Category: inspiration

commitment, creativity, imagination, inspiration

Step 353: Clearing the Mind for Creativity

Christa Avampato

“Clean out a corner of your mind and creativity will instantly fill it.” ~ Dee Hock

A few nights ago I was having trouble falling asleep. It’s a condition I used to be very used to having had insomnia for so long but now I’m closing in on a year of relief from that condition. Now a minimum of 7 hours is the norm for me and I never let myself get up out of bed anymore should I wake up in the middle of the night. So the lack of sleep a few nights ago was a surprising and disturbing event. Something was bothering me. There seemed to be no good solution to the situation I was grappling with and no matter how many times I turned it over in my mind, I couldn’t find my way out of that rut. The worst part was that it wasn’t even my problem to solve; a friend of mine is struggling with a personal issue at the moment and I was trying to think of an encouraging plan to pass along that might be helpful. No luck, and it really irked me. At first, I didn’t understand why.

I’ve read stories that say Isaac Newton did his best work by thinking of a problem and then promptly taking a nap. Einstein used his music and water-color painting to take his mind off of physics. Thomas Jefferson believed that having a lot of interests, and creating his own productive distractions actually made him even more productive when he focused on one specific task. E.B. White commented that walking away from a piece of writing for at least 24 hours before doing any editing aids our perspective. All of these methods help us find fresh eyes.

So to get myself to sleep and hopefully help my friend simultaneously, I made up my mind to forget about the problem. The moment the thought entered my mind, I said hello and promptly showed it the door. I was determined to do whatever I need to do to make the situation blur out of focus in the hopes that when I came back to it, I would have a better understanding of it.

The next morning, I realized why I was so stuck: 1 or 2 different turns about a year ago, and I would have found myself in the same situation as my friend. I would have made some very rash, heady decisions and felt crushed by the consequences. That fear mixed with relief, and the accompanying guilt and sadness for my friend, was clouding my vision. I couldn’t provide any help because the thought of being in the same situation myself scared the daylights out of me. Once I separated myself from the situation by taking a break from it, I was able to more creatively and compassionately assist my friend with some honest, actionable advice.

The next time I find myself turning a predicament, I’m taking the same course of action. I’m clearing out the clutter before I even attempt to focus. I’ll write down the problem and then immediately take it off my mind, letting it rest in the background of my mind. We want quick resolutions and immediately, correct answers but creativity doesn’t always work like that. Sometimes we have to take the counter-intuitive approach and let it go before we can really embrace it.

I didn’t create the cartoon above but it made me laugh out loud. Truth in comedy. Find the image here.

choices, decision-making, design, goals, imagination, inspiration

Step 333: Harry Potter, Muhammad Yunus, and How to Build a Business

Christa Avampato

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been doing a lot of think about small bets and goals, and the enormous benefits that can be gained by an individual and an entire community. Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and one of my social entrepreneurship idols, is famous for saying that he didn’t set out to help the whole world, or even his whole country of Bangladesh through microfinance. He wanted to help one village of 10 people in 1976 (incidentally, the same year I was born.) 34 years later, it’s deposits now stand at ~$1.4B and the organization has helped 8.3M people out of poverty, 97% of them women. (For more indicators of Grameen’s impact, click here.) He advises entrepreneurs not to build enormous business plans to scale. He tells them to just set one simple intention – help 5 people out of poverty.

Over the weekend, I took my family to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, part of Universal’s Islands of Adventure Theme Park. What they’ve done with the tiny bit of land set aside for Harry Potter is truly wonderful, with a few exceptions which I’m detailing in a letter to send to their President as guest feedback. What was abundantly clear is that they don’t believe that the appeal of Harry Potter will last too long. The Harry Potter part of the park is adjacent to several junky exhibits that should have been ripped out and used to expand the Harry Potter section. With such rich content, an entire park could have been built around that franchise, rather than just a sliver of an existing park land-locked between exhibits with little appeal. So much opportunity wasted due to a lack of belief by Universal in the powerful connection that fans feel to Harry Potter. Sometimes you need to bet the farm, or in Universal’s case at least the Islands of Adventure.

What does Harry Potter have to do with Muhammad Yunus? Quite a bit when we think about passion, belief, and priorities, and how those 3 pieces come together to form a new product that inspires and ignites creativity. Universal went small on an idea that warranted a far bigger bet. Muhammad Yunus bet small, knowing that his success could be replicated the world over if he could help his original group of 10.

The moral of the story – bet small on a brand new idea, but don’t go so small that you paint yourself into a corner.

creativity, determination, inspiration, writing, yoga

Step 283: Meeting Inspiration

Christa Avampato

“When inspiration does not come to go me, I go halfway to meet it.” ~ Sigmund Freud

Twyla Tharp quotes Freud in her book The Creative Habit. I read this book about two years ago and worked through the exercises faithfully. I flipped through it again last weekend, reading about my creative journey through the eyes of my 32-year old self.

Two years ago, I wanted to find more outlets for my writing. That’s happened to an even greater extent than I imagined, though not by accident, or hoping for that good fortune to find me. I had to go out there, dig it up, and then persist, persist, persist. I had to risk rejection and all that comes with it in the hopes that there would be some breaks here and there.

I followed a lot of leads to a very dead end, and considered just throwing in the towel. “Maybe the world doesn’t need my voice,” I thought more times than I’ll ever admit. And then here and there I got a bit of encouragement, which helped me to keep trudging out there again for more inspiration and more leads. Creativity, writing, hope, inspiration – they are all more easily cultivated with practice.

This has been true of my yoga teaching as well. I tried lots of avenues to get regular gigs, but the work didn’t come pouring in as I had hoped. This was going to harder than I thought. Stubbornness can pay off. It keeps us reaching up, even when the world seems to be pushing us down. On occasion, good luck shows up on our doorstep, but more often it’s up to us to get out there and discover it. Recognizing luck in all its disguises requires preparedness. Eventually a few things broke and now I teach at NY Methodist Hospital and Columbia Law School, with a possible third regular gig on the way. (More info to come if that pans out.)

I used to think of inspiration as a thunderbolt that reaches me at my dining table in front of this laptop. Sometimes that does happen, but more often it’s sparked by something I’ve witnessed or done outside these safe haven walls of my home. Being out in the world more by walking Phineas, my pup, has helped me see the gifts that lie just around the corner, literally. So now when I find that inspiration just isn’t flowing, I don’t get frustrated. I just pick myself up out my my chair, and go get it.

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.

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.

inspiration, sports, travel

Step 44: Ski, Skate, and Be from Canada

Christa Avampato

About a year ago I wrote a book review of Eat, Drink, and Be from Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid. It’s a love letter to a state and a culture that a brother and sister left behind in pursuit of dreams housed elsewhere. Their nostalgia and pride felt for their home seeps through in every line.

Last night while watching the Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics I felt that same kind of pride and nostalgia that most certainly was felt in the heart of every Canadian. Earlier that day I had emailed with my friend, Derek, quite possibly the proudest Canadian there is. This morning I received a long, multi-paragraphed email from him recounting his favorite details of the ceremony. I love being an American, though there’s something about Derek’s pride, the pride of every Canadian, that sometimes makes me wish I was even just part Canadian.

At Darden, I sat next to a friend of mine from Vancouver. I’ve never been and when I asked him what it was like, he called it “the Paris of Canada.” And I love Paris. Since then, I’ve been fascinated with that city. I had planned to go about 18 months ago when I was in Seattle for a wedding. Because I had just gotten a new job, I had to sadly lob off the Vancouver portion of my trip. This year, I’m going. After those opening ceremonies, I have to see a city that inspired a show at once so grand and so intimate.

Despite that I grew up in the mountains, I’ve never been skiing or snowboarding or even snowshoeing. It’s sad really. And I have to do something about that. I think this is going to be my year to take to the snow and to get that rush that an entire nation feels when they just think of that luscious white powder. If I can’t be a Canadian, I at least want to be able to walk in their shoes (or ski boots as the case may be) for a while.

As always, the Olympics has arrived exactly when we need it most. For a few weeks, we can turn our attention and focus to the exhibition of excellence and triumph and determination. We can look at the gritty, grinning, and unflappable athletes with awe and admiration. For 17 days, we can be inspired by hope and gorgeous performance. As K.D. Lang sang with such passion last night, “Hallelujah”.

dreams, hope, inspiration, nature, writing

My Year of Hopefulness – Castles in the Air

Christa Avampato

“Do not worry if you have built your castles in the air. They are where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~ Henry David Thoreau

This is my 365th day of actively seeking out and writing about hope. This was my one New Year’s Resolution for 2009: to feel more hopeful and record what I found here on this blog to help others feel more hopeful, too.

On this day last year, I had no idea that my life would look as it does today, in any respect. I can say with great confidence that this has been a year filled with more change than any other year I have had. Part of me wonders if that is actually my doing: did I precipitate all of this change or did the change just happen to me? I suspect it’s a mix of the two. I can also say with great confidence that today I feel exponentially more hopeful than I did one year ago. And I hope that these 365 blog posts have made others a little more hopeful, too. If so, then I achieved what I set out to do in my writing in 2009.

There are so many reflections I have on this year of writing about hope, so many things I’ve learned about myself, about others, about my community, and about the world as a whole. However, one revelation stands far above the others: when I actively, passionately search for something, I will inevitably find it because I will not give up until my task is done. And the truly remarkable thing is that yes, if I span the globe I can find millions of pieces of hope “out there”, though the pieces of hope that mean the most to me are with me all the time. I carry them inside of me.

Now what will I do next? I’ve got overflowing buckets of hope; how can they be put to the best use? My pal, Laura, asked me this question about two months ago while we were at dinner. Without missing a beat, I told her that for the next year I’d do one thing every day that used all that hope to build an extraordinary life. The answer just sprang from my mouth, no thought required. It was a wish my heart made.

So here we go: beginning tomorrow, I will write a post every day in 2010 that will describe the one thing I did that day that put me one tiny step (or one great leap) closer to living an extraordinary life. The wheels of change are well greased from the events of 2009, so I expect more big changes in 2010. My friend, Kelly, has had a mantra all year of “begin again in 2010.” She’s a wise woman, someone who is both a friend and a mentor, and I’m taking her advice.

The final thought I have as I close out this year relates to nature, a topic from which I’ve drawn a lot of hopeful examples. It’s a butterfly analogy, though not the stereotypical one of beautiful re-birth. When a tiny caterpillar wraps itself up in a cocoon, it purposely constructs the cocoon to be very tight so that the butterfly has to struggle to emerge. It has to wiggle and turn and twist, completing exhausting itself inside the too-tight casing. There are oils on the inside of the cocoon and when the butterfly struggles the oils are distributed over its wings. It will not be able to free itself until the oils are distributed evenly over its wings. Those oils build a layer over the butterfly’s wings that keep the wings from breaking apart when it flies. Without the oil coating on its wings, the butterfly would break apart the moment it tried to fly.

I think about my own struggles, and the struggles of the world, through the lens of the butterfly. The twisting and turning is a painful process. It wears me out, and yet that struggle is so necessary to my development and success. I would never be able to fly without the distribution of its lessons throughout my life. I have struggled long enough and my struggles have done an excellent job of building up the foundation of my life. So let the flight begin toward my castles in the air.

art, books, inspiration, New York City, theatre, travel

My Year of Hopefulness – Chasing Down Inspiration

Christa Avampato

“You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” ~ Jack London, author

Before 2009, I used to think of inspiration a something that just hits us. I kept a folder of inspirational pictures, stories, quotes, and clippings that I trolled through when I needed some uplifting thoughts and none seemed to find me. I believed in writer’s block and the mystical muse of creativity who decided if, when, and how to show up in our lives. No more. After a year of actively seeking out hope and writing about it every day, I believe in the Jack London method, my inspiration-chasing club always at the ready.

In New York City, we’re lucky that chasing down inspiration means just putting on a pair of shoes and walking outside our doors. Inspiration is everywhere. We have a host of amazing museums that I visit frequently (thanks to my employer’s fantastic perk that gets us into almost every museum in New York for free!) Central Park and Riverside Park are two blocks away from my apartment. Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off Broadway are burgeoning with some of the most inventive work to come along in decades. Bookstores are on nearly every corner, and there is no shortage of fascinating lectures, readings, and continuing ed classes in every subject, at every level. And if all else fails, just take a walk around the block, any block. You’re sure to find some characters.

In other cities, some much smaller than New York, inspiration abound as well. In Orlando, Florida, I found the largest collection of Tiffany glass in the world. In Charlottesville, Virginia, I had some of the best meals of my life. In my own hometown of Highland, New York, the view from the Catskill Mountains still takes my breathe away. In Providence, Rhode Island, I saw one of the finest productions of Moon for the Misbegotten that I’ve ever seen.

Inspiration is everywhere – all we need to do is get out into the world and look. We can travel thousands of miles from home, or we can hang around in our own backyard. What matters is the pursuit: do we want to be inspired and are we willing to “sift the sands of the desert to see what we can find,” as Clarissa Pinkola Estes says so eloquently in Women Who Run with the Wolves? If the answer is yes, then there are adventures upon adventures just waiting for us to hope on board. And if you can get your hands on a big club, that may help, too.
The image above is not my own. It can be found here.
books, dreams, insomnia, inspiration, New York City, opportunity, sleep

My Year of Hopefulness – Energy Level

Christa Avampato

“There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless. Perhaps it is that the heart beats faster here than elsewhere.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir, America Day By Day

Spoken like a true insomniac. I don’t know for sure if Simone de Beauvoir had insomnia, though I do understand her sentiments about New York as she made her way across the U.S. in 1947. Her diary from that year long trek from one U.S. coast to the other became the book America Day by Day. Her first step that journey was off a plane and into New York.

There does seem to be an energy here in this city that I have not found in other places. Maybe it’s the subway rattling underneath the pavement or the soaring buildings that mask the city in a unique pattern of shade and light. I think though that it’s the people that are attracted to New York that give it its famous zing.

The trick to living here and staying sane is to take advantage of the energy while not wearing ourselves out, to find activities to fill our time that give us as much energy as they require. I’ve struggled with this idea at various times in my 11 year love affair with New York. While I’ve moved in and out of the city 4 times since first coming here in 1998, this last time I hit upon the magic combination: a stable income, lots of green space just outside more door, and confidence in who I am. I spend equal time with friends as I do alone. I found an activity I love, writing, that has nothing to do with how I pay my rent. All this combined has made for a magical life. Now all I need is a dog – and he’ll be arriving at my apartment this Fall.

Even when I wasn’t living here, New York was the center of my world. New York was really it for me. It always was; I just didn’t always know that. It’s the place where I feel most alive, where I feel most my true self. It’s the place where I can dream and imagine and wonder. It’s the place where I can appreciate and love the life I have, while also aspiring to be something more.

As it is with so many relationships, it took time away to realize what I had here in this tiny set of islands. New York is a place of constant improvement, continual opportunity, and hopeful exuberance. You really can be anyone here, all it takes is time and commitment and on occasion, a little patience. Lucky for us, Simone de Beauvoir was right: our need for sleep is less here, making accomplishment, and thereby happiness and fulfillment, all the more likely.

The photo above is the New York City skyline at night. You can find this photo at: http://nycwrites.org/yahoo_site_admin/assets/images/nyc_manhattan_night.183194354_std.jpg

commitment, community, community service, impact, inspiration, movie

My Year of Hopefulness – A Hero Arrives

Christa Avampato

Today I watched The Tale of Despereaux, a movie adapted from the book by Kate DiCamillo. The movie chronicles the the adolescence of Despereaux, a brave little mouse in search of adventure and harmony between disparate parties. He is someone who does not want to be defined by others, regardless of the consequences for being who is naturally born to be.

Very early on in the movie, there is a line that really struck a cord with me: “A hero shows up when the world really needs one.” I can think of no better time than now for heroes to rise up and be counted. The world has some very large problems today – far larger than I think we even know. And these problems are in every city and town, of every variety and every magnitude. No matter what contribution you would like to make to the world, in whatever field you choose, wherever you live, there is a way to make an enormous difference if only we have the courage to put ourselves out there and the desire to be responsible and accountable.

Thomas Friedman gave the commencement speech at RPI in 2007. Recognizing the desire and energy of young graduates to have an impact on their communities, he threw down the gauntlet to them in no uncertain terms. “If it’s not happening, it’s because you’re not doing it,” he said. “There is no one else in the way.” Technology has vastly our ability to communicate and influence with ease if we have a convincing, passionate story. It’s easier to be a hero today than it has been at any other time in history if only we see ourselves in this light.