Five reasons why I never get around to doing the things I really want to.

Friends responded to this:  “Five reasons why I never get around to doing the things I really want to.”  Their answers are worthy of being read!  The friends remain anonymous because somebody didn’t get their permission.  Oops.   My answers are also here, too, can you guess?   LOVE to have you list your five reasons!

1. I have ADD (Attentional Delight and Distraction) issues!
2. I like to organise and sort all my wonderful ideas, supplies and treasures.
3. My studio gets cluttered with stockpiles of supplies and  treasures.
4. Ideas are light and easy to carry around in my head.
5. I keep chasing rainbows……………….

1.  I’m working as a technical writer.
2.  I’m eating (frikkin inconvenient, when the body demands fuel).
3.  I’m sleeping.
4.  On Facebook…
5.  On Facebook…

1.demanding children
2.easily distracted
3.recent addiction to facebook
6.I cant count properly so time gets lost
11. wow that’s 11 reasons

1. doing other things I really want to
2. dreaming up ways to get to what I really want to
3. on facebook
4. got distracted and forgot what I really wanted to get to
5. what if the idea of my great idea is so great that it’s scary to get to it cuz I might find out it wasn’t that great after all?

And from the comments:

1. i clean house instead, because that is easy and how can you go wrong, really?
2. what i really want to do seems too involved and i will have to START somewhere
3. i get lost in finding or needing new materials or equipment
4. etsy snares me and i think, “wow…maybe i should try THAT instead”
5. sometimes i am afraid that the actual piece won’t live up to the idea in my head.

1. Real responsibilities (kids, job, the dishes)
2. Fake responsibilities — you know, those things I take on that really belong to someone else
3. Email
4. Guilt (Aren’t those real and fake responsibilities more important?)
5. The stuff all over the table

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Deadlines cause creation

There is a cure for all of the barriers we, the creatively inclined, have.  It ends procrastination, percolation, self sabotage, and avoidance.  Excuses will stop. You know the ones:  “I have to clean the house’, “I have to feed the baby” (okay, that’s a pretty legit one), “I have to do my taxes”, “I have to just check these emails”, “oh, Grey’s Anatomy is on.”  It’s amazing what a creative can do to not create.  

The cure?  Book yourself an exhibition.  Book an art show and sale.  Book a book signing.  You may still procrastinate.  And you will rightfully percolate the thoughts, ideas, techniques, concepts for quite some time. But eventually, you will look at the date and say, “Oh shoot, I have to do it now.”   Yup, deadlines stop all the self talk, tests, and general meanderings.  If you leave it too long before you start, you’ll even miss Grey’s Anatomy willingly.   Because once you give yourself permission to just get it done, you immerse yourself in the process of creation that you love, and you wonder, once again, why did I leave it so long?

Sure, there are other ways to get creating or doing whatever it is your heart truly desires.  Coaching helps to find your best way to be creating or moving forward in any area of your life with less stress, more gentleness, less self sabotage, more joy…  But, if coaching is not an option right now –  a surefire cure is to book the event where your work will be shown.

Be audacious.. book a show.    Trust me, I know all about this. Have you noticed I haven’t sent out a newsletter this month?  Yup, working on a deadline!

Forget Resolutions. They’ve got a bad name

From my newsletter….

 

It’s about as exciting to have a New Year’s Resolution as it is to have ants move into your house. They both become something you are trying to ‘deal with.’

 

You know the resolutions I’m talking about:  
You ‘have to’ lose weight, drink more water, cut back on coffee, get more exercise, try not to complain about your job, deal with some issues, save more money, get rid of ants, etc etc etc etc etc etc and etc.

 

I’m sure you’ve noticed that when one thinks about ‘New Year’s Resolutions’, strange thoughts often sneak in like:

“Oh goody, look what I can fail at this year!” or

“Fat chance I’m telling anyone this resolution just so they can watch me break it!” or “I’m the queen of procrastination.. maybe I’ll get to it tomorrow”

or “I have no willpower, and that chocolate looks realllly good.”

 

(By the way, short of going into writing a chapter about it, trust me on this one: willpower has little to do with keeping resolutions.)

 

The term ‘New Year’s Resolutions’ is now tarnished by becoming a synonym for failure, disappointment, self sabotage, and lack of willpower.  Why would we put ourselves through that?

 

Yet, the concept was once well intended.  There’s great wisdom in looking into the future and taking steps towards achieving your goals.  But forget the old way of thinking, choosing, planning and doing those steps.

 

That concept is done.

 

 

I invite you to consider this new term and new way of moving forward:

 

New Year’s Revelations

 

rev-e-la-tion: (noun)

 

1.       information revealed:

information that is newly disclosed, especially surprising, or valuable

2.      surprising thing:

a surprisingly good or valuable experience

3.      disclosure:

the revealing of something previously hidden or secret 

 

(Hmm, this sounds so much like coaching that one wonders why the coaching process isn’t called revelationism.)

 

 

«  What if this is the year you get to.. be involved in activities you love, go travelling, change your career, take on creative adventures, go whitewater rafting, write, play, enhance relationships, build your business, achieve financial goals?

 

«  What if you actually discover and move forward with your true purpose – creatively, authentically and soulfully?

 

«  What if you get to uncover your surprising and valuable hidden gifts and passions and put them to use?

 

«  Wouldn’t that be a lot more fun than worrying about how much water you drink each day? 

 

«  And wouldn’t it be even more enticing when one day you realize you are drinking less coffee, more water, getting exercise, creating, not complaining etc etc etc simply as a side effect of moving passionately forward in your most unique way?  (I’m not sure what to say about the ants, though.  Maybe your creative, enthused and brilliant energy would scare them away?)

 

«  What if you made revelations this year and you enjoyed them, savoured them, felt passionate about them and took great satisfaction in knowing you will achieve them?    

 

Want this year to be your best ever? 

Of course you do.  Here’s some options:

 

 

Ways to Revel* in your Revelations

 

#1  Personal Life Coaching sessions: (aka revelationisming)

 

This is the most powerful way to find those valuable and surprising answers, gain clarity and set you sailing in your best direction with the tools to keep you going. You are worth it.

 

 

To help you better understand what personal life coaching is, here’s what it is not:

Coaching is not counselling, mentoring or advising.  The coaching process helps you to find your best answers and your best ways of moving forward.

 

“Not only do I recommend a Life Coach, I recommend Janet Whitehead for any entrepreneur, home based business or consultant.  There is no better way to ignite the passion in you to dream big, go forth and conquer.  She’ll help you channel what’s important for your business, personal or creative life and inspire you to make the necessary steps to move forward.  An hour with Janet will revive you better than any holiday or spa”.                
 Niki Remesz, Owner, Marketing Consulting Business                                                http://www.musingsandmud.com/testimonials.html

 What makes coaching work?  For starters..

 

«  Powerful questions get you past limiting beliefs.

«  A strength based process empowers you and builds self confidence.

«  Discovering and igniting your passions gets you motivated and enthused.  

«  A coach is trained to ‘hear’ strengths, goals and dreams that you are not acknowledging within yourself and provide effective feedback.

«  A client chooses to be ‘in action’ (enthusiastically, I might add) and the coach becomes an accountability partner.

 

Make this your best year ever!.

Call or email Janet to book your coaching sessions now.

 250 828-3402   mudheaven@shaw.ca

 

Learn more about coaching and fees:  www.musingsandmud.com/coaching.html

  

More ways to revel* in revelations…

 

#2   a. Percolate the concept of ‘New Year’s Revelations.’  
         b. Free your thinking space of New Year’s Resolutions just for today..
         c. Play with some new thoughts:

                Write a list of oh.. say.. 20 Revelations:  things, thoughts, actions and behaviours that you would love to have in your life that would cause you to Revel.* They can be probable, improbable, possible, impossible, practical, impractical – just create the list and see what emerges.

 

*REVEL: from the thesaurus –

celebrate, have fun, whoop it up, paint the town red, get down, work it, groove.

         d. You have plenty to percolate and list.  I’ll pop back with the other ways to revel: Workshops, Small Group Coaching, (be prepared, writers.. there’s one just for you!)  and workbooks.  (By the way, anybody interested in a creative empowering life changing retreat to Turkey?)

 

        e. Have fun with the list. Dream BIG.

“What Mahoney needed was the opportunity

 to prove to herself that she was something

 more than she believed.”
from Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium

“The Awe-Manac. A Daily Dose of Wonder” I get to be in awe of me!

Hot off the presses, this is THE book for all of us souls wanting to live life creatively, and awefully.  oh, wait. That didn’t come out right!   Must be the influence of this very funny and powerful book.

 

I am in AWE!  And from the looks of things, I get to be in awe every day of the year.   And I don’t just get to be in awe of Jill Badonsky, her humour and her brilliant ways of inspiring…. the person I get to be in AWE of every day is me.  Imagine that!  A ‘creative’ in awe of herself!  Who would have thought?  And it won’t even feel like work because each day  I will be enchanted by whimsical artworks,  and inspired by aha-phrodisiacs, doses of mirth, and journal juju’s.  I am a life coach and creativity coach.. I’m a darn good judge of books that work.  This is one of the best.  The other best is Jill’s too.

 

What makes Jill’s books stand out in any crowd is well… everything.   Soooo, to focus on one thing only for the moment , Jill knows we are human.  We have our ups and downs and we lose our glasses, and we make ‘mistakes.’    Jill knows how to guide a process that makes us feel darn good about that. 

 

Seriously… if you are a person who is connecting with my blogs and my work, you are very likely a person who deserves to give yourself ‘The Awe-Manac’ for Christmas.  Now away you go.. have a look at this hardcover treasure!

Get this.. it's too good not to.