From Pucci to Pudding

catching the wind

i wrestle with an ongoing debate: do i opt for the pragmatic choice or do i opt for the choice that incites the butterflies in my stomach? for years, i justified the seemingly practical choice with safety. if i chose thusly, i would have a good idea of the outcome and i could manage the ramifications. likewise, if i chose the butterflies, i would be taking a risk... which meant i would not know the outcome or be prepared to manage any fallout.

what i have come to see is that the butterflies are where i stretch, grow, leap into new strata of challenges and dreams and payoffs. also, yes, some costs. but the costs are perhaps more dear with the always pragmatic path. with unrelenting familiarity comes stagnation and malaise of spirit and eventually body.

catching the wind in my sails is literally energizing, life-fortifying, rich living. i ran across these quotes recently and wanted to share, as their spirit and wisdom i found to be inspirational in choosing how we live.

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed
by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor.
Catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
- Mark Twain

For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go.
I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

 Bizarre travel plans are dancing lessons from God.
- Kurt Vonnegut

 

 

dreams and comfort zones

in a mere couple of weeks, i am going for a weeklong photography workshop with one of my favorite photographers--i love his eye, his attitude, his way of seeing color, and what i have glimpsed of his joie do vivre. i am also nervous. we are told to bring 10 of our best images and be prepared to defend them with our life. i remind myself that where i feel trepidation or resistance, that is where the treasure is. i know that i will stretch out of my comfort zone, that i will grow in some way, and that i will be reinvigorated... perhaps not in the ways that i can anticipate beforehand. but i know that i am pulled there just as much as i want to avoid it.

and as pictures can be worth more than words:

long live artists' inner childs

i am watching the BBC series production of john le carre's tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, one of the most intricate stories of deceit in the form of a spy novel i have ever read.

in an interview with author le carre, he discussed the genius of actor alec guiness, who played legendary spy george smiley in the series. watching guiness work, who angsted about getting the right physicality of the character, was like watching a master class in the creative process, he said.

"alec, like all great artists, was able to keep the child in him alive. the wonder in him was open and always ready to receive," he observed.

he described alec's preparation for the last scene where he was to discover who the mole at the heart of the spy web was. he was engrossed in creating a tactile relationship with the prop gun that he would hold in the shadows, waiting for the mole to step into view. he was musing to himself, in a suspended state, wondering who the bad guy would be. of course, having digested the script he knew quite well who the mole was, but his creative process was to be open in the moment as if he were discovering it with us.

my inner child is alive and well and is the spunk that allows me to dream big and to ask what if unencumbered by constraints of reality as i might know it. my inner child, and the inner child in all of us, is the free spirit that enables us to imagine possibilities and create realities that might otherwise be stulted by adult fatigue.

long live our artist inner childs! take them out to play every day and enjoy what they inspire in us.

vision plan

i have never been a full embraer of the 5 year plan or the 10 year plans. there are too many unknowns for me to be confident in mapping out a plan for the current year, much less multiple years.

BUT i heard these two words vision plan the other day and it resonates as my style of plan. being a visual person, i see where and how i want to be much more easily than mapping out specific steps and goals.

in creating a vision plan, the three steps for stepping beyond where we presently are and where we may currently be stuck or plateaued are:

• tell the truth about our situation--be straight up with ourselves about our reality, which is often quite different from the stories we concoct about our reality. what are the facts about our reality?
• ask for what we want--be very specific about what we wish for in our lives.
• create our vision--what does it look like, what do you feel, what do you see that reflects how you feel? be very personal about the vision plan--always use the pronouns "i" and "me" rather than "you"--this is my vision, about me. and remember it's mission critical to take care of ourselves before we can take care of others. the better care we take care of ourselves, the more abundance we have to share forward. FEEL, breathe, taste, see our vision. our vision will pull us through.

here's to our vision of our ever growing, ever enriching, ever abundant lives.

 

creative process

whether we know his name or not, we know his creations. isamu noguchi, a prolific japanese-american sculptor and designer, collaborated with the herman miller company where he worked with other designers like charles eames to produce a catalog of some of the most infuential modern furniture.

always fascinated by creatives' processes, when i ran across this noguchi quote on his creative process, it reinforced to me how critical freedom to explore is. only in doing can we discover where we are inspired to go. in following direction, we can rarely tap into that inspired territory.

freedom... perhaps a little nerveracking, but exciting and liberating.

stepping stones to dreams

as long as we are breathing and living, we have this unbelievable opportunity and gift to make the most of each day. my squeeze and i have been discussing how important it is to stretch--in workouts, in knowledge, in discovery, in abilities, in love and compassion, in dreams--in life.

each day, if we can stretch just a little farther than we did the day before. if i run just half a mile longer, then my norm base mileage gets upped. if i give ernie more frequent and more consistent positive feedback on good behaviors, then his unwanted behaviors become easier to redirect as he will want the positive feedback and it will be clearer to him to change when he doesn't get that. if i eat more greens and less sugar, i start to crave the good stuff and not the stuff i would do better to moderate.

if with every day, we go one stretch farther, we continually optimize our lives and our experiences. and we can use our stretches as stepping stones to our dreams. if our dream is to run a marathon, or have a well-balance and good citizen puppy, or have a juicy healthy fabulous love relationship, or be a working photographer and creative force, take one stretch each day. grow to that next stepping stone. when we break any big dream or goal down to individual steps, it helps us get into the groove of doing instead of miring us in overwhelm.

stretching feels soooo good. sometimes we need a little massaging when we stretch a bit far. just remember to hydrate well along the way!

daily intentions

before i get out of bed in the morning and as i tuck in at night i am setting one intention for myself for the day and for my sleep. i find i do much better when i have a mental touchstone to return to when the day's challenges and chaos approach tipping my balance to one of stress.

i have seen and felt a noticeable difference in my happiness and peace during each day and particularly during frustrations. typical morning intentions that i set for myself, and i choose just one to keep my focus clear are:

• find joy in each interaction
• see love in each interaction
• play
• respond with support and compassion
• see the positive
• be the benefit--and by this i mean, embody and feel the energy of the benefit in any challenge that comes my way. challenging discussion, focus on the benefit of achieving a clear understanding and constructive solution. losing patience with ernie, focus on the benefit of being patient until the understanding clicks.

and in the evening, i focus on healing and restorative rest.

i am soooo happy to report that after just one week of setting and tuning to my intention each day, i am experiencing more flow and more joy. i have put it on my calendar every day for the year so i don't forget my practice. diligence, patience, commitment, positive practice--these are what it takes to create an optimized habit, and optimized way of being. and this year, i am committed to my best health, happiness, relationships and professional dreams.

intentions for the new year

i like to set intentions for the new year. the concept of making resolutions just seems a bit starched collar stiff to me. intentions are something i am conscious about setting each morning. i visualize the tone and energy i want to carry throughout the day. and when there are specific goals to be accomplished, particularly ones that i have been resisting, i set the intention to make positive progress on those.

setting intentions each morning grounds me in the best vision i have for myself. and when i use that tool to aim my energy and my actions in specific directions, it keeps me on course throughout what often are chaotic days, where i can easily get distracted from my focuses (foci?). intentions, along with my morning coffee, also settle me. i am clear on how i want to be as i navigate through the day's challenges, and just that vision and mindfulness fortifies me when it's tempting to succumb to frustration.

for 2012, i set for myself 6 global intentions that have crystallized in recent weeks as the most important areas for me to improve:

• follow my flow--instead of attempting to puppeteer my life, follow my path and stay true to my most central inner guide
• embrace quiet daily--too much cacophony in each day frazzles me. i am restored by quiet but have not made that a daily practice...until now.
• walk with a loose leash--a lesson from my pup ernie. with people, projects and pups, i cannot control and when i try to force something, i may get resistance. it is much more powerful to walk with a loose leash--the other end of the leash respects that freedom and when they choose to walk with me, it's a powerful bond.
• listen--listen to people keenly, listen to my soul, listen to important messages that i become aware of, listen to what ernie communicates--TUNE IN and LISTEN. what others need to convey is important for me to receive. we all need to be heard.
• be conscious about my consumption--in media, food, practices, consume what nourishes me and not what saps me.
• embrace my leading lady--those great hollywood leading ladies of the 30s and 40s had spunk, spine and sass. and they navigated through all their capers with snappy dialogue, insightfulness and well-turned out wardrobes. all great ways of elevating each day.

i hope everyone had a most exuberant joyful start to the new year and here's to a happy, healthy, prosperous, inspired and creative 2012 for us all.

new year's wishes

chase jarvis's hit list: 13 things crucial for success

photographer, innovator and creative powerhouse chase jarvis wrote a recent blog of his hit list: 13 things crucial for your success [in any field]. i felt each one was SO SPOT ON that i didn't even want to attempt to paraphrase. i wanted to share the potency and value of his original post with his unadultered words. so, i've included his original link as well as the content of his post below. print this. post it on your refrigerator. in your refrigerator. look at it daily. hourly, if that's what it takes. and live it. see how life transforms.

Success is each to his or her own, but let’s call it like we see it: when you survey the landscape of your creative world, your industry, your career or hobby–whatever field you’re in– there are several fundamentals to achieving success, regardless of the measure. There are commonalities that are undeniable. So here’s a list of thirteen such things that you should be doing right now – let’s call it your hit list:

1. Get shit done.
Over-thinking, pontificating, and wondering are tools for the slacker. People don’t care what almost happened, or what your problems are or why something wasn’t. They care about what is, and what will be. That requires actually making stuff happen. Pros do, make, ship, send, publish, post and deliver; amateurs sit around and wonder, or worse, scratch their arse.

2. Educate yourself.
Think someone else is responsible for your education? Think again. And don’t fool yourself that being in school, in class, or in the seminar actually equals education. Education is incredibly active and it should be self directed in some capacity. Seek information. Knock down walls to get it.

3. Make your own rules.
There are a million paths to get to any single destination. And while it helps to know the rules that others have played by in the past–those you admire who have come there before you–don’t let those rules alone define your rules or your actions. Be respectful as you make your own rules, don’t be rude. But be prepared to chop your own path through the weeds and fend off the naysayers, because if you’re doing something worthwhile there will likely be resistance to your way.

4. Want to be a legend? Affect change.

5. Want to affect change? Get to work. See #1

6. Iterate.
Nothing–and I’ll say it again, but louder–NOTHING will spring from your creative self fully formed. Genius, clarity, vision–whatever you want to call it–will come in fragments at inopportune moments over days, weeks, months, years. Be ready to catch each one of the iterations and push it out of you. The summary of those iterations will aggregate into something special.

7. Look inside.
Understand that the best way to make something new and fresh is to look inside you. The answers are in here, not out there.

8. Don’t underestimate the fundamentals. Know your craft.
Vision and big-picture-thinking are important, but not at the expense of the fundamentals. You’ve got know the nuts and bolts of what your doing. Skip this item at your own risk.

9. Take a deep breath.
Life, work, art can be hard. Anxiety – not to be confused with the positive stress of deadlines and forced production schedules – is counter productive. So when shit is getting hairy, take a breath. Everything is going to be okay. When you re-center, see #1.

10. Take delight.
Your work should be fun. Not always fun like a birthday party fun, but fun like you’re doing the right thing sort of fun. Stimulating. Positive. Energizing. Take delight in what you do, and for that matter, what others do too. Celebrate successes, pop champagne or Diet Coke when you break through tough challenges. Stay up all night when the ideas are flowing, because you can. Enjoy the process, because from moment to moment, the process is reason for the season – it’s all you’ve got. If you don’t take delight, your career will be short, either by choice or by fate.

11. Seek out good people.
Think you’re on a solo journey? On the contrary. Making your work, your career, your life, will involve others taking to you and what you do. Therefore, make effort to know, connect, collaborate with, mentor under, the best people you can find. Screw that, the best people you can FATHOM. And once you identify them, seek them. Make an effort to cultivate those relationships and take those good people with you – figuratively and literally – on your journey. Good people tend to attract other good people. And so for similar reasons, it should go without saying, avoid jerks, d-bags, and haters. It’s hard to soar like an eagle when you run around with turkeys. Negative energy is like a black hole for creativity and inspiration. And remember, you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.

12. Find some quiet.
Noise, stimulation, and adventure are good for creating the raw building blocks of creativity, but they suck for the most important part of creativity — the synthesis. Synthesis–the gluing together of your ideas–requires some sort of quiet, be it just a moment or bunch of moments. So carve out this time.

13. Help others.
When chasing success too many people play the ‘me’ game. It’s all about ‘me’. Well, contrary to what it might seem, success ain’t just about me. Most people who achieve success are concerned with helping others. Helping others cultivates understanding, humility, compassion, and your network – not to mention, a better world. So don’t just reach up and pull yourself there. Be sure to reach sideways and down too, as often as you can muster.

Thanks. Spread the word.

chase jarvis: 13 things crucial for your success