Empowering you to lead a joyful and creative life

You Can't Do It Alone

Whenever you are starting something new, there are so many things you don’t know.  You don’t even know what you don’t know yet.

One of the best ways of figuring out how to do something is to find someone or several people who are doing all or part of what you want to do and pay attention to what they are doing.

Basically, you are finding mentors who can help you learn along the way.  You can find mentors in books, through the internet, on websites, blogs, or asking others.

Do they have a program, ezine, class, seminar, or book?  Can you volunteer to work for them (think apprentice)?

Sometimes starting can be the hardest part.  You don’t have to know how to do everything before you start.  Just gather some information and take a small step.  And then another.

One way I am sharing knowledge is through interviewing interesting and amazing people I’ve come across for my series of Inspired Artists and Creative Entrepreneurs.

Barbara Winter, author of Making A Living Without A Job,  shares her delightful outlook on creating a joyfully jobless life.  And Rena Klingenberg shares her refreshing ideas about being an artist, entrepreneur and single Mom and keeping the balance in her life.

So, remember, you aren’t alone.

Who or what has helped you to do take that next step?

Do you remember those endless summers when you werea kid?

You had time to play all day and into those light filled nights without a care in the world.

How can you bring some of that carefree feeling into your life right now?

The other day, to celebrate my friend’s birthday, we took the day off, and went on a short hike in Roxborough Park in Littleton, Colorado. It is a beautiful park with striking red rocks that looked even more dramatic against the fresh, spring green of the hills and meadows.

Before we even began our hike, we saw 5 beautiful deer grazing on the hillside.
Afterward, we had lunch at a nearby golf course overlooking the red rocks and a clear blue sky.

We wondered why we didn’t do something like this more often. We felt as if we were on vacation, and yet this gorgeous spot is only about 30 minutes away.

What if you reward yourself with more experiences that really help you relax and feel like you are on vacation?

I love the term “guilt free play” that Dr. Neil Fiore uses in his book, the Now Habit.
He advocates spending short, focused amounts of time on the next small steps in accomplishing your goals, and then rewarding yourself with enjoyable activities.

What are those experiences that give you the feeling of a carefree summer? Is it eating an ice cream cone, sticking your toes in a cold stream, going to the farmer’s market, listening to live music in a park, or laying in the grass watching the clouds go by, or reading a book in a hammock?

How about writing down one or two priorities that you want to work on, along with a couple of play time activities that remind you to have fun every step of the way?

Each year my husband, son and I choose a few things we would like to do for the summer.  We do this now, because in the past we would be disappointed that summer had come and gone and we didn’t do some of the things we wanted.

For every season there are some things that you just can’t do other times of the year so you want to take advantage of that!

Here is what we have so far:

• Take the kayak out – we have a beautiful reservoir within a 25 minute drive
• Go to at least 2 summer concerts in the park and bring a picnic
• Go to Water World with our family friends
• Pick a beautiful spot and draw or paint outdoors
• Make homemade ice cream sandwiches – I need to use the ice cream maker at least once or twice each year so my husband doesn’t tell me I never use it!
• Play tennis – all three of us are on teams this year
• Go to Grand Lake in the mountains

If you want, ask each person in your family for one or two things they would enjoy this summer.

What’s on your list?