22 bullshit life purposes
Maybe you’ve always had too many interests, too many possible directions to go in. Narrowing them to “The One” has always been tough.
2020 gave us gifts (here’s what they are)
2020 gave us gifts. Here’s what they are.
I’m sitting here wrapping up work for the year, planning on taking a few weeks off for the holidays. I feel like before I go, I want to send you all a note about this year. This crazy, crazy year.
Like you, I started 2020 dreaming up big things for myself and others. And like you, I found myself stuttering and swerving as more and more fear and ridiculousness swung my way: COVID-19, the California wildfires and unprecedented number of hurricanes, the fight for BLM, and a near miss with the breakdown of democracy in the U.S. Unfathomable. It’s as if the Universe rolled up all it had and tossed it to us: “Take that, Americans. If you don’t learn from this, I don’t know what it’s gonna take.”
And learn we have.
The pattern master
The Pattern Master
The Flower That Grows Too High Is The First To Be Cut
There’s an old saying that the flower that grows too high in the field is the first to be cut.
Softness is strength
Softness is strength. But sometimes we forget.
Our world thrives on the critical. So much so, that when we’re real and soft with each other, it’s suspect.
Lies make all the good shows on TV. Think Preacher, Barry, Game of Thrones, Orange Is the New Black. All depend on lies to spin them forward.
Realness and vulnerability are so much harder to write, let alone act.
That means these are rare, and what’s rare is coveted. Which means you are coveted. Because you are not a lie.
Take this moment to feel how real and soft you are. It’s a rare and divine commodity these days. Forget what they say about being hard and tough. Hard and tough is easy. It’s walled, shielded, and thick. Bricks are easy to come by.
The truly strong let their softness walk through their front door, knowing the risk, and they still take it. And because you do that, you are truly strong.
Old rusty windmills and “Mom is always working!”
Every one of us Makers who’s growing a dream, building a business, or trying to see our project turn into something rewarding knows the feeling of hitting a “stop point.” I call it flatlining.
We do everything to push things along, then as our returns start sagging, we slow down and eventually slide to a full, disappointed stop.
This is your dream, your baby, your idea or talent starting and stopping like an old rusty windmill.
You use all your resources. You Flowdream. You look up strategies on websites. You get a little lost and take a stab at a few things until again you slide to a halt.
• You have an email list that’s half built.
• You have ideas for a website, but no site (or the one you made yourself 4 years ago).
• You have flyers for your sessions but they sit on your desk undistributed.
• You have names of prospects for your business but you have phone-phobia and no one ever gets a call from you.
• You attended two conferences and three online summits to learn how to monetize your make, but now you don’t have time to implement anything you learned. You never open your notebook that you wrote so excitedly in all those days.
Paper Flowers, Authentic Expression, and “Making”
Let’s Talk Making Each Day Count
Everything we do, all the time, is Making. Even when we’re binge-watching a Netflix show, we’re making ourselves relax.
