business, dreams, entrepreneurship

Leap: Turn Around The Negatives

Christa Avampato

When you’re starting your new business, you may hear a lot of negatives. People will tell you to do more of this and less of that. They will tell you that your ideas and dreams are too big for someone just starting out so you better scale back. You don’t have enough experience, contacts, or education. You will have people point out to you, over and over again, what you lack.

Here’s what I want you to do: take all those negatives and turn them into assets. Simplify – not your dreams but your message. Focus on who you serve and why and with what and talk to those people. You will learn on the job, which is the very best way to learn, and through those learnings you will gain experience. You will make connections because you are excited about your life and your work and nothing, and I mean NOTHING, attracts contacts as much as someone who is enthusiastic and happy.

Those people who are pointing out what you lack are likely dreading Monday and praying for Friday. In the words of my wise mentor and former boss, Bob G., “they’re just trying to get to 5:00.” You are building a life of your own design and that work has no beginning and no end. You are it; and it is you. Take their feedback and turn it into kindling to feed your own fire.

Turn it around. Develop. Reach. Grow. Show them that you’ve got this and there’s no way to stop you. The late great Babe Ruth said it best – it’s tough to beat a person who never gives up.

future, history, learning

Leap: You Have Two Choices – Run From Your Past or Learn from It

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“This only is denied to God: the power to undo the past.” ~ Agathon

My sister, Weez, pinned this picture on one of her Pinterest boards last week. I love it because I love the story of The Lion King and I also love it because it is so damn true. I know you’ve had really crummy things happen to you. I have, too. Unless you have access to a time machine, you can’t undo what has been done. (And even if you do have access to a time machine, I wouldn’t recommend monkeying around with the past – history is a chancy business.)

What we can do is carry the lessons of our past, and the pasts of others, forward into our own future choices and decision-making. We can run from the past but we will never outrun it. It has a sneaky way of coming back to haunt us if we don’t honor its power to profoundly affect our future.

I know sitting with the past and accepting our own wrong-doing and the wrong-doing of others is unpleasant. But if we don’t do the work to excavate and understand what happened and why, then a) it was all for naught and b) we are bound to repeat those same mistakes again. What’s worse, repeat mistakes are more painful than they were the first time around.

None of us are alone in this process. Even the person with the perfect life on the outside has things in their past that made them crumble on the inside. We’re all scared to death to have our hearts broken, our dreams dashed, and our spirits crushed. That’s a journey we all take together every day. We all have a past. We all have baggage. And all of us wish it had been different, but it wasn’t. Our past went down the way it went down. The only story we can affect is the one moving forward.

Take those painful, heard-earned lessons and make them mean something. Take them into your own life and share your story so that other people can take these same lessons into their own lives. The only way any of us are going to advance and evolve is if we get together, share, and learn. Don’t let this learning go to waste. It all happened for one simple reason – we needed it.

creativity, dreams, inspiration, work

Leap: You’ve Waited Long Enough

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

We wait for signs. We keep our eyes peeled, hoping for a clear and directive sign from the Heavens to tell us what to do.

Here’s the sign: the Heavens have already weighed in.

They gave you all of the gifts you need to make your own opportunities. Pull your dreams down out of the sky and plant them firmly under your own two feet. Don’t let anyone or anything deter you. Stay the course set by your heart, roll up your sleeves, and get to work.

No one else is ever going to live your life as well as you can live it, so don’t let them even try. Everything you’ve ever done has been to prepare you for this moment – it’s yours for the taking.

Let’s move some mountains!

business, creativity, SXSW

Leap: My 10 Commandments for Living a Life of Your Own Design

Christa Avampato

This weekend I put together my SXSW 2013 speaking proposal. In a few weeks, public voting will open and you’ll be able to see all of the details of my proposal. As part of the application I made a one-minute Youtube video that details my 10 Commandments of Living a Life of Your Own Design.

I was inspired by Steve Jobs’s 10 Commandments which is pinned up at my desk. Months ago I promised you I’d make up my own and here it is. I had a good time making it and I hope to be doing more of these clips soon. Let me know what you think!

healthcare, medical, medicine, New York City, television

Leap: NY Med, the Best Medical TV Show I’ve Seen, Debuts on ABC

Christa Avampato

“If you don’t have a reason for your heart to keep beating, it won’t.” ~ Dr. Oz

In 2000, I developed a mild obsession with a show called Hopkins 24/7, a show that went behind-the-scenes at Johns Hopkins to show the lives of medical residents. Since then, dramatized versions of hospital shows have all fallen short. Real-life was so much more riveting.

Yesterday I read a feature piece in the Times about a new 8-part series on ABC called NY Med. (Incidentally, Hopkins 24/7 was also an ABC show and created by the same producer.) NY Med goes inside New York’s best hospitals to show real-life situations as they unfold from a wide variety of angles, including the perspective of Dr. Oz, who is a cardiothoracic surgeon at New York-Presbyterian, among many other roles. (He is also a Penn alum which is one of my alma maters so I have to give him a special shout-out.)

If you have even a mild interest in our healthcare system, this show is an incredible eye-opener. It is thoughtful, thorough, emotional, and professional. In other words, it’s a rare example of network reality television done right in every way that leaves us with more questions than answers and more hope than despair. The first episode ends with one of the doctors singing a a gorgeous version of Let It Be in the hospital’s chapel. I was crying.

Check out the show’s website – http://nymedshow.com. The remaining 7 parts of the series will air on ABC on Tuesdays at 10pm Eastern.

harmony, peace, yoga

Leap: You Already Have What You Seek

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with Nature.” ~ Joseph Campbell

In the hot, hot city last week, it was tough to keep our spirits up when all we wanted to do was lie down. In all of my yoga classes last week, the teachers emphasized balance. With the heat outside, we needed to take our practice slowly and with ease. Conversely when it’s cold outside, we tend to have practices that are more heating. We show up on the mat offering the practice that helps us to be in harmony with our nature and the Nature around us.

This same principle applies off the mat as well. When we find ourselves in a lethargic state, best to listen for what’s going on, and then give ourselves whatever gift we need to feel re-energized. When we find ourselves anxious, nervous, or out-of-sorts, we need to provide ourselves with comfort and security.

And here’s the best part: whatever we need at any moment can be found in the breath. As long as we are breathing, we have the ability to come back to balance. Balance is not a far-off goal; it’s a choice and we make it in every moment.

Right now, we have everything we need.

courage, future

Leap: Take Action

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“We become what we repeatedly do.” ~ Sean Covey

Mission statements are great but nothing beats action.

We can spend all day pitching our skills, ideas, and intentions. We can talk about what we believe, but we will be remembered for what we did. If we want to be remembered as courageous, then we must be courageous. And if we want to be remembered as kind, then we must be kind.

Patterns are neither good nor bad. They just are and they set the stage for every impression we make on another person. We must decide who we want to be and back up those decisions with actions. Our reputation is not something that’s given; it’s earned.

dating, friendship, relationships

Leap: We Matter in the Lives of Others

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“We don’t set out to save the world; we set out to wonder how other people are doing and to reflect on how our actions affect other people’s hearts.” ~ Pema Chodron

Some people have an incredible ability to be one person and pretend to be another.

In an unusual twist for me this weekend, I learned this lesson the hard way and a relationship that has been a part of my life in a variety of forms for many years crumbled away in a matter of minutes. It’s hard to get me down but these kinds of turns really set me spinning. I always expect people to be who they are, and it still surprises me when they aren’t. I let myself have a day to feel that sadness and loss for what it is – terrible.

I woke up this morning with a vivid realization – we have an enormous responsibility to one another because our actions have such a profound effect on the lives of those around us. Kindness is such an under-rated quality and yet, in the end, it’s the one that really matters because it can change the course of someone’s life.

Let’s be good to each other. Let’s be exactly who are because other people are counting on us.

Life, writer

Leap: Six Simple Guidelines to a Life Well-Lived Courtesy of Ernest Hemingway

Christa Avampato

These may be the only instructions for life we’ll ever need.

career, choices, courage, creativity

Leap: Breaking New Ground

Christa Avampato
From Pinterest

“The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.” ~ Albert Einstein

I’ve spent the past two weeks pitching workshops and ideation facilitation services that utilize my background as a product developer and yoga teacher. Before I gave my first pitch, I wondered if this idea made sense to anyone other than me. Maybe this was just too far out there. Maybe I should be a bit more mainstream and be on the outer edge of the crowd rather than off on a whole new path on my own.

That train of thought lasted all of about 60 seconds.

I’ve never been part of the crowd and I never wanted to be. I’ve always pushed boundaries, my own and those of others. I left my last corporate job because the company wanted to do what it’s always done dressed up in a slightly different costume. I realized I needed something different, something more in line with my own philosophy: if we want change, we have to change, and change is the only thing that keeps life exciting. It’s also the only thing we can be certain of.

I packed my bags, headed out toward unbroken ground, and I’ve never looked back. I needed to get to places no one has been before, and so far that’s exactly where I’ve been spending my time. It’s pretty glorious out here under the open sky. There’s more air, more light, and more life.

And as for the pitches that I was afraid were too far out there? They aren’t. They’re going really well. People do get it and want it, so much so that they wonder why it’s never been done before. And that’s just about the greatest piece of encouragement I could ask for at the close of my 3rd week of my freelance life.