November 24, 2011

Commit Small Acts of Random Abundance

If you live in the United States, chances are that today you have plans to gather ’round a giant turkey (or Tofurky!) with your loved ones and enjoy a feast. A giant celebration of abundance, indulgence, and maybe even a nap, too.

Taking a day to celebrate the bounty of life and meditate on gratitude is a wonderful thing, and I wish everyone celebrating Thanksgiving – or not – an amazing day.

But what are we all going to do tomorrow? Or the day after? In my neck of the woods, beyond leftovers, Black Friday Madness, and December holidays there is winter. Where will our abundance be then?

I’m here, before the hustle and bustle of the meal, before naps in front of the football game, to remind you to bring today’s sense of abundance and greatness to all your days. For both yourself and your work.

Why is this important? Here’s one of my favorite quotes from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, on art and abundance:

For those of us who have become artistically anorectic – yearning to be creative and refusing to feed that hunger in ourselves so that we become more and more focused on our deprivation – a little authentic luxury can go a long way. The key word here is authentic.

“Because art is born in expansion, in a belief in sufficient supply, it is critical that we pamper ourselves for the sense of abundance it brings to us. A box of raspberries or a small bouquet can bring a big shift in optimism.”

I found this to be true.

Practicing small acts of random abundance lets me live in a mindset of possibility.

It allows me to be flexible and spontaneous. All of which are vital to making my art, as well.

Now, I’m in no way recommending you go broke here. But there are many things we can do that we say no to. There is an almost imperceptible internal dialogue going on when I am choosing whether to make a small act of abundance or not, though it usually boils down to a matter of minutes or pennies.

In that moment of debate I’m either choosing to say yes to a tiny happiness, to a sense of always having enough, to enjoying small impracticalities, or saying yes to worry, fear, a sense of lack, and small-mindedness.

I’m here to remind you (and myself) to err on the side of hugeness. Of abundance.

Here are some of my favorite random acts of abundance:

  • Randomly buying my husband flowers as a way of saying thank you.
  • Sometimes saying yes to a small thing my stepdaughter is asking for. It’s important for her to learn to budget, but it’s also important for her to feel that there is enough.
  • Not skimping on the small things. Drinking the best green tea, eating good chocolate, writing with my favorite pen. Making sure I have little bits of things I will enjoy, instead of not-so-great things I bought in bulk.
  • Feeling abundant with my time. Twenty minutes curled up with a novel or snuggling my son or husband will not significantly detract from my productivity, but will go far in making me feel good that day.
  • Giving things away that are no longer useful to me but could make someone else’s day, like when I passed on my obsolete Baby Bjorn. Do I really want to spend my time trying to make a couple bucks on Craigslist or just make someone (and myself) really happy?

Small acts of abundance in everyday life are acts of faith – faith that more is on the way, that we will be okay, that we have all we need.

The act of making a creative idea a reality and sending it out into the world to live is also an act of faith – faith that we will have more ideas to share, that our well is endless.

It’s the same state of mind, act of faith. Abundance and art feed each other.

So, of course, my Creative Call to Action for you is this: Commit random acts of abundance in your everday life. Start by doing one small act a day for the next week. I’ll be doing it with you, starting tomorrow, over on the Edison Rex blog. Join me and share your adventures in abundance!

Filed Under: Creative Call to Action, Plot Notes Tagged With: , , , , , , 6 Comments
October 11, 2011

abundance vs meaning: an excerpt from the art of earning

The following is an excerpt from Tara Gentile’s The Art of Earning.

orange linocut print by thebigharumph - click for info

People are tuned in to the vast array of what’s available to purchase and are hungry to consume it. Never before has so much been available to us for so little. Thanks to cheap labor, cheap materials, and ever-increasing technology, companies can afford to sell us some version of what we want at a price we can afford.

We even cultivate desire – need? – for things we never knew could exist.

Abundance exists all around us.

We have become so comfortable with the abundance of “stuff” all around us that it is no longer enough to satisfy us. Stuff was always a diversion, anyhow. Now we seek meaning.

If there’s anything we’ve learned from our love affair with stuff, it’s that what we seek can be purchased.

That’s why more people – liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it – are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning. … Visit any moderately prosperous community in the advanced world and along with the plenteous shopping opportunities, you can glimpse this quest for transcendence in action.
– Daniel Pink, A Whole New Mind

The business of art is not a business of abundance or mindless consumption. The art business is the meaning business. Being a working artist means that you are actively engaged in the pursuit of finding deeper meaning in everything around you.

Whether you are a yoga teacher, wellness coach, chef, poet, marketer, sales rep, or shoe designer, “greater things” ooze into your work. Your job is to ponder the questions others don’t ponder, consider the unconsiderable, question the status quo. It doesn’t take a degree in philosophy or a fine arts background to see what lies beneath the surface. You’re already doing it.

You must identify what’s behind your art – the greater meaning – to truly understand the value of your art.

If you can nail the meaning of what you’re providing, you are upping its value. People will pay more for things that help them go deeper, tell a story, see the bigger picture, engage a community, live a lifestyle.

It’s not a tactic – it’s a strategy for changing the world as you grow your business. It’s both/and – not either/or.

Making money should be beautiful. To get your own copy of The Art of Earning, come right this way.

Filed Under: money Tagged With: , , , , 1 Comment
October 10, 2011

embracing abundance: breaking the scarcity mindset

This week we’re taking time out to share some classic Scoutie Girl posts. Today’s post originally appeared on March 19, 2010.

lola at the playground

when i was about 10, my dad left our family.

and while broken families would soon become quite normal, in my grade & group of friends, i was the first to go through the process. one of the greatest lessons i learned from this time in my life was how to embrace abundance. even though my dad leaving took the vast majority of income away from our family, even though we were forced to down size from a beautiful newly built home to a home bought out of bankruptcy court that my mother & community moms spent weeks cleaning to make fit for habitation, even though shopping became a vastly different affair, i never felt that resources were scarce.

my family lived a life of abundance.

my mom never said “we can’t afford that” or “that’s too expensive” – or if she did it’s certainly not the part i remember! i went to basketball camp and softball camp and church camp and music camp. i had piano lessons and new trendy clothes. we always had a computer. and i never doubted for a second that i would go to the best college that i could get into and wanted to attend.

scarcity wasn’t even an option in my mind.

now my mom isn’t a lawyer or a doctor or even an assistant with a steady job. she was a seamstress who worked from home & was her own boss (a luxury that was her own abundance). she learned to never accept no – or “too much” – as an answer. i learned that i could have whatever i wanted and go wherever i wanted to go as long as i was creative about it. i learned that when you gave a lot you got a hell of a lot more back in return. i learned that if you embrace abundance, you’ll be more abundant than you can imagine!

as i’ve grown, i’ve continued to embrace abundance – and that’s why i get to do what i do here everyday. i never thought for a moment that this wouldn’t work. i didn’t let my husband get me down, i didn’t let friends get me down, i didn’t let myself get me down. i knew could create success and i lived every day as if i was already successful (with a smaller budget, of course!). when i made one level of reality a success, i focused on a higher level and i embraced that abundance & embodied that success.

embracing abundance gives us the mindset that we need to live our goals while we’re achieving them.

but that’s WAY too much about me. i’m piggybacking, this beautiful friday afternoon, on the post i wrote last week with my opinions on being a thriving artist. thank you all for the wonderful comments – so many of you obviously see yourselves as thriving. but i just couldn’t stop there after reading dave navarro’s post on breaking the scarcity mindset. while there is so much positivity in our creative community, i just can’t help but get caught up on the scarcity mentality that i hear from so many artists trying to breakthrough.

stop trying already. kick the damn door down.

these are the four beliefs that dave uses to outline his path for escaping scarcity:

* First, the specific belief that there are plenty of people out there who are willing to exchange money for something of value.
* Second, the specific belief that you can offer something of value.
* Third, the specific belief that you can communicate that value to the people willing to pay for it.
* Fourth, the specific belief that you can make an offer – right now (or very soon) – that can generate the money you want to have.

now, perhaps your goal isn’t money. side note: we all need to make a living – so if your goal is money right now, embrace it and don’t let others tell you that’s not okay. perhaps your goal is clout, authority, friends in high places, exposure, gallery space, art classes, etc… you can substitute any of those things that you wish you had in abundance into those four beliefs.

forget all the i-wishes and if-onlys and make a choice today that embraces the abundance that you already have and the abundance that is right around the corner. and then walk around the corner and pummel that abundance into submission too.

now i’m quite certain (cause i embrace my own abundance that makes me think that you actually care what i have to say) that you’ve already thought of those one or two things (a new job, quitting your old job, materials, a new website, a blog post, an advertising budget, a friend, a class…) that you need in order to take the next step. do me a big favor, leave it in the comments. i want need to know what doors you are breaking down tomorrow today.

Filed Under: inspiration, mindful spending, taking action Tagged With: , , , 7 Comments
July 28, 2010

the danger of DIY culture

waitress sterling silver rings

On one hand, DIY culture teaches us that it’s better to make than buy, better to do than accept. On the other, the New Economy tells us that we can embrace our entrepreneurial spirit, do what we love, profit from passion.

In the middle there is a choice – buy or make – where the two collide and threaten our happy little arrangement.

in practice

On Saturday, I had the privilege of speaking to the Pittsburgh Craft Collective about blogging. As part of my shtick, I asked them to think about their ideal audience. Often, when I ask people this question, they just describe themselves.

“Wrong!” I say. “You wouldn’t buy from you, you’d create it yourself.”

And not only that, DIYers not only do their own work, they do others work. On purpose. Not maliciously, of course, but out of a distinct desire to do it themselves. Which means, they’re not buying.

I’m generalizing, of course, but isn’t always easy to see things when the picture is painted in broad strokes?

new direction

The thing is, I have a lot of faith in folks at the Pittsburgh Craft Collective to figure out how to use their creative talents to make an honest living. Perhaps, the most honest living that can be made – one that emanates from your own passion & skills. A job where there is no pink slip except the one you give yourself.

As the old economy withers away and a new economy is born, we have more freedom than ever to do what we love. To approach the world with the eyes of an entrepreneur. To create our own career. Answer our vocation.

Heck, even Suze Orman agrees:

With one in six Americans currently unemployed or underemployed, the competition for work is fierce. So focus on what is in your control—selling yourself and your skills.

But you can’t do this if people aren’t buying. This is the quintessential case for mindful spending.

The new economy is a cycle in which our dollars are spent in our communities – whether local or virtual – and then come back around to our wallets as we sell our own skills & services. The new economy relies on creativity & innovation from a whole class of people and not just the creativity of an individual.

The new economy dares us to sell what we love to do and purchase what others love to do.

If you want others to support you with their dollars, you have to support them with your dollars.

We’ve learned SO MUCH from DIY.

  • how to sew
  • how to remodel
  • how to grow food
  • how to build
  • how to cook

I am so thankful for all that knowledge. And at the same time, I’m thankful for the people who do each of those things professionally. I am thankful that I can seek out high quality and save myself time by paying for it.

At some point DIY falls a little short and it pays to be aware that fact.

That might mean buying that painting for above your sofa instead of trying to recreate it – sorry, Martha. Or it might mean hiring an accountant instead of trying to keep your books yourself – sorry, Quicken. It might mean purchasing custom invitations instead of trying to design them yourself – sorry, Photoshop.

I’m of course thankful that, with the myriad of DIY websites out there, many people choose me to build websites for them.

The danger of DIY culture is that we can lose track of where we fit into the bigger picture of the new economy. We concentrate on becoming less commercial, more “by hand.” And so we stop buying and start making. But buying keeps us all in business and it allows others to try their hand at selling their craft, whether it be quilts or technical writing or biomechanical engineering.

When we do everything “in house,” we miss out on the expertise of others. Not to mention their passion & enthusiasm.

I want to continue to make a living doing what I love so I choose to support others who do what they love.

Embrace DIY when it comes to expression. Embrace conscious consumption when it comes to expertise.

Which way do you turn in the intersection of DIY and the new economy?

{i am an artist not a waitress rings by kathryn riechert}

Filed Under: mindful spending Tagged With: , , , 45 Comments
March 19, 2010

embracing abundance :: breaking the scarcity mindset

lola at the playground

when i was about 10, my dad left our family.

and while broken families would soon become quite normal, in my grade & group of friends, i was the first to go through the process. one of the greatest lessons i learned from this time in my life was how to embrace abundance. even though my dad leaving took the vast majority of income away from our family, even though we were forced to down size from a beautiful newly built home to a home bought out of bankruptcy court that my mother & community moms spent weeks cleaning to make fit for habitation, even though shopping became a vastly different affair, i never felt that resources were scarce.

my family lived a life of abundance.

my mom never said “we can’t afford that” or “that’s too expensive” – or if she did it’s certainly not the part i remember! i went to basketball camp and softball camp and church camp and music camp. i had piano lessons and new trendy clothes. we always had a computer. and i never doubted for a second that i would go to the best college that i could get into and wanted to attend.

scarcity wasn’t even an option in my mind.

now my mom isn’t a lawyer or a doctor or even an assistant with a steady job. she was a seamstress who worked from home & was her own boss (a luxury that was her own abundance). she learned to never accept no – or “too much” – as an answer. i learned that i could have whatever i wanted and go wherever i wanted to go as long as i was creative about it. i learned that when you gave a lot you got a hell of a lot more back in return. i learned that if you embrace abundance, you’ll be more abundant than you can imagine!

as i’ve grown, i’ve continued to embrace abundance – and that’s why i get to do what i do here everyday. i never thought for a moment that this wouldn’t work. i didn’t let my husband get me down, i didn’t let friends get me down, i didn’t let myself get me down. i knew could create success and i lived every day as if i was already successful (with a smaller budget, of course!). when i made one level of reality a success, i focused on a higher level and i embraced that abundance & embodied that success.

embracing abundance gives us the mindset that we need to live our goals while we’re achieving them.

but that’s WAY too much about me. i’m piggybacking, this beautiful friday afternoon, on the post i wrote last week with my opinions on being a thriving artist. thank you all for the wonderful comments – so many of you obviously see yourselves as thriving. but i just couldn’t stop there after reading dave navarro’s post on breaking the scarcity mindset. while there is so much positivity in our creative community, i just can’t help but get caught up on the scarcity mentality that i hear from so many artists trying to breakthrough.

stop trying already. kick the damn door down.

these are the four beliefs that dave uses to outline his path for escaping scarcity:

* First, the specific belief that there are plenty of people out there who are willing to exchange money for something of value.
* Second, the specific belief that you can offer something of value.
* Third, the specific belief that you can communicate that value to the people willing to pay for it.
* Fourth, the specific belief that you can make an offer – right now (or very soon) – that can generate the money you want to have.

now, perhaps your goal isn’t money. side note: we all need to make a living – so if your goal is money right now, embrace it and don’t let others tell you that’s not okay. perhaps your goal is clout, authority, friends in high places, exposure, gallery space, art classes, etc… you can substitute any of those things that you wish you had in abundance into those four beliefs.

forget all the i-wishes and if-onlys and make a choice today that embraces the abundance that you already have and the abundance that is right around the corner. and then walk around the corner and pummel that abundance into submission too.

now i’m quite certain (cause i embrace my own abundance that makes me think that you actually care what i have to say) that you’ve already thought of those one or two things (a new job, quitting your old job, materials, a new website, a blog post, an advertising budget, a friend, a class…) that you need in order to take the next step. do me a big favor, leave it in the comments. i want need to know what doors your breaking down tomorrow today.

Filed Under: personality Tagged With: , , , , 140 Comments