A year ago I signed up for a service offered by www.dreaminder.com. The idea is that you write down your goals or dreams and then they email you back exactly a year later with what you wrote.
Today I received my email and it was really inspiring to look at what I had written. My dream was in two parts, one to do with my book, Tales of the Countess, and the other about my Lead The Life business. I haven’t yet achieved my goal with Tales of the Countess but my Lead The Life stuff is going very well. I really enjoyed getting this reminder and am going to put in another entry to receive this time next year.
It doesn’t matter if you do not achieve your goals within a set timeframe. What does matter is that you are taking action towards them. If you are then you will achieve them at some point in the future. So even if it takes several yearly dream reminders before Tales of the Countess is a best selling book, who cares. Every year my writing improves and each draft is a better book than the draft before.
PS - I’ve been to www.dreaminders.com and the site is down pending improvements at the moment. However, they have just emailed me to say it is back on 10th July, so put a reminder in your calendar to visit it on that day.
Usually, I am not a big fan of the audition stages of reality shows. I love X-Factor when they’ve picked the final 12 and are doing live performances every week but I can’t bear the cringe level and the delusions of some of those who audition. So it has come as quite a surprise that I have found myself watching and enjoying Britain’s Got Talent which is still in the audition stage.
Although the acts are varied in contents, the common thread among those that impress the judges are where the participants not only have talent but have worked diligently to ensure the professionalism, polish and perfection of their offering. I’ve been particularly impressed by people who have failed in auditions or last years competitions but managed to secure themselves a second chance.
A couple of weeks ago there was young man of fourteen who was ousted prior to the semi-finals of last years show. He is a street dancer and has continued to work hard at his skills. His family has limited financial means so he has been performing as a busker in Manchester as practice and to raise money for further tuition and pay for his Mum’s petrol to take him to lessons. I was very struck by his mature dedication and was pleased that he sailed through this years audition with a bigger and better act than previously.
There was also another boy of eight who was a supremely confident young man who auditioned as a singer. Although he had ‘more front than Brighton’ he wasn’t the best singer and unfortunately the judges told him this. They also told him that he had amazing stage presence, that he was very funny and that he should re-audition as a comedian. So this young boy took all of this on board, worked out a new comedy act, travelled all the way from Blackpool to London and had another go – and he was brilliant. In the time between auditions he must have worked so hard to come up with comedic material and practise it. What amazing dedication and confidence from one so young!
I hope that I too can employ this level of dedication to polish and perfect my creative offerings.
A couple of months ago I was interviewed on Passion For The Planet radio. This interview is now available as a podcast on Passion’s website. So if you want to hear more about how to move from your day job to your dream job then go to http://www.passionfortheplanet.com/12003club-passionselect.htm, and click the Free To Register button. After registering you will find a list of interesting podcasts, including mine.
If you’re a fan of the Artist’s Way or The Right To Write by Julia Cameron then you’re going to love one of her latest books Letters To A Young Artist.
Letters To A Young Artist comprises of Julia Cameron’s responses to an imaginary young artist that she is mentoring. It is written in easy to read bite-sized pieces so that you can read a few small sections a day as inspiration. Whilst it doesn’t present any new creative ‘methodology’ it is a wonderful reminder of Cameron’s techniques that are laid out in her other books and are certainly responsible for my development as a writer.
One of the things I have found most useful is her view that you don’t need oodles of time to get on and make your art. Even a few minutes a day keeps your momentum up, and in her words, ensures that you continue to “lay track” with your writing or artistic practice. In fact much of the book is about her drumming this into the young artist (and hence drumming it into me!).
The other benefit I have gained from reading the book is that I have returned to writing morning pages. This is something I have not done that regularly in the last couple of months and it is so wonderful to return to it. There is something about morning pages that helps you connect with your intuition. I find that morning pages helps me to make difficult decisions and be at peace with those decisions. Having worked very hard over the last few months on my Countess book I have recently felt quite ‘dried up’ on the creative thinking front. Somehow I think that a few days and weeks of morning pages is going to fix this!
When you work from home it can be very easy to spend the day attached to your computer and not get enough fresh air nor exercise.
Over the last couple of weeks I have been experimenting with going for a walk before I start my work and I have been thoroughly enjoying it. I go out for anything between forty minutes and an hour and I leave my mobile phone and handbag at home. It is really pleasurable to stride along unencumbered by any bags and general clap-trap. This also leaves you free to swing your arms as you walk which increases your heart rate and thus gives you a fitness benefit too.
When I get back home I have the same buzz as if I had just worked out at the gym. Even though the walk makes my start time a little later, I feel that I work more productively.
I’m doing a lot of writing at the moment so my day at the computer is quite an intense activity. However, it definitely helps to know that I have had sufficient exercise before I get lost in the creative process.
A couple of weeks ago I heard the most brilliant tip to help me keep my writing on track. All you need is a calendar or wall chart. I was told that for every day that I write I need to put a big ‘W’ on that day on the calendar.
Initially I mis-heard the advice and thought it meant that you used the calendar and the ‘W’ to plan the days when you intended to write. But then I realised that you placed the ‘W’ on the calendar after you have written.
So I have tried out this technique and found that it is really good to see exactly how often I have been committed to my writing. This highly visual record is motivating me to have as many ‘W’s as I can.
How can you adapt this method for your creative pursuits or business aims? If for example you decide that you are going to do some painting twice a week then perhaps you need to mark your calendar with a ‘P’ when you’ve done your painting and review at the end of the month whether you’ve hit your twice weekly target.
You could mark the calendar with an ‘E’ for exercise or an ‘M’ for marketing or an ‘S’ for study, depending on whatever it is to which you need to be regularly committed. The possibilities are endless.
It’s the end of the day and I am sipping my first sherry of the festive period.
I’ve had the most brilliant writing day today. At last that Christmas quietness has arrived – the time when work, business and commerce winds down and a rejuvenating headspace begins to appear. I remember, at exactly the same time last year, when after weeks of promising myself, I was finally able to sit down and easily write a long-planned for ebook.
Is it something about the rhythm of winter solstice when the day is at it shortest before sunlight begins to increase again, or is it just the day’s proximity to Christmas when the world begins to stop turning quite so fast? Who knows – but whatever it is, it works for me. I’ll hopefully be able to squeeze one more day of writing before succumbing to Christmas preparation and festivities.
Where ever you are have the most wonderful Christmas, relaxing time off and a Happy New Year
Until 2008 …
When it comes to finding time to write it is often necessary to be exact with your time management. The completion, and publication, of my novel is becoming more and more important to my overall business success. However, even I – a life coach, have found it difficult to put enough time aside to concentrate on writing. My business keeps me very busy and I have a mile long list of marketing ideas that will bring me more business – but if I spend too much time doing them then I am not writing!
In the last few days I have had to have a brutal look at that to-do list. For each item on it I have asked the question, “Is this more important that my writing?” For some of the items the answer was yes so I still need to schedule time to do the activities. And for some the answer was no. Some of the ‘no’ items are important and are good ideas, but for the time being they will have to wait and I will get back to them in a month or two.
What is it that you are never getting around to doing? Then look at the barriers that keep stopping you progressing with your aims. You can now ask yourself, barrier by barrier, which is more important. By doing this you may find some useful insights as to how you manage your time.
The last few days have held many accomplishments for me. Last week I did my first radio interview. It was for Passion for the Planet radio, which is a fantastic digital radio station dedicated to environmental and health issues. (See http://www.passionfortheplanet.com/ for more info). My interview was on the theme of “don’t give up your day job tomorrow but do start doing something towards your dream” and will be played throughout January.
And last weekend I, at last, completed my NLP Practitioner course. This course should have taken about three months but because of the severe back problems I had last year I had to keep deferring the final module of it. I was supposed to do it last October but had to defer it to January. Then I had another back episode two days before that attempt so it got postponed again. There was another opportunity to do it in the Spring but I was on holiday so we booked it in for August. Unfortunately the training company had to cancel the August course so it ended up being November, over a year since I was originally scheduled to complete it!
It was definitely worth the wait and really pulled together all the strands of learning and my experience of using NLP with clients over the last year.
We finished the course with an arrow-break. This is a fantastic exercise where you break a proper archery arrow with your neck and sheer determination. It is a bit daunting as the metal tip of the arrow goes in the soft bit of your neck where your throat is and the other end is braced against a piece of wood held by someone else.
The exercise goes back to Red Indian folk lore where a wise old Indian decided that the arrow represented all his fears and everything that was holding him back. He had noticed that a puma gathers himself and pounces in a single attempt and with all his might on his prey. The Indian challenged himself to break the arrow with this same determination and thus shatter his self-imposed limitations.
I had seen the exercise done before so knew that it was possible but when I found myself standing with an arrow propped against my throat I did briefly question my enthusiasm and sanity! However, I stepped forward into the arrow with great determination and it broke very easily. I then had a feeling of tremendous elation and left the course feeling that I could conquer the world.
As per usual there have been ups and downs since I last posted to the blog. Last time I was ecstatic to have made a start on the redraft of Tales of the Countess. However a week ago I hit a low moment with it when, last Friday, I had the horrible feeling that all my recent research and new opening was not going to fit onto my existing draft of the novel. Not a great way to finish up the week!
Anyway, persistence is the name of the game so I cleared some time from my schedule this week to figure out a solution. I am pleased to say that yesterday I came up with a plan that will hopefully knit the old and the new together. I also came up with a list of scenes, some new and some re-crafted from the old draft, that I can now methodically work through over the next few days and weeks. I love it when I have a formula in place.
This was one of those weeks when I had to face my fears. Yes – contrary to popular belief – life coaches are not perfect people and do have their own fears and foibles. I’ve always been a bit nervous about approaching and dealing with the press even though it really is necessary to grow my business. With my Autumn workshops approaching it is time to seek publicity, face that fear and take action. Whilst I did crash and burn with a couple of the newspapers that I contacted I am pleased to say that I did learn from those mistakes and had good conversations with the Ham and High in North London as well as the London Lite. It is funny how synchronicity works – because at the same time I have also come across the perfect training course on handling the media. It is exactly what I need at the right time. The course is on 17th October, so watch this space for news of it (and results from it!).
How would I summarise this week? It has been a week of intense lows and a couple of highs. I started off the week not feeling at all optimistic about the various things on my plate. I am pleased, and relieved, to say that the week has ended much better, break-throughs have been made and the right people that I need to help me have miraculously materialised. Phew!
