Pep Talk

Feeling a little resistance to blogging or Etsy or anything today.  Not sure where it is coming from but I don't care.  This isn't entirely true; I have my ideas but I'm not going there.  I will not give it anymore energy than it deserves.  My weapon is to ignore it and show up anyway.  You with me?

No one can hide forever!  

Ready or not, here we come!  It's funny how we can be our own worst enemies but, on the flip side, we can also be our own best friends.  We can pick up a book when our mind is going in circles like a dog chasing its tail.  We can run on the treadmill or take a walk or take a swim in the ocean when we are feeling down.

We can eat whole foods that nourish our physical, emotional, and mental bodies, instead of deplete them.  We can choose to meditate/contemplate or even just take a few minutes to reflect on a passage from a holy book or have some quiet time.  We can make choices to feel better every day.  We can choose to do things that bring us less or more happiness.  In the end it's all up to us! Yes!

Where did we leave off yesterday?  Oh, yes!  Goal setting and taking action.  We discussed Pinterest, Linkedin, and Facebook so what's left? We all have email contacts. Wouldn't they love to hear about our newest venture? Are there any other social networking sites we can tackle?  What about Tumblr or Instagram?

The thing is, it gets time-consuming going to all these sites and posting.  Is it worth it? Sure it is!  How is anyone going to know about us if we don't get the word out there?  It's an investment in one's business, and no one is going to take more of an interest in it than you!  So what are you still doing here?  Get busy!  The world waits for no one!

Dreaming Our Dreams Into Reality 2 - How Are We Doing?

Not an overnight success?  Me neither.  We didn't expect we would be...did we?  Seems there is a bit more to this dreaming our dreams into reality besides discovering the right track.

It's work.  First you have to know yourself well enough to know what the "right track" is, then you have to commit to it, and then begin imagining where you would like to go with it.

Harold Klemp says, "Act as if you are already there" or "work from the end." Meaning, for me, see yourself where you want to be...see it, feel it, and be it. Know you are already there. We covered this in the first part of this post. So now what?

Goal setting.  Our goals need to be reasonable and achievable. It is good to have both short term and long term goals.  For me, I'm still striving to achieve my two sales a week, which I thought was very reasonable. Turns out there may be a little more to it than that.  Or is there?

It's not enough to set that goal, though.  You didn't think we were going to get to sit back on our tufts while our fairy godmother delivered it into our laps so what are we going to do to achieve that goal?  What actions can we take?  I will continue to use me as an example since I, too, am in the midst of this.

I have been preparing two photos a day to be placed for sale in my store, posting a daily blog that is directly linked to Etsy, and I use every social networking site that I am a member of to get the word out there that I'm in business.  I have had one sale for two prints.  Not bad for the first week.  I am grateful to have that sale!  It was an amazing boost! I'm in my second week now, going into my third, and the well is dry.  Where do we go from here?

See anything down there, Kate?  No worries...it's coming.

Fortunately, I'm not the type to give up so easily.  While continuing the actions already in place, it may be time to add another action.  What else can be done?

More on that later.  I need to time to figure that out, too!  If you beat me to it, drop me a line in the comment box.  I'm open to suggestions.  

Dreaming Our Dreams Into Reality - Part 1

In a world where we are bombarded by technology and a need to do more, go faster, and have instantaneous results, how do we go about accomplishing our dreams?  Have our overstimulated brains and minds become so reliant on TV, the internet, and smart phones to tell us how to think that we have forgotten how to use our own imagination?  Or do we use these tools to help us expand our creativity?  I ask these questions and attempt to answer them just as much for myself as I do for you.

Imagination seems like a great place to start.  As William Arthur Ward said, "If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it."  Is it that simple?   

To put it another way, the Wright Brothers have been credited with saying, "If we worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true really is true, then there would be little hope for advance."

Wright Brothers Memorial, North Carolina

If so then maybe the starting place is every morning just before we get out of bed or every night before we doze into a blissful semi-comatose state, we take a few minutes to create our next painting.  We feel the textures.  We smell the paint itself.  We visualize the picture we are painting in our head.  We see the end result (in this case the painting itself hanging in a gallery or a museum).  

If our longtime dream has been to be a dancer, we would use all of our senses to hear and feel the music, our body flowing with it, the roar of the audience, and the freedom of pirouetting around the stage.  

Maybe it's more simple than that.  Maybe our only goal is to be a better parent or teacher or co-worker or neighbor so we imagine how our day will go.  We see how we are interacting with others in a positive way.  We see ourselves as light and happy.  The sky is NOT the limit.  

Take it as far as you would like and then take it a step further.  

Instead of dreading waking up tomorrow for fear that "Lucy" will dump yet another of your favorite perfumes down the toilet for the fifth time this week, see her perfect angelic face 

holding the perfume over the toilet but deciding to make another choice this day and she hands it to you smiling.  You dab a little on her wrists, paint each other's nails, and create a spa day.  You both have such fun that you plan a girl's day once a month, maybe sooner!  Voila!  "Lucy" is happier and so are you!

School is out of control.  You fear that every child walking upon the earth with a diagnosis of ADD or ADHD has landed in your classroom, and every night you worry yourself to sleep wondering who will do what this time.  After all this has been the scenario day after day since school started.  Why would it be any different now?  

Change it up!  Worrying is enforcing what you don't want.  Spend that time thinking about what your students and you would be like in a perfect world.  Be silly if you want but do it in a way that will be conducive to all.   

Are you getting the picture?  Imagination and creativity does not have to be used only for the great and wonderful achievements that have been on our to do list practically since grade school but also for the every day, mostly appearing mundane activities.  We don't have to be a re-run in our own lives.  We can create the lives we choose every day, brand new.  Hooray for us!

Please don't think because I'm writing about this that I have it all together.  I am a work in progress, learning just like you, and some days are better than others but, in the end, I only have myself to thank for the good, the bad, and the outright ugly.  This is not to say I am an island unless I choose to be, but that I am creating it as we all are, which is marvelous!  If I am creating it, it means I also have the power to change it or re-create it. Fun times!  We get to choose a new day EVERY day!