Category: time

action, clarity, thankful, time, wishes

Beautiful: Stop Wishing. Start Doing.

Christa Avampato

“Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert, American author

When I wished on a star or the candles on my birthday cake, I used to wish for something I really wanted as if it might just fall down out of the sky and into my life. I used to make lists of things that I wanted to do, or have, or see, or be, hoping that verbalizing them would somehow actualize them. And then one day I realized that none of those wishes ever came true just because I wished for them. Some of them happened because I worked really hard and I almost always had help from other people who shared the same dream and were willing to work just as hard to see it happen. Some of them never happened at all, no matter how hard I worked, and for that I’m very grateful because I’ve ended up in such a good place.

So I stopped wishing for things out there and started wishing for things that would really make a difference: Now I wish for personal strength and courage, for an ever-deeper sense of compassion and understanding for the situations of others, for the opportunities to be useful and helpful to others, and for the ability to be at peace even in times of terrible turbulence. And a funny thing has started to happen: the more I want these things, the more capable I grow to cultivate them. And the more I cultivate them, the more good they do, in my own life and in the lives of others.

As it turns out, I don’t need to wish for any of these things at all. Wanting them for all the right reasons and tirelessly working for them are the surest ways to bring them into being.

art, business, creative, creative process, creativity, music, technology, time, writer, writing

Beautiful: What We Can Learn About Time from Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, Black Sabbath, and Angry Birds

Christa Avampato

robin_thicke_blurred_lines_album_cover_ARIA_120613_640x360Singer Robin Thicke has something to celebrate. After 10 years in the business, the 36-year old has his first #1 album with Blurred Lines. His first album never got out of the triple digits. Think Thicke has grit to stick with it for all these years? The band Black Sabbath recorded music for 46 years before their album, 13, hit #1 in June. The crackerjack team over at Rovio Entertainment created the wildly popular app, Angry Birds, after creating 51 other apps.

Age has nothing to do with it
Hollywood, Broadway, Silicon Valley, and American Idol have created a culture obsessed with youth. The wild rise of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, and other tech moguls in their 20s has caused a dangerous and unfortunate fixation on youth among the venture and investor community. Many VCs and investors refuse to even hear the startup pitches of any founders older than 30. We bemoan getting older and so we nip, tuck, pluck, lie about our age, and workout to the point of breaking our bodies, never happy with how we look or where we are along life’s path. Robin Thicke is 36. Ozzy Osbourne is 64. Peter Vesterbacka, one of the Angry Birds creators, is 44. If you think you have to be at the top of your field before you see your first wrinkle or gray hair, think again.

Success takes time and talent
When we aren’t as successful as we’d like to be at something right off the bat, we often throw in the towel. Too often and too soon, we sulk back to our homes, hide under our beds, and hope for brighter days ahead. Sometimes we resign ourselves to the idea that time has passed us by. Don’t do that. Figure out what worked, what didn’t work, and try again with this knowledge in-hand.

If your work isn’t its own reward, then find other work
Success is a personal and daily process. Even if I never receive any kind of critical acclaim as a writer, I’ll never think of the time I spend writing as a waste and I’ll never stop writing. The act of writing, putting my story out there and knowing that it helps others, is all the reward I ever need from it. Certainly critical success on a large scale would be lovely, but I don’t sit down every day and write with that as a goal. I’m trying to tell a story as honestly and as clearly as possible. If you’re working only for external rewards, you are wasting your time and setting yourself up for enormous disappointment.

If you found work you love, stick with it. If you get up every day, excited to create something, then keep creating. If your work fills your heart as it grows your portfolio, then you’re on the right track.

business, determination, opportunity, passion, product, product development, time

Beautiful: A Lesson in Persistence from Life is Good

Christa Avampato

good-yoga-studio-baulkham-hills-meditation-relax-stressMy friend, Moya, sent me this video yesterday. It is a 3-minute video interview with the Founders of Life is Good. Here’s what I love about it:

1.) They are honest about the fact they have made every single business mistake in the book.

2.) By all accounts, they failed for 5 and a half years before they hit upon their “Life is Good” slogan with their mascot, Jake. And here’s the best part – it wasn’t even their idea to put that slogan and character on a t-shirt. They had a ton of t-shirt designs taped to the wall of their apartment and they invited a bunch of friends over to get their feedback on the designs. Their friends are the ones who pushed them to put the slogan and Jake on a shirt and sell it. It was an immediate hit.

3.) They have a very clear, simple, and elegant business proposition: spread optimism. They don’t care what products they make; they care about the message that’s infused into each one of those products. Life isn’t great, and it’s sure as hell not easy, but it is good. And that’s why they want people to know.

Click here to view the video.

time

Beautiful: Get Out There and Live

Christa Avampato

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learning, time

Beautiful: What the Stars Teach Us

Christa Avampato

971564_634792789875069_364829714_nEvery night, Phin and I take a spin around the block and we look up at the stars. We see them twinkling there. Phin’s just trying to find his next great pee spot and I’m trying to figure out where I go from here and how. A few months back, I had the idea of wiping the slate clean on my career and my life, starting over on a number of levels, fearless about my future and unhampered by my past. Then, I wanted newness in all its forms, and that’s what I want now, too, more than ever.

When we look at the stars, we realize how small we are. A speck in the cosmos. But still a speck, occupying some amount of space for some amount of time. We’re not nothing. We’re something. And we should try to do something meaningful and helpful and useful with our cosmic something-ness. That’s what I learned by staring at the stars and having them stare back at me. We’re here. We don’t know why, or how, or for how long, but let’s make the most of it.

choices, decision-making, home, time

Beautiful: Need a Mood Boost? Have an Experience.

Christa Avampato

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We all get stuck. But we don’t need to stay where we are. We can move, grow, extend, and transcend.

When life gets heavy, lighten the load by opening up. Your eyes, your heart, your time. Be willing to be surprised by what you find, and then be willing to act on what you learn.

Life can leave us with many questions. Are we in the right job? The right relationship? The right city? I’ve found the clearest way to figure out these big questions is to move away from what we know. When we create some distance, literally or figuratively, we can see things more clearly.

For over a year, I’ve wrestled with the idea of leaving New York to create a new home in a new city. I was very conflicted about the decision so I decided to get away. I decided to take a break from New York and be totally open to any answer that rises up. My escape to Los Angeles did something really amazing, and totally unexpected. By going to LA, I found my way back to New York as my definitive home. I answered the question of “Where should I live?” not by thinking about it, but by leaving it behind. I didn’t need to angst over the decision. I needed to let it go and give it the space to solve itself.

What a powerful lesson. What an incredible discovery. I let go, and the sky didn’t fall. The world didn’t come to an end. I didn’t break. I let go, and then everything fell into place.

action, adventure, time

Beautiful: Your Wild Day…

Christa Avampato

is every day. Make the most of it!

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dreams, time

Beautiful: Use Your Time Wisely – Build a Dream

Christa Avampato

This applies not just to second graders, but to all of us. Time spent building a dream, no matter what comes of it, is always a good use of our energy and effort.

beauty, decision-making, dreams, imagination, innovation, time

Beautiful: Feeling Empty Is a Gift

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“Abundance is a process of letting go; that which is empty can receive.” ~ Bryant McGill

As I prepare to spend my summer re-thinking and re-shaping my future, I’m unpacking quite a bit of my life: my work, my time online, and the hustle and bustle of my everyday life. I’m taking very little with me in the hopes that de-cluttering my life will open the way for new beginnings.

We sometimes place an unfair connotation on the concept of emptiness. I think of emptiness as a blessing, as a state of being that helps us to re-imagine and re-invent. If every ounce of time and space we have is full, then we can’t be open to the many gifts that new experiences offer.

So I’m making room. I’m letting go. I’m giving myself the gift of fully experiencing life one moment at a time and the chance to celebrate the beauty that each small moment holds.

change, time

Beautiful: Who I Was When the Cicadas Were Last Here

Christa Avampato

Today I’m grateful for cicadas. Yes, cicadas. I recently read an article that analyzed our political world the last time the cicadas were among us. (It’s sadly very similar.) That got me thinking about my own life 17 years ago. I’m proud to say I’ve come a long way, baby! And that happily some wonderful things in my life are still the same. 

17 years ago, I was 20 years old and had just finished my sophomore year of college. I had been thinking all year of transferring to a different college (Northwestern) and decided against it because I finally found my pack at Penn in the theatre community. I had just costume designed my first theatre production – 42nd Street. A year later, I would be elected as Chair of my theatre group – Quadramics Theatre Company. I made plans to move to Arts House Living Learning Program, another place where I would find my groove and make my home for the next two years. I began to turn my attention to my life post-Penn, and decided to pursue a career in theatre in some shape or form.

Personally, I had just left a 2-year relationship with my boyfriend at the time. There would be some hefty fall out from that but it also gave me a tremendous sense of freedom to be out of a relationship that began to feel burdensome and lacked authenticity. My adventures in love continued, and continue to this day, though I’ve never lost hope. He’s getting here as fast as he can, whoever “he” is. I believed that then and I believe that now.

I went home that summer and it would be the last time that I’d ever go to my childhood home for any reason other than to visit. I didn’t know that then, but it became clear to me by the end of the summer that my life was taking me elsewhere. I worked three jobs – as a cocktail waitress (I was a terrible waitress), a restaurant hostess at the Ground Round (I was good at greeting and seating), and an assistant to a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch (I was very good at research and I loved being able to help people be more financially secure.) I really needed the money to continue to self-fund my education at Penn and I was motivated to learn as much as I could about business as I sensed that my career, even in theatre, would require those skills.

It makes my head spin to think how different my life was then. I feel financially and personally secure now. That dream came true. It also amazes me how similar I am to that 20-year old woman. What I value most – people, service, and learning – is largely unchanged. Then, my greatest wish was to be useful, to do something that would be important for other people. 17 years later, I’m still hard at work on that mission, and I imagine that when the cicadas pay us a visit next time I’ll still be plugging away at it one day at a time.