Tag: dreams

creativity

In the pause: How to achieve impossible dreams

Christa Avampato

When I want to do something big, I spend about 30 seconds thinking about what that goal looks and feels like. Almost immediately, I move into what I call breakdown mode. I start to break apart that big, beautiful dream into bite-sized pieces. The big dream, for me, is too daunting and it’s not actionable. I make it happen, I’ve got to unpack it, dissect it, and put it into a to-do list with deadlines. And then I pick a place and begin. For my writing, it’s one word at a time. For my collage work, it’s one tiny piece of paper. For getting a new job, it’s making sure my resume is up-to-date in all its various forms and channels. You get the idea. It’s a puzzle and the best I can do is focus on one piece at a time.

When my head hits the pillow at night or when I sit down for my 18 minutes of daily meditation, I give myself a little chance to think about that shiny goal out there in the distance. I fall asleep thinking about those dreams and I wake up thinking about them. Everything in between, all my waking hours, are devoted to action. It’s the only way I know how to make things happen.

creativity

In the pause: Pub Day for my book has arrived—Emerson Page now belongs to the world

Christa Avampato

unnamedToday, Emerson Page enters the world. I’m so excited for you to meet her. The book is now available on Amazon at http://amzn.to/2lgZykV. Thank you to everyone who helped us get to this day. What a feeling! I’m so glad and grateful I could burst. I hope Emerson has a long, inspiring life and that she enriches your life as much as she’s enriched mine.

I would love it if you would leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. Also, I’d love for you to share a picture of the book on social media in any kind of creative way you’d like.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Here’s to dreams chased and created!

 

creativity

In the pause: Walls are made for climbing

Christa Avampato

unnamedThis week, the many different threads at my job started to connect. It’s immensely gratifying to learn a large and complex technology platform, all for the sake of bringing more art, theater, music, and dance to more people. The vertical learning curve is becoming a little less vertical. Or maybe I am just becoming a more adept climber.

This idea of scaling walls reminded me of this sign I saw a few months ago when I was shoulder-deep in my job search, including interviewing for my current job. I wasn’t sure what would happen in my search, or what I would do about what would happen when it did happen. (This is how my ind works. It’s in a constant state of whirring.) What I needed was a sign, so I asked for one as I made my way up Fifth Avenue from the New York Public Library to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. That’s when I saw this sign in the North Face storefront: Walls are meant for climbing. And about 30 minutes later, I heard from my now current job that I was moving on to the next and final round. Less than a week later, they offered me the job.

It’s this sense of optimism, asking the Universe for guidance, and then opening our eyes and ears to take in the wisdom around us that we have to take with us everywhere we go, into every situation that we face. We may not always be successful though our odds dramatically increase when we can look at a wall not as a roadblock, but as a reason to smile. I got this. You got this. We all got this.

creativity

In the pause: Go on and love yourself

Christa Avampato

‘i love myself.’

the
quietest.
simplest.
most
powerful.
revolution.
ever.”

―Nayyirah Waheed

This poem is a powerful reminder of the magic that can happen in our lives when we really love who we are. It becomes a way to protect ourselves and also to let others in. When we love who we are, we are imbued with grace and confidence. Nothing can really hurt us if we love who we are. We defend, fight for, and nurture what we love. And here’s the best part: when you become a constant supporter of yourself and your dreams, you have so much more to offer to others.

creativity

In the pause: An unlikely life

Christa Avampato

Yesterday I spent some time talking to a friend of mine who’s a real estate agent. She’s helping me get on a path to homeownership here in New York, which is not a task for the faint-hearted. After talking about my financial picture, we talked about the idea of willing dreams into existence. This last set of years have at times been extraordinarily difficult for me and greatly blessed. All in, they have led me to the place I am now: in my favorite neighborhood in my favorite city, starting what I have high hopes will be a dream job, and a book 8 years in the making about to be published in just over a month. A year ago, this scenario was unlikely. Hell, it felt flat-out impossible. Today, it’s my everyday life, and I don’t take a single moment of it for granted. It’s not perfect, but I’m extraordinarily grateful for it, even in the moments when I’m most challenged. With effort and a belief in the wisdom of what we don’t yet know or understand, life becomes exactly what we imagine it can be. Every difficulty and blessing I’ve had was needed; each one played a role in making my life today possible. Perspective is a beautiful thing.

creativity

In the pause: Magic plus action = dreams realized

Christa Avampato

“Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” ~Roald Dahl

This weekend, I decided I was going to spend this week doing two things:

    • Believing something magical would happen with my job search
    • Working my tail off to make said magic happen

I believe in the power of articulating our dreams. I believe that wondrous things can blossom from good intentions. I believe that commitment makes meaning. And…I think that belief is not enough. We have to work—diligently, consistently, and over a long period of time—to make our work work. Our magic isn’t separate and apart from our actions; action is the highway that magic rides upon. Without action, we’re just wishing and waiting. We can do better than that, for ourselves and for each other.

creativity

In the pause: You don’t have to compromise your financial wellbeing to be an entrepreneur

Christa Avampato

My dear friend, Kelly, sent me an article about Alexandra Kenin, the Founder of Urban Hiker SF and Editor / Writer at WordSmithie. Urban Hiker SF is her side hustle and Wordsmithie is her full-time job. (She’s also a Penn alum, which of course I love!) The article is another example that we can piece together a meaningful life and career that encompasses all of our passions. It doesn’t have to be one-dimensional, and we don’t have to compromise our financial wellbeing to pursue our dreams. It’s just a matter of finding the right pieces that all hang together like one well-tuned masterpiece, and that’s what I’m trying to do.

creativity

In the pause: What writing my book taught me about how to spend my time

Christa Avampato

Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve talked to a lot of friends about the concept of how to spend our time. As they say, even Beyoncé only has 24 hours in a day. We all have to make choices. Try as we might, we can’t do everything, at least not all at once.

So how do we decide what gets attention, effort, and time, and what has to fall by the wayside? And how can we be confident in those decisions once we make them? All I can give you is my own experience. I gave up a lot to write my book, Emerson Page and Where the Light Enters. There were many times I didn’t go out and have fun for the sake of writing, rewriting, and editing. I poured myself into that book, and that meant I spent less time on other parts of my career and personal life. I stopped teaching yoga; I took on fewer freelance projects; I spent less time trying to climb the ladder in my business career; I dated less; I made less money; I left my home in New York City to go out into the unknown. All for the sake of a book that I wasn’t sure would ever see the light of day.

You might be asking, “What the hell was she thinking?” and you’d be very right to ask.

I was thinking that if I didn’t write this book, if I didn’t get this story down and work my a*s off to get it out into the world, then I would be left with a profound sense of regret. And I don’t mean the regret varietal that goes something like, “Huh, I wonder what that would have been like.” Nope. I’m talking about the kind of regret you read in articles like Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Want to know the #1 regret in that list? “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” Ouch. I couldn’t live, or die, with that. I had to be true to myself now, and that meant I had to write this book. So I gave up what was needed to get it done. And there isn’t a single thing I gave up that I wish I had done instead of writing that book. Not one.

I had the great gift of a fire that nearly killed me at age 33. The 8th anniversary of that fire is about a month away, and every day since then has been gravy in my mind. I was infinitely fortunate to survive. I have tried hard to live a life I’m proud of, even if people don’t understand it, don’t agree with it, and criticize it. I hope I’m around to see 103. Seriously. If our world is this insane today, just imagine the crazy sh*t we’re going to experience in the year 2079! But if that’s not in the cards for me, that’s okay. Really. I wrote this book. It’s the creative act of my life that I’m most proud of. If and when you hold that book in any form in your hands, you are holding my heart. How great is it to be able to give that away in the hopes that it helps some one, somewhere, some time.

That’s what I did with my time here on this Earth in this life, and it was more than worth it. What’s your Emerson? Find that. Pursue that.

 

creativity

In the pause: You are entitled to your dreams

Christa Avampato

“You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” ~Robin Williams

As I’m deep in the job hunt at the start of this new chapter in my career, I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams. How big to make them, how long to chase them, and how much to give up for them. These are very personal questions, and there are no wrong or right answers save for this one exception: we are all entitled to them.

Dreams are the lifeblood and the bedrock of the human imagination. They need air and companionship as much as we do. Please don’t crumple them up and toss them into your sock drawer. You and your dreams deserve more than that; they deserve a shot.

I don’t know if you’ll ever be able to make your living from your dream. You may never even earn a single cent from them. And I don’t think that matters at all. Dreams are about much more than that. They are what keeps our creativity alive, and our creativity is the most important asset we have. If we lose the ability to dream, that little spark of madness that says “I think I can” against all odds, then life becomes very dull very quickly.

If I learned anything during a very tough week last week, it’s this: life is to be lived, fully, in every moment. That doesn’t mean it’s all sunshine and roses. Sometimes life feels downright impossible. Sometimes we struggle just to put one foot in front of the other. But that act of persistence, of pushing through against the odds, is the very essence of what it means to live. That is exactly the moment of our creative growth. It’s the most human thing we do—to go on.

creativity

In the pause: The surprising truth about pursuing our goals

Christa Avampato
My friend, Alex, sent this quote to me and it resonates with me so deeply. This idea is what prompted my move back to New York City and this change in career direction. I could have kept moving ahead on a corporate path. I could have continued to climb in title and compensation. Except that I really couldn’t do that and be true to myself. I have turned down jobs and projects not because I couldn’t do them but because they weren’t rooted in how I want to spend my time. This is a tough thing to do.
 
We tell ourselves all of the convenient reasons we need to keep doing what we’ve been doing even though it may not be what fires us up. It makes today easier at the expense of our tomorrows. What I’m doing is making my today more challenging because I want my tomorrows to be more fulfilling. It’s all a gamble. I don’t know how it’s going to go but here’s what I do know—if I didn’t follow this path I’m on now, I’d always wonder what might have been. And I didn’t want to wonder; I wanted to take my best shot and manage whatever happens next. It may not be the best choice for everyone, but it’s certainly the best choice for me.