams become reality, they are no longer your dreams.

business, cooking, creativity, innovation

Step 160: Share Like a Chef

Christa Avampato

Yesterday I read the transcript of an interview between Brian Clark of Copyblogger and Jason Fried, Co-founder of 37Signals. The interview is part of a series that Brian is using to kick-off his initiative Lateral Action, a program to support would-entrepreneurs as they take the leap into their own businesses. Now that I’ve started Compass Yoga, I find that I read about entrepreneurship with an even greater interest than I did when I was just writing about entrepreneurship for Examiner. These stories take on a whole new meaning when my first goal is to figure out how to apply them directly to my own venture.

One piece of advice that Jason offers up is the idea of every entrepreneur emulating a chef. “They tell you everything they know.” There’s a tendency to keep our strategic advantages, our ways of doing things, close to our chests in business. The conventional business wisdom dictates that if we give away how we work, everyone will copy us, and we will never be able to stay afloat. Chefs don’t think that way. They let it all hang out – where they shop, what’s in their pantries, and the mechanics and exact ingredients that they use to create a dish. They even write books divulging all of their secrets with glee! Walk into any restaurant and a chef’s philosophy and skill is on display for everyone to see.

What gives? How do chefs give away everything they know and stay in business? In practical terms, chefs have a few things going for them:

1.) Everyone’s got to eat and not everyone wants to cook all the time. Chefs fill that gap with their services.

2.) Going out to eat is an event, usually a social one, so it’s just as much about the experience as it is about the food and drink.

3.) Chefs have the idea of feeder businesses down pat. Their cookbooks, TV shows, restaurants, and retail merchandise all feed into their individual brand, creating a loyal audience who craves their wisdom.

4.) Chefs constantly re-invent themselves, giving us all a reason to go back to see what’s new. That’s the nature of cooking. Every fresh pan is a clean slate for something new that will not be exactly as it was before and will never be again.

Beyond the practical nature of their work, chefs have put their finger on the best way to thrive in business: their strategic advantage is their individuality. No one can exactly copy what they do because every dish, every time, is unique. I could have every ingredient and miniscule detail of the process that any chef uses, and when I make the dish it will taste different than their creation.

So here’s what we really need to do beyond sharing like chefs: we need to identify what really makes us our gorgeous, talented, creative-beyond measure selves and then work the heck out of that. Being part of the pack isn’t going to serve us going forward. Break-out, share, and celebrate your individuality. It’s the only truly strategic advantage we can keep. What makes you, you?

The image above depicts Mario Batali, one of the most generous, talented, and unique chefs around. I love him.