Tag: time

creativity

Wonder: Make your time matter

Christa Avampato

God willing, I’m not at mid-life yet but the truth is I’ve almost died a handful of times. On a few of those occasions, I barely scraped by. And maybe that’s why I am so driven and impatient. Maybe that’s why I abhor wasting time. Maybe that’s why I am utterly incapable of sitting down longer than 18 minutes a day to meditate. Sometimes, I think this makes me a complete lunatic. And then I read quotes like the one below from Brené Brown, and I realize that yes, I may be crazy, but there’s a method to and a reason for the madness. And it’s all okay. I’m just trying to make my life meaningful and to make my time matter.

”I think midlife is when the universe gently places her hands upon your shoulders, pulls you close, and whispers in your ear: I’m not screwing around. It’s time. All of this pretending and performing – these coping mechanisms that you’ve developed to protect yourself from feeling inadequate and getting hurt – has to go.

Your armor is preventing you from growing into your gifts. I understand that you needed these protections when you were small. I understand that you believed your armor could help you secure all of the things you needed to feel worthy of love and belonging, but you’re still searching and you’re more lost than ever.

Time is growing short. There are unexplored adventures ahead of you. You can’t live the rest of your life worried about what other people think. You were born worthy of love and belonging. Courage and daring are coursing through you. You were made to live and love with your whole heart. It’s time to show up and be seen.”

~Brené Brown

creativity

Wonder: Telling stories takes you back in time

Christa Avampato

I’m working on a piece of writing for my dear friend, Amanda. She’s the best editor I’ve ever worked with, bar none. Whenever she asks me to write something for her, I jump at the chance every time. This particular assignment involved traveling back in time to the dark days of September 2008 when the world, my career, and my life was turned upside down by a frightening, unprecedented economic recession. I was working for a financial institution, an industry I swore I’d never join, and I was, in a word, terrified.

Rather than cower and hide, I rose up. To this day, I’m not sure where I found the strength. I guess the fear of losing my job and my livelihood was adrenalin for me. I took that energy that gets wasted by fear and used it to drive me forward, headfirst, right into the abyss of the unknown. I still shiver thinking about it. And then I smile. Time travel is a wild ride. We are so much stronger than we think we are.

creativity

Wonder: Sometimes all you need is a little more time

Christa Avampato

“Sometimes life doesn’t give you something you want not because you don’t deserve it but because you deserve more.” ~Anonymous

The stroke of luck you need is often disguised as hardship and disappointment. I felt terrible when I had to let go of my pending condo sale on Friday because of some troubling news in the condo documents. I spent my morning meditation on Sunday asking one simple question, “what do I do now?” and the strangest thing happened.

I realized the condo was a compromise. What I really want is a home, a real home. One of the great gifts of this past year is that I lived in a home for the first time since 2007. And I’ve loved having a backyard and a front door that’s mine and mine alone. I know a home is a lot of work. I know it’s a lot more money than I was going to spend on a condo. And I also know that it’s going to take more time and savings to get there. And that’s okay.

So I’ll be a renter for a little while longer. Phin and I will find a new apartment (hopefully in our current neighborhood) after I get back from Cuba, we’ll move, and I’ll keep saving for what I really want.

creativity

Wonder: Guard your time

Christa Avampato

The older I get, the more precious time becomes to me. I have always been painfully aware of the passage of time. I’m constantly evaluating and re-evaluating my efficiency, the value of my activities, and the good I’m doing with the time I have.

While this might sound like an exhausting way to live, it’s actually more exhausting for me to think that I’m not using my time to the fullest. Now, that’s not to say I don’t relax, unwind, and enjoy my life. I do. It’s a priority for me to be at my best, and my best requires rest. And even in the rest, I know my mind and spirit are doing the valuable work of recharging and evolving.

I’m lucky and grateful beyond measure. I wake up with a purpose and I go to bed counting my blessings – the big and the small, the expected and the unexpected, the wanted and yes, the unwanted. And I wouldn’t want to use my time any other way.

creativity

Wonder: Where to place your time

Christa Avampato

The tug of war between what you need to do and what you want to do can be a challenging battle. I know lots of people working a day job to support themselves financially while working on a passion project during their evenings, weekends, and free time. I also know people who have quit a lucrative day job to pursue their passions full-time. I have done both, and both are challenging. Neither scenario is easy. Neither scenario is as dreamy as it appears to be on the surface. Neither is a one and done solution to anything. Each has its own flavor of stress and anxiety, as well as peace and joy. And it shifts day-to-day, sometimes hour to hour.

Here’s what I know to be true: you are in control of your mind, emotions, and time. Your thoughts and energy are yours and yours alone. No one, and I mean absolutely no one, ever owns them except you. And where your mind, energy, and time goes, your life goes.

Some of you will find a day job and side passions work for you. Some will find that pursuing your passions full-time is the best life. And there isn’t a point-of-no-return on either of these. I quit my day job in 2012 and ran my own business for 3 years. They were wonderful and trying years. In 2015, I took a full-time job again, closed my business, and have have continued to work on a variety of creative projects. This has also been a wonderful and trying year. Yes, there was a huge amount of variation between these two experiences, and yes, they were the right choices for me for those times. Once I made those decisions, I never looked back. I don’t regret either of those choices, and I never will. My life is unfolding one page at a time, and like a good book, I’m savoring all of the words.

If you are in the process of wrestling through these weighty decisions about life and career now, a lot of people are probably giving you their two cents, even if you didn’t ask them for their opinions. The only opinion I have for you is to do what you need to do for you. Right now. Always. Your story isn’t the same as someone else’s story. Your goals and talents are yours. Treasure them. Protect them. Go in the direction that feels right to you. There will be bumps in the road. There will be off-ramps, flat tires, and wrong turns. But there will also be some smooth sailing and many fellow travelers along the route who will help and guide you. You will experience all of it no matter what choice you make.

The only yardstick I use is this: if it all ends tomorrow, am I glad and grateful for the way I spent today? Did I wake up with a purpose and do my best to take one step along that purposeful path? That’s all we can do, and that is enough.
creativity

Wonder: See what you can see and do what you can do

Christa Avampato

2-24HonorLight“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.” ~ Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See

Last night I saw my friend, Tunde, a person who shares my passion to do something good with her time and many talents. Our conversation last night reminded me from this quote of the novel All the Light We Cannot See. There is a light within all of us that spurs us to make the world around us a better place. And there are so many avenues to let that goodness shine, so many places and people that need the gifts and talents we have to offer.

Our only job is to find the path that is meant for us, the avenue on which we can be of greatest use to as many people as possible. There’s no one answer. There are many. Every morning, I wake up and say the following to myself: “thank you, and universe, please help me figure out how to help as many as I can, as much as I can, with this day.” And that’s what I intend to do. Ready? Let’s do this.

creativity

Wonder: It’s time to be planted

Christa Avampato
Be planted
Be planted

“Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you think you’ve been buried, but you’ve actually been planted.” ~Christine Caine

Some of my friends are in a tough spot right now. They’re having a tough time seeing a way forward. They feel knocked down and dragged out into situations that they didn’t see coming and wouldn’t have chosen for themselves. This is a tough place to be. It’s uncomfortable. It feels hopeless. It’s disappointing.

In moments like this, I find that this quote by Christine Caine is most powerful. Take what you can learn from these awful experiences, even if they are lessons you had no interest in learning. Let them strengthen your resolve, refine your talents, and sharpen your skills of observation. Watch for actions and outcomes. Step back and clearly identify what you would do differently, and why, and how that might change things.

This is your time of incubation. This is a time of growth and evolution that can lead you to a personal revolution if you take the opportunity as it comes. Be planted so that when the light returns, you can shine.

creativity

Wonder: Do what you can where you are

Christa Avampato
path-through-the-foggy-forest-45100-2560x1600-1
A short distance ahead

“We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done.” ~Alan Turing

We can now see further than at any other time in history. Social media, virtual reality, and a news industry that reports in real time through rich media can take us to any corner of the world with a few clicks.

In terms of time, we can only see and know this moment. We can only forecast and hypothesize about later today, tomorrow, next month, and next year. We’ll know how it all shakes out once we get there. For now, let’s just make the most of what we have and know and can do right now, from wherever we are, using whatever we have. If we can all do that, we’ll be able to build a better world together. It all adds up.

creativity

Wonder: Take your time – a lesson from Hamilton, Adele 25, and Serial

Christa Avampato
Adele
Adele

When you’ve done something incredible, there’s an urge to attempt a second lightning strike as fast as possible. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Adele did it right. They took a significant amount of time between their first monumental successes and their second attempts. They wanted to roll the dice again, and they wanted to be the most skilled dice rollers they could be. That couldn’t happen over night. It couldn’t even happen in a year. Lin worked on Hamilton for five years. Adele took 4 years between her albums 21 and 25. They were patient, persistent, and thoughtful about it.

Serial, sadly, wasn’t. The second season isn’t anywhere near as interesting, suspenseful, nor intriguing as Season 1. I’ve already stopped listening because it’s not worth my time. They should have spent more time selecting, researching, molding, and shaping season 2. They should have been more concerned with content and less concerned about turnaround. We would have waited. We would have been here.

If you’re working on your second act, take the time to get it right. Don’t rush for the sake of rushing. Move along as fast as you can, and don’t compromise quality. In a world of so much noise, quality is worth the wait.

creativity

Wonder: New York Public Library Digital Collection expansion takes us back in time

Christa Avampato
The Waterfront on South Street in NYC. 1935. By Berenice Abbott.
The Waterfront on South Street in NYC. 1935. By Berenice Abbott.

One thing that I really miss about New York City is the New York Public Library. Luckily, this week we saw a massive digital expansion of its collections and you can access the now 672,182 digitized items by clicking here. A few short clicks and search terms give you a passport to history like never before. And it’s all free.

Whether you want to see photos of a changing New York City (or almost any of other city for that matter!), construct 20th century floor plans of mansions through archival blueprints, or learn new paper collage techniques, it’s all here for you to use and reuse in limitless ways.

Enjoy and never stop exploring!