June 8, 2012

book review: Imagine

Ever wonder how people come up with their brilliant ideas? Or how some individuals seem to have endless catalyzing inspirations, while others don’t even contribute to group work?

In his new work, Jonah Lehrer takes on the idea of creativity as a series of insights – insights that can be cultivated and created, not always forced. Using information from several recent case studies, he brings together the use of certain drugs as focusing agents, creating the right environment for inspiration, and a dozen other tools we can use as thinkers and doers to build imagination and creativity into our lives.

Unlike some recent books about insight, creativity, and understanding scientific research, Lehrer uses language that is both accessible and respectful. He doesn’t talk down to the audience, but instead brings the reader to a place of greater awareness by acknowledging where we likely come from (demographically), and also encouraging us to seek out new information and insight on topics we haven’t already researched. Additionally, it’s not all cortices and neurons – this book is both science and practical application.

I watched Mr. Lehrer speak on C-SPAN books one day while cleaning the house. During his lecture, he shared a lot of valuable wisdom and insight, but didn’t seem pretentious. It was then I decided to read this book. Not only are the stories of famous creatives using a variety of techniques to enhance focus and creativity quite fascinating, but the subtly-added real world tips for improving my own creativity and focus filtered into my daily habits before I realized I had begun them.

So what’s the point of all this hard work, if inspiration and insight don’t just happen?

Simple:

Cultivate your creativity.

If you can do it, why would you not do it?

The ways we explore and develop our focus, our working memory, our inspirations, our shared wisdom – these are the ways we generate more brilliance in the world.

As small business owners, entrepreneurs, and creative people, we rely on each other much more than we know to share the insights, the light-bulb moments, the flashes of brilliance. A friend’s great idea might help you see a new business venture or shift your perspective on a challenge in ways that are profound and real.

Did you know that masking tape was inspired by sandpaper?

It’s true. After reading Imagine: How Creativity Works, I’m so eager to share my ideas and inspirations with my small circle of business colleagues – because who knows what amazing brilliance we can create when working together!

until next month,
Sara

Filed Under: book review, Read & Play Tagged With: , , , , , , Leave a Comment
April 20, 2012

The Courage to Connect

Today I’d like to discuss making connections, online and offline. An essential part of developing your creative business is forming meaningful, helpful connections that will encourage your work.

When we talk about making connections and forming meaningful relationships, what we’re talking about in the end is love. You can get sources of love from your parents, your family, your partner, your kids, your pets, even from professional relationships in a broader sense.

Anytime you’re getting support and encouragement from other people, I see that as a form of love. Obviously we all want to increase these positive connections in our lives, because the more loved and connected you feel, the more creative and productive you’re going to be. It’s important to value and honor all of your supportive personal relationships.

“Love is life. All, everything I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love.”
- Leo Tolstoy

Women have a gift for creating new connections, but we often tend to be the givers and caretakers in our relationships. That’s a very admirable characteristic, but it’s also necessary for us to be able to receive. We must all work on being open to receiving support, and love, and encouragement in our relationships – whether they’re personal relationships or professional relationships.

This can start with something as easy as being able to receive a compliment. When people tell you, “Oh you look great today, what a pretty dress!”  you can practice not immediately saying, “Oh this old thing!” Instead, try responding with a generous, simple, “Thank you!” Practice accepting the love that is behind the kind, supportive statements you receive from other people.

I know this is easier to say than to do, and I tend to use the denial strategy quite often as well. When people pay me a compliment on something I’m wearing, I tend to say, “This? I got it at the thrift store.” But I’m practicing being more open and receiving, and I hope you will, too. It could open some new, undiscovered doors for support and love in your life.

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
- Anais Nin

During the past several months, I have been traveling through Europe and interviewing many successful women who are publishing books, developing e-courses, and living out their creative, entrepreneurial dreams. It’s easy to get awestruck and overwhelmed by their accomplishments, but I hear again and again that these amazing women often have incredible, supportive networks behind the scenes. No one can do everything alone.

Your job is to build your own personal support system.

Who could give you more time to work on your creative work? How could they support you with paperwork, email, housework, cooking meals, and/or child care? We’re all responsible for building our own supportive networks; this is essential to making our creative work a priority.

“Success occurs in clusters and is born in generosity.”
- Julia Cameron

Surround yourself with optimistic, positive people who are realizing their dreams, and it will definitely help you move closer to your dreams at an increased speed. Be generous with giving compliments (and with accepting them!) and keep good, focused energy in circulation. The flow of positive spirit and generosity will multiply and come back to you in surprising and unexpected ways!

Also, seek out people who are doing what you would most like to do – and don’t be afraid to contact them! People are more accessible these days than ever before through email, Twitter, and Facebook. Often, creative people are happy to answer questions or they might be future collaborators for a special project. You do need to think about what you can offer your collaborators in exchange: what kind of a creative project could you come up with that would benefit both of you?

Don’t be shy. Don’t be afraid to ask others for their feedback and ideas.

Get in touch with the people you admire. Don’t see them as competitors, see them as peers and potential collaborators. The more you can help them, the more they can help you.

We’re all in a network together. The old-fashioned way of thinking is very protective, closed, and doesn’t let other people see what we are doing. The newer, more positive way of thinking is accepting that we are all in a network together, that we have the possibility to connect and collaborate with one another, and that we can help each other in the long run. Making those kind of connections is one dynamic key to getting your creative work out into the world.

One last thing to remember: Once you’ve formed these connections – once you’ve planted the seeds, you must go back and water them, nurture them, and give them light and sunshine and energy, just like with a garden. Plant the seeds of your relationships carefully, then take exquisite care of them so they can grow and flourish.

How do you make most of your personal and creative connections these days – through the Internet or in “real” life?  Have you made real life contacts with people you’ve “met” on the Internet?

Have a great week!

xo

Stephanie

Filed Under: creating action, creativity, Plot Notes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , 7 Comments
January 31, 2012

Be an insider in your industry

Does it ever seem like your industry has a club of fun, successful, connected leaders? A club that you’re not part of?

I’ve felt that way. The good news is, this ain’t high school! You can join the club.

In this video, I’ll share 2 ways that you can build connections with whomever you please. Welcome to the club!

In the comments, let us know if you’ve done a “be an insider project,” or share your plans for one you might try.

Gathering light,

Filed Under: Buy You, For You, creating action Tagged With: , , , , , , , , 6 Comments
December 12, 2011

better together: sailing away from your lonely island

image by Man vs Ink “Let’s Network Together” - click for info

One of the biggest challenges of working for yourself is that bootstrapping your business and getting started often means working alone to cut costs. And unfortunately, working as a team of one frequently leads to that feeling of being on a lonely island all by yourself with no support.

Of course you have family and friends, and that is great, but they don’t always understand what you’re going through. So what do you do when you need feedback or a little interaction during work hours? You hop on twitter or facebook of course, and get your fix before heading back to your cave.

But is that really what you need?

Don’t get me wrong, I love twitter as much as the next gal, but sometimes social media just doesn’t cut it. The reality is 140 characters or less is great, but nothing beats an in person connection.

If you’re running a business you need a support system. And not just a virtual one. So let’s start with making those initial connections.

Here are 4 ideas for sailing away from your lonely island and building a support system of meaningful (in person) connections…

1. Networking: Sure, you’re versed in the social media game, but connecting with people halfway around the world is going to present a challenge or two. So start in your own backyard. Joining a free service like Meetup is a great way to meet people in your area that have similar interests. There are so many organized events you are bound to find at least one or two that meet your needs (I found more than 1,000 options in my city).

2. Coworking: I know what you’re thinking – This sounds great in theory, but why would I pay to sit around an office with a bunch of people I’ve never met before to work on completely separate things? There are plenty of advantages to coworking, but at the top of the list for solorpreneurs is simply being around other people. And if you’re still unsure of the idea, try it on a smaller scale and invite a friend to work with you at a coffee shop for the day. Since I moved to Seattle, I’ve done this a few times and it is a huge motivator for me. It gets me out of the house AND gives me a little inspiration. A new place and a friendly face never hurt anyone, right?

3. Conferences + Events: One of the best places to reach out to like-minded business owners is at a conference or event. I’ve met so many wonderful people that way. And the connections you make at these types of things will last long after the conference is over. Remember: The people who are sitting next to you at these events are just as important as the ones up on stage. So make fast friends. You never know who you’re sitting next to.

4. Your turn: Share your own suggestions for combating that “lonely island syndrome” in the comments below.

Filed Under: art to inspire, brittni {paper n stitch} Tagged With: , , , , , , 7 Comments
November 7, 2011

conjuring the possibility of perpetuating connections and creating collaborations

Murmuration of Starlings

It’s fall back day here in the states when we gain an hour of sleep and lose our afternoon light. This makes me SAD. Literally, as in seasonal affective disorder SAD, but I have a special light to help me with that which makes me grateful. It is also November which has for many become gratitude month in the spirit of Thanksgiving. Not the concocted Pilgrims and Indians Thanksgiving, but the coming together to share and be grateful of a bountiful harvest. Many bloggers post a gratitude a day and some do it on Facebook. I am just here to do it once and remind myself that every day is a day for thanksgiving.

Sometimes I wonder why I am writing here at Scoutie Girl. Mine is not a tale of great success and six figure income. I don’t have any unique trade secrets or tips for how to run an online art business. I have many crafty ideas and am not compelled to write about them often. Mostly I just share my struggles and insights as I try to figure it all out for myself. I have been asked to start conversations with my writing and that has happened, and you keep coming back to read, so it must be doing some good and for that I am most grateful.

This post is a bit different for me and came about from some very unconnected bits and pieces the past few days. I have a lot on my plate at the moment and the end of the year will be as busy as it gets for me. I am – thanks to Danielle LaPorte for pointing this out – Whelmed. Whelmed, but not stressed, at least not most days. It has taken a solid two years but I do believe my proverbial ship is coming in. Which brings me to my title. Two years ago I chose the word possibility as my focus word for 2010.Possibility because I was unsure where this new road would take me. I kept my mind and eyes open and soaked in all I could. I learned how I should market and brand myself and I didn’t do most of it. I made a lot of art and sold a little. I learned that I yearned for more than that transaction, nice as it is.

In 2011 I began with the focus word “perpetuate.” Last December I wrote these words:

Embracing possibility has allowed me to be reborn as an artist not only as a creator of images, but a creator of a well lived life that matters. Possibility will always remain at the fore but I think next years word is perpetuate.

  1. To cause to continue indefinitely; make perpetual.
  2. To prolong the existence of; cause to be remembered

Now that I am clear on my mission (as clear as an entrepreneur can be) I will perpetuate my ideas and work as well as those of my virtual and personal tribe. There are far more of us than I imagined!

The funny thing is I was so NOT clear on what the next six months would bring. I did not know that the environmental issues based on human consumption would overwhelm me. I did not know that I would take a misguided foray into environmental art, or that I would remake my mission not once, but twice in that space of six months. I definitely did not know that attending the World Domination Summit would crack open wide my possibility mission, or that I would return to find my hands tied to take much action due to living nowhere  and having no transportation. I just didn’t know, and for that I am grateful.

I am grateful because not knowing allowed me to be open to my next two focus words: Connection and Collaboration.

I’ve written plenty about the World Domination Summit here and here and a few other here’s I won’t bother with, and my point is the event opened my ideas about connection. “Connection,” my word for the summit, was about not realizing my potential to connect on and off the internet.

I was elated! I was going to have so many new friends and connections and take over the world for sure.

If you haven’t gotten the trend, I am easily excited, and for this I am oh so grateful. My error this time was in that most of the connecting I really want to do is more local. I want to focus on the problems in my own back yard before taking on the world. I’ll leave the world to those younger than I.

So, after 10 long months without my own transportation we bought me a very green, literally, car and I am off to the races again. I am involved in too many new things to post here and they are all so perfect for my meandering mission.

What I realized most recently is I am unique. I have not adapted to the prescribed marketing, etc. because my goals are different.

I want to sell art, but more than that I want to help people navigate a time of great change with the help of art.

Art, in my opinion, is a lost language and one with great healing and transformative power. I want to teach people how to see and use that, which brings me to my latest word, COLLABORATION. Thanks to Tara for a timely post on the exact same topic to save me typing and give you a better description than I could (please read for clarification!).

What I realize is, collaboration is also the way of a New Economy, and a way of living.

We need connection first and then we need to weave our unique talents into a collaborative frame work for intentional new ways.

We need to learn to ride in the goat rodeo where chaos is rampant, order is uncertain, and still things work out. We need to flow together like a murmuration of starlings that inconceivably don’t collide!

The murmuration I have seen as posted above, but I just learned what it is thanks to my friend Emma, for whom I am grateful. I have many ideas I will be revealing in the coming months, but for now…

How do you see collaboration and art making as new ways of being in a new economy?

Lastly I am grateful for this community allowing me to fumble my way onward and giving a darn. THANK YOU!

 

 

Filed Under: Conversation Starters Tagged With: , , , , 18 Comments